Dear Family and Friends,
This week flew by in my book. Well nothing much has happened. I didn't get to tell you I had an excellent talk last week. Sister Reeves wouldn't stop talking about it. I like how you complained about no shows at work mom; I get them every day, for some reason people love telling us they're home and then when we get there no one is home. Well that's missionary work for you.
I have been asked to give a missionary training tomorrow and I'm a little nervous. I'm training a bunch of missionaries who have been out longer than me, so its a frightening task. I hope I do well. I love telling you stories of the mission and I have thought of one hopefully, you haven't heard yet.
One morning while we were on exchanges, Elder Zimmerman and I decided to go tracting. The night before I wrote down that we were going to tract Palm Street, but that morning I had the distinct impression to look at the map and choose somewhere else. I opened the map and looked at Morrison Street and thought to myself we just tracted that street! I kept looking, but the Spirit kept leading me to Morrison Street so I decided to follow it. Elder Zimmerman and I hopped onto our bikes and rode for Morrison Street and all of a sudden it started raining. I looked up to see what street we were on, "Where were we?" You guessed it Palm Street, if this wasn't a trial I don't know what you would count as one. We were already on Palm Street how easy would it have been to just stop and tract and stay a little dry, but the spirit had told me Morrison Street, what to do? Elder Zimmerman looked at me with his perfect face and asked "what we gonna do partner?" I sadly replied continue to Morrison Street, and seeing I was down, Zimmerman jumped on his bike and rode in front of me singing "Onward Christian Soldiers" and commanded me to also sing. We sang riding our bikes in the rain. If anyone saw and heard us they would've definitely thought we were in a cult. When we finally got to Morrison Street we started our tracting routine. This was our first time together so it was a little sketchy. After we got the bikes locked up and we headed to the first house singing all the way there. The Spirit was definitely still with us. We knocked on the door and immediately a large black man with tattoos all over his arms told us to come in. Immediately he started asking questions and we answered them. Finally the man told us his story. His name was Shawn and he did two tours in Afghanistan. He is still emotionally scared about it and went to his Catholic Priest about it. He told him he was a sinner and was going to hell. Shawn had known he had done wrong things, but not enough to go to hell. He started crying at this point and said "Brothers am I going to Hell?" Zimmerman looked at him and said no. Then we continued to talk and he told us how the Jehovah Witnesses had been visiting with him and had suddenly stopped. Then he told us this was his turning point in life. The night before we met with him he was totally discouraged and needed the truth. He prayed to find out which church was true and if he could have a sign. He told us that immediately a great and calming feeling came over him (the Holy Ghost, this is important) then said he hadn't left his couch until he would receive an answer. Immediately following this statement Elder Zimmerman invited him to baptism. He declined saying that how could he know we were the true church. We sat there shocked, the Spirit had been litterly working overtime trying to get us into his home and he still didn't know!!! I looked at Shawn and said with all I could muster " Shawn, the Holy Spirit has been working hard to tell you something that we are messengers of God, that we are to bring you into His fold. The feeling you feel right now, I promise you, if you think back, it will be the same feeling that you had last night. Shawn that's the Holy Ghost and He needs you to accept our invitation and be baptized. The room fell silent and to my amazement I knew Shawn was feeling the effects of the Holy Ghost, we all were, and there wasn't a dry eye in the house. Shawn looked at me and calmly said "I need to be baptized" Shawn's date has been set he is preparing to be baptized and someday soon he will be.
I know that the Spirit Guides me in my life I have felt it so strongly that denying that FACT would not be just a lie, but a sin. We all must be worthy to have his companionship or we will never be able to do this marvellous work. We are all missionaries.
Love,
--
Elder Zachary David Daniel
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