December 19, 2011

Thank you so very much for emailing me. I absolutely love reading this email. It really inspired me when you wrote that bit about prayer. I felt the spirit testify to me about that. I will improve and follow up with you next week. You have a busy week just before Christmas. That is good, keep the work rollin' and tell Riley to give it his all. I am still excited about that previous week just because it was so much fun to do the work. This week was still great but it consisted with a lot of rejection.
So When I call you on Christmas, it will be about 9:30 like you said and just as we're on the phone we can set up skype, so have it ready to go with the family available. I am still restricted to speaking to just the blood related family, cameron is ok. That is a bit unfortunate for those I wont speak to but it is also being obedient. Well I am excited for this week because so much is going on. Well here is how the last week went...

 

It has been another good week. I got the privilege to go on exchanges with the wrekin elders, once with Elder Hobbs and once with Elder Stocking. My Exchange with Elder Hobbs was great. One thing I noticed in Elder Hobbs is that he has great trust with the members and he has made great friends with them. I am so confident that they enjoy his presence in the wrekin area. During the exchange we were able to find a young man on the spot to teach and Elder Hobbs and I worked well together in being unified with our teaching. The lesson went over well and afterwards we rejoiced in the joy to share the gospel. Even though it was cold my heart was warm and filled with the spirit. On the exchange with Elder Stocking, we were able to get to know each other very well. It is always good to have a strong relationship with your leaders. Because of that relationship I was able to ask him many questions. I had noticed that he is very knowledgeable in the gospel and almost the entire exchange I was asking him questions and he would answer all of them with references too. I was amazed on how much he understands. He also helped me with my teaching skills and how to teach simply. That is something that I will always be working on all throughout my time serving the lord. I enjoyed these exchanges very much. It also made the week seem very fast.

 

I had a great experience when I was at the train station just after we exchanged back. I looked at the train times and saw that our train doesn't leave until and was expected at 10:52. We had about five minutes, so to maximise the time I turned to a man and began to speak to him. At first he was a little hard hearted when I asked how his day has been and he replied with a "good until you showed up.". After a minute or two of explaining to him our purpose as a missionaries and about the Book of Mormon, his heart was softened and he began to show sincere interest in the book. He was asking me great questions about what we believe and how the Book of Mormon is word of God. He asked me for the book and without hesitation I allowed him to have the Book of Mormon. After I finished with our conversation I looked back at the time and I was a bit frightened when I saw that it was 10:58. I thought we had missed the train. Then I see that our train was delayed until 11:02. I was relieved and then I began to think how the Lord was able to do that. I know that that man needed to hear about the Book of Mormon and I know that the Lord provided a way and the time for him to hear this great message.

 

Our Investigators in our teaching pool are three: Sian, Jamie and Paul. Sian is busy for work and then gone for holiday until after Christmas. We are planning to see her just after and she claims to have a bunch of questions for us. Paul, who we taught just last week is doing well. He has not shown too much commitment however and that is a bit worrying. He does have much trust with us and that is the strength of Paul right now. Jamie is fantastic, we taught him just this weekend and he is showing some great potential for progression. We also are helping him and his family of three children (he being a single parent) with Christmas by supporting his incapability to provide gifts for his kids. So we were able to speak to the relief society president and another family in the ward who are very fortunate and caring to help out with Jamie and his family. We have got a few gifts for Jamie's children and I know that Jamie appreciates the act of kindness, he has expressed his thanks to us. I think this will be a great Christmas.

 

Hope you have a Happy Christmas! I will talk to you then.

 

Love Elder Tucker Corbin