Hello mother I love! Thanks for the pictures and the email :) . Looks like the usual Utah ha. I'm glad you enjoyed my letter, I always enjoy yours. It's nice to see a letter on the entryway floor that has my name on it. I got your package this week, so I'll be opening it today :) . I'm excited!
This week has been absolutely full of miracles, so much so that I can't even begin to fit them all in this email. I'll just have to send a few of the major highlights. This coming Saturday we'll have a baptism (actually two people on the same day)! Peter and Jalos; hooray! And another one the following week, as well, maybe more if things go really well.
One powerful experience we had was with a man named Milan, who lives in Rotherham. When we went to teach him this week, the rest of his family was gone, and so we just taught him. We talked about the Restoration of the gospel, and at the end we invited him to pray to know if it is true (if Joseph Smith was called of God to be a prophet and if the Book of Mormon is true) . He said that he already knew it was, but that he hadn't actually prayed about it yet. So for the closing prayer, we invited him to pray about it right then, and he agreed. He offered a warm, sincere prayer, and waited for an answer. Then he said another and waited. Then the same thing again. I open my eyes in time to see him sit back on his knees and open his eyes very wide, with a deep intake of breath. Then he kind of shivers, and looks at us. We stand up and he begins to tell us what happened, tears beginning to stream from his eyes. He told us after the third prayer he heard whispers telling him that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that he needed to read the Book of Mormon, and saw Elder Sindylek and I standing in front of him with a blue background behind us. He opened his eyes, thinking that we had said it, but we were kneeling across the room from him, of course not saying anything. He said he also felt a great warmth come over him. I know that he had this answer because of his great faith and patience in asking, as well as his diligence in keeping the commandments, including reading the Book of Mormon. This man now has a firm testimony and a solid witness of the gospel's truth.
We also had a surprising lesson with one of our other investigators, Jan, who has been unsure for a while if he wants to be baptized or not. At one point during our lesson, we mentioned that Peter and Jalos are getting baptized. Turns out, Jalos is his uncle (which we didn't know beforehand), and when he heard that, he asked us if he could be baptized as well. The soonest we could schedule him for was the week after, and he agreed. Since then, his newfound real intent has lead to diligently keeping commitments he struggled with before, like coming to church and reading the Book of Mormon. I'm so excited and happy about this. He's got a great spirit in him that I can see in spite of how shy he is.
That's all I've got time for this week, but I'll put the rest in my letter home. I love you all so much, and I'm excited to speak with you on Christmas. It'll probably be over Skype, but if not, it will be a phone call. Thanks for all you do for me, you're in my prayers each and every day.
Love,
Elder Zachary Brown
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