5 months down.....19 to go?

Today marks 5 months as a missionary. WOW, time flies. I feel like that seems to be a common theme for missionaries. Speaking of time, there's never enough of it, either...so this will be another short email.

Funny story from last P-day...we had to break into a car. Yes, I'm telling the truth! It was a mission car, though. Elder Swasey and Elder Hanberg locked their keys in their car by accident, so we ended up getting hangers, untwisting them, and we actually managed to get them through the frame of the door and unlock the car, open the door, and then get the keys out. It was a crazy experience! We then drove up to Marblehead and had a good time there, took a bunch of pictures, and explored a couple areas by the coast. It was beautiful!

Florance and Damari got confirmed in sacrament meeting yesterday! That brings the number of converts I've had since I've been here to 5. We have been SO incredibly blessed, the work here is going well, beyond belief. Also in church yesterday, David and Diego passed the sacrament. That was amazing for me to see. It felt like they were my brothers, or even my sons, or something. I was so happy and proud of them. They also went to the temple last week for the first time to do baptisms for the dead. It's so thrilling to see them progress in the gospel! Cotter's getting there, too. 4 of our investigators are seriously progressing towards baptism, and the rest...we're working on things with them. This work is just what it says it is - work! But I'm loving it more and more. And the members here are just awesome. I can't say that enough. I LOVE this ward. I hope I don't get transferred for a long time. -knock on wood-

One extra special experience this week - we were trying to contact a referral that we got, and as we walked up to the house, I got this feeling that the referral, a guy named Arthur, wouldn't really be interested. Just then, a different guy walks out of the house (his apartment is on the second floor, Arthur lived on the first floor). I was struck with this feeling that HE was the reason why we were here, that HE was the reason the other missionaries talked to Arthur, why Arthur had given them his information, and why Arthur had set for us to come back at that specific time. So we talked to this guy, whose name is Rich - turns out to be a really nice guy, in his early 20s, and really willing to listen and very receptive to the gospel. We taught him there on his porch, gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon, and set up a return appointment. He's solid. I'm really excited to be teaching him! And then, it turns out that Arthur wasn't really interested. The hand of the Lord is DEFINITELY in this work, I have gained a testimony of that many times over since I've been out here.

Well, this Sunday is Mother's Day, and that means I get to call home! The ward music coordinator asked me to sing in sacrament meeting, as well. I found a beautiful song about mothers that I'm going to sing. I also got asked to sing for our zone conference this Thursday by Pres. and Sis. Evans, so I'll be singing for that as well. I'm glad to finally be able to use what I'm good at here in the field. And then all the residents at the retirement home we do service at found out that I play the piano, and they now have me playing something for them every week on the piano there when we go. No worries Mom, I'm not "getting rusty" anytime soon. =]

I hope things are going well for all of you. I'm feeling great and really learning to love life!

Much love,
Elder DeLong