We Are Family

Laguna Niguel

I never get tired of the view here. 

So Zone Conference was awesome. President Orgil talked about growth and then taking offense. It was a really good talk about the need to be obedient even when no one is looking. He talked about how Satan whispers to us to do this little evil, not, commit this great sin. It was way helpful to me. It just made me wanna be that much more obedient. And the best part was the concept that taking offense is a personal choice. It made me think of all the times that I got angry or mad at people for their dumb choices or something they said... but I got offended because I chose to be. It was an awesome lesson that I took to heart even though it was also directed to the fact that we have tons of less actives who don't come to church because they were offended. It was a way for us to understand a way to help them get over the problems they are facing. 

I am not sure if you have heard but there is a huge shift in the type of mission work that we are doing. The work is truly hastening. It says in the scriptures that there are fishers of men meaning that we are out among the people trying to catch the few that will listen. Then there is what it's changing to -- instead of fishers we are hunters of men (also scriptural). We are out looking for the people who are less active and have gone unnoticed and are hidden in the world. We're trying to bring them back into the fold. We now have a completely new set of key indicators that we are also reporting. They have more to do with the less active people we work with. I am loving this new shift.

We have been able to work with Don a ton this last week. They are finally moved into a stable home all to themselves. They will be there for the next month at least. So that's great. Also we have become like family with them. They love and appreciate all that we do. Alyssa is so kind and sweet. She basically thinks of us as family. And we have become friends with Gavin (her son) the last week. In fact, we were the first ones he called to let us know that he was in the hospital for a broken leg. So we rushed over to see him. It was a good experience to just get them to love us. We are hopefull that we can get Don to come to church and eventually get baptized and get Gavin into scouts (and also be baptized) and hopefully get Alyssa to also. 

Alexis is a work in progress. We have found out that there is some other stuff going on so we don't think we are down for the count. We have some people in the ward who are friends with her helping out. 

This last week was crazy slow due to the fact that everyone was out of town or just really not ok with us coming over. But finally the clouds cleared and we stopped by to see a lady who was contacted a month ago but she was never home. She let us in and just jumped right into the whole thing. She is Jewish but not Orthodox... I don't even know how that is, but we just talked about our beliefs. We discussed why we need a Savior and how we have final proof of His divinity. I finally got to bear my testimony to someone about the BofM and I just was blown away by the Spirit I felt pushing me on as I spoke. She was really nice and appreciative of us coming over. She says we can come back to talk and see how she is doing. We felt the spirit and we hope that something will come about because of it.

I feel that I sorta ramble in my emails so I hope to do better on that in the future. We have a kid who is the son of a less active who is starting to come back. He is going to start taking the lessons because his dad finally said that it's ok for him to be baptized. I think he was blown away at the fact that we said we could be the one to baptize his son. I think that made his world and I think he is going to come back to activity for his son's sake.

It sounds like you guys have so much going on its hard to keep track of. But I am so happy yall are doing good love you all and hope you guys have an amazing week! 

LOVE YOU!!!!

        Kye