When it rains...

Like I said last week, that springtime rain has finally come, and it's hardly stopped coming since then. It's been going off and on for the last week. I think it's awesome, but Elder L'Espérance doesn't. He's from the east coast, so he's probably sick of rain, but it always makes us desert-dwellers happy!

And as the saying goes: when it rains, it pours. This last week we've had so much success with finding new investigators, it's getting hard to keep track of them all! Here's a bit about some of them:

L*: we tracted into L* at Allen Place in Poughkeepsie. He's Jamaican and we can barely understand his accent at all. "One love, mon!" We've taught him about the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation and he seems to be liking it. He's been praying about the things we're teaching, but unfortunately he isn't reading the Book of Mormon because he doesn't know how to read. We've ordered him the audio version and in the meantime we will be reading with him whenever we come over. Stereotypes for Jamaicans are totally real. His guy is awesome!

K* and Kh*: K* and Kh* are a couple we met who we've just started teaching. We had an amazing Restoration lesson with K*. She loved it! She said she's been "church shopping" and is very excited by the idea of the restored church. We have 't taught an official lesson to Kh* yet, but he's going to be joining us for lessons from now on. They have a four-year-old daughter and s

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A*: We came across a record for a Panamanian named A* who has been searching for answers like crazy. When we taught him about the Book of Mormon, he said he already knows it's true because he says if it's the book people like us are reading from, it must be teaching what's right. We encouraged him to read and pray about it though to strengthen that belief. He readily agreed. He said he'll come to church on Sunday too!

J*: J* is a funny man we met on the street. We taught him about the Restoration right then and there and every time we bore our testimony about anything, he said "oh, that's beautiful!" Haha. He's going to the Jehovah's Witness Church right now, but he isn't a member there. Hopefully they don't tell him he can't meet with us. They do that quite often.

On top of that, we also met a college student named J* who was on spring break. We taught him about the restoration too and got his information to give to the missionaries up in the Rochester Mission, where he goes to school.

As for people you already have heard about, A* is still progressing well and still praying for an answer. Unfortunately, our attempts to meet with Ky* (the dreamer) have all failed. His family has yelled at us a bit, saying "we don't want none of this white-man crap" only they used a bit more colorful language than that. So we're not welcome at his house anymore and he didn't show up at church on Sunday. He's twenty-two (an adult) so we can still keep meeting with him at other locations, even if his family doesn't like it, but I think it's a bit rough for him with so much familial opposition. We've kept in touch though and he says he still wants to learn more.

Also unfortunately, the Kz* cancelled on us AGAIN this week. Bummer. We're going to keep trying though!

Last night we had some unexpected excitement. We were at the church and we got a call from Sharon Rose, a member who the sisters have been meeting with. She said they just found out that her son-in-law's mother died. She's been in prison and died under mysterious circumstances, most likely murdered by another inmate. J*--the son-in-law--was in a dreadful state and wanted us to come give him a blessing. We did and talked with him a bit about the atonement and how he can receive help from it. Tonight we are going again to talk with him about the plan of salvation. I glad we were able and ready to runt to their place and give him a blessing at that moment.

So now we have a fair amount of work to keep us busy! All that time knocking doors is now paying off and ever so abundantly! Just in time too; a week from Saturday are transfer calls again! This cycle went by SOOOOO fast.

Well, that's all folks! Thanks for your love, prayers, and support.

-Elder Samuel Burton

I don't really have any from this week, so here are some last minute selfies.
1. Elder Ross (our district leader from Green River, Wyoming) and Myself
2. Elder L'Espérance and Myself
3. Elder L'Espérance and Myself in the back of a car. Exciting!