I'm a father!

My time with Elder Bradfield has come to a close, and I am now the proud parent to Elder Remus! He is straight from the MTC, he was born and raised in Columbia, Missouri. Both of us are working great together so far, and there are only good things to come!

One profound experience that we had this week was while we were tracking in the late hours of the day. If you don't know this already, Arizona does not have day light savings time... so that means it gets dark earlier now, by about 6 or 6:30. As you can imagine, it’s not ideal for us to contact people in the dark, but we try it anyways. Elder Remus and I thought we should get out of the car and walk the streets in one of our areas and knock on some potential investigator doors and stop by a few less active members. We began walking from house to house, trying to make sure we are spiritually in-tune for any promptings we may have along the way. We met one lady who was very nice, so try to see if our discussions go anywhere, but it was getting late and we needed to begin walking back to our car before it got too dark.  As we are walking back, we start reminiscing about handing out a Book of Mormon earlier and other jolly fun things we did. We pass by this house and I look inside the window and see a lady in front of her computer on the phone. I want to talk to her, but immediately I think of a million reasons why we shouldn't...its getting late, its dark, she's busy because she's on the phone, etc. etc. so we keep walking. About a minute later I feel a strong impression that we should turn around and knock on her door, so we head back. We walk up to her door and knock. She hangs up the phone, leaves her computer, stops everything she is doing, and greets us warmly at the front door. Now I need to point out, that this is extremely out-of-the-ordinary for this area, we never get a warm welcome, especially so quickly. She invites us into her home, which is also very odd; I have only been invited inside a home after a first contact once before, during my entire mission. She then asked if WE had any questions for her. Both of us are kinda dumb founded at this point, as we are usually the ones asking all of the questions. She then proceeds to tell us how her daughter used to take the missionary discussions and she even invited the missionaries over for dinner in the past. Wow, now she is super nice! We talk a bit, she asks US for OUR phone number, (another first) so she can have us over for dinner sometime. Amazing experience for us, especially for Elder Remus, being in his first area, and an awesome way to end a long day of contacting! Honestly, that was the best cold contact I've ever had, thank goodness this is God's work and not mine. If this were my work, it would be impossible to get anything done… haha.

One "fun" experience I had today during P-day was while playing soccer. It's in a small turf field in the middle of an apartment complex that we visit periodically... and it so happens, that soccer balls and glass don't really mesh together very well (go figure). Yes, I broke someone's window. Luckily the lady was very nice, apparently it has happened to her before (I don't know if that is a bad thing or a good thing). I spoke with the apartment manager about how I will be paying for it, so it's all good for now. They were very surprised that I fessed up, they told me that most of the time when this happens no one claims responsibility. Oh well, such is life.

I hope everyone has a good rest of their week, and remember to be thankful for all that we enjoy. 

Love you all! 

Love, Elder West