Dear family,
I have a really interesting story that happened last Friday! Our zone leaders are currently emphasizing something "member tracting". It means that we go to a member's house and talk to them about their neighbors. We then write down as much information as possible and use that information as we go tracting on that street. Well Elder Ware and I did that on Friday but the member didn't know anything about her neighbors. That didn't really surprise me since that's a typical response among most of the members here. I don't blame them since I didn't know all my neighbors that well back home much less do missionary work for the non-members. So we knock on the door of the member's neighbor.
"Nope, not interested." (Slams the door in our face.) I can tell you that by this time I was expecting another boring unfruitful hour of tracting. We knock on the next door. The lady who opened the door said she had to go somewhere. I'm thinking Oh great! Another door in the face! And I was bracing myself when the lady points to this young black girl that was standing in the doorway. "She's interested but I have to go". Again I was expecting the kid to not be interested at all but much to my surprise the girl actually WAS interested. Not only was she interested but she kept saying "I want to be Mormon! I want to be Mormon!" Oh my goodness! Where did that come from? I was a little dumbfounded by this but Elder Ware and I continued to talk to her. We learned that her name is Eltoniesha Williams and that several days prior to our arrival she'd been at a Young Women's activity in a different ward. Well after some more talking we (Elder Ware and I) learned to our amazement that Eltoniesha was moving in to that very house. After a few minutes of talking to her I could tell that she had totally been prepared for us so I extended the baptismal invitation for August 6th AND SHE ACCEPTED! HALLELUJAH! IT'S ACTUALLY HAPPENING! We finally have a golden investigator who wants to be baptized! Oh man that's awesome! We taught her the first half of Lesson 1 and then called our Ward Mission Leader, Brother Holt, and talked about getting the Young Women involved. Just before I typed this e-mail I was just at an appointment for Eltoniesha where we set up her baptismal calendar. I love baptismal calendars! They're so perfect at setting dates and preparing your investigator for baptism! We forgot to set up Ricky's calendar but he was so golden it hardly mattered. Anyway Eltoniesha (we just call her Toniesha for short) is totally excited to come to church in the Sierra Verde ward this Sunday. Quite frankly so am I since none of our work, up to this point, has been in the Sierra Verde ward. It's all been in Mountain Ridge. To make a long story short we now have a 54 KARAT GOLDEN INVESTIGATOR! If you couldn't tell by my use of capital case letters I'm really excited.
Not only do we have Toniesha but we also have another golden investigator named Chris. He too has a baptismal date for August 6th. During fast and testimony meeting he got up and bore his testimony to the ward. That's crazy! A non-member got up and bore his testimony! I know I've already mentioned this but that takes a lot of guts especially for a non-member! We didn't even know about him until after he did that. It turns out that he's been dating one of our "member missionary superstars" and I guess he's been taking the challenge to read the Book of Mormon with his girlfriend for 60 days. He just started but if I had to guess where he is now he should be towards the end of 2 Nephi. Anyway he's totally on track for baptism! He was the reason why Elder Ware and I taught Lesson 1 in Gospel Principles the week before last. We have another appointment with him on Wednesday. Then we have another part-member family who's been expressing interest in re-taking the lessons again. Talk about blessings! I am very grateful for the opportunity to be in this area. At first I thought that it would be unproductive and unfruitful but Ricky and our current investigators proved me wrong. I have much to be thankful for, like my awesome family who supports me and prays for me.
Another really cool thing that happened this week is that I finally got to meet President Taylor. He's way older than he looks in the picture we had of him but he's an incredible example of Christ-like love and leadership. Not that President Beck wasn't President Beck is a spiritual giant but so is President Taylor. President Taylor's trying to get used to life as a mission president and Sister Taylor even let us ask any question we wanted about her and about President Taylor. It turns out that President and Sister Taylor have known each other since they were 3. Their parents knew each other and they lived in the same town and went to the same schools, both eventually going to BYU Provo. They got married about eight months after President Taylor went on his mission to Maracaibo, Venezula. He says that he still kept up his Spanish and claims to be very fluent in that language. They also brought their 15 year old son Braden with him as well. Sister Taylor's going to be starting up a quilt of the new Phoenix temple and says that she'll be finished by the time that President Taylor's three years are up. I'm really excited to serve under President Taylor. I can tell that he's very loving and very supportive of me.
Another thing that happened this week is that while Dad was having his birthday I was on exchanges with my zone leader. Apparently our zone leaders get the royal treatment. The members they live with make banana pancakes with chocolate chips for breakfast every Saturday morning (lucky me huh?) and take them out to Carl's Jr. for lunch. Elder Bird, the zone leader I was on exchanges with, is a really humble, loving and hard working missionary. I learned a thing or two from him while on exchanges.
Well that's it for me. Thanks for all the hard work and support! I love you all very much and pray for you,
Elder Boothe
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