Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Ian and Other Miracles

Hello everyone!
Mission President Miller called me yesterday and gave me an update on the situation with Ian (Editor's Note: Ian is Ryan's littlest brother, who has been in the hospital in Nashville with a serious lung condition) and even gave me permission to call and talk with my dad, so I had a nice conversation with him about everything. It sounds like Ian is going to be fine and that he will be out of the hospital on Wednesday. I'm so glad that he is feeling better and those missionaries from the Nashville area could go to the hospital to give him a blessing. Could everyone pray for his recovery?
This week was amazing. We had a crazy, crazy miracle happen this past Sunday. The Branch that we cover is relatively small (about 40 people), and on Sunday this new family with tons of kids walked in. After sacrament meeting they approached us, and the man said that he was not a member of the church and that his fiancé introduced him to the missionaries in North Carolina, and they had just recently moved down here to Sinton and he wants to be baptized asap! It was amazing, and he is scheduled to be baptized on March 1st! Of course we are going to teach him everything over again just so we can be sure that he understands everything. His fiancé and he are already talking about getting sealed in the temple! It is amazing to see how the Lord has blessed us.
This week was also one of the best weeks this area has had in a really long time. We were able to get a lot of things accomplished and things are really looking up for our area. My companion, Elder Bugg, is from Iowa. He grew up in Colorado and Pennsylvania, and a few years ago his family moved to Iowa. He and I get along great.
One quick funny story. Our Branch President used to be in charge of building maintenance for the San Antonio area, and in Eagle Pass, they kept complaining about how the pews were super uncomfortable. He suggested that they take them out and set up chairs, so they did. They didn't know what to do with the pews they took out, so they set them out on the lawn overnight. The next morning they came back and the pews were all gone and nobody knew what had happened to them. Later that week, the Pastor of the local Pentecostal church called the Bishop to thank him and his congregation for "donating all those pews." He has lots of funny stories.
Mom, how was Canada? I hope it's starting to warm up over there. It has been a bit rainy today and yesterday, but last week it was 75-80 almost every day! Tell everybody hi for me! Ryan