FINISHED Strong

 The first preparation day that we chilled. We sat around all day and just called the homies. It was a very unfulfilling day to be honest, but oh well. 

Tuesday was the day of our Zone Leader exchanges. I was with Elder Garyn Jensen. He actually flew out with me, he also served in the Soo for three transfers right before I got up here. We had such a great day. Such a great spirit came along with this day. We had strong prompting, we followed, gave a priesthood blessing, and door knocked in the pouring rain. Since the Zone Leaders are three hours away by car they spend the night. We overnighted in The Soo, we woke up early to go play basketball and then this concluded our exchange. 

I saw a text on Tuesday that filled my eyes with tears. A recent convert in Charlotte named Courtney who was baptized the week I left commented on mom's post,"Just want to let you know that your son changed my life." I had to share this in my email so it is written down somewhere. Background on Courtney was when we knocked into her for the first time she was at the bottom of life. Complete turn around in 3 months. Miraculous. 

We had a cool video call over Zoom on Thursday. Our branch President and his wife joined the lesson with our friend Lydia. Lydia's younger brother Wesley was there too. We love Wesley, he is 16 and has that sense of humor so we get along well with him. Lydia is 22 and has learned a LOT about our church. I'm talking about everything. She has read Preach My Gospel for herself. She has also come across anti, but she still has a desire to learn about our church. She feels there is something right about it. We invited her to live the standards of our church for one full week and read the Book of Mormon and promised her that her answer would come. After that she asked us,"Would I be your guy's first baptism?" It was sweet. Lots of hope for Lydia. 

Elder Fonnesbeck and I stay grinding up here in the Sault Ste. Marie area. We are seeing a lot of success and it is growing! We are teaching a lot of people and some are progressing extremely fast. Our friend Josh who I bumped into over Facebook three weeks back is considering baptism. When we first gave him a call he said,"i'm not interested in converting, but you can inform me." In our last meeting he said,"I don't like the word convert, but this is something I want to follow." We have met with him every other day for the past three weeks and he LOVES church. The spirit works wonders. 

We received a text Saturday night at 9 pm from President and Sister Heap saying they are attending a service up here. What?!? That's insane. We were so shook and nervous at the same time. This was the best fast and testimony meeting of my mission. 5 of our friends decided to come to church and our friend Jeremy was the first one to bear his testimony! It was so cool since that was his first time ever attending a service. We also promised our friend Josh that he would receive an answer if this church is right when he came to church and pondered during the Sacrament. He said he will be back next week for church and texted us he received his answer. What a Sunday! We FINISHED STRONG. 

Happy fourth of July everyone! I love America! I am wearing my American tie and American socks. I love you. Reach out :)).