Elder Janis Will Have Seven Children! (?)

Hi Everyone!

We had our final interviews this week with our mission president, we'll be getting a new one in July. It was sad, but it was also a great feeling to review a little bit how far I've come since I got here and look a little bit at the future of what I can do in the mission. He told me that he wants me to come visit him some day with my wife and seven kids, we'll see if his prophecy is fulfilled! :)

Somehow things seem really bright for this area, the Lord's been pouring out his spirit in our work and also on the branch, and we're suddenly getting a lot of member support and finding people to teach (inactives as well as non-members)! We found this one inactive family last night that's awesome, they have an 11 year old girl who would love to come to church, plus an 18 year old guy that's about to graduate, and we have a family home evening scheduled with them for next Monday!

It was a miracle that we even found them at home, usually the mom is super-busy with work and being the taxi for the kids, but we happened to show up just as she was getting back from work and had a little time, so we were able to come in and get to know the family! The mom told her daughter that she'd take her to church this Sunday if she could fit it in her schedule, and we arranged to have a member family pick her up if the mom couldn't. I'm really excited, for me it's equally as thrilling to bring people back to the church as it is to help people find it for the first time!

We're also teaching a kid who's the boyfriend of one of our young women, and he came to church last Sunday! We had a really good lesson with him last night, he expressed to us his feelings that basically he's been moving too fast with investigating the church, that he doesn't want to make any quick decisions without first feeling and knowing it's right. He's going to talk to his family (they're in Mexico) and also give it thought, study, and prayer. It's really cool because he's really taking the time to study it and consider it, I think that it's the most important thing that a person can do to develop a relationship with God and receive your answer straight from Him. We read Alma 32 (about the seed of faith) with him, and he really liked it. I hope he progresses, and if he does I'm pretty confident that it'll be with his heart because he won't unless he really feels like it's right.

The Lord is truly blessing us right now, we're working as hard as we can and being as obedient as we can, and even though we've had a lot of opposition we're finally seeing the blessings of persevering! I love being a missionary, in the hard times as well as the fruitful times, because the Lord is so close and you can feel the Holy Ghost working through you. It's absolutely the best thing in the world, I wouldn't trade this for anything!

I hope you all have a great week, thanks so much for your thoughts and prayers!

Love,
Elder Damon Janis