"I know what I'm getting into and I'm committed to following this path for the rest of my life!"

Hi Everyone!

The big news this week is that I'll be staying in my same area for my 5th transfer, staying with Elder Alvarez! I'll also be serving as the district leader here, a humbling call that I'm not quite sure how to fulfill, I trust though that the Lord will magnify my efforts.

I'm really excited at the prospect of staying, even though figuring out where to tract will become tricky. I'll be tracting some of these apartments and trailers for the 5th or 6th time, now when I tract people recognize me and it's fun. :)

This last weekend we watched the conference with some of our less-active members, the family of a brother who takes care of his two sisters and another less-active family. One of the sisters brought her boyfriend to the two Sunday sessions, which led him to ask her about why she believes what she does and also brought her to tell him that she wants to raise her kids in the church and be married in the temple, which shook him up a bit but they've decided that he'll start talking to us (the missionaries) and see what happens.

I'm really excited that I'm staying and can be a part of that, because I've known the guy and have been talking to him for 3-4 months, so there's already a relationship of trust which will help a lot as we help him find his own testimony of this wonderful gospel!

Another exciting thing is that we have a baptism on Saturday, a man named Jesus Gonzalez who just walked into our sacrament meeting and liked what was taught so much that he came to stake conference, started taking the lessons, and committed to be baptized after the first lesson!

We had his baptismal interview Monday, which he came out of saying that "I know what I'm getting into, and I'm committed to following this path for the rest of my life!" We're so excited about him, he's going to be a huge strength here and I think will motivate the members, this is the first baptism in the area for a solid 6 months!

One of our most staunchly inactive families is starting to melt, their daughter who is 18 and her boyfriend who's an investigator are getting excited and motivated to get active and furthermore participate and contribute, the daughter wants to have some sort of responsibility with the Young Women so she can help reactivate, motivate, and organize activities for the many inactive young women in our area!

We're excited for her help and with that are seeing part of a general and gradual change in atmosphere at church, people are coming back and others are getting more actively involved, and despite the efforts of the adversary the Lord is working a miracle here!

I'm so glad to be a missionary serving here in the tops of the Rockies! I love this area and these people, and I'm so grateful for the inspired call to serve through a living prophet! I know the church is true, I know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God and that Joseph Smith was called as the prophet to restore the gospel in these last times! I pray that the Lord blesses each of us as we strive to apply the gospel in our lives, have a great week!

Love,
Elder Damon Janis