April 3rd, 2012

Dear Family,

How are all of you doing? I am doing pretty good out here. This Clinton area is a bit dry teaching wise, so President might transfer me to a bussier place so I can get more teaching experience. Tonight was probably the first lesson I had with a new investigator. We do what is called the "Spirit Sandwich". We begin the lesson by stating our purpose there which is to bring people closer to Christ through baptism and we talk a bit about that. We then talk about the Holy Ghost and his purpose and how to know of his presence. We then do a conditional committment by saying, "If you feel the Spirit, will you be baptized?" They will pretty much always say yes to that like she did tonight. We then go through the lesson until we get to the first vision and we go back to the Spirit and talk about it a little more. We then give the account and pause so that the Spirit can teach a bit. It seems pretty fool proof, am I right? We got a date from Mia, that's her name. She will plan on the 28th this month. It's pretty neat stuff we do out here.

So mom, I will try to answer most if not all of your questions. I would like to say the members are helpful but we don't hear much from them besides Bishops and Ward mission leaders. We try to see people and write them to do missionary work, so we will see if that leads to anything.

I am doing fine with clothes. No issues there at all. And the only cooking we do is for lunches and rarely a dinner. There isn't much cooking involved there though. We do fine though, so don't worry. We get money each month for food. We don't have bikes in this area and we get rises from members, no car.

Since Clinton is near a military base, there are some people who are not LDS. I want to say that it is 50/50, but I don't know for sure. Never really door slamming, just people being rude or not even answering the door. Most people here in Utah have made up their mind about the church. Lots of people have had the discussions before or something like that and now have no interest. This is just a different mission from the rest. I feel like I am starting to love the people. It is kind of hard to do, but I am working towards it. I know it will make the work so much easier if I love the people.

I don't remember if I told you last week or not, but we have picked up 3 kids recently, Mkayla, Madison, and Trey. They have taken the discussions before and now have a date for them, we are also working to get the parents active again so that they can take the kids to church and make it easier for them. Oh and Kyle, one of our investigators is getting baptized on the 7th. I will be confirming him on Sunday, so that will be a first for me. Other than that, there is not much new with our investigators.

We have a piano here at our house. I play it whenever we aren't doing much like in the morning before study. My companion doesn't play however. It is just something to do when I get bored. No I will not send a video, I don't know if we can because we use the computers at the family history center in Ogden. I wouldn't even know what to do a video of so no, sorry. I will try to take more pictures though, that is something I don't do much.

I am actually writing one of my friends from school who is not a member. That is it though. I am writing Michael and in the process of writing Sam, or email actually. That reminds me, I would like Ryan Keeney's email, not address because I can't send mail internationally.

Well it is bed time so I will end here. Thank you for the letters and the support! Havg in there! Remember who you are and why you are here! Do the best you can and the Lord will take care of the rest. Love you! See you on the other side!

Love,
Elder Connell

P.S. Cat story will have to wait for later. It is too much to write and it's not important, just funny.