May 25th

Hello everyone! The mission is going awesome here in Massachusetts, and the Cambridge 1st Ward is thriving. We have had an awesome week, there have been so many opportunities and blessings that it's almost impossible to write them all.

-Taught a woman named Carlita, a member referral. She has three boys, who are 18, 15, and 4. We taught her about the Restoration, and everything went amazing. She had been listening to some Book of Mormon tapes that she had gotten from the member who referred her to us, and she said that her life became peaceful when she started listening to them. We taught her that those feelings were the fruits of the Spirit, and she also said that she felt that the things that we taught felt right. We also extended a baptismal invitation, and she accepted it almost before we had finished asking her! We even extended a date for her to prepare to be baptized on, which turned out to be her birthday. Very weird coincidence... Anyways, she said that she wants her sons to be baptized as well. Great experience, she had definitely been prepared by the Lord before we came to teach her!

- We visited a man named Ken, who I had talked to on a bus the previous week. He is a very intellectual guy, and also very atheist, which definitely changed the pace of our lesson. But he is a very nice man, and said that he desires to know truth. We taught him that we can learn the truth of all things by the Spirit. He is wanting us to come back, so that's definitely good. He's so awesome, I hope things go well on our next visit.

- Taught Sandra and her daughters last week, and her husband, Isidro, came as well. He seemed interested, but he can't understand too much English because he speaks Portuguese. He even came to church with the rest of the family! We are working with the Portuguese elders to schedule a time that we can all come to teach them so that they can teach Isidro.

- We were able to play some basketball with Jude, one of our investigators, and his two member friends. That was pretty cool, because we got a chance to talk about the things we had taught the week before. He said that he had thought about it, but hadn't prayed yet. We told him that we didn't want him to feel pressured into listening to our message, but at the same time we testified of how important it was for us to know these truths for ourselves. He said that he understood and would find time to read and pray.

- Interesting experience: We were walking to one of our appointments, and I stopped to talk to a man on the street. He had a big, straggly beard, and looked pretty awful. You could tell that he was homeless, and he also had difficulty speaking - whether self-induced or not, it was nice to talk with him. I told him that no matter where we are in our lives or what stage we are in, God loves and cares for every single one of His children. He looked at me and said, "You may have saved my life today." That was probably one of the sweetest experiences I have had. I was reminded of Matthew 25:40, and the look in his eyes when he said that will forever change my perspective when viewing others.

Not enough time to say everything I want, but I am so glad that Elder Davies and I have been able to see miracles here in the Cambridge 1st Ward. I have a testimony that if you are making sure that you are an able instrument in the Lord's hands, he will find ways to utilize your skills to the fullest. All you have to do is be there waiting for those moments to come. And they will come, I know this for a fact.

Take care everyone, and stay true to the faith.