HELLO

Dear Family,

This week was awesome, mostly because of General Conference. I LOVED it. It was really different watching all of the sessions at the church, but I think I got a lot more out of it doing it that way. Hope your crepes were amazingly delicious. So who holds the record for most crepes eaten? We had one investigator there which was so great!!! Its crazy hard getting people to church, it's like pulling teeth!
Last Friday we went with the old folks from Wheatland to a pumpkin patch! Its called Sinkland Farms and you go and take a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch and you get to pick a pumpkin to buy. We actually just took a hay ride and then they gave us pumpkins because there was no way they were going to be walking through the pumpkin patch with their walkers and wheel chairs! It was actually really funny, they loaded the people in wheelchairs onto the wagons right off the buses using the lifts. The pumpkin patch was awesome, there were acres and acres of orange pumpkins!!!
That's really neat about the Singles Branches new presidency. Paul will be awesome and he has great counselors!!! I can't wait to come back to the Branch!! Brittany, congratulations on the wins!!! That's awesome!! Keep working hard and go all the way to STATE! Jared, that's awesome that you have won some games too!! Nathan, how is football going for you?
Keshia!!!!!! I can't believe you are engaged!!! WOW! And you didn't give me any details!!! Tell me all about it!!!
So Kurt and Alanna asked me about our investigators. Ok so one lady who is a member referral, her name is Tonya, she is really nice and chatty. She is a single mother and has four kids. She left her husband days before she gave birth to her fourth because she had had enough of him abusing drugs and beating her. Way to go!! She is all about family and trying to teach her kids not to be dead beats. Every time we talk to her I can see how much the Church can help and bless her life. She seems excited about the church but has been sick lately so hasn't really been progressing.
Next is a girl who we meet tracting, Tanisha, she is 16. It's really hard for us to tell how much interest she actually has or if she is just trying to be nice. We have met with her about 3 times. She has really great questions so we know she is paying attention to what we teach, but she isn't keeping commitments. Commitments are things we ask them to do like read the scriptures or come to church. By inviting them to do these things we help them understand how to repent and change their lives. And if they do them we know they have a sincere desire to change.
Then we have Cheyanne, she is the "not girlfriend" of a member in the ward. (They are pretty much dating but his parents won't let them date for various reasons, one being he is working on his mission papers.) Anyways she has been taught for almost 8 months now and she really seems to grasp and understand everything. But she is so quiet and hardly answers our questions so we aren't sure how much her desire to learn about the Gospel comes from the boy or from actual interest, probably a little of both. She has said that she doesn't really want to be baptized until he is gone on a mission so she knows its for herself.
Then we have Eli, his dad is a less active. Eli has been taught for years and he knows a lot and has an AMAZING testimony for an 11 year old. But he is very torn by his parents. His mom wants him to be able to make the choice for himself with no pressure from anyone and she wants him to be really aware of all the choices, so she is taking him to some other churches over the next couple weeks. His dad has had some issues in the past and obviously doesn't want his kids to go through the same things, so he really wants them to learn about the church and accept it. The problem is he isn't a very good example, he had Word of Wisdom issues and I have only seen him at church 2 times. He knows its true he just doesn't want to change.
In the past few months I have meet so many people who have such trials and messed up lives and it was their choices that got them there. Some had hard situations but really it was their choices that got them in that mess. And they can't seem to see a way out. Or they think that it is just too hard. But the way out is the Gospel and the principles are so simple. As missionaries and members we can show them there is a way out and help them take one little step at a time. It really isn't that hard to follow the principles of the Gospel, we just make it hard on ourselves by refusing to change. That is the biggest problem with all of our investigators, they don't want to change, but if they look really hard they will see that they are hurting themselves by not changing. Satan makes it seem like the path we are on is the easiest and maybe it is for now, its going downhill but eventually the path will have to go up hill and then it will be really hard and steep. But if they go the way that God would have us go, it looks hard because it is going uphill but it really is just a gradual incline. And in the end it is a much easier way to get to the top than going down and then having to climb out of the hole to the top. Luckily if we are in a hole, Christ is there to lift us out of it. So don't be afraid to change, it will be much easier to do it now! If you don't like the path you are on then only you can change it. I have been studying about humility in the Christlike attributes section of Preach My Gospel. If we will be humble enough to accept that what we are doing is wrong and look to do things God's way, He will help us.

I LOVE you all,

Sister Nicole Polatis