Small and Simple Things

Dear Family,

Hello, hello!! So I thought to start with I would give you some West Virginia culture. The tobacco industry makes good money here, A LOT of people smoke and chew tobacco. The thing to do is to sit out on your porch and smoke. Oh and the porches! They are like an outdoor living room! People put knick knacks and decorations on their porches. They have screens to block the sun. They have ceiling fans. They have furniture with cushions. What I do love though is the porch swings and the rocking chairs, I love it when people invite us to talk with us out on their porch. So pretty much the food here is the same although they do use more oil and butter. Vegetables aren’t vegetables unless they are smothered in butter. There is one difference though and that is the West Virginia Hot Dog. If you just put ketchup on a hot dog they think you are crazy. A hot dog must have chili, onions, and coleslaw on it. It’s actually pretty good.
So this week we had a lot of wonderful things happen. So first, Martha received a blessing and in it she was told that she should quit feeling like a nobody because she is a somebody. And she has a great work to do for her family who has passed on. The Spirit was so strong and the members have been so great about helping her out. We changed her baptismal date and right now she is set for July 19th.
And we have 2 more baptismal dates!!! Tom and Kim!!! We had a wonderful lesson with them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And Tom kept saying that he wants to get baptized. So at the end of our lesson we invited them to be baptized on July 26th, and his reply was “I’m game!” ha ha Kim said she would like to and she would make sure Tom got there. When then informed Tom that he would need to stop smoking. He told us that he has stopped drinking and do drugs and he thinks that hardest one will be to stop smoking, but he said he would do it. So this week we are going to teach them the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity, yeah I know the two big ones, but if they are going to back it by the 26th he needs to stop smoking and they need to get married. They actually are planning on getting married, but they don’t know yet that they need to get married in 3 weeks! But they know this is right, so it shouldn’t be a big problem. When we asked Tom what he thought about the Book of Mormon, he said that only good things happen when he opens up that book. And he says he feels guilty when he doesn’t meet with us. Before he was very skeptical about the Book of Mormon. Since they have started meeting with us, Tom hasn’t been as depressed, he got a really good job, and is now off house arrest!! Yay!!
Another story about the power of the Book of Mormon. So a few weeks ago, we tracted into this guy named Bill. He said he knew a little about the Mormons and wasn’t interested in learning more, but he did accept a copy of the Book of Mormon, said he’d read it, and we could come back and pick it up. Well we went back on Sunday, he told us he had read it and was interested in coming to our church!!! WOW!! We have an appointment with him tomorrow!!! The Book of Mormon will cut its own way!! It will change people!!! By small and simple things do great things come to pass! Read the Book of Mormon!
Yesterday we had an appointment with an investigator named Arley. And this time his step son Henry sat in. Henry is 11 and even though his step brothers were off playing, he left them and came to listen to our lesson. He is only here for the summer and lives in California with his grandparents and goes to church with them. He was so excited and interested in our lesson. He was begging Arley to take him to church on Sunday. And when we asked if we could come back next week, Henry said “yes, how about Monday or Tuesday?” Haha he set up the appointment! At the end we gave him his own personal copy of the Book of Mormon and his eyes lit up, he was soooo excited!! What a wonderful little boy with such a strong desire to do what is right. Christ told us we should be as little children, why shouldn’t we be that excited about going to church and reading the Book of Mormon? Henry has the right attitude and enthusiasm about the Gospel.

Well take care, love you tons and tons.
Sister Nicole Polatis