"No!" Doesn't Always Mean, "No." ;)

Hey Everyone!  How Yall's doing? 

Hope you have a great Thanksgiving week!   Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday!  And I always love to count my blessings around this time.  I am very grateful for each one of you, and the blessing you are and have been in my life.

We had Stake Conference this weekend with Elder Baxter as the visiting General Authority, who is from Centerville, Utah, and he's from Elder Numbers' ward.  He's actually the British bloke who spoke at our Stake Conference a couple years back.  He spoke about, "This is what your church does....This is what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints does."  He talked about that in the adult session and told a couple stories I remember from a couple years ago.  What a powerful weekend of Stake Conference with him presiding.  My favorite part of the whole conference was when he, guided by the Spirit, selected members from the huge congregation to come up and bear their testimonies.  It was so powerful and wonderful to hear of the testimonies from the members here in the Charleston Stake!  Testimony is always the best tool; that's where the Spirit can be present the most!

With transfer day coming next Thursday, Dec. 4th, I'm getting a little nervous; I don't want to leave nor do I want Elder Johnson to leave, but you never know.  (That means P-day will be WEDNESDAY, Dec. 3 next week.)  My address will be the same for sure until Tuesday of next week; that's when we know if we will be transferred or not.  I'll let you know Wed.  The best bet for sending me stuff the next couple weeks is to do it USPS mail to the Mission Office, so then they can transfer it onward wherever I am.

Nov. 17, Mon:  We finally were able to teach Lucksas Graham.  The Young's joined us for the lesson and he accepted a baptism date for Jan. 4th.  He technically doesn't count as an "investigator" because he is 8 years old and both his parents are members, just not attending church.  It was still so awesome!  We hope and pray that him growing in the Gospel will reactivate his family!

Nov. 18, Tues:  Low of 14 degrees today.  Cold!  

We contacted the Nicholas family, a part-member family.  John is a less-active member and the son of some devoted members from the ward.  We hope to meet with them soon. 

We taught David Lilly and he was very emotional.  David is so appreciative of us and loves us a lot.  We love him, too.  We taught about keeping the Sabbath Day holy.  He agreed to come to church this Sunday.  Only after the lesson, did we remember it was Stake Conference this weekend. (woops!)

Nov. 19, Wed:  This morning, Elder Johnson had a dentist appointment.  Since I couldn't go back to the exam room with him, I had to wait in the waiting room.  It was so great, though - I talked with a lady named, Tricia, for like 45 minutes.  She has a Mormon nephew and I gave her a card, our #, and invited her to call us and talk to her nephew about his beliefs. 

Taught Tom Wood about Missionary Work; he agreed to share what he'd learned with his sons!  

Then us missionaries helped out with the mutual activity tonight.  We were the waiters for their Etiquette dinner!  We put on some fake mustaches (sent to me from Phil and Nicole family!  Thanks!) We had good fun with that and got fed all the leftovers!

Nov. 20, Thurs:  While tracting today, we met this one man, who invited us in for a drink, but said, "No Preaching!"  His name was Dave and we had a good discussion with him over some CokeZeros.  He was very familiar with the Mormon faith and knows the Hicks' from the ward. What started out as him saying, "I'm fine with religion" turned into a return appointment!

 We finally got a Ward Mission Leader, Brother Brooks.  I guess he got promoted from Ward Missionary to Ward Mission Leader?  Ah well, had correlation meeting, also.

Nov. 21, Fri:  We had  a lesson with Tom today.  Bro. Snuffer joined us and we read 1 Nephi 2 & 3.  We're really hoping to jump start his Book of Mormon reading, so he'll spend time doing that instead of smoking and drinking coffee.

Nov. 22, Sat:  We did service at the church this morning; some Fall clean-up. 

Then spent the rest of the day driving to/attending Stake Conference.

Nov. 23, Sun:  Stake Conference - see above notes on Elder Baxter. 

Also showed Doyle and Shirley the Joseph Smith movie. 

Also met with Melissa and Emily and invited Emily to be baptized!  We just need to get them to come to church and read from the pamphlets!

Love You All!  Sorry Time is running out!

-Love Elder Brenchley

Random Questions #12

Note: Mom makes a list of questions in her letters and Elder Brenchley answers them:

1.  Does your house have mice?  Or cockroaches, spiders, snakes, rodents of any kind?   I haven't seen any mice or cockroaches, just spiders here and there.

2.  Have the Young’s and the Heller’s ALWAYS been supportive of and involved with helping/taking care of the missionaries in Beckley 2 through the years?  I think so....  OR is it that they have a special fondness for you & Elder Johnson?  ...but we really have gotten along well with both of them! 

3.  Sister Cline has now come to church 3 times now, hasn’t she?!?  Is she the first one who has made it the required amount of times in order to be eligible for baptism?  Sister Cline would be the first one who has been to church 3 times on my mission!  She's still praying about getting baptized

4.  Besides when it snows, do you get to drive the car much?  How do you decide who’s turn it is?  I usually drive 5 out of 7 days of the week.  Elder Johnson doesn't really like to drive, or maybe he just likes to be in charge of the phone.

5.  Does your house keep warm enough?  Heater works?  Our house is warm, we like to keep it cool though.

6.  Do you have a certain number of minutes per month on your cell phone or is it unlimited? Unlimited, that doesn't mean you can call me! ;)

7.  Will you do any regular missionary work/stuff on Thanksgiving, or are you just spending it with the families in your ward?  As much as I'd like to just kick back on the couch and watch football with the Young's and Heller's, we will definitely be doing lots of proselyting on Thanksgiving.  Holidays are PRIME TIME to find families at home.  By doing that, maybe we will get even more invites from strangers to come in and enjoy some turkey! 

8.  Do you think Elder Johnson will get transferred next week since he will have been in Beckley for 24 weeks by then?  Elder Johnson is more likely to be transferred than I am, but you never know.  After Elder Johnson's 12 weeks of training, HE was the one who was transferred (to be companions with Elder Maxwell in Lexington, VA) and his trainer stayed.

9.  How’s your complexion/acne doing in WV?  Have you noticed a difference? I need to probably buy more acne cream.  It's not getting any better.

10.  Do you knock on doors every single day?  Do you still find houses that no missionary has never tracted out yet?  Yeah, we find doors all the time where they've never even heard of the Church!

No Dress Clothes Keeping You from Coming to Church? No Problem! We Can Fix That!!

Hey everyone!  Just thought I'd let you all know, I am so GRATEFUL for all of you!  I hope you all have a wonderful month of Thanksgiving!  Also, THANK YOU to all who served this great country, and I hope you had a wonderful Veterans Day.

First off, I found a scripture this week during study that really touched me:
Romans 8:16-17
16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
We truly are all a Child of God.  And I love how we can always feel of our Heavenly Father's love and know we are His children.  And just like Jesus Christ, our brother, we can all receive all that God has in store for us.  But, just like Jesus Christ suffered, sometimes we must suffer too.  But, how great will it be that we'll all be glorified together with our Savior, Jesus Christ!  I bear testimony He atoned for all our sins, our sorrows, and pains.  He knows how we feel and he will be right by our side forever, including when we return to our Father in Heaven!

As for the rest of my week, I count my many blessings whenever I find myself down, and think "I'm a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, called by a Prophet of God, and I am blessed - so blessed to have been raised in this Gospel."

Nov. 10, Mon:  P-Day today!  We went to the mall so Elder Johnson could buy himself some Under Armor compression pants to keep himself warm - maybe I'll think about doing that.
After P-day was over, we went to this one former investigator's house; her name is Vanessa and she welcomed us right in.  We were able to talk with her and her 10 year old son.  We fellowshipped immediately and she said we could come back.  We are looking forward to our next visit.

Nov. 11, Tues:  Veterans Day!  What a beautiful day!  It was sunny and about 75 degrees!  We thanked a handful of Veterans for their service and even met one who'd served in WWII!
We taught Sister Cline and we answered some questions she had from church.  We also talked with her on families living together forever; she doesn't quite believe that we will know each other up in heaven.  Sad.
Since it was Veterans Day and being a nice 75 degrees, we thought we'd go to Little Beaver State Park and talk with people!  What a great idea!  We talked with about 20 people, thanked some Vets, and taught a mini lesson to nine people!  Wow!
We then tracted the rest of the day, taking advantage of the good weather.
Then, Elder Johnson had the great idea to "Note"-ify the Young's and Heller's since they are so good to us.  (They actually had to fight for the right for each of them to feed us on Thanksgiving since we had 5 other families wanting us to come over.)  That's the ward drama out here in Beckley ;)

Nov. 12, Wed:  Well, today was weather shock!  The temp went down to 35 degrees and not a ray of sunshine.
We were able to teach David Lilly and followed up on his intentions to pray and follow the word of wisdom.  I think he still has some concerns, and would keep saying, "Well I've always been taught...."  Hopefully, he can continue to pray about his concerns.  He said he couldn't come to church because he didn't have any nice clothes.  We fixed that. (see Saturday)

Nov. 13, Thur:  It Snowed today!  It was a slushy snow, but Elder Johnson threw the keys to me because he wasn't too experienced at driving in the snow in California.  We also had another car problem... Can you believe it???  We had to get our oil changed, so we went to Brother Meador's place.
 We finally were able to get out of there and head to Tom Wood's.  He hasn't cut back on coffee or cigars, but he says he's been going through a lot of stress and that makes it hard.  He still has that strong desire!
Then, afterwards, we were able to meet a less-active couple who lived out by Tom.  They are great, Tom and Brenda Hicks.  They are great people and have been members for a long time and were sealed in the D.C. temple.  Their church attendance has been limited by his health and her work schedule.  That seems to be the case a lot out here.

Nov. 14, Fri:  Today was very slow; we had 2 appointments cancel that we were really looking forward to.
The highlight of the day had to be a lesson with Sis. Cline.  We brought Sis. McGrady and the Elder Quorum President, Brother Duren.  The lesson was really good.  Sis. Cline and Sis. McGrady sure did talk a lot, though!  Haha.
We were far out in Cool Ridge for an appointment with some potential investigators when they cancelled, so we went right next door and met with Tom Wood.  We gave him some scriptures to read for strength, including 1 Nephi 3:7.  He seemed really interested in reading about the story of Nephi and starting from the beginning of the Book of Mormon.  He committed to read that and we hope that'll keep him busy instead of cigars and coffee.
We went to Dickey's for dinner since Elder Johnson had never been - and the cute, blond waitress kept giving Elder Johnson and I  "The Look."  Haha.  That's always a fun situation.

Nov. 15, Sat:  We had a lesson with the Graham's and their 8 year old son, Lucksas.  The Young's were going to join us and we were really excited!  The Graham's looked like they were home, but they didn't answer the door.  Darn!  We'll keep praying!
We then went to go see David Lily.  He wasn't feeling too good, so he didn't want to meet then.  But, we did give him a white shirt and two ties some missionaries have left behind in the apartment.  He said if he was up to it, he'd come to church.
Elder Crandall, from the mission office, wanted to personally come down and look at our car. (You know, with all the recent problems we've been having lately!)  He looked it over and said, "It's because these darn things are made out of plastic."  So, I guess we're not in trouble.
Dinner at Young's to finish out a tough day.

Nov. 16, Sun:  Today, Sis. Cline came to church; we were really happy for her - she's really progressing.  We were hoping for Tom and David, but they didn't make it.  We did have lesson scheduled with Tom at the church right after, but since he didn't come, that was hard to do.
Later in the afternoon, we were able to meet with Sis. Cline with Bishop and Sister Geisler.  The lesson was definitely not what we planned, but we were able answer a lot of questions she had.  She says she has so many questions because she truly is thinking and praying about joining the church!
Then, we were able to meet with Shirley and Doyle, the 80+ year-old couple.  Doyle asked us, "So, what did your Prophet tell you at the meeting?"  That was great to actually be able to answer; he seemed to agree with the summary we gave him and we promised we'd bring the November Ensign for him to look over next time.  We also talked about the significance of temples.
 We spent some good time at the end of the night calling people and trying to set-up appointments for the week. To our surprise, when we called Darrel and Jennifer, Darrel answered.  We asked how he and Jennifer were doing.  He responded with a grumble and mumbled something about how we don't really care about him and Jennifer.  Then he said, "You hypocritical punks!  Go find yourselves some real religion!"  Well, I guess we won't bother him anymore.  We'll continue to pray for some future missionaries to be able to reap the rewards of the seeds we planted.

That's the week!  I know the work I'm doing can change lives.  I've seen it change others' lives, but most apparent, I've seen it change my own life.  I know this gospel is true!  I know our Father in Heaven loves us all!  Jesus Christ is the way we can return to heaven.

Love You All!
Hope to hear from Ya!
-Love Elder Brenchley 

Put Yourself in the Stripling Warriors' Shoes......to Kick that Starbucks Habit!

Hey Y'all. 

I hear things are pretty good back home!  Thank you for your thoughts, love, and prayers.
 

This week was an Up-and-Down week!  But, if  you only have a short while to read, I'd read Sunday Nov. 9 - one of the best days on my mission.

Nov. 3, Monday:  P-Day was Cray!  Dentist appointment for Elder Johnson in the morning.  

Then on our way to Wal-Mart, we saw Tom Wood at Starbucks, so we stopped by and chatted with him and his two cups of coffee.  

After shopping, we went to go get more air in our left, rear tire - the PSI was dropping.  We took it to Sears, and it turns out there was a nail in the tire.  So, that was a long process; calling the mission office so they could pay for the replacement over the phone - that took about 2 1/2 hours to sort out.

So, I didn't have too much time for email.  

We had dinner @ McGrady's.

Nov. 4, Tuesday:  Katelyn's Birthday!  And Election Day!  A member from the ward was actually running for Beckley House of Delegates out here.  

We met with the flamboyant Ms. W.  We actually were able to have more of a lesson with her, discern her needs, and help her understand her relationship with God.  

David Lilly was next - we read with him the pamphlet, "The Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith."  We had a kneeling prayer at the end and David asked God if Joseph Smith was a prophet.  It was one of the best lessons we've had with him - he didn't go on any long talks or tangents.  

After dinner at the Young's, we set up appointments.

Nov. 5, Wednesday:  Today was a sad, rough day.  We went to our scheduled appointment with Joyce Young and she said she'd have to forfeit our visits.  Her husband didn't like her meeting with us, so she has  to respect his wishes.  We sadly listened to her as she dropped us.  

Then, shortly after doing some walk-and-talk, we got a call from Sis. Graham that our appointment with the Graham's and their 8-year old son, Lucksas, would have to be cancelled.  It quickly turned into one of those days!  

Besides district meeting and correlation with the Bishop, it was a sad day.  

We went to see some less-actives in Glen Morgan;  a town I've never worked in, and found a potential at the address of a less-active.  One little highlight. :)

Nov. 6, Thursday:   Today was weekly planning - always long and hard and fun.  

We taught a lesson today to Elizabeth Bright and her care taker on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and self worth.  The spirit was strong and she said she would be baptized by the proper priesthood authority if she prayed and found it to be true.  We set up an appointment for Saturday!  

We went to go say, "Hi" to the twins and they welcomed us right in.  Their Mom waved at us from the top of the stairs, but she was on a conference call.  They said they still wanted to be baptized, so I guess they still really want to, they just said they couldn't come to church this weekend because they'd be at their dad's.  

We had A GREAT member-present lesson with Tom Wood!  Bro. Snuffer came out with us and we had a Restoration review with him.  Bro. Snuffer shared his great conversion story.  Tom and Bro. Snuffer really connected.  Interesting fact: They both have survived multiple strokes!  

The Young's fed us again!  They are the best!

Nov. 7, Friday:  We had zone meeting in Charleston today!  It was great as always!  

 However, Elizabeth Bright's caretaker called us and said Elizabeth was uncomfortable with baptism and wanted to cancel our appointment for Sat.  

For the rest of the day Friday and all day Saturday, we were going to be on exchanges.  I was with Elder Carter in our area, and Elder Johnson was with Elder Morse in Beckley.  

We talked with Melissa and Emily outside for a little bit.  

The rest of the day was spent tracting and trying to set-up appointments with some investigators in Shady!  

Guess What????  We got approval a week earlier to go to Shady Spring's High School football game to support the band because there are several band members, who are members, including Josef Heller.  Sis. Heller really helped us get this approved; she wanted Josef to introduce us to the less-active kids in the band.  For some reason, they weren't there.  We were able to watch the first half of the game and the band's half-time show.  Shady Spring was losing 28-0 when we left.

Nov. 8, Saturday:  The exchange continued and we had lessons set up with members.  For David Lilly we taught the word of wisdom with Bro. Snuffer.  It went well until David went on a rant about how hard his life is.  Elder Johnson & I get this a lot, but I guess since he'd never met Elder Carter or Brother Snuffer before, David thought he'd tell them.  David seemed uneasy about the Word of Wisdom, seeming he's always smoking while we are there.  

Sister Maxtant called in sick and said she couldn't come out with us to meet with Sis. Cline, so we were still able to teach her, but w/o a member there.  The lesson was a Restoration review and we were able to clear up a lot of things.  (She thought the Book of Mormon prophets had changed their names from the Bible prophets.)

Nov. 9, Sunday: Such a marvelous day!  We got an email early this morning from President Salisbury letting us know he'd be attending the Beckley ward today and he'd be interviewing each of us during Sunday School. 

Tom Wood came to church and also Sister Cline!  Tom sat next to Brother Snuffer and I, and Elder Johnson sat next to Sis. Cline.  It was such a good sacrament meeting!   Probably over 100 people there!  Lots of members, less-actives, and investigators! 

The Gospel Principles lesson was on temple work & family history.  

President took us each out one by one.  When I went to my interview, instead of sitting in a classroom, we went on a walk around the church building.   It was so real & relaxing; like no other interview I've ever had.  He is such a great man and I have so much respect for him. 

The priesthood lesson was on missionary work!  President Salisbury added a lot of great input, trying to help us missionaries out with the members.  Tom raised his hand and gave us a shout out to us two in front of the whole priesthood body (and President :).....) 

After church, we had a lesson with Tom Wood at the church in one of the classrooms.  I grabbed Bro. Connor (the teacher of the lesson on missionary work) and asked him if he could stay and sit in on the lesson. See what I did there?! (:  You could feel a different spirit about having a lesson in the church than just at a house.  The lesson we were going to be teaching was the Word of Wisdom.  We were naturally worried to see how he'd take it.  Tom has admitted to us he's addicted to coffee and cigars.  He says he has 6-7 cups of Starbucks a day and when we go over to teach him, he's always got a big stogie in his mouth.  The lesson, however, went so well!  The Spirit was so strong!  Bro. Connor, unknown to us, before he was a member of the church, had to give up smoking and drinking, and he was just perfect to help teach the Word of Wisdom lesson.  Then we took an approach we learned at zone meeting; to teach a principle using a Book of Mormon story.  In our previous lesson, we left him with the Stripling Warriors story to read.  We were able to relate Tom to these young boys, who had never fought before, but because they had faith, and put their trust in God continually, they were unconquerable (Alma 57:26-27).  So, with Tom never being without coffee or tobacco before, we testified, if he put his faith and trust in God, that he would be able to quit and enter the waters of baptism, and someday go to the temple and be sealed to his wife, who has passed on.  He had tears in his eyes and said he would pray about it.  These moments are what make all the hard work worth it!

 We also met with a potential investigator named, Mike.  He's got a great, young family and we introduced the Restoration to him.  Then we had dinner @ the Heller's and left with them a message on spiritual gifts.

I love seeing miracles work!  God is truly hastening his work.  We are all missionaries.  We are one of three things.  We are Sowers (prepare and nurture the fruit), Reapers (reap the reward of the fruit), or we are Sleepers.

I encourage all of you to always look for missionary opportunities.  We have the greatest message on the earth; don't be afraid to share it!

Love You All!

-Love Elder Brenchley

P.S hey! Elder Johnson here! Elder Brenchley is a stud! its awesome being his companion! Hope yall are doing great! ;)

Random Questions #11

Note: Mom makes a list of questions in her letters and Elder Brenchley answers them:

1.  Are you still wearing short sleeves? Yep, still wearing short sleeves.  It's 55 degrees - that's short sleeve weather.

2.  Does your mission use iPads &/or Facebook as part of your missionary work?  We have gotten word that ipads will be coming in Feb. and we can use Facebook on them.

3.  Do the members get to go to the temple?  Which one will the M's go to? Yes, they just had a temple trip on election day.  They went to the Columbus, OH temple.  The M's still haven't decided, but they think they'll need the temple with the biggest sealing room because everyone and their dog will want to take part in this special sealing.

4.  Do the other district elders get packages from anyone?  Yeah!  Not as much as I have recently.  In the last two weeks, I received a Halloween package from Phil and Nicole, a "month 2" care package from y'all, and then a little trick or treat goodies pkg. from the Page's!

5.  Is it easy for you to wake up in the morning, yet?!?  I am able to wake up every morning since I have been on a mission.  I started praying for that before the mission - have you been praying, too?  We have 2 alarms set.

6.  Who speaks in your Sacrament meetings?  Members or guest visitors?  Are there enough members to fill up all the weeks without repeating too often?  There are quite a few members that usually speak; they even have a youth speaker every now and then.  They've had two stake high councilmen speak since I've been here - we'll see!

7.  Did Elder Hewlett go back out into the field last transfer?  Elder Hewlett is no longer one of the AP's and is now serving down in the Blacksburg Zone.

8.  Does your companion snore?  ;).  He does snore, and can fall asleep just about anywhere! (Sitting in a chair, the bathroom floor, and once on Elder Morse's lap because they were playing "Santa.")  You do share a bedroom, right?  Mission rules are we have to sleep in the same room.

9.  What other rooms are in your house?  A study room?  Our downstairs consist of a bathroom, kitchen, closets, study room/eating room.

10.  Do you have senior couple missionaries in you mission?  Are they proselyting?  I believe there a quite a few throughout the whole mission.  Some work in the mission office, some are proselyting.

I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go.....Even When it is Lee Avenue

Hey Everyone!

Here we Go!

Oct. 27, Mon:  My two month mark!  

For district P-day we played 3 on 3 football!  Not to brag or anything, but I was [the self-named] M.V.P. with 2 passing TD's, 1 rushing, 1 receiving, and 1 PICK SIX!  

Later, we then helped a sister in the ward move across town with some brethren from the ward. 

Oct. 28, Tues:  We met with a less-active family today!  The Dad used to be an old Branch President and the mom is a convert of 5 years.  They have two kids; age 8 and 5.  They are so great.  We showed her the Mormon Message, "You Never Know."  She was crying and wanted us to give her the Mormon Channel app!  Then a miracle happened.  The dad, who was in and out of the lesson, said. (pointing to his 8-year old son) "He needs to start taking the missionary discussions so he can be baptized!"  Woo-HOO!  We were so happy.  I wrote my testimony in the front page of a Book of Mormon and gave it to him!  Then his mom said, "You know what?  I've never read this book all the way through, so me and you (talking to her son) are going to read this together!"  HAHA!  It was so perfect!  Then, after the lesson, she proceeded to feed us dinner and give us 5 bags full of groceries from her kitchen! 

Oct. 29, Wed: We met with our investigator named, Elizabeth Bright.  She has gone through much trial and tribulation.  She was going in for injections in her back tomorrow, so we gave her a Priesthood blessing at the end of the lesson.  I was given the opportunity, again, to call down the powers from heaven and exercise my Melchizedek Priesthood. 

We also went tracting and I felt prompted to go up this street, "Lee Ave."  We didn't even plan to tract this street, but I thought we should since it was on the way back to our car.  Obviously, it was the Spirit directing us to try this street because we knocked on this door and found a woman named, Melissa & her daughter, Emily.  They let us right in and we stated our purpose - AND they said we could come back! 

We were also at the church for Bishop correlation, and the youth asked us to judge their pumpkin contest for mutual! 

Oct. 30, Thurs:  Today we made the trip up to Charleston to hear from our Mission President and Elder Rendlund of the Seventy.  He wanted us to remember four things: 1. The First Presidency and the Twelve say, "Thank You!"  2. You are called to serve here, and you have the right and obligation to pray to your Father in Heaven to know why.  3. President & Sister Salisbury have also been called to serve here, too!  4. Jesus is the Christ.  It was such a good mission conference.  The Spirit was strong and we were able to get some training and take lots of notes to be better missionaries.  It was for the whole northern half of the mission, so there were over 120 missionaries there.  I was also able, for the first time, to run into Elder Justin Maxwell (son of my dad's best friend from high school!)  It was cool to see him as a missionary, and he said the same about me.  He's one of the Clarksburg's zone leaders.  He's a stud! 

Oct. 31, Fri:  Halloween!  Except no costumes or trick or treating.  Weekly Planning helped take our mind off that.  

We met with Bro. Snuffer, who is doing really well!  He is walking without a cane and is gaining movement on the left side of his body again!  

The Young family had us over for dinner.  How nice of them.  I want my brother, Kyle, to marry their 14 year old daughter, Alison, so I can be part of their family!  (P.S. Kyle - she likes your handwriting!)

Nov. 1, Sat:  It's November?  Didn't I leave on the mission in August???? 

Anyway, we got the opportunity to go support one of the twins (Lindsay) in a her county tournament volleyball game! (They have volleyball for elementary school out here!)  He went to the first game, but had to leave after that.  They won the tourney! 

David Lilly was after lunch and he was really receptive to the word of wisdom lesson (he smokes 3-5 cigs during each lesson).  He admits they are of the devil.  We focused on him first getting a testimony on Joseph Smith. 

Then, we were able to meet with a less-active family named, the Jones'.  They are so nice - their work schedules are the reason for their inactivity.  They fed us and we heard Jimmy's (the dad) conversion story.

Nov. 2, Sun:  The twins' grandmother texted us this morning and said that their mother does not want them to get baptized or to go to church.  This broke our hearts.  With this being Fast Sunday, we dedicated our fast to help the twins be able to come to church, and for their mom's heart to be softened.  We prayed really hard for this and will continue to pray for the best!  

With us having a hard time the whole week contacting and setting up lessons with our investigators, we didn't expect too many investigators there at church.  There were none, in fact.  Maybe a good thing - testimony meeting was all over the place; a couple of long stories that didn't really pertain to the Gospel.  And the Gospel Principles lesson was on the Law of Chastity - that was very interesting, seems as the other elder's investigators, who were there, haven't always kept it in their lifetime. 

The rest of the day went just great though!  We were able to teach a lesson to Melissa and Emily, the mother & daughter we tracted into Wednesday!  We taught The Restoration and invited Melissa to be baptized if she knew these things were true.  She said, "If I'm convinced, Yes!"  This was such a blessing we really weren't expecting!  But, I can testify that it was the Holy Ghost that prompted me to try tracting Lee Ave. on Wednesday, so we were able to find Melissa and Emily.  They are both so awesome! 

It was cold outside, but we had a fun time tracting the rest of the day! 

We pigged out when we got home, and broke our fast!

Sorry, I don't have a lot of time, today was a wacky day!  And the library closes at 5:00!

Love you all So Much!

-Elder Brenchley

Random Questions #10

Note: Mom makes a list of questions in her letters and Elder Brenchley answers them:

1.  Do you share your care packages with the other Elders?  (You mentioned all the other elders are jealous of your packages)  I have shared the contents of my care package! The other elders appreciate it!

2.  How are the baptisms out there different from “Utah” baptisms?  We had the program, itself, in the gym, and then went to the Baptism font (that room was really small).  We all stood and watched the baptism (no chairs).

3.  When you hit the deer....did it die?  (That others then picked up for dinner? haha)  The deer ran into our car.  We were going about 10 m.p.h.  It ran away and there was no damage to car!  Yeah, we don't have to file another incident report.
 
4.  If Elder Bodily’s Visa comes in before or in between your mission’s transfer dates, what does he do?  Leave for Brazil immediately or wait to leave until next transfer day?  Elder Bodily actually got his visa after one week of being here in WV.  He will finish out the transfer and then head down there!
 
5.  Do you have guidelines about when you should “drop” an investigator? (Like if they’re not progressing or if they just want to “talk,” but no lesson)  I emailed President Salisbury about dropping an investigator, and he emailed me back some inspiring words/guidelines!