"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