The Temple was AMAZING!

Hello! This week was awesome (: First off... One of Leroy's best friends who was a bishop a while ago, but is now on the high council came and spoke in my ward yesterday. He let me know that Leroy didn't get baptized this past saturday :/ Not exactly sure why... but he is still planing on baptism really soon (: And yes, it joys my soul that Jeaninne got married and baptized! It makes me so happy that I was part of both of their conversion stories (:

Yesterday our investigator Clu came to church. She goes out of town a lot, so we haven't had a lesson with her yet... We are planning on talking about tithing, because that is her big hold up. I think we are going to focus on finding if she has a true testimony of the Book of Mormon or not. Because if she does, then she should know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet, and if she knows that, she will know that it is a commandment and the promised blessings will come, no matter how hard the circumstance.

Okay... the LA Temple was AMAZING!! I always love going to the temple! There is such a special spirit there that you can't really get anywhere else. It was cool, during the endowment in the terrestrial room, I had this overwhelming feeling there that I had been there before. It was more than just a deja vu, but I really felt like I had been there before. It was really cool (: I really can't wait to go back to that temple again! and yes, that is what all missionaries get to do for their birthdays (: My birthday was awesome!

And for the talk [Mom's talk on his mission this Sunday]... Just update them that I have experienced the promised blessings from living the mission rules. In my mission call letter it talks about a few things I need to do as a missionary, such as follow the counsel of my mission president, obey mission rules, and leave behind all personal affairs, and if I do so, I will have an "Increased knowledge and testimony" of the Gospel. I have definitely lived and experienced those blessings! My knowledge and testimony has grown so much! I love this Gospel (:

Our investigator Brad is still planning on his baptismal date of August 17th. He is having a hard time committing to live the Word of Wisdom and coming to church. I think he is just afraid to walk by faith. He keeps desiring tangible evidence to know that The Book of Mormon, D&C 89, and other scripture is really from God, and he is afraid to move forward if he doesn't have that evidence. So we are just going to keep working with him and help him walk by faith.

We met a guy a couple weeks ago named Ramon and he is doing great! He is a Hispanic man who can't speak/understand English very well, but he has been prepared by the Lord. He had talked to Spanish Elders before, and he reads El Libro de Mormon every day. He has a true and honest testimony of Joseph Smith and of the Book of Mormon. He is doing wonderful (: His only problem is it is hard for him to get to church, so we are trying to help him with that. His baptismal date is for August 24th. and rumor has it between Elder Castro, Elder Clark and I that there will be Spanish Elders here along with us next transfer (: So exciting! Elder Castro is still here waiting for his visa! It's amazing how much he has grown since 5 weeks ago! He is doing great (:

Mark, Gloria, and their two children (the family we tracted into my first week here) got back from Holland this past week!. They are awesome! We stopped by and we talked with them a little bit about their trip (: They have been reading the Book of Mormon Stories to their children, and they said that they all were loving it! Woo! They invited us back this week to answer their questions about what has been happening in the story (: We are really excited for that!

In my studies this week I was reading Elder Uchtdorf's talk "The Love of God" from October 2009. It is such a good talk! I really liked his quote "at the heart of joy, you will find the love of good things." It is so true! If we love and invest our time in good wholesome things, like the scriptures, there, we will find joy! It just makes so much sense (: I love having a knowledge of this Gospel, and I love the scriptures! Having a love for the scriptures truly does bring me so much joy in my life! More than any other worldly thing can bring, even music (:

Ha..... so yesterday....After eating dinner at a members house, and after giving them a message about the Holy Ghost, they wanted us to sing them a song. So they got their guitar and I played and we sung the hymn Nearer my God to Thee. Yeah... I was bawling. Tears streaming down my face. And after the song, they were like "awwww it's the spirit!" yeah. what they didn't know, is that something got into my eye and my eyes just started pouring!! So to save myself from looking dumb in front of a family with 4 girls and 1 boy, I just let them think that it was the spirit that made me bawl. yeah, no. hahah But it is quite a spiritual song (: It was fun.

That's good to hear that you [mom] will be going back to school! I'm happy that you are making that decision (: It is definitely a smart one. And that's cool to know that Heather's face is on the dance thing for Snow [College website]! (: Yeah she was on the drill team down there! That's way cool (: you'll have to email her and let her know!

I hope everything is going well at home! You are always in my prayers! Love and miss you (: have a wonderful week!

Love,
Elder Teeples!

Some of the temple (:

Chandler is with us in one of the pictures. He is the WML's son, and he drove us down to LA. He's awesome (: He should be going on a mission soon.