the missionary's gift of love

Helloooooo (:

Elder Bate and I had a really great week this week! We spent quite some time preparing a report for our meeting with the stake presidency yesterday, which we feel went really well! We gained some insights and improvements for our work which was great! President Castro also was in attendance to the meeting and it was so good to see him! It may be "bitter-sweet" for him and his family, but it is nothing but bitterness for us... Or so it seems :/ I've come to love that man so much and I look up to him a lot. I'm sad to see him go!

We were able to find a new investigator named Hank! He is in the coast guard, and he had a friend who was LDS when he was growing up. We had a great lesson with him about the restoration when we went back for our return appointment, and he seemed to be pretty open to it, and was willing to learn (: He mentioned how it was a lot to take in, but he woud definitely ponder and pray about it, so we are excited to follow up with him this week!

We also had a couple last lessons with our investigator Allie this week before we "hand" her off to the other Elders.. It was sooo sad! As a missionary, you naturally love everybody we see, even just people on the streets and we desire their happiness. But when you get to know somebody, like we have with Allie, that love grows and it is so hard to let it go! But at least we will continue to see her at church on Sundays (: The lessons we had were really powerful though and we feel good about them. It's such a privilege to have the opportunity to bare our testimonies with others! It's such a blessing!

We also got to see Joseph this week! We had the lesson in the church building and a member came with us. It was a great lesson talking about service and a little bit more about what he had read out of Mosiah 1-4. It was a really good lesson and he is still preparing to be baptized on July 4th, so we'll see how that goes (:

We had a cool miracle this week! We went by to see a less active that a bishop wanted us to see. So we finally made it a point to get all the way out there to where she lived, only to find out she didn't live there... So we decided to work in that area, and we walked around a huge block. After we got around the whole block, we were like two houses away from our car, and a guy walks out of his house to his car and we got to talk to him for a little bit, and we came to find out he was a less active! He isn't on our records but we found him (: He said he'd make it to church yesterday, but we didn't see him there... but it's amazing how we can be true instruments in the Lord's hands to finding his lost sheep!

In my studies I have been reading through Genesis. I read this morning in chapter 24 when Abraham's servant is sent to find a wife for Isaac. It surprised me that when the servant got to the well, the first thing he did was pray that the Lord would help him find the "damsel" that would be appointed for Isaac. It wasn't just a general prayer, but it was specific. He told the Lord specific signs that he would look for to know which woman was the right one to bring back, and before he finished his prayer, Rebekah cam out and followed the same actions that the servant asked for. The principle is so true, if we want answers to our prayers, we need to ask for specific things so we know what to look for. It also reminds and amazes me in this story about how God's timing truly is perfect! Love it (:

Thank you so much for all your love, support and prayers! I miss you! And yes, the fruit snacks are amazing (: I love them! Thank you again! Have a great week (:

Elder Teeples (:

oh and this is a picture of my current district (: