Great weather and loving the work

It's like 70 degrees here right now, so we're getting ready to go play football again here in a bit. It's been extremely warm over the passed couple of days. It's super nice.

The work is still going strong in the Palmer Park ward. Unfortunately, we again had a lot of appointments cancel for one reason or another, but for the appointments that were kept, lots of good came from them.

When we were on splits, one of the 8 year old twin boys we've been teaching asked me if I would baptize him. I was kinda set back for a moment, but happily told him I would love to! Him and his twin brother have been two of my favorite people to teach! They live with their hard-working mother who is a member. They've just been trying to get the boys into the swing of things, so the day is getting close when they will enter the waters of baptism!

Thursday was one of the craziest days. We left our dinner appointment a tiny bit late, so we were rushed to our next appointment. When we got to the house, all the lights were off. No one came to the door, so we decided to visit the parents of the investigator we were supposed to teach that night. When we got to the parents house, the lights were all on, the TV was blasting, but no one was home, so we became really worried. The girlfriend of this particular investigator is pregnant and is expecting any day now, so at the moment we thought they might have rushed to the hospital. All 3 of us felt prompted to run to the hospital just in case. So we did.

When we got there, we found out that she wasn't there. Still feeling prompted to find them, we went to another hospital that was nearby. Nobody was there working the front desk, so we decided to start looking on each floor. We finally got somebody to help us, and he told us there was nobody there by the name we were looking for. After an hour of searching, we decided to check their home one last time. when we pulled up, their lights were on. We knocked on their door and they let us in. They apologized to us for not letting us know they had gone to the store. After a quite awkward 5 minutes, we rescheduled for next week and left their home. Afterwards, we were sitting in the car all confused, trying to figure out why we each felt so prompted to search the city for them and then everything being fine.

For some reason, we decided to go to McDonald's. I guess the running around made us super hungry. When we were sitting there after we ordered our food, a man walked in and said, "Hey Elders." Never seen him before. Elder Guy and Elder Johnson both had no idea who he was. I asked him if he is a member, and he told us he was born and raised in the church, but went inactive when he was 20. He moved to Colorado 3 months ago. We gave him a card with our names, number, and the address of our chapel on it and told him he is always welcome to come back to church. He paused, looked at us, and began telling us how he's having some of the hardest times of his life. How he has really been considering come back to church. Unfortunately, he didn't show up yesterday, but we're going to contact him this week and go from there.

I looked back at everything that had happened that night. I realized that Every single little thing happened at just the right time so we could be at McDonald's at the right moment so we could meet this man. I've never really believed in coincidences, but after Thursday night I know the Lord has his hands in ALL things, even when we may not realize it. It was a great experience for me.
the rest of the week was swell.

Mom and Dad, I miss you both so much. Of course it's nothing I can't handle with the Lord. He definitely is pushing me along in these crucial moments of my life. Getting emails and letters from the both of you, and Kaylee, and many other awesome people is great and it definitely helps me. My life is great right now and I just feel so grateful for everything that has happened to me. Both the ups and the downs, for there wouldn't be any "ups" if there were no "downs".

My testimony of the Atonement is growing by the minute. Before my mission, I relied so much on the redeeming power of the Atonement. Now that I'm here, I've learned a lot more about the Enabling power that comes from that great sacrifice. It's amazing. It truly helps me more than anything.

Mom and Dad, I love the Lord. I'm closer to him than I ever have been, and through the Holy Ghost he's teaching me spectacular things! It is truly a blessing. I am so very grateful for all that you have done for me. I'll never be able to thank you enough. You guys are an inspiration to me. I love you both so much!

Until next time.
Elder Chase Matua