E-mail 12/20/2010 Week 36

Hola Familia!

Aqui todo esta bien. For most of last week I was in South Pittsburg, Tennessee and Elder Wilkinson was in Chattanooga for leadership trainings. I was able to go to one day of the trainings. It was awesome! The Spirit was super strong and everything! Anyways, we were supposed to come back to Fort Payne on Tuesday. But, the trainings were delayed from Monday to Tuesday because of snow. So then, we were supposed to come back on Wednesday but then we had some more bad weather and I guess all of the roads in Fort Payne were closed! So, we had to wait one more day to come back and that almost didn't happen. Thankfully we were able to come back Thursday and start working in our own area again. So, there hadn't been any proselyting here for about a week so we have been trying to make up for that these past few days. We saw Breanna and Gabriel, Destiny wasn't there, and taught them the Plan of Salvation using a white board. We taught it simply and drew the principles out on the white board. Then, we had each of them draw it themselves and teach it back to us. They're really smart so they were able to do it almost perfectly. We also taught them about fasting and prayer. We decided to fast and pray together to get permission from their parents. We saw Cyn Brown, their grandmother, but not the kids. I guess her son, their dad, flipped out and doesn't want them taking the lessons anymore. Sigh. So, we aren't teaching them anymore for the moment. We also saw Victor and Maria. They are doing pretty good but they still haven't come to church. So, we invited them to the Christmas party so they can get to know more of the members so they feel more comfortable. We saw a guy named Jeremias. Elder Sexton and I tracted into him and we decided to see him last night. We went over the first lesson and soft committed him and he said yes! We also saw Alfredo and Patti. Patti just stayed for a bit of the lesson but Alfredo was completely involved. He's awesome! We soft committed him for baptism. He basically said he's going to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and once he does that and feels prepared he'll be baptized! We invited them to the Party as well. That is pretty much everything this week. I will call Saturday (Christmas day!) around two in the afternoon your time. I can't remember when Kaylee usually takes her naps so hopefully it's not around then. I can't wait to hear from y'all! I love y'all and I'll talk to y'all soon!

Love,

Elder Barry Kreyling

Q. Favorite Events of the week?

A. Going to the one day of Training/Christmas party. It was awesome!

Q. Favorite Scripture for this week?

A. I would have to say Alma 5 : 51. I don't have my Book of Mormon on me right now but I think that's the reference haha. Anyways, it was around eight last night and we hadn't eaten dinner yet. We were trying to decide whether we should end our night or go see Alfredo and his family. We prayed and that scripture popped into my head. We went over, had an awesome lesson and soft committed him!

Q. What have you done for p-day the last couple of weeks?
A. We went to Chattanooga once for a Zone activity. We played dodgeball and volleyball! We haven't done much other than that haha.

Q.How far do you have to travel to meet with your district/zone
for p-day, or to use the computer, to do your Laundry etc.?

It's about 50 miles for district meetings. Thankfully we have the blacks and they drive us their and to church each week. It's about four or five miles to use the computer and we have a washer and dryer in our apartment so we don't need to go anywhere for that

Q. Who was your favorite contact of the week and why?

A. Alfredo: We had a good lesson and he accepted a soft commitment!

Q. Will you be sending us more pictures soon? Are you working on sending lots and lots of pictures of activities, the front of the place you’re living, your companion? Anything is good and well received J

A. Yes, I'll send more pics soon after I get the other memory card back. (sounds fair enough :))

Q. Do you have with you, your line of authority? It could come in handy one day.

A. It's in my journal.

Q. Do you know how much we love you and how proud your dad and I are of you?

A. I think so haha.

Q. Tell us about your new area: apartment, city, branch, etc.

A. Fort Payne is awesome. It's quite big and spread out. We cover most of the mission area here in Alabama. The Band Alabama is from Fort Payne. I just recently took some pics by some statues of them.

Q. Have you had any cool spiritual experiences over the last couple of weeks?

A. Yes at the one training I went to. It was just awesome and I hope I can go to another one soon!