A turtle!

What a great week in Texas. At the end of each week on the mission I am always amazed at the many blessings that we receive. I am grateful to be apart of the Lords church and help with the gathering of Israel. We were asked by Elder De Hoyos about a month ago to study and learn from Jacob 5. This chapter gives in detail the allegory of the olive tree and the scattering and gathering of Israel. As I have read and studied this chapter I was able to notice the Lords love for each branch (group of people) as he labored himself to help the trees bring forth good fruit.

Last night we visited with a young couple the Becks in the Ward. The wife is an active member and the husband has been a long time investigator. He has been coming to church for over a year now and has been taught by several different sets of missionaries and hasn't declined any invitations to be baptized. This was the first time Elder Biesinger and I visited them in a while and after reading from the "Family and Temple" pamphlet that the church recently came out with and going over the baptismal interview questions he accepted to be baptized on the 10th of December. It truly was a modern day miracle. The spirit has been working in his life and over the last couple of months we have seen a great change in him and the lord was preparing him for the invitation last night. It was also great to see how excited they were to be sealed in the temple a year from this December. We are looking forward to this upcoming week and are excited to meet many new people. Hopefully we can continue to find the prepared!

We had several opportunities to do service this week. On Thursday as a District we did service at "The Backpack Coalition". We helped pack up small bags and also large bags for schools and the kids that have very little food at home. It was fun serving along side the district especially since we have a very fun and funny district. We also were able to serve an older couple move their 700 + pound turtle that they have had for about 30 years. We lifted the turtle and put it into a shed for the winter. It was pretty tuff to lift and carry. It didn't want to go into the shed and already broke out once so that's why we had to lift it up. Before we put it into the shed I was able to ride the turtle for a little bit. It carried me like it was nothing. We did some more service on Tuesday and Friday at the local storehouse here in Pflugerville. Great week with a lot of service and we will hopefully be able to do a lot as well this week for thanksgiving.