Greetings all!
Due to the holiday on monday, the libraries will all be closed so we have been allowed to e-mail home today. Sorry for anyone who may have missed me because they intended to send their e-mail this weekend. I guess you can always send me a letter!
This week has been pretty darn good! We had a lot of investigators coming out of a lot of different places this week so it's been pretty exciting. I went on a 3 day exchange with some spanish elders while my companion was at training meetings. During that time we tracted out a man named Mike. Mike is a very interesting character to say the least. He is an alcoholic who is looking for any support he can find. He has had an extremely rough life and is currently in a particularly rough patch. Our first lesson with him, I ended up taking over the majority of the teaching without realizing it (Mike speaks english, I was not using the gift of tongues...). Mike felt very strongly that he could not be succesful without someone else there to keep him on track. I bore testimony that through the atonement anything is possible, and even if we have no support system around us, we can find support and strength through the gospel of Jesus Christ and through the influence of the Holy ghost. When I had finished testifying, Mike grew quiet. After a few moments had passed in silence, Mike looked at us and told us that he had drank his last beer. Mike then enthusiasticly accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon and commited to read it and pray. When we closed the lesson, Mike asked us if we could teach him how to pray. The innocence of the question coming from this hard man touched me in a profound way. We taught him how to pray and he closed the meeting with a simple sincere prayer. The spirit was strong as we prayed together, and when he finished, there was a sort of light in his eyes that was not present when we arrived. We saw Mike a couple days later and his countenance had totally changed. He excitedly told us that he was sober for the first time in many years and as he shook my hand he looked me in the eyes and thanked me for giving him the copy of the Book of Mormon.
"That book is going to change my life", he said. "I've never seen anything like it, and the promise you made me is coming true. I wouldn't have even been able to stop drinking this long without that book."
Because Mike isn't in my area I may not get the chance to work with him again, but I'm sure praying hard for him. I'm very thankful that I was at least able to take some small part in his "spiritual journey" (as they call it in the MTC).
We have a few new investigators in our area that we haven't really gotten to know yet, but I'm sure I'll have lots to say about them as soon as we get acquainted with them better. There's so much to do, but the time is moving faster and faster. I wish it would slow down!
Eric and Felicia (hopefully I've given you some sort of background on them already) are doing well, Eric says that he's having great progress with his battle to quit smoking. We shared a message with them about the importance of the Book of Mormon and I think they both may have been touched by it. They committed to read together and individually more faithfully. We are going to teach the law of chastity this week (they live together but are not married), so I'm a little nervous about how that is going to pan out... but we'll see!
The weather has been ugly and gorgeous this week. The earlier half of the week was quite stormy but yesterday and today have been absolutely beautiful. The days are cooling down dramatically and I'm told it won't be very long at all until it is cold. Guess I'll have to go shopping for a coat soon (shopping... joy.)! We're still working hard and knocking doors whenever we get the chance. Next week should be better for getting work done because we won't have any interruptions in the form of meetings or trainings.
Thank you for all of your prayers, and words of support and encouragement. I love getting your letters and look forward to more in the future (wink wink)! I love you all and I pray for you often. Until next time; be good, stay safe, and keep the faith.
Love,
Elder Michael P. Lyman
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