February 28

Good Morning!

It's raining!!!! It's pouring!!!! Which Elder Todd informed me will just make it hotter. Oh well. I will enjoy it anyway!



This past week has been an awesome one! Elder Todd and I are slowing improving and our work is beginning to show up with numbers. I think what we really needed was the Zone Conference we had to get us pumped up! On Wednesday, we drove to Hattiesburg, MS for Zone Conference, where we had the Gulfport , Slidell, and Hattiesburg zones. At least I think those are the correct names. It was really uplifting! And also.... condemning? Our mission goal was 35 baptisms for the month of January. We got 3 for the ENTIRE mission. In December we set a record for the highest number of baptisms in the mission and January was the lowest ever. The theme of Zone Conference was balance. Learning to balance everything we do. For February we have/had a goal for 27 baptisms, and so far we are at 21 or 22.... something like that. The numbers shot up towards the end of the month. We do have someone with a baptismal date, but he used to be a member so he wont count as a convert baptism. We don't care, we just want to help him. He has an interesting view of the church, and doesn't really like it and it's "rules". Some part of him knows it is true, but he doesn't want to change. He tries to find loopholes into Heaven and he is fine with going to the Terrestial kingdom. We're working on him.

We talked a lot about our key indicators and how we can look at them and see what we need to work on and balance it all out. I got to role play with President Tucker. He was a missionary and I was an investigator. It was tons of fun! Hahahahahaha, I love that man. He truly is a servant of the Lord.

At Zone Conference, Sister Tucker handed me an manila envelope. It had Elder Mendenhall written on the front in Elder Redmon's handwriting. I was thinking he sent something I forgot. Instead, I found 6 letters inside! Woot! It made me happy. I guess instead of forwarding, he knew that with Zone Conference coming up, he could just pass them along. By Saturday night, I had 10 letters which I needed to reply to. I'm down to 9 so far. I know how I am spending the rest of my p-day! Hahahahahaha, it's good to know that I have people who care about me and want to keep in touch. I feel loved! Not that I don't already, but still....

This week, Shay let us know about some more of her problems, and we didn't get to really share much of a lesson with Sandy, as things came up while we were there, but we did develop our friendship more with her. Which is good.

I was privileged to attend three baptisms on Saturday. The first two were some 9 year old twins our Zone Leaders taught. Those were convert baptisms (older than 8). The other one was an 8 year old in the ward. Elder Todd and I were the witnesses, which was really neat! It was the second baptism I ever remember participating in. The first one being mine! Yes, that one counts. We were also invited to stand in the circle to confirm her. Regan Christensen! It was really neat to see and help with.

I know I haven't said much, but I don't have much to say right now. I know this gospel is true and I love the work! Keep the faith and stay close to the Lord. He will never lead you astray!

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Love,
Elder Dwight Douglas Mendenhall
980 Courthouse Road #407
Gulfport, Mississippi 39507