Stakes in Zion

The new church building in Sparta

Buenos!

Well, we had a pretty good week here in Cookeville! The weather is heating up quickly. It's only April, and we are beginning to get days in the 80's. The work is still pretty much the same. We are finding plenty of new and potential investigators, but it's hard to get anyone progressing right now. But, we are getting more members to come out with us which is good. On Tuesday, we had a member come with is to do some contacting, and we actually got in with one of our investigators, D, and her less-active husband Z. The Hermanas had been working with them a lot, but we just haven't been able to catch them at home very much. But, we had a great lesson with them and invited them to church. They weren't able to make it though, because Z usually has to work on Sunday's and Donna doesn't really feel comfortable coming by herself. Hopefully we'll be able to bet back in with them this week.

On Wednesday we had the first district meeting of the new transfer. Elder C did well in his first week as the new district leader. We set some district goals for the transfer that will push us, and the potion will remain in effect. After district meeting, we worked the rest of the day out in Monterey. It was lots of tracting and contacting. We were able to have a solid lesson with this new investigator M. He was kind of like, "Well, why doesn't the Bible talk about the Book of Mormon?" And we were like, "Well, it does!" We showed him Ezekiel 37, and that seemed to satisfy him. On Thursday we had a booth set up at Tenn Tech to try and get some more publicity. The Sisters worked the first half, and then we did the second part. We tried to talk with as many people as we could, but there wasn't much traffic passing by us at that point. It was still fun though, and we got to talk to a couple people.

On Friday we were out finishing our tracting hour, and we found this awesome new investigator, J. As we were talking about the Book of Mormon, he started tearing up and he told us about how he's been going through a lot of challenges, and that he feels like his imperfections have caused him to move farther from God. We bore our testimonies that the Book of Mormon would help him get back closer with God, and the spirit was super strong. It was sweet. Then on Saturday we went with Bro. T out to Gainesboro to visit some less actives, which was fun. We actually had some really solid visits with some of them.

Sunday was exciting. First we attended the Sparta branch, because they were opening a brand new building there. The new building was really nice, and it was a great service. Then, we came back and had the Burgess Falls sacrament meeting. Then we had Ward Council, and then Cookeville ward's meetings. Another long day, packed between three sacrament meetings. We also got some exciting news: Our Stake is getting split! The McMinnville stake will be split north/south, and we will have the new Cookeville stake! There's a lot of shifting happening right now. The Cookeville stake is actually going to pick up Lebanon from the Madison Stake, and McMinnville will pick up Shelbyville from the Murfreesboro stake. Plus, we are picking up Fayetteville from the Huntsville, Alabama mission, which will get tacked onto the new McMinnville stake. So, we have stake conference in two weeks where they will officially split the stake. Exciting stuff!

My ponderizer for this week is Alma 26:22 which says, "Yea, he that repenteth and exerciseth faith, and bringeth forth good works, and prayeth continually without ceasing--unto such it is given to know the mysteries of God; yea, unto such it shall be given to reveal things which never have been revealed; yea, and it shall be given unto such to bring thousands of souls to repentance..." This is a great scripture for missionaries. As we have faith, stay worthy, repent as necessary, pray, and keep the commandments, we will be able to act as conduits for the spirit, and we can accomplish great works. Yup. Hope y'all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Mitchell

Out tracting