It's May!

No news on the visa, but that is totally fine with me. I haven’t taught any investigators yet, lots of member visits. We have 1 or 2 recent convert visits a week, but other than that it’s just trying to get into people’s homes. If you live in Peoria, you work for CAT or you’re a doctor. So we have some pretty fantastically wealthy people here with beautiful communities, grand spacious homes, fancy luxury vehicles and are kind of rude to us. What can you do…

There were two interesting things that happened this week.

1. We got a call from our Zone Leaders and said that a man at St. Francis hospital needed a blessing, so my companion and I drove down to find him. After searching through a humongous hospital, we found him with several bandages on his head and a few family members watching him. He had been in a car accident that morning and had gone through the windshield. Most of his scalp had been torn off his head, but had been stapled back onto his skull. Putting our hands on his head was out of the question. My companion anointed him and I sealed it, but during the blessing the man started to mock me. He jokingly talked to me as I was trying to listen to the spirit to see if he was going to live or die, to see what I should bless him with. Halfway through the blessing he began to snore loudly at me and got louder and louder. I wasn’t bitter or upset; the only feeling that I had for this man was sadness. He had come to know that the church was true and had fallen away. Now he began to mock the sacred ordinance that we were doing to help him. But as we left I felt great joy because I knew at least that he was going to be fine.

2. Before we ever leave to go knocking on doors, we kneel in front of the map and pray where we should go. On one such an experience, we kneeled down and I offered the prayer. I paused in the middle to listen and the words "Willow Lake" randomly popped into my head. I closed the prayer and waited for my companion to stand. I didn’t say anything at first because I was scared that I was wrong. As my companion looked at the map, I pointed at the street and said, "I want to go there." My companion, still looking at the map, just smiled and said, "I feel exactly the same way." When the spirit communicates to his servants, it is all the same.

Anyway, it’s hard work, but its good and I know I'm doing the Lord’s will.

I love you guys and will talk to you next week.

Elder Willard