What?! Missionaries can't dance??!

The stake had a youth activity and it was in our area (which I am told is super rare because we are so far south compared to the rest of the stake!). But it was an awesome turnout! We played sports all day (it totally rained on us! Completely dumped!) and then had a dance that night (which we unfortunately couldn't attend. Something about the music not being missionary appropriate or something... but I think it was because we didn't want to make the youth feel bad with our dancing skills ;) )

I Love the photobombing ward member in the middle!!  

I don't have to remind anyone who knows Rachel that dancing is definitely NOT one of her talents!  But I am sure she had a great time playing the sports with the youth :)  So far so good in the great city of Dalton.  Adam is working with a trainer who works for a carpet company based out of Dalton, so he's spent a lot of time there.  He told us when he was there in '01, there was just a little tiny branch there.  Now Rachel told us it is actually a HUGE ward AND the Spanish ward too!  So missionary work has flourished in that area.  She shared more about the young man who came to church on his own.  I'm so glad to know what's happening so we can add our prayers to theirs for him.  Here it is:

 Last week I mentioned the young man who showed up at church of his own curiosity. Well, If you thought that was inspiring... wait till you hear the rest of his story!

Originally he was a mormon.org referral and he requested a Book of Mormon. We were planning on giving it to him on Monday when we first met with him, but because he came to church on Sunday, we gave it to him then.

On Monday we met with him, as originally planned, and found out that he had already read to Mosiah. Yep, he read to Mosiah in one night. We taught him the restoration and he happily accepted all of it and committed that if he found the Book of Mormon to be true, he would be baptized.

We met with him again on Wednesday and by then, he had finished the Book of Mormon. He had read the Book of Mormon in 3 days! He said that one night he was up until 5:30 in the morning reading it. When we talked to him on the phone one night he said, "I put [The Book of Mormon] at the top of my list of books to read and when a book holds that position, I get it read. It's kinda my priority book right now." He loved Alma 32, but he said that he didn't feel like he had a witness of the Book of Mormon being true yet.

We taught him the Plan of Salvation that day. He had really deep, good questions that he asked. In each lesson, he always seems to ask about the principles of the next lesson. He is craving knowledge! He wants to know everything.

We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ on Friday and when we asked what he had been up to that day, he said that he had been listening to conference talks. We hadn't even asked him to read, but he wanted to learn more and so he went online and looked up the conference talks! He is truly one who has been prepared by the Lord. He loves the Articles of Faith and when he was in a bookstore, he saw James E. Talmage's book on it, so he bought it and is beginning to read it. He said he is just trying to get his hands on whatever he can to learn more.

Sister Horrocks and I couldn't believe all of this. He was soaking everything in, and seemed to have no concerns about anything! Until yesterday.

Yesterday he came to church again, but left after the second hour without any real reason. We knew that something wasn't right. As we were texting him throughout the day, he expressed that he was having some doubts and was feeling overwhelmed.

We met with him that night and he shared that he was losing motivation after he had put in so much effort to find an answer, but still doesn't have one. He said he had been praying, reading and searching, but hasn't received a witness. We used the scriptures and tried to address his concerns. Right now we are praying for God to bless him with a confirmation that what he is reading is true. 

There are many ups and downs of missionary work.  Highs and lows that you have to realize are part of Heavenly Father's plan of agency.   In the end, our part is to do our best to add our efforts in bringing about the immortality and eternal life of man.  I don't doubt with caring missionaries and members, this young man will receive his answer.  

Sisters doing service helping wash a fire truck!