Feb. 14, 2011
Subject: Happy V-day, from D-town
Happy Valentine's Day! Since I'm a single elder, you guys can be my valentines. Hope that's alright?

How's everybody's week been? What have you all been up to? Dad, do you have a romantic dinner planned for you and mom? Turns out I don't have any dates planned for tonight so I'll probably just end up doing some missionary work instead, but I'll keep looking ;) ha jk.

A cool thing that happened this week was I got a haircut. Usually nothing cool to talk about i know, but getting a haircut in the streets of dtown is more exciting than fantastic sam's. We went to a place called "Da' Barber Shop". inside were these 5 black guys who were crackin' jokes, blastin rap on their radio, playing a bball game on xbox for their downtime, and snackin on some Little Ceasar's from next door. It was a good time. So I got a thug-cut. Don't worry, no old-english D's buzzed in the side of my head or anything. Oh and Elder Hoffman and I started driving a 12-seater Chevy Express van. It's temporary, i think, because other missionaries recked their car and need ours for now. Elder Hoffman is van-certified so we're riding dirty in that. Kinda tricky in the snow. I hear it's supposed to be in the 40s this week though. man that's good to hear.

So the mission is on fire. When I said that before I realize that I was saying that because we started to realize the potential that we were dealing with, but last week things have actually started happening. Miracles. And it's kind of crazy, nothing is for sure because we are working with people who have their agency to choose. But things have happened that I personally wouldn't be able to shy away from if I were preparing for baptism or considering coming back to church.

And it's not just with our investigators, the mission itself is seeing a lot of exciting things. Our zone has some pretty awesome goals and we're all kicking butt trying to make these things happen. The mission has 38 people on date to be baptized in the next couple weeks of February. There's only like 80 or 90 missionaries out here, so that's pretty huge. Elder Hoffman and I have 5 people on date right now and some more we can put on date real quick. And our set dates are for a few weeks coming up. So we're working harder than before, praying harder than before, and my understanding of faith has really changed. Our zone leader sent us a text just a min ago while I was writing this email that sort of explains the things I'm talking about - the text is a quote from President Monson: "Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers, pray for powers equal to your tasks." Nothing's impossible. And we have to honestly believe that the things we're praying for WILL happen. Before, my prayers were sort of like "i need this thing to happen, but if it doesn't than i know it's your will", now it's like "i need this to happen, i'm going to do what you need me to do to make it happen, so please take care of the rest to make it happen" and of course if it doesn't happen then it wasn't God's will. But if we need something to happen, we can't afford to doubt the power of prayer.

so that is my spiritual thought i guess. nothing i'm trying to lecture anybody on or anything but it's just something i've really gained a testimony of this week.

oh and check out this talk ( http://lds.org/ensign/2006/06/the-profile-of-a-prophet?lang=eng ) It's called "Profile of a Prophet" by President Hugh B. Brown. The church is true, there's no question about that. It just comes down to whether or not we choose to embrace it.

Love ya guys, have a good week,
Elder Lamb