Sept. 13, 2011

hey family

yesterday elder alan packer (president packer's son) came to tour the mission. he's in the first quorum of the seventy. it was a great experience. i was expecting it to be like a devotional or a general conference talk when a general authority speaks, it was a little different but still good. I got a lot out of it that I needed. elder packer wanted us to let our parents know that he is sincerely grateful for all of the sacrifices you make so that we can be out here doing the work. and i can't help but join him, this is hands down the best time of my life. i wouldn't be out here if it wasn't for your guys' help and i appreciate it. sean and i owe you big time.

things are good out here. there's a man who's coming to church each week. it's a sacrifice because he's old and has a lot of health problems and comes in a wheel chair. but he's definitely being led by the spirit. he says that before he dies he really feels like he wants to accomplish two things: 1) find out more about himself and 2) learn more about the mormon church. he has a very solid religious background, has two theological degrees, worked as a pastor for a bit of his life, and has had a ton of spiritual experiences in his own life and in bringing others closer to Christ. you meet people out here who have very religious backgrounds but aren't sincere or are too set in their ways or hard hearted even. but he seems really sincere. it's a lot of fun working with him. he's progressing sort of slowly right now, only because he has dislexia and can't get very into the BOM so he's waiting on his Book of Mormon on CD he's ordered. the only real hangup is he smokes a lot. but we're not exactly sure what to do with him because he says he has to for medical reasons. he has a nuerological problem that affects a few things in his life. and one of those things is he needs to smoke or he goes into seizures. a lot of doctors have tried to figure out how to take him off the cigarettes but each one ends up saying he should stay on the cigarettes. he says that he doesn't approve of people smoking in general and he wouldn't do it if he didn't have to. we've discussed that the lord will provide a way to keep any commandment, but it seems like he's pretty set on choosing smoking over his seizures. he quit once before for about a year but it was a pretty miserable experience and his doctors told him to go back to cigarettes.

i'm on an exchange right now with elder wenzel. he's solid, he and i were in the same district together when i first came out on the mish. so it's been fun working with him again. this morning we found this guy who's elect. we're in downtown flint. oh out of time. he's sweet though.

love you guys have a good week!

elder lamb