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Alma 29:9

I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy.



Monday, September 29, 2014

Praying for Grandpa

This week has been a good week.  I wouldn't say we are unstoppable nor that we didn't have any contacts when we got here, but things are picking up at the moment.

Brother Durham is doing great!  He should be interviewed for baptism this week!  We have not had a chance to meet with  the 4 sisters/investigators yet.  And Adrian has dropped off the face of the earth.

I am excited for General Conference, we also get to watch Meet the Mormons next week so that should be good!

I'm sorry to hear about Grandpa Lakey, I got a call yesterday from President Bernhisel, who told me a little bit about the surgery. I will be praying for Grandpa!

I like that thought.  As a missionary, we focus first on helping people build their testimony in Jesus Christ and we help them do that by having them read the scriptures, pray, and go to church. These things help us develop a personal relationship with God.

I love you and I will pray for Grandpa.

Love,


Elder Lakey





Monday, September 22, 2014

Bugs and Baptisms

It's great to hear from you!  I'm emailing you a little early today because they are spraying our apartment for insects today, so they kicked us out.  Things are doing well out here, although funny enough I have had a head cold for the last week myself.

Adrian and Brother Durham are still coming to church!  Brother Durham should be baptized on October the 11th, which is his birthday! Which is super exciting!  I am not sure if Adrian will be baptized in October, he is doing well but we have got some difficulties with him.  We did find a some new investigators. They are a 4 sisters who live together.

The temple dedication sounds like it was a great experience!  That is awesome that Jonathan was in the cultural celebration!  What did he do in it?  On the church website they showed a little bit of the celebration, but not too much of it.  I like the look of the new temple much better than the old temple.

The weather is starting to become nice here.  It is actually starting to cool down.  Now it is in the 70s with some days being warmer and others being cooler.

That is a lot of indexing names!  It must be fairly easy to index if he wants that many names!  But, I hope that goes well.

I like that thought about temple recommends.  A temple recommend represents that you are living up to your side of the covenants you made with God.  As a missionary we are supposed to have a temple recommends our entire mission but it expires right before we leave the mission.  And we get interviewed by our mission president for a recommend that will only be valid for a month or two and there is a good chance you won't use the new recommend at all(Mission president temple recommends are only good as long as your on a mission).  That shows us just how important a temple recommend is.

I love you and I will email you again next week.

Love,


Elder Lakey

Monday, September 15, 2014

Smoke Break

This week was a great week!  Our investigators Brother Durham and Adrian came to church last Sunday and are doing really well!  Adrian even brought a friend, but I don't think think he was too interested because he took a 2 hour smoke break during church.  And Brother Durham decided to join the choir and they practice after church!  They should both be baptized in October.

We found those investigators by looking for leads in the area book. (None of them were in the area book, but we met them because we were in the area that the area book leads were located.)  We also found some new investigators this week.

We are not sure what we are doing for General Conference yet.  Nor have they announced anything concerning the temple trip.  I just heard about the movie Meet the Mormons last week.  There is a movie theater in Raleigh where it is going to play!  I am really excited for it and maybe it will come to Durham.  I think it will be a great missionary opportunity.   No idea if we will be allowed to go to it or not.

That is super exciting to hear that the Ogden Temple is being rededicated soon!  They say temple open houses make for excellent missionary work.  And that is awesome that Jonathan was in the news!  Did they actually interview him or something?  

I'm glad that Grandma is doing well!  I did not receive any package from Grandpa Lakey yet.  And I'm excited that Greg is going on a mission!

I love that thought because only through the Gospel of Jesus Christ -faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end- will we get happiness.  Because only the Gospel can make us Righteous and Christlike and only through being Christlike can we be happy.  This is essentially what we tell everyone the first time we meet them.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the most powerful force in the universe.  Because it's the only thing out there that can make us happy and righteous.

I love you and I will email you again next week.

Love,

Elder Lakey

Monday, September 8, 2014

Another great week in Durham

This week was a great week! We had two investigators come to church last Sunday which was great!  They both want to be baptized and hopefully we can do it in October, but with General Conference and Stake Conference in October it's going to be tricky. We did get one new investigator last week, but he might be YSA so we may give him to the zone leaders.

Transfers are this week but Elder Evan and I are staying together for another transfer. Sister Doty is going home, so we will get a new sister in Durham 2nd ward.

School has already started at Duke so people have stopped moving in. We actually didn't do any service this week, but we are suppose to do two service projects tomorrow. I guess it just comes in waves. 

I haven't gotten to visit Duke on foot, but I really want to. Their Library has a first edition Book of Mormon in it! It seems like many General Authorities went to Duke though. On Tuesday, Elder Evan's bike axle broke so we took it to downtown Durham. Downtown is really trendy with lots of different types of restaurants.

I'm sorry to hear about Grandma, I will be praying for her. It seems like things been a bit rough for her the last couple years.

That is awesome that Jonathan is going to be at the Ogden cultural celebration! That should be a great time. I need to see a picture of the new temple.

I really like that thought. As a missionary we need Hesed! To be a missionary we have to love The Lord and love the people. If we do missionary work grudgingly, then investigators will notice and they won't convert. If we baptize people without loving them, we are denying ourselves the opportunity to convert ourselves to Jesus Christ's gospel.

I love you and I will email you again next week.

Love,


Elder Lakey

Monday, September 1, 2014

Service Projects

This week has been a great but exhausting week.  We have done five service projects this week, including one this morning.  Three of the service projects were moves.  We are not doing anything special today other than relaxing.

This week have had a lot more missionary success.  We found couple more investigators, had three people commit to baptism and had an investigator show up to church after she told us earlier in the week that she wasn't going to make it!  That never happens, usually people say they are going to church and don't, not the other way around!

Duke is beautiful, the best way I can describe it is a modern day Hogwarts, everything looks medieval.  I really hope I can tour Duke sometime soon!

I don't know how big football is in Durham.  I know all the employees for Duke got free tickets on Saturday to the football game, so a lot of people went to that.  The bishop also drove up to Connecticut for the BYU game.

That sounds like fun to be camping and that it is starting to cool off there.  Here in North Carolina you can go camping just by walking a mile away from your house if your in the countryside.  However, the weather hasn't cooled off yet.

I did get the package you sent me. Thank you so much! 

That is great that Jonathan is doing well in school. I do remember those teachers.  Don't tell him this but those three teachers were problem my least liked ones my 7th grade year.

I like that thought, Christ doesn't weaken our challenges he strengthens us to meet our challenges if you let him.

I love you and I will email you again next week.

Love,

Elder Lakey