letter from Skyler

Dear Family,
Well, things are going good. Yah, I've Bible bashed a lot, but it ain't bad. Usually you can use their scripture against them or ask them why there are so many churches, something to that affect. They usually get stumped, feel the Spirit then shake it off and throw another scripture at ya, it's really pointless. The work is going good though, so far we got two people committed to baptism. The latest is a really cool story. We were going to see a less active family because they were feeding us. After dinner we gave a lesson and challenged them to invite a nonmember friend to family home evening. Turns out the person they invited wants to learn more about the gospel so she can be baptized. We are trying to get the members to do the finding and us missionaries do the teaching because that's what we are, teachers, not finders, plus everybody knows a person they could invite into the home and have missionaries teach them, they just have to pray to find someone whom they could invite. Not just nonmembers but less actives because they are lost sheep too. What's sad is since 1999 when Pres. Hinckley said he wanted to double convert baptisms, since that time it has decreased. The solution is putting I think it was David O. Mckay's quote to work, every member a missionary. The statistic is like 1 out of 1000 doors we knock, 1 person gets baptized. 1 out of like 500 people we talk to get baptized. But for every member that has a nonmember in their home, get this, 1 out of 2 get baptized. See the difference, it's huge! I'm not saying that we can't do some finding, but what's more affective, us or you. Now, if we could activate all of our 350 plus less actives and have them invite some one to a church activity could you see the growth rate, it would be huge. We would more than double the convert baptisms. This is even more true for where you are back home because more people are of the same faith, but everybody knows someone they could have the missionaries teach, we just have to open our mouths. It ain't that scary, just do it. The Lord won't let you fail.
Well, I haven't gained weight, I've lost weight, about 10 pounds. We ride our bikes everywhere, we have a huge bike area. Oh, the coolest part about Springfield is the Bass Pro Shop, it's like the first one ever built. It is huge, probably the biggest one ever, it's amazing. We went there the other day to go to the bathroom, seriously, we did just go the the bathroom. Honestly! Then when we came out, some guy tripped and dropped his kid, and his kids head hit the rock floor pretty hard and we were right there, so we called 911 cause it was a hard fall. We ended up giving them a pass along card so hopefully they will check out the website and get baptized. Oh, and while this was going on, our bishop was there and he came out and talked to us. What do ya think he was thinking, "What the heck were these elders doing here?". Oh well. That was kinda funny, but the kid got a concussion or something. It's amazing how the Lord can lead you places and certain things will happen, huh. Well, hopefully I didn't forget anything important that you wanted to know. So, well, gotta go. Love y'all, miss y'all. Don't know for sure when I'm gonna be calling on Mother's Day, but try to stay at home cuz I can remember the house phone number, ha, ha. Seriously though!
Elder Silcock