This week was more of the same. Bill is doing better and better. Turns out he drives, and he found some connections so that he could get his car looked at and fixed. Hopefully all goes well with that. He likes to be independent, so this will probably be a huge step towards him coming to church. When we were there on Sunday, he showed us some antique books he had, and I was holding a bible from 1845. It was pretty incredible. He has a testimony of the gospel, and it is growing. First, he said he couldn't physically go to church. Now, he knows he can and wants to, he just wants everything to be right. He's a good 'ol boy, so he can be stubborn in not accepting help sometimes.
Today Mary, the lady who was baptized the week before I got here, went in for surgery. They are looking at the masses she has on her lungs, and if necessary, are pulling them out. She's been nervous, but she and her family are doing so well in the gospel. Her husband, who has been less active for a while, is doing really well. We're working with him so that he can bless the sacrament some time. They have 2 daughters who are members, but we can't find the records for one of them. Today we called the mission office and the sister called Salt lake, and they still can't find the record. She may have to be rebaptized, which we don't really want to happen, but it looks like it may come to that. The consolation is that her father may be able to baptize her this time.
We're also working with a semi active family to get their twin daughters baptized before they turn nine in March. We're in a really weird situation where we could have 3 convert baptisms that we are trying to avoid. Hopefully, these two are baptized before they turn 9 and Kiara's record can be found.
This week we're trying to reach our standards of excellence with 20 lessons taught. This area has hovered around 11 in the past, and we taught 14 last week. We have a lot set up this week with different less active members and a few more investigators then we've had in the past. It's been hard to find new investigators here. As far as amount of people living within the boundaries, this is by far the smallest area I've had. It makes member work so important. Sometimes I feel like that hasn't caught on too well here. One thing this mission, with these programs, and this area is doing for me is making me excited to be a super member. The way it should be working is the members are the finders and the missionaries are the teachers, and I'm excited to go home and do that. I've learned that missionary work from a member standpoint isn't scary at all. When we are afraid to speak up is when we fail. I missed so many opportunities to share what I knew when I was at home. Hopefully all of you are taking full advantage of the times you have been given to share the gospel.
Pleasanton is still tough. It will be tougher than Fremont to turn the zone around, but it's going. We're working with companionships and stake leaders to keep up, and build, the momentum that we have going. We've got 5 more committed to be baptized, and hopefully a few on the way.
Youth are the best. I talked to Elijah the other day, and he's still doing good, still going to seminary. When I left, he was planning on a mission after high school, and really wanting to go to BYU-HI, and as far as I know, nothing has changed.
Hope everyone has a good week.
-Elder James Richards