Week 8

This week has been really good, things with D~ are falling into place for his baptism (Nov 16th!). Last Wednesday we went over the Word of Wisdom with him again and we found out that he is still smoking 1-2 cigarettes a day. We committed him to tear up the rest of his cigarettes and throw them in the dumpster. It was pretty awesome. It was hard for him but he did it for himself, and that is the most important thing for someone who is giving up smoking.

This week we reached out to a homeless man in a wheelchair. As we talked to the older man (70s) he told us that his daughter was a convert to the Mormon faith, and that she is doing really well. We talked to him a for a while, and he told us his story. He was from Las Vegas, and had profession as a musician for a couple of different bands. He told us that he has never smoked or drank, and has always looked at it as a bad thing for his body. He told us about the impact he saw smoking and drugs take on his friends and band members. He told us about a lot of bad things that happened to him that he didn't have control over. He was crushed by his electric wheelchair because the bus driver didn't buckle his chair in properly and when the driver hit the brakes, his chair rolled down the isle and threw him in the exit stairs and his chair rolled on top of him. He told us a lot of sad stories and that his children couldn't take care of him. He explained to us that he didn't want any financial support rather that he wanted our spiritual council.

We met with him a couple times during the week and shared some scriptures with him from the Book of Mormon. Recently he told us that the salvation army was going to kick him out because he was "too hard to handle." So we are helping him find a nursing home that he can vacate to. Once he finds a nursing home he wants to get rides from ward members to church.

Sorry this week's letter is short, we haven't had a lot of email time recently, but I'll for sure be writing more next week. We have had a pretty decent week for teaching, and this week is going to be even better.

Sincerely, Elder Watkins