Onward, ever onward

Hello dear Family and Friends!

This week, as usual, has been a good one.  We are still trying our very best to find new people to teach, but with no avail thus far.  We talked with a guy who was originally from Spanish Fork yesterday, and he said, "yeah...go away!" and slammed the door.  As a missionary, you become really calloused to these sort of things.  You feel bad that they rejected the Gospel, but all you can do is shrug your shoulders and move forward.  We will always face discouragements, but as long as we are doing our best, we will never be discouraged with ourselves.  

We weren't able to meet with Rachel this week, which was unfortunate because we had 3 members there that were going to be present in the lesson.  She's still doing great though.  

I'm not sure if I'm going to be here when Mario gets baptized, because he hasn't received another potential release date yet.  About 2 years ago, Mario received a job to be a truck driver, and he really liked it.  When he was climbing into the truck one day, he hurt his foot really bad and he was out for a long time, unable to work.  The Church has paid for his rent, and in return he washes the windows every week.  He's only missed church once in 2 years, and he is so loyal to the bishopric and the church as a whole.  His foot has recovered, and he now has a job as a truck driver again!  He's been living in a tiny motel room for 2 years, and he's so ready to start driving and move out.  We're all super excited for him.

Elena Thomas received the Holy Ghost yesterday, and she seemed like she was really glowing.  She contributed so much to the lesson in Gospel Principles, and we were all so happy for her.  She called all 4 of us to her place and gave us each little plastic bags of shredded blue paper with lighters inside.  She told us that they represented baptism by water/fire!  She's doing great, and she'll be an active lifelong convert for sure. :)

Well, that's about it, things are going great here in Santa Maria.  It's cooled down a lot, so that's nice.  I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Harper
P.S.  Congrats, Trav!
P.S.S. Pictures:  McDonald's advertising a banner ad on a plane!  Never seen that one before...
Elder Banks, Elder Toa, Elder Agle and myself having fun on p-day.