Round two in Ventura!

For the first time in a LONG time, I'm staying with my companion!  We're super excited, especially since last week brought so many miracles and blessings.  This next transfer we're going to hit the ground hard and get a lot of work done.

I LOVED Conference!  It was incredibly uplifting, and I really felt the power and love of God in those meetings.  A lot of my questions were answered in that meeting, either directly or by the subtle impressions I felt.  It was interesting how small comments and stories that the General Authorities used to introduce their talks often carried a subtle side message that answered a question I'd been praying about, instead of the main theme of the talk!  All in all, we felt a huge burst of hastening again in the work, and I know that during the next six months, things are going to get hard but so much will be accomplished.  It was really enlightening for me to realize that in President Monson's lifetime, the number of temples in the world has increased times 10!

This week we saw great success in the work, in spite of limited time.  Our most promising investigator right now is a little 9 year old boy whose whole family are members, who just moved here from Mexico.  His name is Samuel, and though he was a little shy and timid at first, he's started running up to us as soon as he sees us.  It was amazing to me how fast he grew to love and trust us.  That's why kids are so Christlike!  He doesn't have a whole lot of Gospel knowledge yet but we'll work with him bit by bit, and he's set to be baptized on the 3rd of May.

We also had a great night after conference.  Fired up with the Spirit, we were led and tracked down several investigators that had fallen off the map for a long time.  We even found Alicia, who was SUPER close before I showed up, but who disappeared after week one.  She only had a moment to talk, but she's still interested, and we'll meet again with her tonight.

Another tender mercy of the Lord was that even though we were very busy with conference and end-of-the-transfer paperwork, we taught many lessons, and by talking with everyone we could we even exceeded the number of "declarations" that the mission has set as our weekly standard!  This was a testimony to me that if we just dedicate ourselves to it, we can accomplish the Lord's goals.

At any rate, I haven't heard much about what's going on with my old companions and friends this time, but I trust they'll do great!  I hope Mom and Danielle get feeling better, and that we can apply the stuff we learned at Conference.  Life's the best!

Love,

Elder Matthew David Clough