Dear Shanell,

Happy New Year! Our mission is having a New Years Eve party tonight. It should be fun.

We had some changes come up with the baptisms we had planned. We had committed this one family to baptism on Saturday the 28th and when we went back yesterday, Mrs. Snell said, "I have prayed about it and the answer is no." Well, I almost went into shock! We continued to give the 5th discussion and towards the end of it we asked her what kind of feelings she had after praying. She said she felt good on Saturday night when she prayed, but on Sunday morning she had "feelings of contention telling her not to have us come back again. It was so neat to hear that. We quickly explained and asked her if she prayed Sunday morning when those bad feelings came. She said no. We then explained to her that until the family is baptized, they cannot have the Holy Ghost all the time. Only if someone else brings it in or to answer prayers and that she needs to pray, with the rest of the family often to keep Satan out. By the time we got back into the discussion, their 2nd oldest daughter came running in crying and then the dad rushed out. Apparently, her old boyfriend hit her in the stomach and all his friends were giving her heaps of garbage. Elder Adams and I were just getting ready to go help Mr. Snell work them over, but they got away. Mr. Snell had a hold of the window, but fell and scraped his hands and knee rather bad. He then came back in the house and the boys rang up to apologize, but Mr. Snell told them to come to the house and apologize. It was a mess! This family is facing a lot of opposition. They will still be baptized on the 15th though. I know it. The sister missionaries have been working with them since last January and once taught 4 discussions. I am District Leader now with Elder Adams so we asked permission to go in and work with them. We committed them to baptism. Actually, the Spirit did, but we helped a bit.

Being on a bicycle keeps me fit. There are heaps of hills around here. I hope you have a good week!

Love,
Elder Wallentine