March 17th Email "May the Missionary tan begin"

This was a great week. The sun was out and shining nice and bright all week. Im starting to get some gnarly tan lines from my collar and short sleeve shirt. It's awesome. Besides the great weather, we had a great week with our investigators.

We were able to talk with a lot of people and saw some great things happen. We met with our investigator Alvin, and he said that he has read the Book of Mormon, prayed about it, and now feels that it is true. That is so important to bringing someone to the gospel, and know we can really build upon that to help his testimony of everything else grow. He is afraid of going to church though, so we are really working to get him to come. We know that if he comes once he will love it, and quickly progress to baptism. We have an appointment tomorrow so we will really push to get him committed to coming to church. We would also like him to come to that baptism our zone is having on Saturday so he can see what a baptism is like and really feel the spirit that comes from baptisms. If he comes to those two things, I know that he will be baptized.
This week we were blessed with the miracle of finding a girl that has been prepared for baptism, and will be getting baptized in our ward now. Her name is Jenae, and she has been taught by missionaries up in the Roseville mission where her boyfriend lives. But since she lives in our ward boundaries, we are the ones that should be teaching her, and she is supposed to be baptized here. So after talking to our mission president and their mission president, those missionaries are no longer poaching and we will be finishing the teaching for Jenae and will be baptizing her on March 29th!! She is really solid and has a great testimony. She has a 10 year old son we are hoping to start working with soon as well. We got her to come to our ward, and she came to all three hours of church yesterday and loved it. The ward did a great job of fellowshipping her and making her feel loved. Everyone is excited for her baptism on March 29th. She is a great person and will really be a great addition to the ward. She is proof that when you work hard, God will bless you with miracles.

So lots of good things going on in our area. We have a new lesson we do with members every night after we have dinner. It is called "The seven steps of calling down the spirit." Basically you go through 7 steps that bring the spirit into the room, and by the end everyone is having a really spiritual experience. It is a way we are trying to get referrals, as well as spiritually uplift the ward. Part of it is playing an instrumental song that helps you feel the spirit. If anyone can think of any good songs that would work be good for that, let me know. The ward here is awesome and is really supportive of us. I love being here in Folsom, and I love being a disciple of Jesus Christ.

If you are having a hard time, turn to Christ for comfort. He'll be there. Promise.

I love you all,

Elder Gage Black