Tuesday January 3rd, 2012

Greetings from Bedford Pennsylvania! Yeah, you read that right. I am actually currently on exchange with Elder G down in Bedford and a lot has changed here since I left. The summery vegetation has been replaced with a blanket of snow and late Christmas decorations. Most of the investigators I was teaching when I left Bedford have been dropped except for a young couple named A__ and S____, April being the daughter of a very active woman in the ward. It’s been amazing to see how much they have grown in the past couple months that I’ve been gone. I had taught them one lesson with Elder L before I got transferred and at that point in time they didn’t believe in Jesus Christ, the Book of Mormon, and they had little to no interest in any religion, let alone the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But after months of teaching with the missionaries, they’ve come to know that our message is true. They broke off their engagement, A___ moved out of their apartment and they plan to be baptized on the 21^st of this month. So much has changed here, but I suppose in a good way.

OK back to my new area. I arrived in Altoona Pennsylvania Tuesday evening and met my new companion and fellow Zone Leader, Elder J__ N____. He’s a yuppy yet humble missionary from Sandy, Utah who has been out for about twenty months. We’ve only been companions for a week and he’s already taught me so much and provided such a good example for me. He’s quickly becoming one of my favourite companions. Altoona (the missionary apartment is actually in Hollidaysburg) is a lot like Bedford in that the landscapes, landmarks, and citizens are very similar to Bedford. The ward here even reminds me of Bedford’s branch – full of old converts with the ideas, idioms, and mannerisms of Central Pennsylvania. I had almost forgotten what it was like being in such a Western-esque area like Hershey.

The Elder I replaced here in Altoona was actually my Zone Leader while I was in Bedford, Elder H_____. And although Elder H____ and Elder N_____ worked extremely hard and well together, they didn’t see much success in terms of new investigators and baptisms for months. However, I’m sure as a direct result of their diligence, my first evening in Altoona resulted in trying a young potentially investigating couple and teaching a very solid first lesson. They were the first two new investigators Altoona’s had in months. In between zone planning, mileage tracking, follow-up calls to District Leaders, and exchanges, Elder N____ and I have been seeing many miracles in our work. My faith in how inspired our planning sessions are, and we may not know it, has dramatically increased as a result of an experience we had on Saturday. We had planned to see a less-active member named Eric H_____ who lived at house number 1403 on a particular street the day before. However when we tried to find his house Friday evening, we could only see houses with numbers in the 600’s. We determined to find him the following day when it was light out. But we walked up and down that street with no luck except a randomly placed house flaunting the number 1507. We felt so defeated that we failed to street contact a couple of guys smoking on their front doorstep and passed them by. Out of some act of desperation, we knocked on the door displaying 1507 and were welcomed with an exclamation of “Mormons!” A long-haired older gentleman stepped outside and told us that he had been to Salt Lake before, met with many missionaries, and read the Book of Mormon. Flabbergasted, we set up a return appointment and revealed to him that we were really searching for 1407 on the same street, the family name being H_______. To our surprise he stepped out into the rain with us and started searching for the house number. Faithless, we followed him while he called out to a young woman sitting on the step where the guys were smoking before. In response to his question, she replied, “Um, we’re the H_______s. You’re probably looking for my brother, Eric.” It turned out that Eric was in a branch of the military in North Carolina and was home for the holidays for only 10 days. He told us of how he had joined the Church and subsequently stopped going but that he knew it was true. He yearned for his wife and other immediate family to just read and pray about the Book of Mormon. And although he would be heading back to North Carolina after his vacation, he would be moving back to Altoona in June and he told us to give him a call then. I walked away from that spiritually punched in the stomach, standing all amazed at the Lord’s mercy and omniscience. Not only had God inspired us to go see Eric on the first and second days he was back in town, but when we missed our chance to street contact him the first time, God put a prepared man in our path to redirect us back to him.

Altoona is already white for the harvest despite all the snow.

Elder Low