Dear family, friends, and all other people,

This week has been a great experience for myself and I have learned much by pushing myself and working hard. In weekly planning for last week, we realized that we needed a new, bigger teaching pool, so we set a goal to have 7 new investigators. We worked hard, and this week ended with 6! It has taught me the value of setting high goals, and then working hard to achieve them. We also brought out 7 lessons with a member present, and now we have a lovely couple (the McGregors), the bishop(Black), the ward mission leader (Brother Cattell), and Brother MacDonald excited for missionary work! We have so many great people to work with now as well.

I guess I'll start with Diane. She is the granddaughter of the late Gene, and we taught her and her daughter Emma and her son Thomas, along with surprise guests Elaine, her mom, and Kevin, her boyfriend. It was a great lesson, and we are looking forward to meeting them again. That was with Bishop.

We also met again with an older lady named Bridy, who meets with Jehovah's Witness, is a Catholic, and would love to hear more about the Book of Mormon. We also taught her granddaughter AnneMarie and her grandson, Somename. Although Brother MacDonald took over a bit, it was a good lesson.

We also taught Michelle, her 14-year-old daughter Ceitlyn, and her younger daughter, Erin. Ceitlyn enjoys learning about Christian beliefs and participating in activities. They are really good, and want to learn more. We taught them with Brother McGregor, and he is super stoked about meeting with her again, and encouraged us to by his neighbor (which encouragement his wife also took part in), Tracy, who lives two doors down from him, and they is really excited about her as well.

We also met another older woman named Angela. She invited us right in, but we needed another man per mission rules, so we got Brother MacDonald quick after the Priesthood social at Brother McGuinness's. She was a bit drunk when we came in, but invited us in, and broke down in tears because she had lost her brother 12 weeks ago, and her parents in the past year or so, and she was still hurting. Brother MacDonald kind of took over that one as well, but it was good, and she invited us back for lunch this Saturday.

We also met a man named Stephen who is nice, and we are going back to teach him again. That one should be good.

And...
SURPRISE!

Joe is back on the radar. After dropping us a week ago Sunday, he called us on Saturday and told us about a great experience he had at a funeral that reaffirmed his faith. We asked if we could by and teach him again, and he said we could. He told us last night when we returned to teach him about his concerns, and said he wouldn't be baptized unless he knew it was true. We re-committed him to be baptized the 29th of March, and he committed to read 10 pages of the Book of Mormon every day. He is lonely at home by himself, and I know the gospel can help lift his loneliness. It's in his court again.

STEPHEN! Stephen is still preparing for baptism, and he has had all the lessons now, except for the laws and ordinances (see chapter 5 of Preach My Gospel). Our main concern with him is that he would be baptized without having a spiritual witness or confirmation or experience before baptism, and shortly after, without the Elders inviting him to church, go less active. So we made a daily morning prayer, scripture, and evening calendar for him up to and 3 days past his baptism. We can only pray that he makes the commitment to prepare for his baptism spiritually as well as physically. He is doing great though.

And...
One More Surprise! :)

SISTER BOWEN MADE IT TO CHURCH! I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT! SHE HASN'T BEEN FOR A VERY LONG TIME! AND SHE MADE IT! SHE CAUGHT THE DIAL-A-BUS AND WAS THERE FOR SACRAMENT MEETING, GOSPEL PRINCIPLES WITH FRASER, AND RELIEF SOCIETY! WOOHOO!!! I rejoiced so much when I saw her exit the dial-a-bus in the Church parking lot, turn and smile at us. It was such a joyful experience. When she turned to look at the dial-a-bus, she waved at the driver, but with her hand in a fist around her walking stick, the image which I saw was a triumphant fist in the air. ''Take that, adversary! One less active sister at Church!'' It was the only time I have seen her at Church in my 5 months on a mission in Cumbernauld. Now we can work at getting her to the temple again. Prayers have been answered.

On a completely different note, we were chapping last night, and we chapped a door, and this guy did not believe in God, and we asked him why not, and he invited us in for the purpose of explaining why. We reluctantly entered his house, and he told us to have a seat on the couch. I did, but Elder Christensen did not. This man, who ,we observed by his table, had drank much vodka, and he started to get worked up. He kept building up and he said if he was his own child, he would kill us, because of our belief. He then offered us a CD of some guy who he claimed was a rock'n'roll legend, and then... he pulled out the Homosexual card. He asked if we liked gay people, and we said we didn't have a problem with people. Then he said he was going to rape us and kill us and told us to get out of his house. So we got out of there quick. Elder Christensen said he never saw me get up off a couch faster in all his time with me. Needless to say, we probably won't chap there again and ask for a return appointment.

The mold is pretty much gone. We have been spraying it with mold and mildew spray, with ventilation masks and rubber gloves, and we have been keeping it ventilated well all day and night. We are thinking about moving our mattresses out of the closet room back into the bedroom, because it has been a week or so. Hopefully we can move our food and light bulbs and stuff off the table and back into the pantry soon. I also hope we can move our fridge back into the pantry room soon as well. Our vacuum is still useless, so our floors are getting dirty, but they are supposedly going to be shampooed soon by people from the mission home, so we just pick up what we can.

I finally finished all my candy, so planning sessions are getting hungry again. We tried celery and peanut butter as a snack this week, and we really like it. So that might take the stage for after planning time. We also had some delicious apple pie and eton mess yogurt. Corner yogurt is so good!

Oh yeah, and I didn't get to play at the conference, because President said he wanted someone closer to Glasgow to go so we wouldn't have to travel in by 8:00 p.m., just for 10 minutes, to travel back again. But I am playing number 62 All Creatures of Our God and King for the multi-zone conference tomorrow. It is a crazy song to try and play both hands, so I have practiced a bit, and I hope I'll be ready. Enter much prayer and improvisation skills.

Well, I think that's it for this week. A lot of stuff. Thank you for writing me and emailing me! I really appreciate it. When I open myldsmail.net and see 15 emails waiting for me, it cheers me up. So thank you.

I know that this Church is true, and that Jesus Christ leads it today and there is a modern-day prophet named Thomas S. Monson. I know that the Lord fulfills His promises, and helps all those who ask for His help in faith, and show that they are willing to do their part. Stay strong, and remember who you are and where we are going.

Love,
Elder Devin Jay Hunter
P.S. Kirk out!
P.P.S. There really was 15 of them this week.