Service will make you happy

Well Ladies and Gentlemen... pretty much another awesome week. Up and down, but it always is.

Lets see, last night we had a most excellent visit with Talitha. She is so wonderful! I just can't even tell you all about it. She is such a special soul! She's so happy and sweet and fun and wild etc. I just love people like this, which is probably one of the more obvious statements I could make, because who doesn't like people like that? We watched the Testaments, which is a sure crowd pleaser for a person in Talitha's position. Special spirit. We watched it at this awesome member's house. It'd be like Mom and Dad having us over when they lived in Connecticut. Lots of great young families here. Real enthusiastic about helping us out. Huge change from Waterbury. It's so interesting that just 25 miles up the road, everyone is a convert and has never really seen the church as an organization function as the well oiled machine that its designed to be. Yet here it seems they got it down really good. I sat in Ward Council yesterday morning just thinking man, these people have the right idea. I love it! The church is such a genius operation.

Anyway, yes, lots of support from the members here for teaching our investigators and fellowshipping and such. And let it be a testament - both Talitha, Alexandra and Nicholas - all member referrals. Both received Book of Mormons 8 and 5 years ago respectively. You never know when people are ready, and if you don't ask, its an automatic no. But be wise when you ask. Ha.

Alexandra and Nicholas are getting baptized this Saturday! Everything is going real smooth. I can't even believe it! Its not supposed to be this easy! They too are just the sweetest most geniune people ever. The salt of the earth. They were almost Mormon before we met them. Dry Mormons! I'm so excited and happy for them. In such a short period of time, I can already see the gospel improving their individual lives, and even their marriage. And they're both already the nicest people ever who would appear to have no problems at all. But we all got problems I suppose. But gospel really does bless families when properly applied. So great. They have this little daughter, her name is Sophia and she is SUCH a lil sweetie! Just turned two. She'll go pick up the Book of Mormon and say "booka morny" in her sweet little baby voice. She gets out Jesus Christ too in a similar fashion. Its so funny. Melts your heart.

They've already been asking us about how to go about sharing the gospel with their families. Earlier this week, in an effort to help explain, I asked Alexandra why she was getting baptized. She was like, "you're asking me, why do I want to get baptized?" Yes, why are you doing it? She just opened right up and told me how she has found such a wonderful peace and tranquility in her life through reading the Book of Mormon and going to church and learning all about the gospel. How its been amazing and helped her so much and that she can see herself becoming such a better person already and all these other wonderful things!!! I was just sitting there with the hugest grin on my face filled up with happiness. You could see it in her eyes, they totally lit up as she was telling me this. It was so neat! She bore her testimony to me! Nicholas went on to do something similar. They are such a testimony that when people expiriment on the gospel with an open willing heart, the Lord gives them answers and blessings. LOTS OF THEM! I cannot believe some days that I've been able to be hear observing it all and being a part of it. It totally blows my mind that the Lord would trust me. Makes me so grateful.

I went on an exchange with Elder Reynolds the other day! It was awesome to be back with him for a day. Felt good.

We've had some neat little experiences this week as I look back. People we've run into, experiences we've had, things we've been able to do. Its all just great.

The weather... ... ... man alive. Just barely. SO...HOT. Tuesday, service outside. 4 hours. Sweat. Water. Sweat. Dirty. Shower. Amazing. Night time. Doesn't even cool down. Hot. Humid. Hazy. AC. Manna from Heaven. Wednesday,mostly inside, thank the Lord. Thursday, Zone Conference, yes. Standing on people's porches as we talk, really really hot, but then they have us come in and give us a sandwich and a drink. Thank you. So much. Saturday, a tiny bit of rain and for the first time in a long time it became hotter inside than out. Just for a little bit. So basically its been a heater as of late.

I gave this little quote Susan sent me to Talitha, and it totally made her day. Among other things, it talked about how the world would take people out of the slums, but Christ would take the slums out of people, and then they would take themselves out of the slums. I just loved this. The gospel really is a thing of self reliance and sufficiency. Learning to be that way. Learning to free ourselves from the vices of the world. To be perfected in Christ. And it will do that for us. So that's just great, isn't it.

Love love love-

Elder Kunz