Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.

Another excellent week. Perhaps I have finally found my feet in this new area. Times of transition are so reminiscent of starting new semesters of school. The first couple weeks I am overwhelmed by everything that is placed before me, getting syllabuses and figuring things out, and then as time goes on, it can only be taken day by day, and eventually things get more and more dialed in, you establish a "groove" and become comfortable enough to press on. I've been here a month now, and I guess I'm comfortable enough to press on. Well, I'd "press on" whether I was comfortable or not, but now its just...more comfortable. Ain't that nice.

I traveled around some more this week doing some "Leadership trainings." President Pehrson did a great job showing what we need to be doing in our District Meetings. One thing I love about him is that he is always willing to depart from tradition. The way things have always been done is never a sufficient enough reason to continue doing them. He's always questioning. Reassessing what we're doing. Its good.

Anyway, we had to do part of the meeting, and it was alright. I didn't feel like I was able to prepare as much as I'd like, and its hard for me to trust the Lord when I don't feel like I've done my part. I thought our content could have been much better. On the other hand, it wasn't due to a lack of trying. We just honestly never had adequate time to prepare like we might have preferred. In that case, I probably should have trusted the Lord a little more than I did, that He would help us in our efforts. There are some great missionaries out here right now. The mission is one hundred percent different than when I came out 20 months ago. Its a great blessing for these Elders/Sisters to come now, into a far more obedient mission. Its interesting to observe the transition of things though...we are a more obedient mission, but right now I think we really need to increase our Faith. Faith to find people! I suppose there's an order to things, and they take time. The mission I came into was lazy and disobedient. So all we can do is work on one thing at a time, and with 20 year old boys, it takes us time! :) But its good, I'm excited to see where things are in another year or two years. I'll especially be interested (but unfortunately not around) to see what kind of man the new mission president will be in July.

Saturday we had a "Mission Finding Day," where we all spent the whole day out and about "finding" people. Tracting, street contacting, whatever other methods we could come up with to contact and try to teach people. We fasted as a mission last weekend, we prayed all week, and hit the pavement, as President says. It was excellent. At least it was for Elder Rogers and I. We put our hearts into it, and we saw some great things happen. I know we were lead where the Lord wanted us on that day. We planned out a creative approach, we planned all the places we would go, after seeking the guidance of the Spirit, and we went to it. We talked to an abnormally high amount of nice people, as far as I could tell. Much more reception than we usually tend to get. Especially because we spent 80% of our time in more middle-upper class neighborhoods. So we were very blessed.

The cherry on top was that toward the end of the evening we got into an awesome young Polish couple's home and taught them! This is a miracle for several reasons. One is that we RARELY end up going right into someone's house and teaching them after having just knocked on their door. Also, from what I hear, Polish people are typically not so kind, friendly, and open as these folks were. Third, they were not Catholic, which from what they told us, basically doesn't happen in Poland. So this was good. They are super fun people! The husband (they're also married which is kind of a miracle around here sometimes) had talked with some Elders in the past, but it didn't go anywhere. Who knows what will happen, but they are pretty genuinely interested from what we can see. It was so awesome for us. I can hardly believe all we have going in our area right now. So many blessings. But yes - really cool to have answers to our prayers and fasting and see some direct fruits of our labors.

My companion is amazing. He's been "carrying" me a lot this week. Sometimes I carry him, but the proportion is way off. He is such a solid kid. I can clearly see that the principles of the gospel are rooted far deeper inside him than they are in me, and than they are in all the missionaries. I suppose it goes to show the importance of teaching these things in our families as we grow up. We generally have the same knowledge, but he has a deeper and broader understanding. And probably more experiences of application. I envy this, but to think where I am, in spite of where he is, still fills me with gratitude that I do have something. That my life is on such a wonderful course, in comparison to what it was or might have been. What a glorious perspective the gospel gives us! I could never vocalize or express in any way the blessings of the gospel. But they are far beyond anything the world can offer. Knowledge, power, comfort, peace, confidence, love, etc, nothing could provide greater goodness than the application of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am filled with gratitude. Tis the season. Man I can hardly believe that. Thanksgiving! Christmas will be over in a snap!

June Jackson. So this is the older lady we've been teaching and every time we teach her I feel like I'm in the movie, Big Fish, which I love. We had some awesome stuff happen with her this week. We've brought President Pehrson over with us a few times. He doesn't say much, I think he just likes to observe us more than anything. Its fun for him I suppose. Anyway, we are having some excellent visits with her! I found out I think she's 85. But she's sharp for her age. She asked some great questions about the Holy Ghost this week, and we had a sister with us (Bishops wife) who was a great help. By the end we had invited her to be baptized, and challenged her to a specific date. She pondered on it hard for a moment, and said she'd have to give some prayer to it. Can't argue too much with that. But we did promise her that if she set the goal and worked toward it, that she would be ready. I have a lot of confidence that we can prepare a person for baptism if they are willing to do their part.

Well, the good appointments aren't even the best part. At the end of our last appt she started telling us how much she loved children. Well, would you believe that this Sunday was the primary program!?! We committed her to go to church, we got her a ride, and we stopped by Sunday morning to make sure she was up (she said we could do that), but she said she couldn't make it! She said she was too depressed or something and didn't want to. We promised her that church would lift her spirits. But, we didn't just say it, we seriously meant it. We told her her ride would be there in an hour. Get ready and see how you feel. Kinda halfheartedly agreed. Then we went to PEC, and we came out, and guess who walked in the door?!?! Sister June Jackson! Ha, it was sweet. The RS president picked her up. And she LOOOVED the children singing and all. She's from the south, and when she came in, our ward is really good at welcoming new people (you may just not know the value of this with most investigators) and she said she felt like she had come home! It was great. We haven't been able to talk to her since church, but it was a fun little success for us. Its funny teaching such an old woman. She's a sweetie. Kinda stubborn, but that makes it kinda fun I think.

Well, yesterday was a wonderful day, and woke up this morning still riding on the wonderful spirit I had collected. Oh, it is wonderful. Wonderful to me. There was a small fireside at the mission home last night, and there were about 10 recent converts from nearby areas. Seeing people genuinely join the church just makes me so happy!! So excited! It is a miracle. I admire them so much. People that really make the changes. I made changes in my own life, but its different for these people. Converts. I'm so proud of them all, most of whom I don't even know. The Lord is preparing the hearts of people. There is a family that joined the church a few weeks ago, and they didn't even meet with missionaries for a while of "investigating." The father had learned a LOT on mormon.org and lds.org already. The internet is going to be a powerful tool for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the members probably have a far greater capacity to reach people using it than missionaries. Especially right now. I hope we can all start to catch the vision. It excites me so much. I of course am not super excited to not be a missionary anymore, but I am really excited to be a member missionary. We'll see!

Okay, well life is good as you can tell. We'll see how long I ride this "high" I'm on, as things always fluctuate. But they always bounce back when they fall. This much I know.

Hope life is good for everyone. I can't believe its nearly Thanksgiving! I'll basically be talking with you all in a couple weeks! Amazing!! I love you all! You're great! You're wonderful! You're family! Its real! Its gonna blow my mind when were all sitting around the dinner table again. I love you so much!

Elder Kunz!