Elder Costa

The high light of our week was that we got to go to Houston Saturday morning and listen to Elder Costa. He is in the Presidency of the Seventy.

All the missionaries in the Houston area within one hour of the chapel where he spoke were invited to hear him speak, we were one hour and one minute away so they let us go.

He shared some stories about when he was a mission president, and his conversion story. He is a remarkable man, it is easy to see why he is one of the Lord's elect.

Saturday night we attended the wedding of Johnny Garcia and Carrie Benavidaz. It was a very nice wedding. President Chaka performed his first marriage and you could tell he was a little nervous!

I had been assigned to speak on Sunday about the difference between civil marriages and temple sealing/marriages. So all the time I was thinking about the last words in the ceremony, realizing that at the end of the ceremony that they divorce them with the words(Until death do you part).

We have been teaching a daughter of a member along with her two children, the member has kind of pressured them to listen to the discussions and they are very closeminded about everything for that reason. The member sits there during the discussions and at times they start a conversation that will not allow the spirit to be present. We have decided that we must teach the lessons away from the member, so we can have a chance of having the spirit with us in these lessons. They are pretty closeminded because they are being forced to take the lessons. We have decided we would try one more time without the member present and if their hearts are still hardened to the message we will just tell them that they have to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, and that is the only way they will receive a witness of the truthfulness of it.

No one likes to be forced, that was Satan's plan. It is a lot easier with someone the Lord has prepared to hear the message.
Otherwise, things are going along quite well, here in Wharton, Texas. We've started a FHE for single's, or for those that want to come. Our first one was on Monday and it went pretty well. We played a game that the Elder's thought of, but I(Jennifer) could NOT catch on to!!! It made for lots of laughs!!!
We had exciting news from home last night...Our water heater broke and a pipe broke, and the basement of our house was flooded!!! Many THANKS to Bekah, Bethany, and Luke and our neighbor Jason who moved everything out of the basement, and called Utah Disaster Clean-up!! We'll keep you all posted. Thank goodness for family!!
All for today...Love to All Elder and Sister Carter