What a wonderful week !  So many great  experiences. We were out knocking on doors with the rain dripping off our umbrellas trying to connect with the less actives on our ward list. There are 400 members on the ward list with less than 100 who attend church. Two of the people we contacted durning the week came to church on Sunday. These are less active members who the Bishop has assigned us to find and invite them back to church.  One was a 27 year old sister. She has a strong testimony of the gospel but life has thrown her for a loop. When she was a beautiful twelve year old she discovered she had brain cancer. After many brain surgeries, chemo,  and radiation , she is left in a wheelchair living in a home by herself. She doesn't have any hair, has limited sight, and has a limited use of her hands. While we were in her apartment the spirit told me she was a favored beloved daughter of God. She said she has just been in the hospital for seizures and that she wasn't 100% yet. We invited her to church. "I'm only about 90%". I'll come when I'm back to 100%."  She said. Sunday she came to church for all three hours. Her name is Kirsten. I will never complain about having ugly hair again.
  We visited with a couple from Ireland. When we knocked on their door the husband yelled through the door without opening it. "Go Away", he boomed.  His wife came and opened the door. She is a very active lady who comes to church every Sunday.  Bobby Dickerson was offended 30 years ago and hasn't come back. They are very Irish with a great thick accent. We had a very good visit with them and so will keep going back.
    Another door we knocked on flew open. A twenty something young man, Shane , stood there with a welcoming smile. I had just introduced ourselves when his mother rounded the corner. " you don't come here and knock on my door without calling. You call first. We are busy " "leave now " she said. They are from East India. We will see if the young Elders can go see Shane and connect with him. After they call first, of course.
    I could tell you about all thirteen people we called on this week, but another day.
Besides going out knocking doors, we are very busy helping the office people. On Sunday evening we had the two office couples and our mission President and his wife come to dinner at our little apartment . We all had such a great time. It was amazing.  We 've been invited to share dinner with the office couple three nights a week. Each of us is assigned a night to cook the dinner. If the mission president & his wife are available they will attend as well. It's wonderful to be around  such strong leaders of the church. We are truly blessed.
   We went out with the young sisters a couple of times. One day we went to help do service for a non member. She was just leaving . " let's not go home. " I said. "Let's knock on doors until we talk to someone ". It was pouring rain as usual. We joined arms and walked down the street as if we were Dorthy and her friends on the yellow brick road. We knocked seven doors, talked to two people. One invited us back. It was someone's bright idea to jump a ditch, with water in it, along the way. The bright idea person jumped first. I didn't  quite make it...sigh. The others succeeded. It was fun ! You've always got to have fun!
   Today Elder Fisher is driving the big silver 13 passenger van, Apollo,  full of young missionaries to the temple. We have permission from the president to attend a temple session and then come right back to Richmond to work.