Elder Kyle Houssian: Week #66

Hey hey y'all! Hope this week has been a great week for everyone. There are lots of big things happening in our area, and this week has been full of miracles!

This week has been great with the Redd family. We had a great lesson with them and set them to be baptized November 18th and they accepted! They are a wonderful family and it has been so great working with them!

We went to go visit Jakob our recent convert this week and see his family as well. His older brother Tyler is my age, and he has been helping us teach Jakob before and after baptism. So come to find out, Tyler was never baptized, even though everyone including himself thought he was baptized. So we went over and asked him if he wanted to be baptized and he accepted and was super excited!! So we are working with him and he is scheduled to be baptized in a November as well! It was such a cool miracle!

So last night, we had a companionship who was having a hard time finding people in their area this week. I felt impressed to text them Sunday night and see how the work was going for them. They were struggling a bit, so we went with the other companionship in our district and just hit their area hard. From 8:30-9:15 at night we were able to find 6 people to teach and some awesome potential future investigators. It was so fun working as a District and really cool to see the Lord's hand active in the work.

So this week has been a tender week for the Vegas valley, and for a family who I have grown to love so much on my mission. One of my friends, the oldest kid in the family, lost his life this past weekend in the tragedy that occurred on the Strip. It has been a rough week for me, as I have not experienced something like this before. I was able to go and see the family and visit with them Friday, which was a wonderful reunion. Then Saturday I attended the funeral service for my friend. There were 1200+ people there, and more than half of the people who attended were not members of the Church. The two main topics that every speaker mention were the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and the Plan of Salvation. The Spirit was present and was very very strong during the service. I learned so much from that service, and this week has helped me grow closer to my Savior and understand God's Plan. My testimony and my faith have been tried this week, and in turn I have had to rely on the Savior and on the scriptures more than ever this week. The spiritual thought I wanted to share with y'all came from my friend's 17 year old sister. She wrote down her testimony of the Book of Mormon and made copies of it, then put them and copies of the Book of Mormon next to the programs at the service. The copies were taken and majority of the copies of the Book of Mormon were as well. I wanted to share with you the testimony she wrote, which will be attached as a picture. Please read it, and please prayerfully read the Book of Mormon. I testify that it is true. It is the word of God. As my friend's sister said, "It is the only pure and perfect thing on this Earth after Jesus Christ", and I double testify to that. It can comfort us in our darkest times, and we can get closer to God through its principles than by any other book. I know that to be true. I hope you all take the time to read it. God's Plan is perfect. Families can be together forever. And I know that one day I will be able to see my friend again. I know he is with me in this work and is leading the charge for the missionary work in the next life. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I hope y'all have a fabulous week! Until next week! God speed!