Greetings From San Jose

Hello Everybody,

This week has been really good. It seems like missionary work is subject to high and low tides concerning how many people we have to work with and things to do and it seems like we are experiencing a bit of a high tide which is fantastic. We were recently challenged to contact way more people on the street or where ever through out the day aside from our normal activities and it is paying off. Not directly though. We have been getting a slew of referrals from other missionaries and the mission office or church headquarters. So we have a new investigator that I mentioned last time who says that he is a Fundamentalist Christian/Roman Catholic but basically has the standpoint that all churches as long as they believe in Christ are the true church. That's the problem with some of our different terms within the church, at least as far as missionary work goes. Either my companion or I probably said "The True Church" and now our investigator thinks that we hate on all other churches. So now every time we see him he makes sure he lets us know that he loves all churches. We'll just have to re-emphasize authority and priesthood and hope he starts to understand our view a little better.

There is also this lady in the spanish ward who has a friend from AA that we are teaching and he already has a very full understanding of just about all aspects of religion so he can clue into what it is that we are talking about right away and understands it all without much thought cause in one form or another he's already heard it all before. I think he wants to be baptized but he recognizes that we kind of have an order in the way that we go about baptizing people so in a way it feels like he's holding out. He doesn't want to seem too eager but I think he really wants to be baptized. He just can't come to church yet because of his work but he should be in the clear by November and we'll see what happens then. He's like the most reliable investigator that I've ever had. He really wants to hear what we have to say and is always anticipating us when we come over for appointments and he doesn't forget. It's kind of a strange thing, usually my investigators in the past have been a little grudging in the way they meet with us.

Then the crazy man who we helped move into the area accepted our invitation to have the lessons from us but he wasn't sure what time he'd be able to make for us. So he's not fully committed to hearing us out but he is dealing with a lot with his move and trying to find a job and things of that nature but hopefully it all settles down and we'll be able to meet with him.

The family that I was initially excited about when I was first in this area got back from their vacation to Hawaii and we caught up with them last night and sort of set up a time to teach them again. They are practically the flakiest people on earth but are super nice and agreeable. I'm not sure how soon progress will really be made with them but we'll keep cracking at it.

Well that's most of what we have going on in a nutshell. We have this super stellar lady in our ward who we just wanted to try and find out if she knew any of the less active names that we have on a big old list but she ended up not knowing a lot of them and so took it upon herself to seek these people out and find out who they are. She went through like 25 people in two days and asked them questions and got to know some of them and a few of them she even determined for us are possible homes that could use some missionary influence. It was awesome. Her and her husband are planning on going on a mission soon and they are going to be amazing. That's about it. Hope everyone has a fantastic week.

Sincerely, Elder Miller