Letter to Home - February 21, 2011

Hi family!

Sorry for not answering the suit question last week.  Both of my suits are pin stripped - but are both still in great condition!  The only time we were hem is when we have meetings, at church or at the temple, so they are both still good.

So we had a really good week!  One of the recent converts in the ward -Sesi Taufa, is on fire!  He has such a desire to do missionary work!  He found us 2 new investigators this week, and they are both pretty good.  We are excited to teach them this week.  Sione Tongamoa and Nio Fale'ofa are doing so good!  They are both preparing to be baptized on March 12th.  Brenda is doing alright.  She has a lot of worldly pressures and we are just praying that she will have the courage to make the right decisions.  She can be kind of flaky at times, but when we have the opportunity to teach her, her faith really grows.  We took Sione to the Temple Visitors Center this past week and he loved it!  This week was also 1 out of the 3 times in a year that we get to do a temple session!  I love going to the Oakland Temple - it is one of my favorites!  Also this week on Saturday we got to go to the temple with Veronica Domiguez - one of the converts from my last area, to do baptisms for the dead.  We rode BART from Millbrae to Oakland.  It was my first time riding BART underneath the Bay!  It was fun.  Veronica really enjoyed the temple.

Last night was the Why I Believe fireside that is held once a month.  Usually it is held up at Temple Hill in Oakland, but they just started a San Francisco Why I Believe on our side of the Bay.  Last night was the 2nd one, and President asked me to conduct it.  It was a little scary, I've never conduced a meeting so big.  One of the converts that bore there testimony went way over the time limit and was just rambling on, so President asked me to get up and tell them to wrap it up.  The convert was a little Chinese guy (who was already nervous because he speaks in broken English), and I stood up and whispered in his ear that he needs to wrap it up.  He paused and said, "Oh...I am so embarrassed!  In the name of Jesus Christ Amen!"  Then he quickly returned to his seat.  I felt so bad.  I felt like the bad guy.  but it was a good experience.  Zoe Rookard - someone me and Elder Kesler taught while I was in San Francisco bore her testimony, and she did an amazing job!  It is always good to see those that you've taught have a strong testimony.

So I see Elder Williams all the time on P-days.  Hes doing good.  They are doing pretty well in the city.  it is defiantly one of the hardest areas in the mission, but they have a few baptisms coming up!  I know Elder Williams companion very well  I used to be his district leader when I was in Pittsburg last year, and he can be challenging.  The mission teaches you patience!

Well family I love you!  Thank you so much for the Valentines Day package!  I loved it!  Elder Neiufi really liked the rice crispies!

Love you!

-Elder Cook