It sounds like you had a good vacation. 75 degrees is perfect weather. It's been getting real hot here. I think the max that Elder Frei and I saw was probably 108 or 109 degrees. It's hot and humid! It's crazy and awesome to hear all of these youngsters getting their mission calls. And then all of my buddies coming home. It's nuts!

Well another transfer has come and gone. I only have 5 more transfers which will probably be one more area and then that is it. I am going to make the best of it. I received my new companion. His name is Elder Layton, and no he is not from Layton, Utah. I heard 3 people yesterday in church ask him that. It was pretty funny. He is 6'8". He is a big dude... and to make it even better he is from... Canada! He is from Calgary and has been on his mission for about 5 months. He is interesting and I'm going to learn a lot of patience which will be very good. Elder Frei and I got along very well and we were great together. We were very alike and we had a lot of fun. He went down to San Antonio, and is liking it. I talked to him last night.

The week was good. There was a little bump in the road that I personally had to overcome. On Tuesday morning, we received a media referral from mormon.org. Well they say that if you contact it within 24 hours they are 6 times as likely to be baptized. So we did just that. That night we went and contacted her. She was an older lady that lived up in one of the towns north of us, and she lives in an RV. It brought back memories of going to Hurricane and visiting Grandma and Grandpa Harvey in their travel trailer. This ladies name was Peggy. Now Peggy had visited mormon.org and looked at it for 30 minutes three weeks ago. The reason she did was because she talked to a friend who has a sister that is mormon and she got interested. So last Tuesday she gets on mormon.org again but this time requests missionaries. Which is amazing because we probably got the referral information within 10 minutes of her clicking the submit button. As we talked with her, the vision came to me that she was one of the "miracle 3 week baptisms" and that she was super elect to accept the gospel. We had a good talk and she felt the Spirit. We invited her to be baptized without even teaching anything and she accepted a baptismal date for the 31st of July. We then taught her about the Book of Mormon and told her to start reading. As we left, I looked at Elder Frei and he says "You're gay!", because I had a little smirk on my face because she was going to get baptized. He was bummed to leave but knew the work would continue. Fast forward a couple of days... Friday night we call her because we were going to meet with her on Saturday. Well she said that she had read a lot of the Book of Mormon and she had been praying but that she didn't think she was ready for this. She wasn't going to pursue it anymore with us and she wanted to do it on her own. The conversation was pretty one-sided because I was in shock. I was thinking to myself, "What? How could this happen? You were so ready?" I expressed my testimony and told her that we will always be at the church and this is always the missionary's number. And the conversation ended. After having such a powerful experience and being able to teach her with the Spirit, and feeling that she was ready for this, then having it all turn a whole 180 degrees to where she is dropped. Hence why I said that I had some speed bumps to get over this last week. My faith dwindled that night and I kept asking myself, "How is that possible? Why would the Lord not answer her when she wanted to know so badly?" and saying, "I don't understand." I remember writing in my journal that night writing over and over and over again, "I don't understand." As I pondered about it the next day, I was relieved by the thought that she wasn't ready. And that the Lord would answer her in his own time and in his own way, and that one day she will accept this and will be baptized a member of the true church of Jesus Christ. And so then I repented for doubting and I kept my head held high.

But the week was good besides that. Elder Frei and I found a couple about two weeks ago, but was never able to meet with them until this last Wednesday. We taught them simply, she asked a million questions about how the church functions and what not and they accepted a baptismal date for the 6th of August. Then on Saturday Elder Layton and I taught them again and left them with a Book of Mormon to read. She once again asked a lot of questions, which is getting her mind going and thinking about, "What if I become a Mormon what do I need to change?" We feel that they are ready for this. The highlight of their journey this last week was on Saturday night after the lesson, they said that they were going to go search for the Church so they know where it is for Sunday. Well we jumped on that and told them we could take them on a Church tour. So we did and they loved it! They came to church the next day and stayed for all three hours. They also loved church and I'm sure they felt the Spirit because one of the talks was an amazing talk on the Atonement. We are going over on Tuesday to teach them more.

There was also a surprise this last week. Elder Frei and I found a little family of 6 two weeks ago as well and we taught the mom 3 days later or something like that, and she was just kind of non-committal about it. Well we taught her again on Wednesday, and Elder Frei and I simply just decided to see her commitment and teach her of church and invite her and see if she comes. We didn't think much about it. Well as we were greeting everyone for church, guess who walks in? Yep, her and her family. All 6 kids came and she also brought her sister. They also stayed for all three hours and the kids loved their classes and we are going back over this week to teach them again.

The huge family has not been acting really. They are kind of on the back burners. He canceled our last appointment and then they didn't come to church this last week when they said they were going to. So we will see about them. But even with that the Lord is still blessing us with people that are willing to act and come to church.

Thanks a lot for the birthday package! It was great! It took me about 3 tries to finally receive it because every time they came by we were gone and they needed a signature. But I got it and I really appreciate it. Thank you! It's crazy that I'm turning 21 this week... But what is even crazier is that everyone that I was in the MTC with is coming home in like 2 or 3 weeks. But I know that I still have 7 months left and will work my butt off!

That is about it that happened this last week. Thanks for the support and the package. I love you.

Elder Harvey