January 19, 2015 - In which we walk Brno

Dear family,

Last week went pretty well! It started with B's baptism, which went well. I t was probably the longest one that I've ever been to. With three talks, three musical numbers, and everything else it went about an hour and forty-five minutes! It was a really good baptism, though. The Spirit was very strong and it was clear to see how many people love B here in our branch. Despite the weird time (3 pm), all of the YSA made and there was a good attendance of the older members with normal day jobs. Betty seems to be doing fairly well. She seems to be in at least as good of spirits as ever.

Last week we had zone conference, which was great. We talked about what we need to focus during the upcoming year. It helped me to think about the things that I need to focus on most immediately. My goals are to focus on learning to love finding, learning to forget myself in the service of others, and embracing hard work. Working on these the past week has helped me to feel the Spirit more throughout the day and to love the people that I meet. I've been making some progress, but it's been coming fitfully in starts and stops. I'm just trying to be patient, though.

We had a lot of time to go finding last week, and spent a lot of time walking the streets of Brno and knocking on doors. We met some pretty good people! Most of them are still potentials because they don't have much time to set up right now or set up during the upcoming weeks or whatever, but a few have some great potential. I could see a difference a couple of days last week when I was more enthusiastic and confident in the Lord and when I was not nearly as much. I was a lot more effective the first kind of days, but it was interesting how big of a difference it made. Four potentials also became new investigators last week, but those were all people that we had found during the last several weeks. We're hoping to help our turnover a little faster!

That's about it for today! I AM OUT OF TIME!

Love,
Elder Boyce