This Last week with a summer missionary has been an interesting one.  We have definitely seen some great blessings!! The new investigator we met last is now progressing! We met with her twice this past week and she also came to church!! We are definitely very excited and grateful for meeting her. She has learned quite a bit about other churches from what I understand but she says that she just hasn't found success. She is willing to read the Book of Mormon and to pray. Her biggest concern is not a concern with the gospel. Her biggest concern is her family. She is very worried about her family's safety, salvation and such. Fortunately, as we know, the family plays a big part in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the whole purpose of the Gospel is to bring families not only closer for our time on earth, but together forever. It has been... what's the word… quite refreshing... to meet someone that values family as much as I do; someone that truly cares about their family and their eternal welfare.

David is also doing really well. We have been reading the Book of Mormon with him the past few lessons in order to help him develop a strong testimony towards it. He already believes it is true. But has a hard time remembering to read it. I definitely agree with the mission tour's emphasis on the Book of Mormon. I know that if we help him not just believe the Book of Mormon but truly LOVE the Book of Mormon, not only will he be baptized, but he also will Endure to the End. The Book of Mormon is soo key in their conversion and I feel that these past few weeks I have definitely seen that. 

We met with a former named Mike this past week. When we met with him he had a headache and was kind of out of it. He definitely has hope. It is just a seed, but that's all that is needed in order to start the conversion process. He has some things that we are going to have to work hard and pray that he will be able to overcome, but I think that once he commits, he'll go all the way.

Me and my summer missionary, Brother Singh got along very well. However, he did not like it when I pushed him to be obedient, work hard or things like that. So everyday there were some ups and downs and we also spent one of our dinner times sitting outside because he didn't want to go finding and wouldn't move. I shared a lot about the importance of working hard, being exactly obedient and diligent and I hope that we can both apply the things we learned. Definitely a lot different working with a Summer Missionary than with Elder Koochin. However, these past two weeks I Learned a lot.

There is a little experiment I have been doing over the past month that has produced interesting results. Preach My Gospel says in the how to help people overcome addictions sections to pick a habit and to try to break it. A few months ago I read that and chose to give up popping my knuckles, something I naturally did all the time. I decided to put it on my list of "sacrifices" in order to help me have more samgei (can't think of English word for that) just like an investigator would use their baptismal date as their motive. At first it was pretty hard because it was a habit but after a few days I had it down pretty well. Well, the date had come that I had set as the end of that experiment and I started popping my knuckles again. At first I did it just to release all the pressure I felt, but after that, the habit practically came back!   That little experiment taught me a couple things. First, when helping someone overcome an addiction, they definitely need a strong motive. Second, the role of the Holy Ghost is huge. Because if an investigator can break that habit and get baptized, the Holy Ghost will help them keep them from falling back into that habit. I also feel that if it is a member then a blessing could also help a lot as well.  Obviously, I didn't need a blessing to prevent myself from cracking my knuckles but I think on a larger scale thing, like a smoking habit, a blessing and the Holy Ghost are soo important. 

Love you all!

Love, Elder Zach Cederlof