Many Miracles

Dear family,

Life is beautiful. Thinks here in Gilroy have been wonderful. We keep finding prepared people. Between conference, the temple, and the investigators we have we are certain that the Lord is really watching over us.

I never know where to start when I write these emails. For some reason, the work is so much fun that I can't remember what we did the last week unless I check my planner or read my journal entries. Once I finally remember, my email time is usually all used up.

So, I will start with last week. Our week started well. We had a typically busy p-day sin nap. Although we prefer not to schedule appointments on preparation day, it is worth it if it means a strong start to the week. It was on Monday that we had an appointment fall through and decided to tract instead. As a result, we found Eugenia Rojas, a young grandmother of about 50 years old. She invited us in and let us share the message of the restoration with her. We were able meet with her later in the week and invite her to general conference. SHE CAME!!!!! We were super excited. She was able to listen to the closing session of General Conference. She really liked it and told us she had some questions for our next lesson. We gave her a tour of the Morgan Hill building and showed her the baptismal font. She told us that she was seriously thinking about baptism. I think conference and seeing the baptismal font really helped. It is amazing to get a new investigator and get them to church in the same week. It is always a wonderful sign.

Tuesday morning, we started off the day with a 7am conference call with the zone leader council, the assistants, and President Jackson. We were prepared with a zone goal, but decided to scrap it and focus on the special mission goal of 100 invites to general conference. It was really fun inviting people to hear the voice of a prophet. It really pushed us to talk to EVERYBODY. We worked on motivating the zone by issuing them formal challenge letters. We personally challenged each companionship to invite 100 people before we did. The stakes were a candy bar. We even made formal charges complete with a wax seal. We had a lot of fun. Our efforts paid off because the entire zone achieved the goal. We were very pleased. We beat some companionships, but ended up buying everybody their favorite candy bar for their efforts.

Later on in the week, we had a special training in San Jose to teach the new MTC curriculum that will be rolled out in the MTC in may. It is something we have been using since July, but still in implementation. It was really informative and helped us teach better later on in the week.

Friday we had our zone leader council meeting. President Jackson is making sure that this mission is perfectly ready for the day President Watkins steps foot into the mission. I think he wants to make sure that we don't lose anything in the transition. We will be sad to see him go. At the end of April we will enter his last transfer as mission president of the San Jose Mission.

I appreciate the birthday package, the cards, and the cookies. All are greatly appreciated. We have realized how much time we spend in the car. We get a little tired of being in the car. It feels like a mobile command center. We are always ready tor resupply our missionaries with copies of the Book of Mormon and extra pass along cards.

I hope everyone is well.

Love,

Elder Badger