Hello friends and family from the lovely Spencer, Iowa. What an amazing place this is here. I came and talked to a guy and said, "Is this heaven?" He responded, "It's Iowa!" See if anyone caught that movie reference, haha. Anyways, things here are going great. Last week a big snow storm hit, so that was pretty crazy. We were actually down in Council Bluffs for a zone conference, which is about three hours south of here. We left to go there on Wednesday, the conference was Thursday, and because of the snow we didn't get back to our area until Friday evening. It was a great conference, but I really do hate leaving my area, even for a day. But the Lord makes up for the time that we miss. One cool experience we had this last week was while we were up in a town called Spirit Lake. We were having dinner with a family, but we had some extra time before we were meeting with them, so we decided to go finding. We prayed where we needed to go, and we were prompted to go to a neighborhood with nicer houses. Now normally we try to not go to places like that because people are generally less humble, but we followed the prompting and started knocking doors. The first few houses were what we expected: short, cold conversations. We approached another door and met a man named Chris who was super nice. He started talking about how much he loved Mitt Romney, haha, and how he was always curious about the Book of Mormon. He talked about how he is Greek Orthodox, but that he goes to the Methodist church because there was not Orthodox church around. We started sharing the Book of Mormon with him and his wife came out. She was super nice, and talked about how she was Irish, and that she was preparing for St. Patrick's Day. Well we instantly connected there, and she saw that we were sharing about the Book of Mormon. She said she also was curious about it, and as we handed it to her she said it was a treasure, and was very grateful for us bringing it to her. It was a wonderful experience that showed me the importance of following the Spirit, and how there are prepared people in all areas of the world.
So my spiritual missionary thought this week is about going about doing good. Sometimes we wonder, how am I supposed to find people to teach? How will they be able to tell that we are representatives of Christ? What would motivate someone to listen to our message, let alone change their religious beliefs? The answer comes when we realize that at baptism we covenanted that we were willing to take upon ourselves the name of Christ. This is more fully explained in Mosiah chapter 18 where Alma describes this part of the covenant as bearing one another's burdens, mourning with those that mourn, and comforting those who stand in need of comfort. I am reminded of the hymn, "Have I Done Any Good". Are we going about doing good for people, "that they may see [our] good works, and glorify [our] Father who is in heaven"? Do we realize that although helping people to relieve their burdens is part of our covenant to be like Christ, that it also provides for us an opportunity to share the Gospel, which is the greatest thing above all else that we can offer them? Always look for ways to do good, not only for the intent of lifting burdens, which is a very good thing, but for the ability to touch their heart so that they will see you as a disciple of Christ, that their heart may be softened, and that you may have an opportunity to share the great message of the Gospel. I love you all very much, and hope you have an amazing week. 
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