Hey everyone!

This week was all over the place. Ups and downs, spiritual highs and physical lows. I'll just share a few things from this week.

We will start with the worst thing, which actually strengthened my testimony a ton. Our awesome investigator, H, relapsed. He had been off alcohol completely for months and this week he relapsed. He said he has been having some big problems and instead of working them out he turned back to the only thing he knows to do, drink. We showed up for our appointment and he was really drunk. It was really really sad. He then proceeded to tell us things that he definitely wouldn't have if he was sober. He told us some pretty scary things about his past and showed us some tatoos he always tries to hide but in his very vulnerable situation he spilled his guts to us about his past. I'll spare details but throughout the course of the conversation he expressed to us how sorry he was, and how bad he wanted out of this situation he is in. He wants to be out of Satan's grasp and I bore testimony that it is possible. We told him how Jesus Christ makes everything possible and that we can help him come to Christ and get rid of the awful feeling of being a slave to the adversary. We told him the first step is repentance and that he obviously needed to stop drinking. Being drunk he wasn't exactly in a situation to listen so we told him we would come by in 2 days with something prepared to help him. We left with a prayer and asked that he could have help to overcome and that the spirit of the Lord could once more be there. Then we took all his remaining alcohol in the room and threw it away. My companion and I both walked out of there with a deeper understanding of satan and how he works with each person's weaknesses. We also felt how powerful the atonement of Jesus Christ is and how the Lord can literally conquer anything and He will help us if we let Him. It was one of those very intense experiences where you can't tell everything, Something that you won't ever forget, and something that helps you realize how amazing and wonderful and eternal the gospel of Jesus Christ is. 

The super highlight of the week was zone conference though. WOW. There was an amazing spirit there! Such good teachers and such wonderful subjects and it was easily the best zone conference of my mission. An experience where you come away feeling edified and strengthened. I learned a lot!

Besides that we are still getting new investigators all the time. Most of the appointments you make out with new people fall out, which is tough, but we are getting a lot of cool new people with positive reactions and some are making real progress. I can feel that we are getting close to a lot of really good things! So close with so many people, schedules and things are getting in the way but we are on the edge of really really good things here! 3-6 people that could really end up getting baptized we think. Just a lil more time and more spirit.

So in my reading I'm just going through Helaman now. I gotta say this book is crazy. The people go from righteous to wicked like 3 times in a chapter. I was really really impressed with Nephi though. He is such a spiritual beast. He gave up the judgement seat to preach the rest of his life, he saw success among the Nephites, then huge success among the Lamanites, then none in the land northward, then the Nephites were wicked again, then he preached repentence once more to them. Then he convinced the Lord to let them suffer by famine instead of the civil war which was going on. Then the people repented. Then they became wicked again. Then he showed them signs, then some became righteous. It's really amazing how faithful he was even though the people around him were so weak. He performed tons of miracles, the pillar of fire in the Lamanite prison, the sign of the murdered judge, the ending of the famine, he raised his brother from the dead, and he traveled in the Spirit to escaped the wicked people. Unreal faith and unwaveringness. I most especially love Helaman chapter 5. The whole thing. The story of the prision at the end is awesome and is an awesome metaphor for repentance and the whole process of it.

I'm wayy out of time but I love you all and I'm doing great. My comp and I have tons of fun and see little miracles everyday. Big ones are coming too we hope!! The church is true! Much love til next week

Elder Clayton