What a weekend! - Ozark, Alabama

Hello Everyone,
I really wish I could re-write my message for 'the boys'. I have learned so much from this last week I want to share it all with them. I won't share all of it with you guys, but I will share some of it.
Elder Brian and I are in a great area. We have a really big teaching pool right now and the members feed us almost every night. So we don't get a lot of opportunities to go tracting. Darn. haha. Because of all the work that is going on here, because Elder Brian is newer, if that’s a word, than me and feels overwhelmed and because I don't know the area front and back yet, we had a lot of empty hours. Nothing bad or lazy, just unfulfilling hours. Ones where we'd visit a member and talk to them about nothing important, or we would visit an investigator and not leave a message or a commitment. Above all else we needed some organization. So going into the weekend, that is what we planned to do. We were going to come up with ways to help the members and stay organized. Thursday was our weekly planning. We worked hard to find out the needs of our investigators and set up a path to achieve it.
The Metcalf family was our biggest concern. The parents and Dalton (16) are all baptized, but Skylar (14), Mathew (10) and Emma (8) are not baptized. Elder Brian and Elder Lewis have been teaching them and I jumped into the mix with Transfers. They are a great family, but they have some really awkward needs. They need to feel loved by the ward, they need to feel a desire to go to church and a desire to read as a family. However, the most important need they have is recognizing the spirit. They have no idea what the spirit is, how it talks to them and when it is talking to them. They think that everything we are teaching is so they can 'pass the interview' or 'meet the requirements'. Their dad especially is missing the mark. He doesn't understand that there is a spirit that comes with all of this. You don't become happy by being baptized, you become happy by aligning yourself with Jesus Christ and his teachings. Baptism is part of aligning yourself with the savior. Yes its required to receive the Holy Ghost, yes its required for membership into the church and yes its required to enter into the kingdom of god. However, if you don't keep the covenant, if you don't feel the spirit, what’s the point. You might as well bring some shampoo and conditioner because you won't get anything out of a baptism except wet clothes and hair without feeling the spirit. The spirit that truly cleanses you.
Anyways, we had a couple more investigators with concerns. We finished with them and moved on to the members. We have a dinner appointment every night and after that dinner appointment we usually go visit members until its time to come inside. So we are going to try and maximize these opportunities. How? I had no idea.
Friday came and it was Zone Conference. As always the highlight of the week, yea even the highlight of the month. Haha, scripture talk. We talked about a lot of different topics. President Summerhays told us to come prepared to Zone Conference with questions we want answered. During Zone Conference we shared a couple of our questions, but the rest were left undiscussed. Yet, 9 out of 10 times the questions were answered by either ourselves, president, another missionary or the spirit during Zone Conference. While he was asking us if anyone had any questions I raised my hand to ask. Elder Brian and I wanted to know 'How genuine testimonies are developed?' President looked from me to Elder Brian and asked him if I had a genuine testimony. Elder Brian answered yes, then President looked at me. With his deep, loving eyes he looked at me and said, "Elder Call. You have a genuine testimony of the savior and of the gospel of Jesus Christ that will never grow dim. A pure testimony of Him that will never be broken in this life. How did you gain your testimony?" Wow! That was really powerful statement and I felt really small. I didn't have an answer right off the bat. So I thought, for what seemed like forever, but I thought until I began to rehearse words I've never said before. "My testimony came from everything my Mother and Father taught me. Everything they taught me in my life from teaching me of truth, teaching me about the gospel, church, prayer, teaching me about good habits, working hard, reading the scriptures. Everything they taught me from the time I was born, till the time I left home. THEN, my ability to go out into the world and to try it. To experiment with the word they had given me. To find out for myself, that those things are true. That’s where my testimony came from." The perfect answer didn't come from the perfect son, but the perfect spirit. The spirit I had was perfect. Perfect for my needs, perfect for our investigators needs and perfect for the members needs.
We are working with our investigators and the members in our ward to 'testify of truth'. Things they know to be true. Just like Elder Bednar said. In General Conference we warned us that we need to get comfortable with our testimony. We need to overcome feelings on awkwardness and share what we know with our families, with our loved ones. That is what we want members to do. To share it with their friends, their family, their children and their spouse. We what them to get comfortable in a dinner setting where gospel principles can be discussed and taught. You do not need to sit a child down and have him be quiet to let him know that his personal savior feels his pain, to know that Heavenly Father loves them and wants to answer his/her prayer, or even to know that their parents love them. We want our members to testify to their loved ones. That’s what I got from Zone Conference.
Well I hope my letter wasn't too long. Ozark is amazing. I got the sweatshirts which are fantastic and the long sleeve shirt is perfect for this weather. Apparently it’s supposed to rain for the next couple of days. Some tiny hurricane is in the gulf. Will it count as experiencing a hurricane? haha.
The last thing I want to comment on is something that everyone needs to gain an understanding about. In Zone Conference our mission President brought up a question that was brought up during his Mission President seminar with Elder Bednar. WHAT IS SUCCESS? If any of you would like to reply I would love to hear your responses, but I won't tell you the answer just yet. You can ask Megan in a couple of days. She'll be able to tell you. ;)
I love you all,
Elder Call.