St. Augustine Ward...

February 27, 2012...Dear Family,


Exciting things are happening here in St. Augustine! The biggest news I have is that the ward split. Before the split there were about 700 members total. I'm not sure how many there are now, but from what I understand they split it evenly. So 350 members per ward, give or take a few. The new ward is the St. Augustine Shores Ward. The Sister missionaries will be serving in that ward. Elder Gebhard and I will still be in the St. Augustine Ward. It will just be a lot smaller.


With the Ward splitting it offered another opportunity to recognize the Lord's hand. Over the last month and a half I have been working mostly in the northern part of St. Augustine. That's where all of our investigators are and we have been really blessed as we've worked in that area. Well, when we found out about the ward splitting and where the new boundaries are we immediately noticed that all of our current investigators are in the ward we are in. The Lord has been guiding and preparing us for this moment for quite some time.


Last week we found some great new investigators too. One of them is PJ. He is a young man and his best friend is a member. PJ is almost always at his friends house and is pretty much a part of their family. We taught him twice last week. After the second lesson we asked him how his mom felt about us teaching him. He said that she is really happy for him and excited for him to join the Church. Then he said he is excited to join the Church. Elder Gebhard and I are excited too! We haven't been able to set a date for his baptism, but will be teaching him tonight. Pray that we will be able to help him set a date and get baptized in March.


Things with our other investigators were a little slow. They all had a bunch of things that came up. It's okay though. We did have at least one good lesson with most of them. It's been really wonderful having many people to teach.


On Friday we went to seminary and the young men & young women got to ask us questions about our missions and missionary work. They had good questions. It was an enjoyable event. A lot of their questions gave me an opportunity to reflect on the last 22 months. As I did so, I was very uplifted. I was able to see the growth in my testimony, and the growth of those I've taught. I was able to bear testimony of many things, and share the joy that I have felt while out here. I'm grateful I have the privilege of bearing the name of Jesus Christ upon my chest every day. Even when that tag is gone I will bear his name because it is engraved upon my heart.






Love Always, Zach