Sister Dewey in Tempe Arizona : MEMBERS!!

Hey family!

That is so crazy about all the snow in Oregon!! Sounds like it was pretty serious!! It was surprising that it wasn't that hot this past week. There were a couple cloudy days that reminded Sister Forson and I of Oregon.

This week has been crazy! We are still working really hard with out investigators:

-A* is coming along slowly... he hasn't come to church in a while and doesn't "have time to read the BOM" but he is still going strong on the word of wisdom so that's great! But really, the BOM is what converts people. If we are not willing to read the BOM every day, then our testimony will dwindle. President Toone has offered us a challenge to really focus on the BOM in our mission. We are challenged to read it within the next 9 weeks! It will be hard, but I know that it will bless my life and the lives of my investigators. so anyone is welcome to join! haha

-J* and his 13 year old brother H*, and their nephew J* who is 9, are preparing to be baptized on the 22nd! They are SO SOLID. And read the BOM at least 5 minutes a day as a family. They have come to church twice already and love it! We taught them about the Word of Wisdom saturday night. I knew that J* used to be an alcoholic and that he loves coffee, so I was a little nervous. BUT it was amazing, I believe that because he had been reading the BOM everyday and is gaining a testimony about Joseph Smith, he committed to live the WOW. At church yesterday he said that he didn't have coffee that morning and that he was struggling. BUT we told him how proud Heavenly Father is of him for making that choice and that he will begin to see the blessings from it right away.

-S*, and a 8 year old we have been teaching, that is a grandson of a less-active member, is getting baptized on Saturday.

"we live across a highway. So every morning and every night we pass over it. It's so cool! And reminds me of the song "life is a highway!"

This week, at Zone Meeting, at the New missionary meeting, at Ward Council, at coordination meeting and pretty much every meeting you can think of: the focus has been on the members and strengthening the members. So we are trying to switch our focus and time to visiting less actives, having dinner with part member families, and just trying to get the members to unite as a ward. Like I said before, our ward has over 800 members with less than 100 actually coming to church. So we are going to be working really hard these next couple weeks with that.

We got to do some service on Thursday picking oranges from a tree! Oranges, grapefruit, and lemons are native here, and there are tree's everywhere! but the service was great and I got all scratched up on my hands and arms, it looks like I got in a fight with a cat haha.