Amazing week!

This last week has been an amazing week for a lot of different reasons. It is hard to know where to start and where to begin. We have been able to meet with a lot of people and make solid invitations to people who genuinely want to know the truth, like that family who met with the missionaries 6 years ago we invited a couple other people and families to read the Book of Mormon to know if it is true and pray and ask our Heavenly Father. Criselda, the lady that was participating in the lesson with Mary about the Plan of Salvation, we had the opportunity to teach and extend this same invitation. But with real power and she knows the importance of it. Lydia is getting baptized this next week and she is getting interviewed tonight by the zone leaders. Her family is really blossoming. Her Dad has quit drinking coffee to be able to baptize her and now her Dad and her uncle are both going to start to prepare to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood. Her Dad and Mom have set the goal to be sealed in the temple, not this year but next. She will be baptized this Thursday! Lydia was the motivation for the rest of the family to get back into the things they know will bring them the most joy. It is amazing to see the choices this family is making and the goals they have set for themselves.
Shannon is another lady that I mentioned. We had the opportunity to give her a blessing this last week for her back and she told us about how at her church she had had people pray over her many-a-times but it never felt the way that it did when we did. Her back seems to be doing well now. It was also cool to find out, their were some other people there a few times that we came over. They are friends of hers from Kuna. (which is a little Southeast of Nampa) They have been investigating with the Elders down there, one of them a previous zone leader of mine. And they are progressing very strongly in their understanding of the gospel and the Book of Mormon, they will be joining the church pretty soon and they are a great influence on her. They and a recent convert that we brought with us, were there for a lesson with us later this last week and we talked about the Book of Mormon in particular and church. The recent convert is a lady in her 40's or 50's and she wants to go on a mission. After the lesson with us she told us of how excited she was and how wonderful of an experience it was. She wants to come more and she is so excited to go on a mission. Shannon was planning on coming to church yesterday but because of some car problems of a relative she was not able to make it. It was sad but she is doing great and she is meeting a lot of people from the ward who live close by.
While she didn't come to church in 18th ward, me and Elder Matthews gave talks and it was great. Elder Matthews is a very nervous speaker and he was stressed out about it. He asked for 4 weeks to prepare and ended up being extremely stressed anyway. As the meeting progressed, the sacrament and all of the ward business only took like 15 minutes, then one of the youth spoke for 2-3 minutes. When he was speaking Bishop looked over at us and was making a hand gesture that said stretch out your talks best you can. So Elder Matthews got up and spoke and took about 7-8ish minutes, we sang with the choir and then I gave my talk. I stretched the best I could and started off completely different than I had planned, by talking about music. And the role it had in my conversion, (my talk was on conversion and the Holy Ghost). I then ended up speaking for a half hour. And ended right exactly at 5 after the hour. It was great! A lot of cool and fun experiences this week.
In my last email I said  would be seeing a familiar face again soon. Elder Clark, the second missionary that I trained while I was up in Union was just transferred down to our district. So he is in my district! It is cool to have him around again! And it looks like he is really helping the missionary he is with. His companion had been struggling for awhile and since he has come in there has been cool progress in them as missionaries as well as their area!
Thank you all and I love you all!
Sincerely,
Elder roberts