The work is defiantly slowing down right now. We had a baptism this week. One of those baptized was a girl from the ward who was recently reactivated and she was going to go to the temple this weekend with the youth but her records where lost. In 2 days we taught her all the lessons then she was baptized, right after the baptism she was confirmed and then she had a temple interview and went to the temple the next day. I will admit it was the weirdest baptism I have ever been to. The other 2 who were baptized are a mom and her son who are from Sudan. She speaks decent English but we have an Arabic translator for her even though her native language is neither of those. She was excited to take this step. She has been looking into the church for a few years and finally made the next step in her life. We were afraid for a bit that she was not going to make it to sacrament meeting the next day to be confirmed but she was able to make it just in time. She was excited for this chance am I am grateful I had the opportunity to teach her. Over the last 3 months we have been super busy and it has been really nice. We had to stop teaching a lot of people because they were unwilling to progress. We are now trying to build our teaching pool back up and we are diligently looking for those who are willing and ready for the message that we have to share. There is still a lot of people that we are hoping will begin to progress soon and we are hoping and praying for the success to continue. This is my last full week with Elder Knight. I will get a new companion starting next week on the 4th and Elder Knight will be going back to Arizona the next day. We will have been together for a week short of 4 months by the time he leaves. I have learned much from him in the time that we have been together. He is an awesome guy. I will find out on Saturday more about who my new companion will be. I am grateful to all of you for sending birthday cards and greetings. And even those of you who did not, I thank you for thinking of me. I love you all. I am so grateful for your faith and prayers on my behalf. Thank you all for all that you do for me.

I have never been this busy. I keep saying that every week but we keep getting more and more busy. We had a baptism this week and it went really well he was supper excited to be baptized. He is an amazing guy and I am grateful that I have had this chance to have an impact on his life. Sisters knocked into him 3 years ago when he was first found and he has met with us off and on from then. He has progressed a lot in the last month and a half that we have been teaching him and I was excited to see him be able to take this step in his life. We still have a lot of people that we are teaching but because we can’t speak to half of them it makes things a little hard. We also have some strong suspicions that there are some preachers going around telling people not to listen to us. We were teaching a lot more people then suddenly in one day a bunch of them just stopped being interested in what we have to share. But we continue to work hard. It is amazing how much is getting done here in Des Moines. The Lord is pouring his blessing out upon us. I love being a missionary and I love this chance that I have to serve and help others. We have a baptism scheduled for this week and next. It is amazing that in my first 9 months I saw little success and never had any one that was really progressing. And now in 3 months we can’t seem to find the4 time to teach all that want to learn more. I keep wondering how much more can happen in such a short period of time but them more just happens. I am excited for this chance that I have to be here and to have a part in blessing the life’s of others here. In less than 3 weeks Elder knight will return home and I will get a new companion. We will have been together for about 4 months. I will admit that is a long time to be with someone. I have learned much from him and I am excited to keep learning. I have learned so much already from my mission. I love being a missionary and I love serving others and helping people come closer to Christ. Thank you to those that have written me. I always appreciate letters. I don’t have much else to add here. It was a super busy week but it was a lot of the same stuff all week. We are anticipating even more work to come in the following weeks and I am excited to have the chance to be a part of all that is happening here. I love you all. Thank you for your faith and prayers. J

 We had a really busy busy week this week. Wehave been working a lot more with the Keren people and have had many chances toteach them. It has been a very interesting experience. We went to contact a referralfrom California and it was another Burmese family but they spoke kerenie notkeren which I guess is a different dialect. But they are close enough and the familyspeaks enough English that we were able to get the main points that we wantedto talk about across. We have so much work that needs to be done and it feelslike not enough time to do it in.
                We havea baptism set for every weekend this month. The ward is ecstatic about the successwe have been having. The ward has not seen this in years. I know that Is notonly our doing but the work of many hands has made this possible at this time. Iam so grateful for the chance I have to be a part of this. A man will be baptizedthis weekend. He is finally ready. He has been working to his point for manyyears and he is excited that we move his date up a few weeks. I am excited atthe chance I had to teach him. He is an amazing individual and I am so pleasedwith his progress over the past month.
                Next weeka lady from Sudan and her son will be baptized. They are excited for thischance that they have been given and they are excited to be able to continue tolearn and grow. Her son just turned 8 and he will be baptized with his mom. Theyboth love church and love learning.
                The weatheris cooling down rapidly. Many fear that we will have an early winter. I hope soI need more stories about the brutal Iowa winters. Apparently last year there wasbarely any snow and it was the mildest winter Iowa had had in a long time. I hopethat does not happen this year. It is much more fun when you have cool storiesto tell.
                ElderKnight only has 3 and a half weeks left until he goes home. Although it iscoming close he is working hard and we are staying busy. We have seen so manyblessings here and I keep thinking that they will end but they just don’t stopand we just keep working and trying to do our best. Exact obedience is an extremelyimportant thing. I love the chance that I have to be here and to be experiencingthis. There really is nothing better than this. I love being able to serve amission.
                I hopeall of you have a great week. I thank you for your faith and for your prayers. Ilove you all 

We have had a busy busy week. So much has happened. We picked up a lot of new investigators. All of them either don’t speak English, speak very little of it, or are only 8 years old. But, they all are excited to learn more.  I have really grown to love the Karen people. They are humble and willing to learn and excited to learn more. Not all of those that we are teaching are progressing. Many of them hold to the Buddhist traditions of their parents but there are many that want to learn more about Christ and the can feel the difference in their lives as they begin to follow his teachings. I am excited to continue to help these people better their lives and watch as they find the true joy that only comes from living the gospel.

We helped a guy give up a lifelong addiction of chewing Tabaco. He finally came to church as well and he is ready to be baptized. He has grown a lot in the month that we have been teaching him and he is excited to make this commitment in his life. He was going to be baptized in October but we decided to move it up because he truly is ready. The lord has been preparing him. Often it was through his trials but it was all part of the plan to get him to this point and I am excited to see him take this step.

I am really growing to love Iowa. It is finally raining again here so things are starting to turn green again. It was getting cooler but the heat has come back and so has the humidity. But we are pushing through it. Elder knight and I are having great success. we are striving out best to live as Christ taught us to live. I don’t really have much more to add today. The libraries where closed yesterday so we had to find time to email today and we have appointments to get to so I love you all and I hope you have a great week. I know that this church is true and I love my savior. Thank you all so much for your faith and prayers.