Let's kick things off with a story. Last Tuesday we went to visit a less active couple. Holy cow. Firstly, our new ward missionary was with us and nearly killed us several times on the drive there (he's 70 and almost deaf). When we got there they had a nonmember friend there from Madagascar, Ying. We were all like "yes! someone to teach!" So right off the bat René, the ward missionary, starts leaning across the table and hitting her with stuff like "the bible isn't complete" and "how do you find the truth?" Then the less active man interrupts and starts filling us in on his life story and not caring that anyone else is talking. I was having to hold the two old men's hands to keep them from talking. So Ying (yes, she's half chinese) finally gets the chance to tell us a little bit about herself and she is in the middle of telling us about her divorce when the less active man starts getting red and saying "We're here to read the scriptures, not hear your life story!" I was PULLING. MY. HAIR. OUT. Not a member in there was helping our cause. So finally, Ying finished telling us about how her life has been hard and how she's never had time for church. I was like "you know what? it's true. Life IS hard, but with Jesus Christ you have a whole new life waiting for you." Then in the middle of this frenzy she just broke down and started crying for the next 15 minutes. She said her parents have always been like "church, church, church!" and she has always said she didn't have time. Then she was like "and now, as if by chance, I DO have time." She said "I didn't even plan on being here tonight and then the doorbell rang and it was missionaries!" Well, we gave her a Book of Mormon in Malagasy and one in French, gave her a part to read, and set up a rendez-vous for the next day. As we we're leaving the less active wife was like "yeah, it's great! it's an American church!" Goll-y-gee ...and we spend all our time trying to tell people it isn't an American church.

Well, Ying had to work the next day so we didn't get to see her but we've talked to her and are hopefully going to see her this weekend :)

There was one day this week when we were doing some contacting and stopped in a little musuem building. We talked to the sweetest old lady in the museum for about 30 minutes. She was born in 1929 and told us all her stories from the war. Although she said it was impossible to convert her, we gave her a picture of Christ and she said she would put it up in her home so she could always remember "the two young Americans that made her day."

One morning this week during studies Elder Huff asked me to read part of his journal that he had just written. He had written about me and why he admired me. There was a lot to it, but in short, I have never been filled with so much love for a companion as I was then. I am no where near his humility and the fact that he isn't scared to show his weaknesses instilled in me a kind of charity that I have never really known for a companion.

Well, I love you. I miss you.

Elder Coburn