"Excuse me! Did you hear? I'm getting baptized!"

Hello all! 

This week was so great! Jack decided to be baptized! He set his date for the 22nd of February. He has been coming to something at the church everyday. YSA have multiple activities throughout the week and we meet with him on the days there is no activities. He loves being around the members and says he feels different when he spends time with us. 

On Friday we did family history with Jack. We found one link and BOOM we were able to trace his line back to 100bc! He must have some distant cousin who is a member of the church! It was so cool. He got really excited and we ended up just reading about his ancestors for about an hour! Afterwards we were saying goodbye to the other sisters and he says "I'm getting baptized!" Then when they didn't hear him, he said "Excuse me, did you hear? I'm getting baptized!" He is great!

Yu is still progressing and we are trying to help him get an answer that Christ is the son of God and that this is his church. We meet with him about twice a week. At one of our lessons this past week, we were reading from the Book of Mormon, and he turns to us and says "If I deny the Book of Mormon, I have to deny Christ!" He has such a strong desire to come to know the truth, and we are doing our best to help him understand who Christ is and why we need him!

The spirit is so cool. I gave a talk on Sunday about the spirit and learned a lot from preparing it. The spirit is so powerful, and I often forget to let him work though me. I've learned to not rely solely on my own words or thoughts but to listen for promptings from the Spirit. It has made my life easier. Instead of agonizing over what to say to someone, I listen for the Spirit and say what comes to my mind! Contacting has been a lot less stressful as I use this principle, and I have better conversations with the people we meet!

I feels like spring here in Santa Barbara! I never want to leave! 

Love, Sister Hadden!

Pictures: Boothing at UCSB, members birthdays, Jack's progress, Lemonade stand/booth, the other sisters serving in our ward!