September 21, 2016 Week of Temples

Hey Family,

It's great to hear from you! Thanks for all of your prayers. So we had a pretty awesome week this last week. We found a bunch of new awesome people including 2 Nigerian brothers who are super cool. But everything that happened this last week seems to be in preparation for what's going to happen this weekend. On Saturday we are going to the Temple with the G--- family. Brother G--- got baptized in January, shortly after his baptism he and his wife kind of fell away for a little bit, but recently they've been progressing a ton and haven't missed church in months.  So on Saturday, we're going down to the Temple with them to do Baptisms for the Dead with him for the first time.  It's going to be awesome. We worked really hard with them to prepare his Father's name to do the baptism for him. 

We started teaching a couple last week. They are a newlywed couple, she's a less active member and daughter of an active couple in our ward and he's not a member yet. They recently moved in and are super prepared for the gospel.  We were able to get them into a special "Sneak Peak" of the Hartford Temple Open House this coming Sunday. It's going to be awesome. We get to go with them. We're going to try to commit him to baptism for late October or early November. 

I'm really excited to hear about Brother Harris becoming the Stake Patriarch. He's perfect for that. I honestly don't think that I've met anyone who just fits that calling so well. I bet Dad did a great job giving his talk.  That reminds me. I was on a companionship exchange in New Canaan Connecticut last Friday and the missionary that I was with hands me the Ward list and says "We don't have anything to do at 11am tomorrow so... who do you know? We'll go visit them." So we went and saw Craig Bench and his family haha. He gave me his talk from one of his recent high council assignments.  It's really good about temples. We shared a little spiritual message and invited them to invite friends to the temple open house. They were already all over that. 

It's so weird that there are people here that you used to know when we lived out here. Do you recognize the name Susana Sena? She lived in Stamford around the same time as us. She said your names sounded familiar and your faces are familiar but she couldn't remember you. 

I love you family! You're great!

Con Amor,

Elder Sam McBride