Dear Family,
I am so full of the happiness as I take the time to write you all this week! First and foremost, I want to express my gratitude to my Father in Heaven for my brother Kiefer Dane Worsencroft. Who would've thought all of this was possible my brother? I love you so much man and I have no doubts that you will be bringing souls unto Christ, what a miracle that this life is.
This week has been specail for many reasons. Last monday, shortly after writing you all, my companion and I headed to Walmart to buy groceries and were were approached by a man named Justin. He identified us as missionaries as we were in our proselyting clothes and went on to explain that he grew up in Provo, that he moved east and fell away from the church for years. He said :"I just got off the phone with my Mom and she was telling me that I need to get involved with the Church in Ashtabula". He has had a pretty hard life. He said that his wife left him after her lost his job a few years ago and ever since he has been on job placement and it has brought him here to Ashtabula. He said he came here for permanent work and got layed off. Now he has no friends, no family and no work. We told him we would be happy to come over and getting to know him. So two days later we all met up at his house and listened to him tell his story. We invited him to come to church and to "re-learn" his testimony. He said he would love to come to church but didn't have any clothes that he felt would be appropriate. As soon as he said this I said "OK, no problem, lets go get you some clothes!". WE went to the Salvation Army thrift store and got him some pants, a white shirt and a tie. We then invited him to come to a teaching appointment that same night and told him we'd be back in an hour. You should've seen it, we pulled up outside his house and out he came fully dressed in his priesthood attire, and he took all his face and ear piercings out. He looked like a new man. We had a great time teaching him and have been meeting with him and helping him feel the spirit ever since! He is not the type to take a handout, so I know that the whole experience of buying him clothes took a lot of humility on his part, I cant wait to see what starts to happen in his life.
I will be baptizing my first convert to the church on Friday, November 18th! I am so excited. Her name is Lily and she is 12 years old. She is the only person who will be a member in her family, we are hoping that we can start teaching them soon as well. This girl is incredible. Probably the brightest 12 year old I have ever met and she is super ready to be baptized. Last night President Sorensen came up all the way from Cleveland to interview her and he said she is prepared! I am so grateful for this girl and for her testimony. She has sincerely taken ever challenge we have given her and has recieved a witness that the Church is true. Listening to her describe how she felt when she prayed to know is incredible! Such a blessing!
Training is going great! We role play our teaching situations every day and it can be a real challenge. One morning this week we were role playing and Elder Crosland was really struggling to teach me. I could sense his frustration so I finally just said it was time to pause, "Let's talk" I said. For a moment we needed to just cool it and talk about what was up. I told him to look up a chapter in Luke in which Christ talks about true love and how he is the vine and we are the branches. I explained to him that we need to stop relying so much upon our abilities and recognize our source. I began to bare my testimony of Christ to him and we both felt so much love for each other and for the Lord. He remained pretty quiet still so I then said we need to read from the Book of Mormon in the 12th Chapter of Ether, We read two verses at a time and the spirit just rained on us. We sobbed like children through every verse of that chapter. Faith is mentioned 37 times in that chapter and it spoke right to our hearts. The experience was really powerful and it moved us together even more. Later on last week we were driving and it was pretty quite and I asked him "Do you know the Book of Mormon is true?" he said "I do" and I said "How do you know?". He told me that after we read and cried together that he went and prayed by himself in our room and the spirit said that it was indeed true. I was so happy to hear that from Elder Crosland. He explained to me that he has never really read the Book of Mormon. He is learning right now that is truly the Word of God!
Wednesday we went and had a trainers meeting in Cleveland. It was emotional being back in the city again. Downtown Cleveland grew on me more than I realized in my first three months of my mission. We had the meeting for about 6 hours and then went out on the streets of downtown and started contacting people and showing the new missionaries how to contact people on the street. I remember when I was the one learning and was in awe of the missionaries that I was on the exchange with! Now I was on a split with a new missionary named Elder Rial. He kept saying "You are so good at this! I wish I was better", I lovingly rebuked him right in the street and said to him "Don't you ever compare yourself to me, or any missionary or anyone else! You are who you are and in time the Lord will make you great, but don't ever compare, for the rest of your mission!". I was pretty straight forward to this young missionary but when the day was over he came and thanked me for the exchange and the advice.
The mission is the hardest thing I have ever done. Each day presents new challenges emotionally, spiritually and physically, but I want you my family to know that I have never been happier. The Lord provides everyday, take a look at what He has done for you. I know that OUR Redeemer lives!
Love Elder Prince
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