Mon 11/07/05 12:30 AM

Dear Family,
Well another week has zipped by. Time sure flies when you are having fun. Last thursday I made a unanounced visit to Branch Council Meeting in the Ljubljana Branch. It was very informative to me to witness this. But the bottom line is they have the same challenges that members of the church have everywhere. They just don't do the visiting that is necessary to soften hearts and fellowship people with love. It is a real challenge to teach them to rise to the next level. They seem stuck on a platuea. My approach is to build the District Presidency and to get them fully staffed and then to get them to do teaching and training. After all Sister Weight and I will go home, but they will still be here to continue the work. And the way time is flying by I better hurry and get it done or I will be gone. On friday we drove to Zagreb for a baptism of President Valek's son. President Valek is the District President for Croatia. He was very happy that we changed our schedule to be there. He has so much influence that he had I would guess about 25 non members that he invited to attend. Many of them were really touched by the spirit. Some were openly crying. It was great. He is coming out of obscurity and actually serving now. Great things will happen because of his influence. On saturday we met Elder Bojan Ristic at the airport. He was returning from serving a mission in Washington DC. His parents who are nonmembers came. We had them come to our home so I could release him. He was only a member for over a year before going on the mission. And when he was converted he was a Catholic Monk preparing to become a Priest. It is great to hear his story of conversion by reading the Book of Mormon and then praying sincerly to get an answer. When he first prayed his prays were not sincere and he was taught by an Elder to change his attitude and his prayers which he did. He got confirmation of the truth one sunday afternoon while all of the other monks were having naps. He was then going about the rest of the day saying out loud "it is true". The other monks wondered what he was talking about. After baptism he was imediately kicked out. Which is a good thing. Kinda tough to be a Catholic Monk as a member of the church. On sunday we went to Varazdin to church. We took with us Ivona who was baptized last month, but she now lives in Ljubljana and is attending school. Her non member mother and her brother who is adopted and ten years old both came to church for the first time. Her mother used to yell at her against the church, but she has a softened heart now that she sees what her daughter is like. Ivona was given a blessing when she was taking the lessons by Elder Heath. He and Sister Heath are the senior couple assigned to the branch. In the blessing Elder Heath promised Ivona that she would get baptized and that her mother would follow her into the waters of baptism. At that time her mother was very anti, so things have really changed. The spirit can do anything. I keep praying that I will be doing as Heavenly Father wants me to do and not be doing my own program. So far He is really blessing me. Also, you need to know that I challenged all 26 companionships to get a baptism before the end of the year. That is a big challenge since we have only had 19 baptisms so far this year. But I told them it is possible and they need to do all in their power to find and commit some one. We only had two people committed at the time. WELL IT IS HAPPENING. We now have 12 people committed by ten of the 26 companionships and more are coming. The only way I can feel good about doing this is that the spirit tells me and confirms to me that miracles are possible. It is not automatic that it will happen, but if the missionaries work hard and work smart it will happen. We love your emails and pictures that are sent. Thank you for your prayers. Continue them. Sister Weight is still not feeling well. She seems alittle better this morning, but continue to pray for us. Your prayers and love are appreciated. And we are truly blessed because of each of you. Sons please give me all the details on the cow escapades. When I read your emails about the family and the ranch I consider it my preperation day since we usually don't get one. They instructed us to take them so I need to find away to be obedient to that. Love all of you alot.
Love Dad Doug