A crazily cool week!

From Derek's letter of October 12.

"So, this was a super good, and difficult week! First of all, the highlight! [The father's] baptism!!! Man, that was probably one of the coolest experiences on the mission so far! It was so amazing to see him and his family so united in the gospel and just to see how solid he's going to be as a member! He's truly converted to the gospel and not merely baptized.

It was really a very tender experience, extremely spiritual, and one of those fruits in the mission that will never be forgotten. [He] said that I was his hero... It was extremely touching for me, and it strengthened my testimony of the reality of this work, of the power of the spirit, and of the reality of mission calls and assignments. I feel strongly that [this man] was one of the people I was sent on the mission to be here for. So Jessica, as you serve in the mission, I know that you'll also find those that are waiting specifically for you.

This is in every [way] God's work and the Spirit does have the power to change the hearts of the people with whom we speak. It was honestly one of the happiest days ever, and seeing the Olney ward as well. Man, the ward is just so incredible, haha I honestly feel like I could live in that ward forever, I came to care about those people so much. Haha it was kind of nice to see that they still remembered even my name after two weeks of not being there.

Other cool things for this week, we have some cool new investigators, another one of our investigators [that went to conference] ... came to church once again this week even though we hadn't had an opportunity to teach him at all and he loved every minute of it! Haha, even though we hadn't taught him we gave him a baptismal date for the 30th after church and he accepted! Yeah, he's a golden investigator, especially since he has Sundays off! Then we taught him Monday because he got off of work early and we watched the Joseph Smith Movie which he loved!

It's awesome and we continue to see daily miracles, haha though the days are definitely long and hard. I don't think I've ever come home so physically and emotionally drained as I have been here. It's awesome, and I love working hard, seeing miracles, and being a tool in the Lord's hands! I can hardly believe so much time has passed... Soon enough it'll be halfway over, it's super sad...

Elder Holland is very very right. The world will always be there, but your mission won't be. Anyways, that was the week, extremely tough, but extremely joyful!