What uppppp - Email 10.1.12

Sup playas...

It's been a whole month already?! It feels like I just got to the MTC yesterday in all honesty. My first week in the field was AWESOME. I can't wait to tell you all about what happened this past week. Before I do, all of you are killing me!! All these emails are making me tear up in the library haha!! I feel the spirit so strongly when I hear how well everyone is doing and how the atonement can literally transform lives. The love I feel from all of you is amazing. You all are awesome and I love each and everyone of you and pray for each and every one of you personally every night...no joke.

So...I arrived in Oklahoma City tuesday at 1 pm. We met my mission President and his Wife and the AP's and let me tell you, President Taylor is a stud. He just holds himself so well and has so much insight already into my life. His wife is like my mom out here, she is such a sweetheart, and a great cook at that. :) Not as good as you though mom ;)!! <3. So yeah the first night I spent the night at the AP's apartment with Elder White. Next day we got our trainers and I got paired up with Elder Cameron Hanes in case you want to look him up on facebook ladies ;). He is exactly like you Randy. He's a pitcher and he's going to play college when he gets back. He throws around 90mph and is 6'3"...I've been scopin'.... haha! Anyways, we got along really well right off the bat ( clever me ;)) but really, he is awesome. We are almost exactly alike. First day on the job we set some gnarly goals. Our area is called Edmond 3rd and it has been the least succesful mission in the whole mission. It is the wealthiest area I have ever seen in my whole entire life. It's Park City or Ivy Gate on steroids. Everyone is either a doctor or a dentist or a lawyer...but truthfully, EVERYONE in Oklahoma is so nice...to an extent....haha i'll tell you later why. It is so true that Satan works so hard on you while you are out here. I have never been flirted with more in my whole entire life. My companion said it'd be bad, but I didn't realize how bad. It's kind of sad to think that people will try anything. But then again, there are opposites to everything and there is so much good about this area. The ward is AMAZING!! They feed us well, wow...like really well. haha But anyways, that stuff isn't important.

So after I got paired up with Elder Hanes, it was straight to the Doctor for me for 4 hours. Apparently I have asthma in Oklahoma City!! :) And the bronchitis wasn't making it any better (which btw is so much better right now because of all your prayers, thank you). So they prescribed me like 5 prescription medications and an inhaler, so I am a walking druggie. No big. After that, we went to my apartment which is molding and smells like smoke. yolo.

I can't even explain to all of you how happy I am. I can't explain to you how much I already love everyone I meet and how badly I want them to feel the happiness and peacefulness that I feel everyday. Work is DIFFICULT out here. But who cares?! It's not about me! I'm out here to serve others and to love others. That should be the same anywhere you go though. It has rained a bunch and so me and Elder Hanes have been tracting for about 4-5 hours in the rain everyday. It hurts when people slam the door in your face because they don't want to listen to something that you know to be true and that you know will change their lives for the better. It sucks, but everyone has their own agency to choose. As long as I am working my butt off, I can feel at peace knowing that I am doing everything in my power to do the Lords work. He will provide and He already has. Let me tell you some stories.

So some of you may know my schedule but for those who don't, I wake up at 6:30 sharp every morning and work out for about 30 minutes. Then we study for about 4 hours and then we leave the apartment and we go meet people and teach and all that good stuff. We walk about 10 miles a day sometimes, we bike around 20-30 when we bike and let me tell you, it is HOT here and humid. We stay out until 9:30 pm and get to go to bed at 10:30 pm. It is tiring I won't lie! There is no way I could be doing this if I did not have God's help. The atonement and priesthood if obedient, will give you power like you cant even imagine. Literally physical strength. I can't explain what a miracle it is. Trust God.

So Thursday we went out tracting in the rain and we found 3 new investigators. It was awesome! So many fun/crazy/weird people out here. So we came in that night feeling pretty good about the day. That night we both prayed for trials, for something that would test our faith so that we could grow in faith. Next day we went back to those investigators homes to teach and to serve and bam...go away we don't want anything to do with you. It kinda sucked but we KNEW the Lord would provide. So we went back to work. We tracted 5 hours in the rain in some neighborhood and talked to only 5 people. No new investigators. We still KNEW the Lord would provide. We went back to eat some dinner and then went back out to walk to a previous investigators house that we had already been teaching. The only thing is, we needed another male to be in the house. We called EVERYONE, and everyone from our ward turned us down. The Lord would provide still. So we started walking. While walking at 8pm, in the rain, some random kid picked us up and asked to come with us to see this lady. What a miralce. We went and taught this lady and committed her to read the Book of Mormon and to come to church the next day. Sunday comes along, no show. She doesn't show up. We knew the Lord would STILL provide. Sure enough, 5 minutes before church a random guy walks in to the foyer and sits there. We were like NO WAY! We asked him to come sit with us in sacrament and he did. Next hour, he went to Gospel Principles and loved it. We felt inclined to take him to another room after that and teach him a little bit about our church, nothing to big. Next thing you know, the Spirit is guiding the lesson and we started to teach the Restoration. The Spirit was SO Strong in the room! It was unbelievable. You could just see in his eyes that he could feel it. All of a sudden I felt the strongest prompting to ask him to be baptized. (Crazy I know) I asked him and he said yes. We have a date set for him on November 3rd and we are going back to teach him Wednesday. What a miracle. I can testify to you all that God is a God of miracles. We works only when we have faith in Him. He will ALWAYS provide if we work hard, choose the right and then trust Him. I promise. "For behold, I am God, and I am a God of miracles. And I will show unto the world that I am the same yesterday, today and forever and I work not among the children of men save it be according to their faith" 2 Nephi 27:23. What an amazing promise. Miracles will happen everyday of your lives as long as you trust your God. It happens in my life every single day.

I wish I would tell you all the experiences that I am having out here. But I can't because it would take much to long. I can tell you this though. I wouldn't trade this for anything else in the world. I am being pushed to my limits out here and I have never felt so good or so taken care of. I have put ALL of my trust in my God and he WILL take care of me. The spirit/Holy Ghost is absolutely necessary to have in your life. if you can't feel it, repent and seek it because you will NEVER be successful if you do not have the Spirit guiding your every move. You will never be able to change someone else's life if you do not have the Spirit. Without the Spirit, I am a flashlight without a battery. Completely worthless. The atonement is the most amazing thing in the world. Study about it and go and use it in your life. The Book of Mormon is true. I know it for a fact. Joseph Smith was a prophet and through him, Christ was able to restore his church upon the earth today and the priesthood power. Pray about it if you don't believe me and I PROMISE you that God will answer your prayer becauyse He loves you so much "that he gave his only begotten Son".

Anyways, write me!! I love hearing from you!! My address is 416 SW 79th Street Suite 210 Oklahoma City, OK 73139

I love you all. CTR.

Elder Cutler