here is Sterling's email from September 16th - I was out of town and just barely got home to post it.  Sorry for the delay.  -Laura

Zone Conference

This is England

Soaked after a 20 minute bike ride in the rain.

hey guys!! so this week has been good :) we have one of our investigators on a date now his name is phil :) he has been progressing really well and his testimony is growing really well. Phil's sister is a member. Her and her husband bring phil out to church most Sundays. He has met with missionaries before but he didn't want to give up his habits so he sorta just stayed off the map.. but one day at church  Elder Hansen just asked him if we could come by.. so we have taught him three times, things have gone really well and when we invited him to be baptized he accepted, which was a big deal because he hasn't with the other missionaries... so his date is set for the 12th  of october.. problem is, he has been drinking and smoking for almost all of his life and its going to be hard for him to give it up... I have the faith that he can do it. 

Soooo I guess there is this mormon musical out? anyway so these guys came up to us the other day and were like "oh my gosh.. are you mormons? can we get a picture with you!!" so even though they were probably takin the mic it was fun posing for some pictures :) I wish I had watched that before I came out so I knew what they were talkin about but it is what it is :)

So like I said this week was good but I had something cool happen I would like to share.

So one night I was laying there thinking.. (like i do every night) and if im being honest I was a little frustrated. I didn't feel like I was progressing fast enough and I'm getting to a point where I have some bigger responsibility coming my way. So as I was thinking I had a memory pop into my head...this was a few years back. So our family had a Bassett family camping trip and one of the things that we would do, is go explore the forest :) Stanton, Cameron and I were out messing around, climbing things and what have you, when we got to this spot on a cliff that was sorta sketchy. It was an over hang that was over this big drop into a bunch of rocks and it had a crack in it so we could have enough grip to get around. So me, being the oldest and the dumbest went first and after I had made it I called for stant to come over... I can't remember all of the details but I remember when he was going across he got to a spot where either he couldn't go any farther or he was slipping or something but I remember just putting out my hand and telling him to take it.... so when he grabbed on he let go of the rock and only hanging onto me he got across and over to the other side... so that was a crazy experience but I was wondering why I thought about it at that point in time. So obviously I'm not comparing myself unto the savior but God loves us and is always there holding out his hand to help us... even though it would be better to just not be a teenager and find a safer way to reach him he will still always be there if we get stuck on a cliff and in a bad spot.. so what I leaned from all of this is, just that I'm relying too much on myself.... I'm expecting myself to just download some life experience and be the best missionary when all I have to do is work hard and get myself out there and God will take care of the rest :)

Heavenly Father and Jesus love us so much and are always there for us.. all we have to do is reach out and grab his hand :)

the church is true!

love you all

elder wiser