Hello all!
This has been a super fantastic amazing week! :) I am so happy!
We have been very busy! Monday we had lessons with Rosa and a
less-active member named Alexis; they both went pretty well. Alexis has been
struggling to make it to church, we shared a message about the sacrament form 3
Nephi 18, then we went on a walk with her after to kinda talk about a few of
her concerns and......... she came to church this week! It was so good to see her
there :)
Tuesday we met with Edward, Salai, Johnny, and Glenn; we also found 2
new investigators Ryan and Matthew. Matthew is a less-active member's son and
Ryan was a kinda street contact... I say kinda because he was actually in his
garage watching some TV and we just stopped to compliment him on his Raider
paraphernalia and we got to talking. We found out that he had found Christ just
a couple years ago and he was open to hearing our message, we shared a short
restoration and he said we could come back and share more, he just needed to
talk to his wife about it first.
Wednesday was pretty great because we got to go to a lesson with Steve.
Sister Patrick came with us; Steve is about 90 years old, he is very sweet. We
were teaching him the Restoration and reading some of the Book of Mormon with
him and we invited him to be baptized... he said he already had been baptized
into our church years ago by one of his police buddies from "the Great
Salt Lake City." We got his birthday so we could track down his records
and he said he would like to go back to church, but he wasn't ready yet, so we
will continue to go by with Sister Patrick :)
Thursday we had another miracle! We were walking down the street with
some members, going to a lesson and we saw one of our pass-along cards on the
ground... so we decided to pick it up and give it to someone! That's when
Cherie came walking down the street with her dog, so we contacted her and
shared a short message and she agreed to have us come back and teach her more!
Later we had a lesson with Dice, we read Alma chapter 24 with him, about the
Anti-Nephi-Lehis sacrificing (their lives) to keep their covenants. He said it
make him think a lot and he wanted to read it again and ponder on it some more.
He is a very deep thinker and he loves the scriptures!
That evening we also got to talk with a member referral named Pat, she
is so sweet! She invited us in when we knocked and we talked about her
religious background, her family, etc. We were able to bear testimony that the
restored gospel of Jesus Christ can and does unite and strengthen families, it
was really great!
Friday - Calvin, first thing in the morning. We read 1 Nephi 3 with him
and he really liked it! Justin Ibarra, one of our ward missionaries, got him a
large print Book of Mormon so he can read easier! After we read together and
talked about how God can help us to do hard things, he agreed to get rid of all
the Alcohol he had! Yay! Funny story though... he gave us about 7 beer cans and
a bottle of Jack Daniels... and we couldn't pour it out in his apartment
because we couldn't go inside... so we had to take it all, put it in my bag,
walk down the street to a member’s house and dispose of it there hahaha. The member
was a YSA girl named Neri; she comes teaching with us sometimes. She was
seriously cracking up at the sight of me pouring some Coors Light down the
sink... All in a day’s work for a missionary!
She ended up coming with us to our next lesson with Demel, we again read
some of the Book of Mormon and we committed him to be baptized! This time we
went through with him what he needed to do to ensure he would be ready, it was
really helpful! We set some goals, made some plans, it was great! Neri also
came with us to a lesson with Rosemary, a sweet old lady; that was also a
really great lesson!
Later we met with Vaiola, a less-active member, and again, you guessed
it, another AWESOME lesson! We also found one new investigator in the evening,
Alex, a Seventh Day Adventist. He was nice.
Saturday we had a lesson with William; he told us a lot about what's
going on with him, he is really needing to make a change in his life right
now... we brought a member who came home from her mission about a year ago and
she did a great job! The Spirit was really strong, he had some concerns so we
invited him to read the Book of Mormon and ask if it is true and to write down
any questions he may have so we can address them next time.
Later we met with Trent, he had a lot of questions pertaining to how we
came to know that these things were true for ourselves. It was great to be able
to bear testimony of things I don't often get to share and to remember - oh
yeah, that's still there - hahaha! After dinner we only had a short time to
meet with Mollie and introduce her to her fellowshiper, Sister Patric. They hit
it off really well and even kept visiting after we had to leave! The reason we
had to leave was because we were going to be conducting a church tour! We had
been planning this for weeks, invited all our investigators, confirmed with 5
just the day before, it was such a good opportunity to introduce them to the
church in a comfortable way! We had a member come with us, Sister Altier,
and... No one came. Of course, haha. We were a little discouraged at first but
I felt pretty quickly that we had done all we could.
The next morning when no one but Alyssa came to church, I was sad, but
not discouraged. I have never worked harder or anywhere near as hard to get
people to church as I am right now, and I know that is all that is expected of
me! You can only invite so much, everyone has the right to choose to accept
that invitation or not.
At church we had a really great sacrament meeting! It was awesome!
Spirit was so strong!! After church we had a lesson with Alyssa and she told us
that..... HER MOM SAID SHE COULD GET BAPTIZED!!!!!!!! We couldn't believe her!
We kept saying, are you serious?!?!? We set a date for August 26th and it was
one of the best moments of my mission :)
God is so, so good! I have seriously been praying almost every day for
about a month and a half that her parents' hearts would be softened and as the
Lord liveth they have been!!! In the words of Ammon, "Therefore, let
us glory, yea, we will glory in the Lord; yea, we will rejoice,
for our joy is full; yea, we will praise our God forever. Behold, who can glory
too much in the Lord? Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy,
and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? Behold, I say unto you,
I cannot say the smallest part which I feel." (Alma 26:16) That's
basically how I feel all the time haha.
Well that's all folks! I love you lots! The Church IS true!!!!
 |
| only time for a curbside dinner |
 |
| It was a hot one! |
No comments:
Post a Comment