Sharon's baptism
Jayden's baptism (8 year old, mom is recently reactivated, so we got to teach him)
On December 19th, Sharon Flake was baptized. It was sweet! The Spirit was so strong. Her husband came and I saw tears flowing down his face as she was baptized. Not just a few tears, but lots. She told us that when she shared her testimony with him a few days prior to that, he had tears in his eyes then too. He's felt the Spirit for sure. I think that as Sharon continues to be an example to him that he will come around. He's got a drinking and smoking problem, but Sharon tells us he's a sweetheart. At her baptism, Bishop Allen was impressed to ask George Edwards (he's in our ward but has a stake calling or something, but Sharon has known him for a long time and really loves him) to bear his testimony. As he did, the Spirit was there even stronger. He was the one to confirm her the next day, and what another spiritual event. It's been amazing to be a part of this time of Sharon's life. She is so solid and she just thirsts for more and more knowledge.
On Wednesday we got a referral for a Book of Mormon, so we drove out to meet the guy. When he opened the door and we introduced ourselves, he seemed confused. We told him why we were there and he mentioned he had been interested a while ago. Then he continued to say that it was about 10 years ago that he was interested. I guess he had never been contacted or something else, I don't know. He said it wasn't him that got on www.mormon.org and requested to "worship Jesus Christ with us and learn our ways". His wife was confused too. They mentioned it might've been spam from another site they had visited, but the contact information they gave to that site didn't match exactly with what we had. Interesting. He was very nice and said he'd be willing to listen to us if we could come back in January because he was on a tight schedule trying to meet a deadline and then he was going to Copenhagen for something. Ten years ago is a long time. I don't know how we got the referral, maybe God really wants him to listen.
Friday we finally met Mary Spears, a BOM referral we got a few weeks ago. We've been trying to set up a time to meet her, but it didn't work, so we finally just decided to go see her. She let us in and we talked for an hour. She's very nice, though her husband is quite grumpy (as she'll attest to). Her spine is deteriorating, she had breast cancer, and her husband just got diagnosed with prostate cancer. Lots of medical problems for them. But she has such amazing faith that God will provide a way for them to come up with the money for the cancer treatments and that things will get better. She said they have no money for Christmas, but that was fine, and then she invited us over for Christmas dinner. It's truly amazing to me how giving some people can be, despite their humble circumstances. Apparently she lived in Salt Lake for a time growing up, and she knows a little, but not much, about the church. We hope we can meet with her again and start teaching her. She told us we're always welcome in her home. She's such a sweet lady.
We talked with Bill and Aggie Adams that afternoon. We tracted in to them the day before but he was off to a doctor's appointment, so we asked if we could come back later and he agreed. When we showed up, he seemed surprised that we actually did come back. He invited us in, even though his wife was in the middle of cooking dinner (she only cooks once a month). He told us that she'd been a Catholic for 84 years and he'd been one for 37 years, and so he didn't know how much headway we'd make with her, but he still let us in. Why can't all people be that nice?! We talked with them in their entryway for a bit and Bill cracked a joke after they said they had 15 kids (from prior marriages and theirs). He said he could be Mormon. : ) Hehe. We asked if we could come back and talk with them more at a better time, and we set a return appointment with them for today. We're hoping to go and get to know them and build some common ground and then begin teaching them the message of the Restoration.
That's about it I think. Sorry, kind of another less interesting week. Sister Jenson is now better, but Saturday night and Sunday Sister Haefele was sick.
Trios are hard. There's more chance of one of you getting sick since there's 3 people. And it's hard to mesh 3 people's lives together 24/7. We all love each other, but sometimes we don't do very good at showing it, and that causes some issues and hinders the work some. Hopefully this last week that we have together will go well as we focus on working together in unity.
We've been invited to a few members' homes for Christmas and Christmas Eve. We're planning on going to the Williams' for breakfast and phone calls. They have a daughter serving in California right now. Then we'll visit some other members, and possibly head over to Mary Spears' home. A lot of the people in our ward are grad students at IU so a lot are out of town for the holidays.
Sister Humpherys
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