It sure got cold here fast. Yesterday it snowed. We had to drive to zone conference, and traffic was horrible. Some of the roads were a bit icy, but most of the traffic was caused by silly people who don't know how to drive in the snow.
It's been a good week. Last Wednesday we met with Nathan, one of our referrals for a BOM. (The one we might have to relinquish to the YSA elders.) He is Lutheran and he prefaced our meeting with the comment that he wasn't looking to be converted, he just wanted to know about our religion and get it straight from the horse's mouth so to speak. He had a list of questions he wanted answers to. They were very good questions, and he was really sincere in wanting to know what we believed. He asked about our belief in the Godhead, and my experience in the MTC with Bro. Phipps and John 17:21 really helped me out with that one. He appreciated our answers and our willingness to talk with him for an hour outside on a cold morning. I learned that being nervous, cold, and feeling the Spirit is not a good combination for my body. I was shaking uncontrollably for most of the time. He was familiar with some of the BOM and D&C and Sister Jenson and I would've kept going on and on answering his questions and teaching him, but then Sister Haefele brought us back to where we needed to take him and testified that the only way he could truly know was to read and pray for himself. We expressed our desire to keep meeting with him and helping him learn and understand. He said this week is crazy for him (finals week) and then in January he is going to France for 6 months. We will try contacting him early next week. In closing we all bore our testimonies, and then he bore his testimony to us. Sweet. He's a really nice guy, knows the Bible well, and was honestly just trying to learn and so the discussion went well. I hope we get to see him again.
I mentioned Sharon Flake last week… She is still amazing! We met with her on Wednesday at Sister McGlone's house (her late sister's visiting teacher for 20 years). The Restoration lesson went excellent and she told us many times throughout the lesson that she knew the church was true and was excited to get baptized and go to the temple. She truly does have a testimony already of prayer, scripture study, prophets and much much more. Basically us teaching her is just a formality. She is so ready! God truly has prepared her. We asked if she'd like to set a baptism date and she said she knew she was going to get baptized but she wanted to pray about a specific date before choosing. Right on! We met with her again on Friday (still at Sister McGlone's house) and taught part of the Plan of Salvation and the Word of Wisdom. She really enjoyed it and commented on how it just made sense. Prior to our visit we had asked her to read Alma 40 and she said that she had read it at least 5 times. Wow. Some people we can't even get them to read a few verses, and here she read the whole chapter over and over again. She said she had spent about 4 hours the night before reading and studying and she loved it. She said that for the first time the scriptures are really making sense to her and she said that she knew it was God helping her to understand. We asked her if she had had the opportunity to pray and receive an answer about setting a baptism date. She said she had prayed and she felt like the Lord was leaving it up to her to decide when she wanted to do it. How awesome! – she recognizes answers and understands that God still gives us our agency and we must press forward in faith and be anxiously engaged in a good cause. I love her! So we asked her to pick a date, and she chose Dec. 19th! That was the date that was in my mind since I first met her on Sunday (before we even taught her), and Sister Haefele said that was the date in her mind too. SA-WEET! She is such a good lady. She brought us two large bags full of fudge, fruit, vegetables, candy canes, and juice. And she brought Sister McGlone a dozen roses in appreciation for having the lessons at her house. Sharon will be a great visiting teacher. She came to Ashley's baptism on Saturday evening and really enjoyed it. She began planning her program – she asked the bishop to baptize her, and she knows the old bishop of the other ward and wants him to confirm her, and she asked us to sing. She did all this without anyone mentioning anything to her.
We taught Erin Crouch the Plan of Salvation Friday evening. (She's the investigator that drove us to/from transfer meeting.) We asked if she had the desire to be baptized and she said she did. So we asked her to pray about a date. I don't feel like I know her that well, so judging her true feelings and intentions is hard. But she and her husband Johnny came to church again Sunday (the first time since I've been here) and Erin said she had prayed and felt good about it, but she hadn't decided on a date yet. We taught her the Gospel lesson Sunday night and Johnny was actively participating as well and he said he had a desire to be baptized too. He struggles with smoking and we talked to him about things that will help him quit – especially getting a Priesthood blessing. As we taught them, the Spirit was strong and us sisters kind of had a change of attitude towards them. They are mooching off of Emily right now and living there, and there have been some negative things said about them. But after the lesson, we could all tell that they do have a desire. They may not fully understand what the gospel is exactly yet, but they do recognize that it is good and they want that goodness.
Saturday we went and visited a lady named Nellie. She is related to the old lady (Vivian) that we visit in the nursing home. Vivian is the one who asked us to go over there. At first Nellie commented on her devotion to the Catholic faith that she had been born and raised in and mentioned that she had doubts about our religion and didn't want to listen to us. But then for some reason she let us in. We talked for a bit and Sister Haefele asked about the rosary and so Nellie went through and explained it to us. She continued talking and then she asked if it was true whether we believed that only Mormons would make it to the highest level of heaven. I explained about the requirements that God has set and taught about the spirit world and how it is a place of learning. I think it helped her a little bit, but I think she still feels that us Mormons think of ourselves as an elite, elect group and only us will be saved. It's a hard thing to teach people that they MUST accept the fullness of the gospel to get to the celestial kingdom and that we are the only church with that fullness, without having them think we are self-righteous or something like that.
Saturday night was Ashley's baptism. The attached pictures are from that. She's 14 and though she's still a typical 14 year old, Sisters Jenson and Haefele say that they've seen a ton of change in her since they began teaching her. It was really neat to witness the baptism and feel the Spirit so strongly. We invited Pam and Cheri (both investigators) and Amy (a less-active) to come, but unfortunately, none of them did.
Saturday night we also went over to Justin's to try to catch him and his fiancé home. For the first time, the lights were on. We left him with a Restoration pamphlet, but we haven't taught him yet. We got out of the car to find his pit bull in the front yard. Justin told us she's VERY territorial. Hmm. We stood on the other side of the road for about 10 minutes trying to decide what to do. We trying calling Justin but he didn't answer. We attempted to go knock on the door, but as soon as we started approaching the front yard, the dog started growling and coming toward us. So we got back in the car. After trying to visit a less active family, I wanted to go back to Justin's. We went back, and the dog was not there. We made plenty of noise getting out of the car so if she was there we would hear her and turn around. We made it to the front door and knocked. No answer. We knocked again and then came the barking – from the back yard. We ran quite fast back to the car. Ha. I'm sure it was a funny site. We laugh about it often. :)
We've had to drop some investigators this week. Pam and Cheri (she called us drunk last week) have both been taught numerous times and just won't keep their commitments. We love them both and it was hard to drop them, but we can't help them if they don't have the desire to act. Last night we dropped a guy named Zach that I have never met. Sister Jenson told me that he knows the gospel is true and has been to church and wants to get baptized, but his wife is very against it and he doesn't quite have the strength to do it alone. We visited with him and he said he had been thinking about us that morning. He said it's been rough lately with his wife and he said that he just couldn't do it anymore. That's very understandable. We will pray for his wife to not be so against it so that he can act on his desires. It was really hard for Sister Haefele to drop him. It's hard knowing what we know and knowing that it will bless people's lives and people deciding not to "take the plunge" . Sister Jenson believes Zach will get baptized some time because he does know it's true. Maybe it's not right yet because at this time it would tear his family apart, and that's not what the Lord wants.
Well, I believe that's it for this week. Keep the letters and emails coming. :) I love this gospel and I love being here. The Atonement is real – I have used it in my life and I have seen how it has completely changed people here.
Love you all!
