Well, Thursday of this week we drove out to see Tina. The first time we taught her we skimmed some of the Restoration lesson amongst getting to know her and her background and answering some questions she had. This time we felt that we should teach the Plan of Salvation and come back again later and teach a full blown Restoration lesson. The lesson was really awesome. Every time we meet with her, the way I feel the Spirit is by my whole body shaking. I've never had that happen before (except for when the Spirit was accompanied by nervousness and/or cold), but it's happened both times we taught Tina. For the first time I really felt like Sister Jenson and I were teaching in unity and it was natural. Before, it's always been trading off principles – planned switching. But this time it was more natural and unplanned and we taught together. It was great. We asked Tina about her beliefs about Adam and Eve and then later about what happens after death. Her beliefs were not in contradiction to ours, just incomplete. Though she did think that we wouldn't be as families after death. As we talked about the Spirit World and the 3 Degrees of Glory, she readily agreed and said it makes so much sense. We read from Alma 40 and she folded down the page so she could come back to it later. We had asked her last time to read Alma 34 and 3 Nephi 11. She misunderstood and was trying to read all the pages in between those two chapters. She said she didn't finish it, but she must've read a few chapters at least. We pointed out the Spirit to her and told her that when things sound familiar and they make sense, that's when the Spirit is testifying to her. She thanked us for coming and she said she would think a lot about what we said. She then told us that we just totally made her day by coming and teaching her. We invited her to church but she said she doesn't make promises. She didn't make it Sunday, but hopefully after we teach her the Restoration lesson on Thursday she'll have a stronger desire to come to church. Tina's great. She likes the Book of Mormon, she talks to God and recognizes His hand in her life, and she accepts what we've taught. Hopefully she'll continue on and progress in the gospel.
After meeting with Tina, we rushed back to Bloomington to meet with Sharon Flake, and her husband, John. Sharon has never let us in her house before because John smokes and she doesn't want us to be subjected to that kind of environment. We told her over and over again that we've been to worse places, but she just wouldn't have it. But we convinced her this time, because we were going to come with her home and visiting teachers – Pat & Ray Doyle. So, John had been reading the Book of Mormon and was interested in learning about the Mormons. With Sharon, for the new member lessons, we were back to the Restoration – perfect to teach John as well. John made us some wonderful vegetable soup with venison in it. YUM! He makes a good vegetable soup. So then we taught the Restoration lesson, which was kind of hard with 4 of us plus Sharon trying to get words in. The Doyles brought up some stuff that was a bit over John's head since he's just learning about our beliefs for the first time, so we had to rein it back in. I didn't feel super great about the lesson afterward, but later that day we called Sharon to set up a time for next week, and she said that we had gotten John excited. I'm sure it wasn't anything I said, but the Spirit must've touched him. The fellowship from the Doyles will be great. John did come to church Sunday! We were so excited! He stayed for the whole block and seemed to enjoy the meetings, though we didn't get a chance to talk to him afterward. He finds our beliefs so far in good harmony with how he was raised, so that's good. I'm not sure where he's at exactly though – he may just see us as just another church with good people. Hopefully he will have more spiritual experiences and he will gain a testimony of the gospel.
Friday we had planned to go tracting after district meeting until our service time. District meeting went long, so we didn't have very long to tract (only about 25 minutes), but we decided to go anyway because we need to find more people to teach. We knocked 3 doors on the west side of the street. The first was nice, but didn't have time right then. The 2nd was nice but not interested, and the 3rd wasn't home. It was about time to go so we could get to service, but Sister Jenson said one more door. I was thinking we should go to the house across the street rather than the next one on the west side, but I waited to see which one Sister Jenson was feeling. She also felt the one on the other side. So over there we went. Keith Abram let us in and we talked with him. He just got baptized that week into the Church of Christ and was happy with his faith. He didn't seem all that interested, but we gave him a pass-along card for the Book of Mormon. Sister Jenson testified of the Book of Mormon and that it brings us closer to Christ. Keith said that we all need that. Rather than leaving as we were expecting to after we gave him the card, he kept talking. We talked to him about the sacrament, missions, and we cleared up that his friends who don't celebrate Christmas are Jehovah's Witnesses, not Mormons. We also told him if he was ever interested, our church service is at 9:00 on Sundays. He asked how big the congregation is because he and his wife always see a full parking lot on Sundays. We talked with him for a good 15 minutes. It was a good tracting lesson, but he didn't really seem interested. We were late for service, but it was worth it. After 2 hours at service, we were both starving. It was our break, so we decided to stop at Subway on the way home. Inspiration can also come in the form of hunger we realized. We walked in, and Keith was sitting there eating lunch. As he went to refill his drink, he came up and said hi to us and then he told us that he called and ordered a Book of Mormon! He said they told him representatives would come by and we told him that would be us. Wow. What a blessing! We didn't get the referral until yesterday though because it got sent to the elders (there's 3 wards in Bloomington, so the referrals sometimes go to the wrong missionaries first). We finally got it figured out and the referral said that Keith had thought about the things that we talked to him about and he wants to come closer to Christ and "wants a Book of Mormon badly". SWEET!!! We haven't been able to catch him at home again yet, but we keep trying.
At service that day we talked to two of the volunteers. One of them, Tom Meador, acted like he didn't really like us the first time we were there, and then he seemed to be nice when he had to. This week when he came in though, he came and talked to me, and he seemed to find reasons to come talk to me. I sensed that he wanted to talk religion but didn't know how to bring it up. I felt like he was looking for something. After a little while, religion did come up and we talked to him. Sister Jenson also got the feeling that he was looking for something. On the way home we looked up his address so that we might could tract in his neighborhood. He's in the Clear Creek ward boundaries though, so we told the elders to go tract that area. He's a nice guy, and he's recently turned his life over to Christ. Yet he's still searching. We've got the answer buddy! Hopefully he'll be receptive and recognize the truth. We told the elders to go to his area before Friday, so maybe we'll get to hear about it Friday at service when we see him next.
Yesterday we met with Bill and Aggie again. Aggie isn't doing too well – coughing up blood and bruising. She's got some appointments this week. It's not looking to good for the 85 year old lady. But she's still happy and funny as ever. They both enjoyed the Restoration DVD that we left with them. Aggie said she had no problem with people talking to God. She then asked if we believed in the Trinity. As we talked and then she talked, we realized that she doesn't believe in the Trinity either. But she doesn't realize that she doesn't. They are very open to things that the Catholic church doesn't support or believe, but they're "devout Catholics". I think with Aggie it's more a matter of tradition. Bill seems to be more and more interested. He wants to come to church, but Aggie always talks to one of her sons at 10 am on Sundays. But Aggie did say maybe she could move it so they could come to church this coming Sunday. I think having Sister McGlone there with us to fellowship them is helping Aggie's desire to come to church. Hopefully she will be well enough.
Well, last night the power went out on our street. We're not sure why. It was out for an hour. It was 10:15 when it went out, so we went to bed bundled up in case it was a while before the power/heat came back on. Luckily it did come back on so we didn't freeze. We had called our zone leaders about what to do if it didn't come back on, but they weren't too helpful. One of them suggested using a space heater… Smart one.
I hope this finds you all well and good. It started to warm up here, but then it got cold again. Darn. Take care!
candice
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