Today should hopefully be a very exciting day - I should get my license in the mail! It's about darn time. Hopefully being able to drive (instead of fearing for my life anytime we go anywhere) will relieve some stress and tension, and we can both focus more on missionary work.
Thursday we taught Tina a full Restoration lesson. We really emphasized the restoration and importance of Priesthood authority. She says what we say makes sense. Now it's just a matter of getting her to seek a spiritual witness and act on it. That will be the hard part. We have an appointment with her this Thursday, and hopefully we will be led by the Spirit and she will feel the Spirit and have a desire to act.
Friday we met with Sharon and John Flake with Bro. and Sis. Doyle (HT/VT). We taught John the last part of the Plan of Salvation. It was great to have Sharon and Brother Doyle there - both converts to the church - to share their testimony of the Plan of Salvation. We talked about baptism and we extended a soft baptism commitment to him, asking if he'd be baptized when he knew for himself. He said that when he knew, he'd commit wholeheartedly. We talked about now needing to know everything since baptism is the gate, and so I think that we'll go over the baptism interview questions with him this week. We talked with him about the importance of authority and that's why he would need to be baptized in our church, despite having been baptized in another church. The Spirit was there and John felt it. It was neat. I really think he's close to joining his wife in the gospel. He enjoys church and the people there, and he loves us coming over. He thinks his smoking will be a problem, but I have no doubt that once he decides he wants to quit and join the church, he'll be given the strength to do it.
We met with Bill and Aggie and read and discussed 1 Nephi 2 with them. Bill mentioned he was having a hard time understanding exactly when and where things took place and couldn't really relate to it like he could the Old Testament (crazy, I know). So we had a good meeting with them and I think they were able to see better how the Book of Mormon is applicable to them.
I met John Mellencamp's (singer) son. I had no idea he lived here in Indiana.
Friday night we had a sleepover with Sister Jenson and Sister Smith (my mission mama and my actual 2nd cousin). We had a mission conference at 9:30 am Saturday in Indy and we would've had to get up at 4:30 to drive up Saturday morning. Sister Jenson, knowing that Sister Spindler doesn't like driving, took the liberty of asking Pres. Corey if we could drive up the night before and then ride with them to the meeting. What a relief. Sister Spindler still had to drive mostly to Indy, but we didn't have to get up so early and didn't have to travel during high traffic time. It was fun to be with the other Sisters. We're so far south and far away from even our district leader (30 minutes), we kinda feel like we're out of the loop and in our own little world at times since we don't see other missionaries around.
Saturday was our mission conference. Elder D. Todd Christofferson, Claudio R. M. Costa, and Elder Lansing were there. It was a great 2 hour meeting. I took a lot of notes (which I forgot to bring with me). What I mostly got out of the meeting was teaching by the Spirit and helping the people we meet with feel the Spirit and leaving them to ponder things when the Spirit is strong. They also talked about diligence and obedience and the blessings that come from those. One of them talked about Alma 36 as the BOM MTC experience. Pretty neat to look at it like that. The meeting was awesome. I wish it could've gone longer.
Sister Spindler got herself so stressed Saturday evening to the point of becoming sick. As she rested, I called and asked Pres. Corey for help in helping Sister Spindler. I talked to him about me being overwhelmed at times and not sure I had the ability to help Sister Spindler. He assured me that the Lord made the assignment and He knows what He's doing. He also told me to just do what I could, and that's all He expects from me, and it's not completely my responsibility to help her - it has to be her decision. It was good to talk to him and know that he and the Lord have faith in me, and that there is a purpose for Sister Spindler and I being together. If nothing else, it's a learning experience and opportunity for me to develop the Christlike attributes I'm lacking.
We've done a lot of tracting lately because of a scant/almost non-existent teaching pool. Last week our goal was to pass out at least 3 pamphlets a day. We didn't quite reach that goal, but we did pass out more than we had before. This week our goal is to give out 3 BOMs, and yesterday we gave out 2. Both people seemed interested, so we'll try back in a while and see if they are ready for the gospel at this time. Before we gave out the 2nd one, I was contemplating taking our lunch break early because no one seemed to be home. But then I decided to finish the street, and that's when we found Justin and gave him the BOM. Good things come from being diligent.
So I've been studying faith the last few days, and I've learned a lot. I don't have much time to write about it, but an interesting scripture chain I put together is (in no coherent order - sorry): Alma 32:21; Moses 5:4-9; John 7:17; John 14:12. A key thing between the 1st two scriptures is that one definition of the word "see" is "to understand". I've learned a lot from studying PMG, the Bible Dictionary, and True to the Faith. Great resources. I know that my faith has been strengthened as I've come to understand more about what exactly faith is.
Well, I hope this finds you all well. Take care, and send some warm weather my way! :)
Sister Humpherys
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