We met with Earl Thomas, an older gentleman who used to be a pastor. He had read the Plan of Salvation pamphlet we left him and we discussed it. It's so sad to see him reject the doctrines of a pre-earth life, and the three degrees of glory, simply because it's not what he was taught. No matter what scriptures we used or how much we testified, he couldn't (or wouldn't) accept it. He won't accept Joseph Smith as a prophet, despite seeing the parallels with him and Moses, simply because it's not what he was taught. My heart aches for him. He's such a nice gentleman, and he enjoys talking with us, but he won't believe.
We went to see Minda Wise, the non-member wife of a less-active guy in the ward. We sat and talked with her and her mom and her 6 year old son Mack. Very nice people, and Minda expressed interest in coming to gospel principles class. She said she'd try to make it there Sunday since we were starting over with lesson 1. Unfortunately she didn't make it. Hopefully next week. MIssionaries have visited them in the past, and she's very open to us coming and sharing lessons with them. Whether she has the desire to act or not, we don't know. I guess we'll see. Mack is so cute. He walked us out to our car and then he opened the car doors for both of us. Girls are going to fight over him when he gets older. :)
We took Eric and Camille Tesch with us to Paul's lesson Wednesday. Eric was baptized just over a year ago and they just got married a few weeks ago in the Salt Lake temple. Eric was raised Catholic, just like Paul, so we thought it'd be some great fellowship. We turned out to be right. As they were getting to know each other, the discussion naturally led to what we planned to teach - eternal marriage, temples, and family history work. It also worked out that the lesson in gospel principles the previous Sunday was on exaltation, so Paul had some questions on that that also led into the lesson. It was a great lesson. Paul could see the happiness that the Teschs had, and he's excited to go to the temple. And he's already thinking about temple work for his grandparents, mom, and sister who have passed on.
Jeff Postlewaite is the husband of a referral we got from a member in the ward to the north of us. We've tried contacting them a number of times, but they're never home. We met Jeff in the driveway a while back, but just got to talk to him for about 2 minutes. We stopped by to try to catch them home Friday. I had the mindset that it would be the last time we'd try to contact them (we'd called multiple times and left messages in addition to stopping by). Jeff was in his garage when we pulled up talking with the landlord. We reminded him who we were and asked when we could catch his wife so we could talk. He said he wasn't sure, but he said he had some time. He asked what was different about our church, and we told him basically it was that we had a living prophet. We stood in his driveway for about 30 minutes and taught him the Restoration. It was awesome! After Sister Summers talked about Joseph Smith and the First Vision, and how he restored the original faith of the prophets of old, I asked Jeff what his thoughts were. He said he'd have to think about it more and study in the Bible. He told us Sister Summers' explanation was the best one he'd heard. We talked about the patterns God has established of calling prophets and what happens when the prophet/apostles die. He realized that we don't worship Joseph Smith and that we believe - just as he does - that it's all about Jesus Christ. We shared with him the BOM and explained what it was. Then came my favorite part of my mission thus far. He asked the amazing question that is the subject of this installment: how does the BOM change eternity for us? What an inspired question! Sister Summers testified, and then I testified that it changes eternity indefinitely for us. I testified that the BOM has brought me closer to Christ and God, and that's the purpose of the book, and that it will bring him closer to Them as well. I asked him what his thoughts were, and he said he wanted to do just that - come closer to God - so he would read it. He asked if we had some suggested readings from it, and we explained the parts we marked and also said the beginning was also a great place. We talked about the law of witnesses, and invited him to pray to receive his own witness from the Spirit that the BOM is true. Wow, what a neat experience. His questions were awesome. He doesn't seem to be one that was really searching for anything, but he seemed to recognize something good when he heard/felt it.
We met with Carl again Saturday. He admitted he hadn't read much, but he did read the Intro and the testimony of Joseph Smith in the front. He had some questions about the Lamanites, Nephites, and Jaredites. He seems to accept the book at this point, but I don't think he sees it as the word of God yet. Hopefully as he reads more that feeling will come. He said he liked the fact that the BOM was untouched and hence uncorrupted, unlike the Bible. We talked about some logical things, and then taught him the first 3 principles of the Restoration lesson. In closing (as we were short on time), I testified of Joseph Smith to recap from our last appointment with him. I testified that he didn't start a "new" church, but he re-established what had been established by God with Adam and all the other prophets. That rang true to him. He said that "hit the nail on the head". I think he's still in a curious mindset, but I know that if he continues with it and reads the BOM, I know he'll be converted.
We were able to see Hector again Saturday night. He's a 16 year old kid we tracted into about the beginning of April and talked a little bit about the BOM. We finally found him home again and we got to know him and taught him about the BOM. He was very trusting in accepting what we taught as truth. He would say "oh, I never knew that". We told him about Moroni's promise and promised that as he read he would come to know it was true and he would come closer to Christ. He said it was good because he didn't have anything to read right now, and school was just about over, so he'd have time to read. Awesome. We asked if he wanted to go to church the next day and he said sure. Wow, that was unexpected (most people say no). So we got Matt Denkers (Tara's brother) to give him a ride. Hector came on Sunday! Matt and the other priests took good care of him. They left before we could find them afterwards, so we haven't talked to Hector yet, but Tara told us he's going to go to young mens on Wednesday and said he'd come to church again Sunday. Sweet! The only sad part (only sad for us) is that if his family is interested, it will go to the Spanish elders because his parents are more comfortable with Spanish. But a small sadness for us would be great for his family. So I'd be okay with it.
Sunday we diverted from our plans slightly and tried to see Brittney. The elders were in our area and found her the beginning of April. We've set up a few appointments with her, but she'd always have something come up, so we rescheduled. The last appointment she wasn't even there, so we couldn't reschedule. Sunday we decided to just drop by, and she was home and we were able to talk with her! She's 20 and has a 5 year old son. She said she's wanting to turn her life around. She asked about our religion after getting to know her, and we taught her the Restoration. She believes in God and Jesus, but wasn't raised in a particular religion. As we were teaching, we asked her periodically if there was anything that was different than what she believed. She agreed with everything up to Joseph Smith. We taught her about him and the First Vision. It obviously wasn't what she believed before (having never heard of Joseph Smith), but she didn't disagree with it. We were short on time, so we briefly talked about the BOM and promised her if she read it then she would know that Joseph Smith was a prophet. We encouraged her to pray about it. And then the Spirit prompted me. I asked her if she believed that God sent people into our lives as answers to prayers. She said she did. I told her that I felt impressed that we were sent to her at this time to help her make the changes she wants to in her life. I promised that the BOM would give her the desire and ability to change. The Spirit is awesome. She felt it, we felt it. We're meeting with her again on Friday.
We finally got back in touch with Ali & Cindy. They forgot about our appointment with them last night, but they still let us in for a few minutes. We met their 16 year old daughter Alica who is home from college for the summer. (No, I didn't make a typo. Apparently she's brilliant.) We mostly talked about food for some reason. But I tied it in to the gospel using 2 Ne. 32:3 and talked about the importance of feasting, rather than just nibbling, on the scriptures. We discussed it for a few minutes, and it was good. The Spirit was there, even though it was a short lesson.
That's it this week. Until next time... Take care!
sister smurf
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