Paul has been wondering about the baptismal interview, so Wednesday night at the Rock's home we went over the questions with him. It put his mind at ease knowing it was all based on testimony rather than knowledge of specific facts. He didn't answer the questions to us, but I know he can answer each of them perfectly because his testimony is so strong. We then watched Elder Christofferson's conference address about the importance/blessings of scripture. Paul was just in awe. He felt the power of his calling as an Apostle as he spoke. It was so neat to see his response. He was only able to attend one hour of conference back in April, so we told him he could watch them online and he's excited to do so. Friday night we had him in the Fiddler's home and talked about missionary work. Brother Fiddler shared his conversion story and his feelings about missionary work. It was great. We invited Paul to participate in missionary work and helped him to see that it's not about what he knows about facts, but what he feels and what his testimony is. He told us that his dad and his neice have started to ask him questions about things. That's a great improvement. At this time, they're not interested in sitting down in a lesson with us, but I think in time as they see Paul continue to progress, I think they'll come around. Paul's dad used to work with the elder's quorum president, so that's some good fellowship. Paul's neice doesn't believe in God because she's been through some tough times, losing her mom and her grandma both recently. Oh what a knowledge of the Plan of Salvation could do for her! Paul is excited to share what he knows/feels with others.
As we've met with members this week we've shared with them a lesson about being instruments in God's hands. The Suzuki's shared their conversion stories and how they went on to be missionaries, and Sister Lambert shared a mission experience about her following the Spirit and truly feeling like she was an instrument. Great stuff. We're hoping that the ward missionary work takes off as we help the ward have confidence in us as teachers and instruments to invite the Spirit. Sister Hatch told us she has a friend that wants to investigate. She couldn't come to church this past Sunday because she was out of town, but she said she'll probably come next Sunday and if she does, then she'll introduce us and we'll start teaching her. How awesome that will be!
We've had some small successes in tracting this week. We found Suellen Wednesday who said she wasn't really in a place to do a "full-blown investigation or exploration" (her words), but she was receptive to receiving a copy of the BOM and letting us come back to talk with her more about it when she gets back from vacation in a few weeks. We encouraged her to take the BOM with her and read it while she was gone. We met Logan the next day. We talked with him about prophets and apostles and the Restoration, and he said he didn't see why God wouldn't call prophets and apostles. We left him a REST pamphlet and set up a return appointment. That same night we also talked with a man who initially said we didn't need any more prophets after Jesus. I testified that Jesus was the savior and that the prophet's role is to lead us to the Savior. We told him of Thomas S. Monson, and he said he didn't think it was true, and I asked him if he'd like to know for himself. We gave him a REST pamphlet and asked him to read it and pray and he could know for himself. He said that was "fair enough" and that he would do that. Testimony softens people's hearts. The next day we met Zac who started to say he was atheist, but then said agnostic. I don't know if he knows what he is. We talked about the Plan of Salvation briefly, and I felt impressed to talk with him about God's love for him and how he can come to feel of that love and come to know God. Then I was also impressed to ask for a return appointment, which as a surprise to me, he said yes and said he was interested in learning more. I'm glad I followed the Spirit on that one. Then Saturday we met Lee Ann who said she thought it was possible that God would call prophets and apostles in our day. We left her with a pamphlet of the testimony of Joseph Smith and set up a return appointment. Monday we met Amy and testified of the Plan of Salvation and the BOM and she accepted a copy of the BOM and seemed really interested in reading it as we pointed out some key passages. We'll call her in a few days to find out her schedule and make an appointment with her. And there was another lady yesterday who was heading out to her car and we introduced ourselves and asked if there'd be a time we could come back and talk about Jesus Christ with her. She said we could, and then she asked for the pamphlet she saw sticking out of my scriptures (Joseph Smith's testimony). Then she asked if that was all we had, and we gladly gave her a REST pamphlet as well. We're sifting through the many to find the few. It's not the most time efficient, but we do find some people. Blessings sure do come when we do the Lord's work, especially in the hot, humid weather. ;)
We stopped in to try to see Linda on Friday. We briefly met her in her driveway a few weeks ago and she said we could come back (we didn't teach her anything). She opened the door to us and invited us right in. She was raised Catholic but hasn't been in a long time. Her son passed away due to a drinking problem back in January. We talked with her about the pre-mortal existence and the spirit world and a little bit about the 3 degrees of glory. We left her with a PoS pamphlet and committed her to read it and pray about the things we taught. She seemed to accept them in terms of them making sense and I sense that she wants to believe it, but she said her upbringing as a Catholic and all her Catholic schooling make it hard to grasp something different. We testified that her prayers would be answered. We left her with a BOM. She told us that elders had visited her about 15 years ago and gave her a copy but she didn't know where it was. Hopefully she'll put this one to good use.
Saturday Sister Summers and I talked about the importance of our faith to find people and our faith in God's promise to fill our mouths as we go out and testify boldly. Lately I've noticed a lot of timidity in our companionship, and that's not what the Lord has sent us out here to do. So we talked about that and resolved to be stronger and more bold in testifying of truth. That morning we went out tracting and we had a wonderful door lesson with a Muslim man and a Hindu woman. Both of them asked where our church was and said they would try to visit sometime (without us even inviting them!) I know those great lessons were a direct result of our prayers and efforts to be more bold in testifying.
Sunday we stopped in to see if we could get back in touch with Norma. She was home and let us in and we met her step daughter Erin and her boyfriend (?) Travis. We talked with the 3 of them and shared a brief spiritual thought. Erin and Travis attend schools in West Virginia. We asked if they knew much about our church, and both of them said they had Mormon friends but didn't really know much about our faith. We asked if they'd be interested in having missionaries visit them. They didn't say no, but they didn't really say yes either. But we gave them a pass along card with the church website on it and picture of the Salt Lake temple. Erin mentioned it would probably come in handy for her religion class she's taking next year. Hopefully they'll both check it out.
For Memorial Day yesterday we didn't have any meal appointments, but as we dropped by some members' homes, we got invited to 2 cookouts. There were multiple families from the ward at each, and some nonmember family members at one, so it was a great opportunity for us to build some relationships with lots of people. Definitely killing two birds with one stone. :)
Well, that's it for this week. Hopefully next week I'll be able to report on some of those people we tracted into and set up return appointments with. Love you all!
sister humpherys
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