my new best friend, Andrew Marble. age: 3
me and Sister Haefele at Zone Conference
what happens on a sisters' exchange. Sisters Mat, Summers, me, Latu
Sister Collins - new mission pres. wife
what happens when Sister Summers tries to cook
Anyone and everyone can send me an email. Either click "reply" to this email or send it to candice.humpherys@myldsmail.net, I'd love to hear from you.
I went to Anderson on an exchange again, this time I was with Sister Latu, and Sister Mat came to Fishers. I had a good time on the exchange. I didn't see the amazing miracles that I saw last time, but we were able to help people feel the Spirit, and I learned so much from being with Sister Latu. She is amazing. We talked a lot about how our missions have affected us and our outlook for the rest of our missions and lives. She's a great missionary. She's so powerful as a teacher, and she knows how to invite the Spirit. It was awesome. So I guess the miracles happened silently in my own heart and in the hearts of others. The outward miracles this time followed Sister Mat to Fishers. They taught Jenna who is good friends with some members that used to be in our ward but then moved to Washington. They taught the first part of the Restoration and gave her a BOM. They also taught Jen, a lady who we haven't been able to catch at a good time. She was also taught about the Restoration and given a BOM. Both of them were interested in another visit. Wahoo. I love Sister Mat. She is also bold and powerful and invites the Spirit quickly. And she has an amazing singing voice.
Thursday we went with Sister Gorge and her son Austin to visit the Eastons (less-active). Austin needed to go out with the missionaries one more time to complete his Duty to God, and Sister Gorge was just assigned as Sister Easton's visiting teacher. We went and had a nice visit. Slowly but surely, they're going to come back to church. At least Sister Easton. I can see her testimony. I don't know if Brother Easton ever had a testimony, but he quotes phrases from the BOM here and there. They're open to visits from us and visiting teachers, and when Sister Gorge asked if there was anything she could do for them, Brother Easton said "inspire us". Well, that's just what we all have in mind. ;)
We were finally able to meet with Jeff and Erin Meaux (pronounced "Mo"). His really good friend Jared sent in the referral for him. We learned that Jared once was not such a good Mormon, but something happened in his life, and he decided to get his life in gear, and Jeff was able to see the transformation of him and his family. Jared is now the exec. sec. in his ward in Texas. Jeff and Jared have kids of similar ages and they have similar parenting skills and ideas for what's important and how to raise a family. Jared has talked openly with Jeff about the church, and last year gave him a BOM. Jeff admitted he had only read a little bit of it. Jared told Jeff that anytime, anywhere, when he was ready, he could have 2 people show up at his house and answer any question that he had. A few weeks later was when we got the information and met him in his driveway. They had a newborn at that time, and there were some complications, so we were just barely able to meet with them this week, almost 2 months after meeting him. We sat down with Jeff and Erin and talked with them about the Restoration. Jeff said it made sense about the apostasy and why we have prophets and apostles today. Yet, he can't say that he believes Joseph Smith was a prophet. We talked about the importance of reading the BOM and praying to find out for himself. He basically committed himself to read the whole BOM. I love it when people do that! It's so much easier when they decide to do something of their own free will rather than us asking them to do it. He said he has questions about heaven, why Jared won't drink with him, etc - all things that we cover in the normal missionary lessons. They told us at the beginning that they were entrenched in their church (a non-denominational one) and so they were not necessarily interested in switching churches. But oh, what the Spirit can do. At the end Erin said she was raised Catholic and there's some tension with her family about raising her boys in the Catholic church. So then they said they sometimes attend Catholic church. So much for "being entrenched" in their church... So they're at a point where they have to make some decisions as to which religion to have their kids raised in. Perfect timing for us to enter their lives! Jeff and Erin are so nice, and they're open. I have great hopes for them. As long as Jeff gets over the idea of wanting to read the whole BOM before meeting with us again. Unless he reads it in 2 weeks. That doesn't happen very often, but it does happen.
Friday when we met with Paul, his dad came and talked with us for about 10 minutes. He didn't stay for the lesson, but he did stay for the song. We had talked with Paul about scheming to get the Kirkeiners over for a lesson because Paul's dad worked with Bro. Kirkeiner. While we were talking with Paul's dad, Paul brought up that he told his dad about that idea, and his dad is willing to sit in when they come, or he's even open to going to the Kirkeiner's house. SWEET! Paul is so funny - after his dad left, he snickered and said "we're gonna get him!" Sunday Paul was talking to Bro. Wilson (ward mission leader) about it, and he said he invited his dad's fiance too because she wanted to come. I mentioned to Paul that we could have a double or triple baptism since the date is still two and a half months away. :) He said he got chills thinking about that. How cool would that be. His neice, Sarah, who lives with them doesn't believe in God, but she is slowly - real slowly - warming up to the idea and being comfortable with religion in general.
Saturday is usually a good day to find people home, hence they encourage us to tract a lot on Saturdays. Well, this Saturday, almost no one was home. And it was HOT. Not a fun combination. (At least we weren't wearing nylons though!) Right before lunch time, a pastor from the Church of Christ let us in. What a Christian thing for him to do. It wasn't really a good experience though because he just wanted to prove us wrong and he would hardly let us get a word in. We were able to correct some of his misconceptions about our beliefs, but he still was adamant that we were going against the Bible. He said it was great we were going about evangelizing, but that it was a shame we were doing it with the BOM. At one point I bore strong testimony of the BOM. I felt the power of the Spirit, but I could tell that it was falling on deaf ears. My heart aches for him and his wife. They have a handful of right ideas, but they use them to come to the wrong conclusions. They are so blind to the truth and they don't even know it. It's so sad coming across those type of people who don't even really want to listen to what we have to say, but just want to prove us wrong. It makes me so mad at Satan for deceiving so many Christians.
Sunday we met with Carl again. We taught him the Plan of Salvation. It was a really good lesson. He accepted the idea of the Fall being a good thing, and he said that the kingdoms of glory made the most sense out of anything he's ever heard. For some reason he's hesitant to pray. We asked him to pray about whether the things we taught were true, and he said he'd think about the things, but he wouldn't commit to praying. I wonder if he's afraid of the answer he might get. I'm not sure. He's accepted everything we've taught, with the exception of fully understanding the implications of the Restoration through Joseph Smith (i.e. one true church - that's us). If we could just get some members there with us, I think that would help him get to church, and once he gets there, I think he'll accept it. We've lined up a few members to come with us, but each time we have, the appointment has fallen through. The times we don't have members with us is when we get to meet with him. I really think members are key in getting him there though. Give him a reason to go.
Well, that's all for this week. Thanks for all your prayers and letters!
sister humpherys
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