I've been so excited about Oct. 2, so I'm going to talk about that first, then fill in the rest of the week.
Oct. 2, 2010 will go down in my history as one of the best days ever. Paul's baptism was at 10 am before conference. Sister Summers and Esplin got to come back for it. Pres. and Sister Collins attended, and we held the service in the chapel because of the large turnout. Bishop said it was the largest turnout that he'd ever seen for a baptism. The center section of the chapel pews was nicely packed. We were supposed to have 2 investigators (Devon and Melvin) there, but they didn't show. :( Paul asked Sister Marshall and I to share part of the Restoration lesson while he was getting changed rather than have a video or prelude music. His dad and future mother-in-law and his brother were there. It was great! Paul asked me to give the talk on the Holy Ghost, and then he asked Sister Summers and I to sing - since we would always start our lessons with him with a hymn. (After the first session of conference, he told us that we had MoTab beat. I think he's a little biased.) The baptism was amazing! Watching Paul step in to the waters with Brother Norton brought tears to my eyes. Sister Summers and I knelt down behind all the little kids to watch. We had a warm embrace with each other right after, and the tears kept coming. How amazing. There were lots of tears. The Spirit was so strong. Oh how I wish I could just give Paul a huge hug! He's always had a light about him, but you could even notice a difference after he was baptized. He's just going to continue to grow brighter and brighter. Oh, I love Paul! I'm excited for his confirmation this upcoming Sunday, as I'm sure it will be just as much of a spiritual feast. The ward is great - he's already got home teachers assigned and a home teaching route set up. Oh I never want to leave this ward.
WE'RE GETTING A TEMPLE IN INDY!!!! In that session of conference, it was mostly missionaries in the room (12 of us) and we all gasped for joy and then the tears of joy came. All of you people who wrote me, some help you are. I still have no idea what the other temples announced are. :) Everyone was so excited, and speculations are already running amuk about where it's going to be. It's quite possible it could be pretty close to Fishers. I'm definitely coming back for the dedication and such. Oh, we've been praying to get a temple for quite some time. I'm so excited!
Conference was great! I loved the talks on faith and trusting in God, and also about prophets. We invited tons of people, and a good number of them said they would come, both potentials and investigators. However, only one guy came - David Adams. Sister Summers and I tracted in to him back in like April or May. He is a Quaker and met with missionaries for a long time back in the 70s and he knows more church history than I do, and even defends our faith to other people. He was there Saturday morning when they announced the temple in Indy. He was glad he got to see that and said he was going to tell everyone about it. He knows a lot about the church, but he has no testimony of it. Hmm.
Last Tuesday we met with Devon again. Ever since we started giving him a bright green sticky note with the next appointment written on it, he's never missed one. This one he actually borrowed his friend's car to drive home so he could be there for the appointment. What a great kid. We talked a lot about God being aware of us and answering our prayers, and receiving answers through other people. We talked a little about the First Vision and the restoration of the Priesthood. He said it sounded kinda crazy, but he knew it was true because we wouldn't lie to him, because we represent Jesus Christ. That's right! He said he'd been praying to know that Joseph Smith was a prophet. He hasn't gotten an answer yet, but he told us he thinks that he is, again because we wouldn't lie to him. We met with him again Friday and he told us how he'd been reading in Daniel and then in the BOM and when he read in the BOM it clarified what he was reading. We talked about how that is exactly how it works. He had been reading in Daniel 2, so we talked a bit about that, and then began teaching him the Plan of Salvation. He didn't have any concept of a pre-mortal existence, but he seemed to like it as we taught it. He's such a good kid. He was supposed to come to Paul's baptism and conference, but when Naoto Suzuki went to pick him up, Charlotte (his mom) said he left for the weekend. Hmm. Bummer. We'll see him tomorrow and give him a swift kick in the pants. :)
We stopped in to see Cindy Mahjoub Tuesday night while Ali was at work. She told us that they're not really speaking to each other much since he freaked out about the baptism thing. Uh oh. We assured her that we weren't going to push anything, and we recognized the importance of families. She said in time things will simmer and we can meet again. In the meantime, we gave her the link to watch the R.S. broadcast and conference. She was excited about that. She was going to invite Ali to watch conference with her. I think if Cindy were single, she would accept the gospel at this time, though it would take some time to rid her of the false traditions of the Unification church. But, we're not going to drive a wedge in their family at this time. We'll continue to pray for them and hope that a door will open and that Ali's heart will be softened.
We had our last investigator lesson with Paul at the Norton's home Tuesday night. It was a great lesson on prayer and personal revelation. The Spirit was there, and everyone (including Paul) shared some personal experiences. I love the Norton's, and I love Paul. I'm sad now that we won't get to see him twice a week anymore. We're going to work with the ward missionaries and home teachers to teach him the new member lessons, and we're going to fade out. I feel no apprehension about the ward taking charge of things, I'm just sad that I won't have as much of a direct role anymore. But that's a sure selfish thing of me to say.
We had a lesson with Norma Wednesday, and Sister Suzuki called us that morning to ask if she could go with us (I love when members do that!) We finished teaching about the Plan of Salvation, and Sister Suzuki bore a great testimony about it truly being a plan of happiness. We had the cut outs to visually show Norma, and we then compared it to her view of the Plan of Salvation. We were able to show her that we have a more robust view, but it uses the same pieces that she knows already. I think that really helped her. We invited her to conference and she kept saying "if I come", and I would say "no, when you come". Later in the week we stopped by and left her a note reminding her about when she came, and gave her a little extra motivation with telling her Sister Summers would be there (as if a prophet of God isn't enough to motivate someone...). She called that night and she said she was going to try to make it. I again reinforced the when rather than if. Sadly, she didn't come. We stopped by Sunday night, and she said she was sorry she wasn't able to make it, and that she was even going to try to come Sunday but things came up and she wasn't able to. We asked her if she'd thought about the Plan of Salvation since Wednesday, and she said she had, and she had a question about the 3 degrees of glory. We talked about that and cleared up her understanding. We're gonna get her. In time.
We met with Hector Wednesday and read 2 more chapters in the BOM with him. He told us that reading with people helped him, so we said we'd set up to have either us or some of the YM in the ward come and read with him 3 times a week. We talked about why we want him to read the BOM, clarifying that it will not only help him to be better and closer to God, but it will help him gain a testimony of the Restoration. We talked about feeling the Holy Ghost and how as we're baptized, we can have the Holy Ghost with us always. We then commited him to baptism and he accepted! We didn't set a date with him yet though because we still have A LOT to teach him, but we asked him to think and pray about a date. Sadly, he was not home for our reading appointment the following day. He has a hard time remembering things. I think we need to give him more bright green sticky notes.
We had an appointment with Bill again on Thursday. We got there and he said he was experiencing some positional vertigo, but he still wanted to meet with us. Wow, I've had people cancel on us for much less. We sat down and talked with him a little. He said he'd finished Alma (again) and he was reading about the importance of baptism. He said he'd been praying about a day to be baptized, but he hadn't gotten an answer yet. We were there for maybe 20 minutes, when he then got sick again and had to go throw up. What a trooper for still wanting to meet with us! We decided it'd be best to come back next week. He's really got some good desire. If only his wife's heart would be softened, he'd act on that desire. It's hard to know whether to help him move forward in faith or to let things sit for a while and let his wife's heart be warmed.
We had a lesson with Roni & Michael again, and we brought the Rocks with us. Roni & Michael are attempting to meet the challenge of reading the BOM in a month and a half, but they're getting sidetracked by small details. For example, in 1 Ne. 17 when they ate raw meat because God told them not to use fires, Michael brought up that in the OT it says for a perpetual covenant, they will not eat raw meat. Oh how much they're missing the mark. We pointed out that the lesson to be learned was that God was providing a way for them. Because of their questions about the silly details, they're not on track with the reading schedule, but they were done with 1 Nephi, so that's progress. It was great to have the Rocks there with us. Michael let go of his questions/objections a lot quicker (though I think he just dropped them for the sake of time, rather than overcoming them), and we were able to talk a lot more than we normally get in. We talked about how the Pharisees and Jews missed the mark by focusing on the details. Michael is a modern day Pharisee/Jew in that regard. I don't know if he caught on that that's what we were telling him or not. He talked about the devil being in the details and how the BOM might be mostly true, mixed with some untruths, so he's going to scrutinize the details. I testified to them that if they would read through the whole BOM and focus on the big picture, then the details would begin to make sense. The only hope I have for them is that they are reading the BOM. Hopefully they can catch the Spirit of it. Afterwards, we just had a bummer feeling, so we stopped by to see Paul to cheer us up. That sure worked!
We finally met with Melvin again! The Noblesville elders met with us too, and we had a good discussion on helping Melvin to have the strength to live the Word of Wisdom and stand up to his friends. We shared Ether 12:27, and he really liked that. We assured him that telling his friends he didn't want to drink would not ruin their friendship. He slowly gained more conviction throughout the lesson. Then the elders gave him an amazing Priesthood blessing. It was very powerful, and Melvin really felt it. He said he felt really good, and he felt like he could do it. Oh I just love the Priesthood. His phone got turned off, so when he didn't show up to the baptism or conference we couldn't get a hold of him. Hopefully he's still planning on our lesson tonight with him.
Friday we stopped by Vanessa's house to invite her to conference. She seemed really interested in it and said to call her in the morning to see if she could make it. Sadly, she didn't come. We stopped by Sunday morning before conference, and she said she was just still having a hard time with the passing of her mom. We had just planned on stopping by briefly, but then she asked what our view was of what happens after death. So we sat down and talked with her about the spirit world and the 3 degrees of glory. As we finished, she thanked us for coming and said it was really what she needed. We have a lesson with her and Sister Guymon tomorrow, so we'll teach her more about the Plan and the Restoration, and hopefully commit her to baptism. She's searching. She told us she was trying to figure it all out about what she believed about after death because of her background with Judaism, Catholicism, and Native American-ism (hehe). I think she'll really latch on to the truth.
Well, that's all folks. Thanks for all you do!
PICTURES:
Bro. Norton & Paul (x2)
esplin, marshall, norton, paul, me, summers
paul sr, paul, lillian (dad's fiance)
after baptism
sister smurf
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