Sponge baths are not my favorite. I had to take 2 this past week. One day I decided to forgo the shower. We live with members, and they went out of town for Thanksgiving. And somehow, we ended up with no hot water. The second sponge bath I got smart and heated some water on the stove. I felt like I was in a 3rd world country or something. :) Oh we were so grateful that the Hansons came back last night so we had hot water this morning!
This transfer has really been an opportunity that's been afforded me to be in my past companions' shoes. S. Latu is a lot like me, so I've been able to kind of look at myself as I look at her. I've learned a lot about how my actions, both good and bad, affected my past companions. My eyes have really been opened this transfer. Hopefully this transfer I can apply all that I've learned and S. Latu and I can THRASH this place. :) There's lots of work to do!
Okay, now on to more important matters - the people!
We had another good lesson with Anthony at the Boomhower's Monday night. We talked more about repentance. Last time we had left him with some questions to ponder: how do I repent? Do I know I can repent? and Do I want to repent? We talked about the privilege it is to repent and went a little into how to repent. The Spirit was really strong. We felt like he felt it, but maybe he didn't recognize what it was. Something is holding him back from repenting and coming closer to Jesus Christ. We don't know what that is, but hopefully our lesson tonight will be able to help him see how the repentance process brings him closer to Christ.
We met with Destiny again and decided to just have a conversation to figure out where she's at. We've been at a loss. She's received all the missionary lessons. We know that she knows it in her head, but it's not totally in her heart yet. As we discussed, she brought up that she lied to us last time when we asked her how she felt the Spirit. She explained that she didn't want to feel out of place, so she told us what she thought we wanted to hear. She told us the Spirit feels like a warm blanket, but Monday she said it really feels like a surge of adrenaline. We were so grateful that she finally opened up like that. We talked about the uniqueness of how the Spirit speaks to each of us. We feel like now we can get somewhere now that she knows that her progression is very individual to her, and there's no mold she has to fit in to. We feel that she's been looking for answers in the way that others have received their answers to the point that she doesn't recognize all the answers she has been given.
We met with Laura on Tuesday and Saturday again. Tuesday we finished the REST lesson, and focused on the importance of the Priesthood. Though we had just barely gone over her lesson in companion study right before her lesson, during the Tuesday lesson, my mind was completely blank. Thank goodness for S. Latu and the Spirit because I wasn't much help. The lesson went really well though. Laura is eager to learn. We committed her to pray about a baptism date. Saturday when we followed up on it she said she didn't feel ready to be baptized because she didn't know enough. We talked about the importance of setting a goal to work towards so that we can pace ourselves so that when that date comes, she is ready. We also talked about the importance of her feelings and how she doesn't have to know everything before baptism. She is in tune with the Spirit. She said she feels it whenever she reads the BOM. She doesn't always understand what she reads, but she always feels the Spirit. Yay! Saturday we read more in Mosiah with her and talked about the importance of learning more of Jesus Christ so that we can follow Him and return to live with God. Laura impresses me with her desire to learn and do what's right. Her prayers amaze me. We had a quick lesson last week (?) about prayer, and since then, she's prayed very well in all our lessons. Saturday she even said the opening and closing prayers. Right on!
Laurence continues to be awesome. We continue to teach him about the Plan of Salvation, one step at a time. He's so eager to get to what happens after death. He's reading more, though I don't think every day yet. He showed up to church early yesterday. And he even was running on just 5 hours of sleep. Last week he didn't come to church because of a lack of sleep. Good for him this week! As we talked about the earth life or the Atonement (can't remember which lesson), he brought up that he's always thought there are tiers in heaven. Whoa! S. Latu and I could hardly contain our excitement. Grin grin grin. Saturday we finally got to spirit world. We asked him what his feelings were about what happened, and what he shared was probably about 95% aligned with our doctrine!! Even more amazing, is that he shared two dreams he had a number of years ago. The first dream was of a friend who was a good person who had passed on. The friend communicated to Laurence that everything was alright, but also that he was in a state of limbo. The second dream was actually a series. It was of a friend who wasn't so good in this life. He looked miserable, and Laurence said it was more of a nightmare. Over the course of about 10 years he had dreams about this friend, and he progressively looked less miserable, until he was not miserable at all. WOW. What a really inspired question to ask what his thoughts were because he basically taught us about paradise, the need for temple ordinances (1st friend happy but in a waiting place), and prison, and the ability to be taught and accept the gospel. Man, Laurence has really been prepared for this gospel. The lesson was amazing. Laurence felt that it was true. Then the gospel principles lesson yesterday was also on the spirit world, so that was a great reinforcement. I love teaching him! He's still progressing well towards baptism. His learning style is such that he won't be ready for baptism on Dec. 18th - the original date we set - but we realize now that that wasn't an inspired date anyway.
We finally got to meet with Linda again. We decided to have a conversation with her as well since we haven't been able to see her in like 3 weeks. We left last time with her feeling that God is a master manipulator. She didn't like that idea, but she couldn't get it out of her head. That led her to become very stressed and overwhelmed, and she actually went to the hospital for it. Crazy! Through that experience and this time she's had to think, she came up with the realization that love for someone and faith in them are linked together - you can't have faith without loving them and vice versa. She still can't see God as a loving Heavenly Father. She sees all the bad things that happen, and though she says she understands that it's how we learn and grow, she questions that maybe there is a better way. She doesn't trust that God has an eternal perspective and knows things that we can't comprehend. Basically she doesn't believe what is taught in 2 Ne. 2:24. Linda learns by seeing examples. Unfortunately, all the men in her life have been poor examples of good fathers, so it is hard for her to imagine a perfect, loving Heavenly Father. I feel that we're slowly chipping away at the iceberg though. Slowly, she may be able to experience the love that God has for her as His daughter, and her testimony will come through that experience, not anything that us sisters share.
We met with Elizabeth again on Wednesday night. We asked her if she'd been able to read in the BOM, and she responded that she had not made time to read. I love that honesty! The last lesson we didn't get to discuss much about the BOM, we just gave it to her and shared a little, so this time we went into more depth as we read through the Intro with her. It went really well. Sister Darland (member exchange) asked her how she learns best and shared that when she was investigating, she had to read on her own and have things fit into place in her head. Elizabeth also said that reading and knowing for herself is how she learns best. Perfect. We shared the "Boomhower lesson" with her daughters Skyler and Kenzie. (It's a brief overview of the PoS - live at home, come to school, obstacles to getting back home, bridges built by someone else, one bridge requires payment) My testimony was reaffirmed that I'm not supposed to teach elementary school. :) Thank goodness for S. Latu. She's so good with kids and keeping them on track and entertained. I do well with playing with young kids, but when it comes to teaching, give me the older ones! Skyler (5) especially really liked the lesson. She asked us if we would come back the next day. :)
Dinner and a lesson with the Workmans Wednesday night. Yum! Our lesson was one inspired question: how do you know the Bible is true? Br. Workman's faith is in the Bible, and he's not been able to make that jump to the BOM yet. We realized that we need to build from where he's at, not where we want him to be. We had a great discussion centered on that one question. Br. Workman was involved, and he talked a lot. There was no change in him from dinner to the lesson. In the past we've noticed he's kind of reserved during lessons and not really engaged. But this time it was great! The commitments we've left with him in the past, he kind of halfheartedly accepted, and then he didn't complete them all the way, if at all. But this time, we felt we should just commit him to read in the Bible, to strengthen that faith and learn more about Christ. He readily accepted. I think we're finally narrowing in on how to reach him.
The Lermas had us over for lunch and a lesson on tithing on Saturday and then we had a lesson on creation, Adam & Eve, and W.o.W. Sunday. It's hard to tap in to his teaching style. (So many people here have very individualized needs when it comes to how they need to be taught. It's really teaching S. Latu and I how to adapt our methods.) The lessons got taught, but I don't know really how much he got out of them. Last week we had asked him to pray about a baptism date, and we followed up with him, and he said that May 13th kept coming into his mind. He said it's been in his mind since we first brought up baptism a few weeks ago. Right on. I'm not sure why so far distant, but if that's what he needs, so be it.
We had a sweet member lesson with the Kennys last night. S. Latu and I came up with a series of 4 lessons: prayer, BOM, Holy Ghost, opening your mouth. We shared the last one with them, and as we talked and discussed, the Kennys received revelation about how they can open their mouths with the people they're praying for. It was an awesome lesson. They were so excited and eager to share the things they've learned during this series of lessons. I wish everyone was like them in that regard! The Spirit was strong. We shared with them that the purpose of our visits was primarily to strengthen them and asked how they'd been strengthened. S. Kenny shared that she really felt their marriage was strengthened through accepting these commitments and focusing more on spiritual matters together. The Spirit confirmed to me that S. Latu and I really were inspired in the lessons that we developed for the members.
Friday Sister Mat came here on exchanges with me! Oh it was fun. We are short on miles this month, so we did a lot of walking. That meant we weren't able to get as much work done, but we did get to talk a lot. Oh I love S. Mat! She's going to be one of those lifelong friends. She's such a spiritual giant to me, and she's so humble. She said she'd never be ready to train, and I told her otherwise. I was right, because she's training this upcoming transfer. :) S. Mat has a great ability to help me focus on what really matters, and to see the good (in myself, others, and situations) and see what's important. I love our time together. Hopefully we'll get to serve together some day. If not, we'll just have to go on lots of exchanges. :) She's trying to convince me to move to Provo after the mission and be her roommate. Hrm..
Thanksgiving was great! We got to play football in the morning with some elders in our zone and some people from the student ward. So much fun! Then we finished up a service project by picking up food donations. We helped set up at a Presbyterian church Wednesday for their Thanksgiving dinner, so they invited us to come eat. Our district went and had lots of fun. Then S. Latu and I had 2 other dinners to go to. Oh boy. So much food. It was really a great day. Though there could've been less pumpkin pie and more cherry pie. I only got one piece! We got 10 pieces of pumpkin pie sitting at the house though. :( Yuck.
Well, take care all. I'll try to get some pictures sent next week. Love you!
sister humpherys
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