I love serving with Sister Latu. It's turning out to be a great opportunity for me to develop some of my weaknesses in to strengths. We have similar strengths, so I've been allowed to focus on other things. It's been hard, but a blessing at the same time. It's neat to see just how much the Lord is shaping me. I did not expect this transfer to take this shape, but it's a good shape. I'm really learning (at least trying to) how to be humble and rely completely on the Spirit and how to work as a companionship in unity. The Lord has been very kind to me.
Zone conference Tuesday was awesome. It was such a spiritual feast, and that's exactly what I needed. My well was feeling like it was running a little bit dry, so it was good to be filled up again. The assistants trained on planning, and their training was so inspired. Sister Latu and I began to implement their training and we've seen miracles. Planning takes us 60 minutes now instead of 30 (hopefully we'll get better at it), but it truly is sacred time, and we're inspired as to the things we should do. We've reached the goals we set, and even surpassed some. It's amazing. We were busy before (not even time for lunch), but now we're even more busy as we have followed the inspired counsel about planning. I love this work!
Mary is doing awesome! We taught her the commandment of obedience in preparation for teaching here the other commandments. She wants to do what God wants her to do. She has that spirit of obedience already. That being said, she's still drinking her coffee after being taught the Word of Wisdom. It's only a cup a day, and she says she's not addicted. We're working with her to help her see that it's important to give it up now so that the Lord can bless her and so she can qualify for her baptism on Dec. 4th. Her granddaughters (Zaria and Anastasia) have been sitting in on the lessons. They decided on their own to read the Bible together every night. Right on. I don't think I would've done that as an 11 or 13 year old. They all came to church again and really liked it. Sadly, Zaria and Anastasia will be moving back to Chicago in December/January. But they'll be coming to church with Mary until then. Mary really enjoyed gospel principles, and she loves learning new things. She even made some comments in class that were really good.
We met with the Ruby family twice again. We talked about baptism and confirmation and then we talked about the role of prophets and pulled from the scriptures and showed how Abinadi fulfilled those roles. Destiny knows it in her head, but it's not quite in her heart yet. She keeps praying for it. And so do we. These last few weeks have been hard for the family as Bro. Ruby got moved to 3rd shift until the end of December.
Laurence is doing well. We read from 3 Nephi 18 with him and talked about the importance of coming to church and taking the sacrament. We really drilled in the importance of it, and he said it was quite the wake up call for him. We then began teaching him the Plan of Salvation. He admitted that he hadn't been reading in the BOM yet though. We stressed the absolute importance of that and committed him to get into it. He came to church Sunday!!!! He walked in during the sacrament when my eyes were closed and then I looked over at Sis. Latu and she pointed to Laurence sitting next to her! What an exciting thing to open my eyes to! He really enjoyed church and made some comments as well. We got lots of Priesthood men to meet him and talk with him. Great! He just called this morning to reschedule our appointment tomorrow and he called himself Brother Merrell. YAY! I'm so excited for his baptism on Dec. 18th.
We visited with Sister Hand again. During nightly planning, we were coming up with lesson plans, and a random thought about the woman at the well from John 4 came to my mind. We decided to go with it and we'd study it more in the morning and see how we could apply it to her. That morning, we still didn't quite know where it was supposed to go. We went to visit her and shared it with her, and it was amazing how powerful the Spirit was. I'm still not sure exactly what it was that Sister Hand needed, but she sure got it! And she got it from the Spirit rather than from us missionaries. It was really neat to see the Lord work through us when we had no idea what she needed.
We met with Elizabeth again, this time with Sister Hall and also 2 of Elizabeth's daughters. (Interesting side note, while flipping through the area book we found her name from sisters tracting a few months ago, but there was nothing else written. So we don't know if she turned them away or if they just couldn't get in touch with her.) We had a fun time playing the telephone game to teach the kids about the importance of prophets, and the pattern of dispensations and apostasy. It was a really good lesson. Elizabeth wants something good for her daughters. Hopefully she'll recognize how valuable this message is that she's stumbled upon.
We met with the Workmans and Bro. Fahey again. This time we talked about revelation through the BOM. It wasn't as great of a lesson as the one on prayer was, but it was still good. Bro. Workman seems to be opening up a bit more. He made a comment about coming to Priesthood before he joined - meaning he's at least entertained the thought of being baptized. That's a good sign.
We met with Anthony at the Boomhower's house Friday night. Bro. Boomhower brought Anthony to church Sunday. He's met with missionaries before and attended the YSA ward once, but he didn't like it because people were rude and didn't listen to the speakers. He enjoyed the family ward though. So we met with him and began to teach principles from the first lesson. He wasn't really engaged. He was listening, but it wasn't really connecting with him. We brought up baptism and he mentioned that he needs to learn to forgive himself first before he could ask God for forgiveness. Wow. What a big concern that I'm glad we found out! He also wasn't raised in a religious home, so his belief in Jesus Christ is something still new/fresh to him. He still wants to meet with us and come to church, and we told him the things we share will help him be able to forgive himself so that he can be washed clean.
We met with another member referral, Laura, on Saturday. She's Sis. Arnold's daughter-in-law. She likes church and she wants to know more about God and Jesus Christ. She came to church last Sunday and yesterday and brought her 2 boys. She's really interested in learning. It's great to see someone who really wants to know more about God and His plan for us.
We got a referral last Monday night for a guy named Jimmy. We went to meet him, and I believe he was drunk that night. Sister Latu didn't think so. We went back to see him yesterday, and he was totally different. Definitely drunk the first time. He recognizes he doesn't like the path he's on and wants to change. Last week we had left him with a REST pamphlet and when we came back, he pulled out a BOM that someone had given him like 15 years ago. We taught him a little bit and committed him to be baptized and come to church. He said he'd like both of those things. It'll take some time because he's got an alcohol problem, but I really hope he allows this gospel to change his life. It'll be such a night and day difference. I hope he recognizes what he's found.
I think that's about it. There's probably some other short stories I could've included, but I've got a terrible headache right now. I think I may skip out on the dodgeball today and just take a nap. I don't know if I have that much will power though to turn down sports. :)
Take care all!!
sister smurf
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