We met with Mary Tuesday night. We followed up more on the Word of Wisdom and encouraged her. We also taught about the importance of church attendance for the purpose of taking the sacrament. Mary really impresses me. She's received a lot of opposition from Satan since she's started meeting with missionaries again, but she wants to push forward this time. She reads diligently and always loves our visits. She's ready to turn her life around and live for God and do what He wants her to do. Her testimony and faith are strong. She told us that night that she was going out of town for Thanksgiving early, so we set up to make daily contact with her. We stopped by Wednesday before she left Thursday and talked about tithing, faith, and following the prophet. As we talked about faith, I brought up that the Lord gives us things we can handle and our faith increases so that then we can handle bigger things. She struggles with the idea of giving up coffee, so I used that as an example. I pointed out that we didn't ask her the first day to give up coffee but that we worked up to it and helped her build her faith. She then told us that she dropped the sisters last time because they asked her to give up coffee. She said she was about to kick us out of the house and not invite us back when we brought up coffee again. But she said she's ready now. It'll still be hard, but she wants to obey. She really inspires me. Her faith will carry her through. Sadly though, we have not been able to get in touch with her via phone since she left. We hope and pray that the elders in Illinois got a hold of her and helped her get to church.
We had a very short visit with Laura Wednesday. We were pressed for time, and so was she. We covered a quick lesson on prayer. Information was shared, but sadly, we realized that we rushed through it and taught a lesson rather than Laura. We met with her again on Saturday and things went a lot better. We spent the whole visit on Christ's earthly ministry, as testified of in Mosiah 3. She doesn't have much of a knowledge of Christ's life, so we spent the time there and applied it to her life today. It was a really good lesson. It was a totally different feel because we realized that we taught Laura that day, not just a lesson.
We met with Jimmy again with S. Pfeil. It was a really good lesson about Christ and the apostasy. I could really see a change in Jimmy's countenance. He told us he'd been sober for 12 days! He'd been reading in 2 Nephi like we asked him to. We talked to him Saturday night to see if he was still planning on coming to church. He said he was scared because he's really anti-social. He also sounded depressed, so he's probably been drinking again... Then he said that he'd come to church if Sister Latu would hold his hand. OH boy! I don't know what was more funny - the request or Sister Latu's facial expression! Oh I was dying laughing. He called Sunday morning and said he wasn't feeling well so he didn't come. We're most likely going to pass him to the elders.
We had another rushed visit that night, with the Workmans. They wanted to go to dinner/lesson every other week, so we planned short follow up style visits for the off weeks. We planned a 15 minute visit. It was the first time we attempted one, and it was a flop. We rushed through things and it was just like giving him a drink out of a fire hose, not even knowing if he was thirsty. Bro. Mills, our ward mission leader, came with us and he took the time to slow it down and because of a question he asked, we now know Br. Workman's two hurdles in joining the church - he feels like a prophet is kind of like a coach and so we had prophets before to teach us, and now it's time for the performance, so we don't need the coaches with us to show us what to do. He also has an issue with the idea of Christ coming to America. Thank goodness for the wisdom of Br. Mills so that we could find out that information. Sister Latu and I are slowly learning how to slow things down for people and address what they need.
Thursday with Laurence we planned on teaching earth life, Atonement, and Word of Wisdom. He brought up his thoughts/feelings about church - he was annoyed with all the distracting kids because he wanted to pay attention. After discussing that, I was then going to start the lesson, and I led in with following up on his reading. He hadn't read the assigned chapter. He apologized. I took the time to be devastated (as Elder Holland directs in PMG) and we talked about the importance of reading from the BOM. He asked about how much time should be spent in the BOM vs. the Bible, and S. Latu did a great job at explaining the importance of being in the BOM to gain a testimony of this Church, and then once that testimony is developed, the 2 books are both the word of God. I love Laurence. Last week we taught him about the importance of church. Previously he said he wouldn't commit to coming because he didn't want to not keep his word. After the lesson on church, he committed himself to coming. After the lesson on the importance of reading the BOM, he committed himself to reading. I love when people recognize the importance of things and decide on their own to do it! It's much more effective that way! We taught him about earth life on Saturday, and the lesson went really well. He's got lots of ideas and questions about things that happen after death and wants to get there. We want to jump there with him, but we recognize the importance of laying the foundation. He told us Tuesday that he believes there's tiers in heaven. Sister Latu just looked at each other and grinned; it was hard to contain our excitement. Laurence really is ready. He's thirsty for knowledge and understanding. It's fun to see someone so ready.
During weekly planning, we discussed his needs and realized that his baptism (currently on Dec. 18) should be pushed back. We recognized that he has a lot of questions, and we want to help him let things sink in. Though we could cover all the material in that amount of time, we don't feel that that would be in Laurence's best interest. We decided to hold off on the Word of Wisdom because even though he does need to be living it, the reasoning for teaching it so early would be so that he could be baptized on Dec. 18, not because it's what he needs right now. We're learning a lot about focusing on what the people need, rather than on what timeline we want to run on.
We met with Destiny with Sister Boomhower (awesome last name). It's a struggle to work with Destiny. We can't seem to determine what her needs are and how to best help her. She has a testimony, but she doesn't realize it. She's waiting for an AHA moment. She doesn't recognize the small answers she receives along the way. That being said, she "knows" a lot of things, her ability to "apply her heart to understanding" (to know in her heart) is not as far along. But it is there, and it is growing. It's hard to know how to help her see that, and see that baptism is something that will help her to continue on in her conversion. Sister Boomhower shared her conversion story, and it was great because she said she didn't feel like she was converted until the moment of her baptism.
We had pizza at the Bunch's house that night. He's inactive, she's not a member. They're great people. We had a simple lesson to share with their grand(or great-grand) daughter that they are raising. They told us no one had been by to see them from the church in about 5 years. They also said they'd probably start attending church when the new chapel (which is a lot closer) is finished in the spring.
Friday night we taught Anthony again in the Boomhower's home. From the things he expressed about feeling that he had to be able to forgive himself before he could ask the Lord for forgiveness, we prepared a lesson on the Atonement and repentance. He's been taught all the lessons (minus a few commandments) when he was taught by missionaries before, so Sister Latu and I really tried to hone in on how to best teach him what he needs to know, rather than just teaching him a lesson. We only had time to cover the Atonement, but it was a very powerful lesson. It was the first time that either of us have been able to teach the Atonement focused completely on the investigator and address his needs, rather than on focusing on making sure we hit all the points and tie it in with the principle before and after it. Teaching truly happens when we focus in on the people. Other than that, it's just talking, and learning doesn't necessarily take place.
Alexis. Friday we did about 7 hours of walking. As we were walking from one neighborhood to the next, we found Alexis at the bus stop. We stopped and talked with her, and we set up an appointment. It just so happened (i.e. we planned by the Spirit the night before) that we would be in her neighborhood that evening. We went over that night and had an amazing lesson with her. She's 19 and she's got a lot on her mind. She's also very capable of recognizing the Spirit. Right after the prayer, she asked us what God thinks of being gay or bisexual. That was not a question I was expecting! The lesson was amazing because we were able to teach her a principle, and she applied it to her specific concern. We didn't directly address her question, but she got her answer and direction that she needed. We talked and listened, and the principle of "God is our loving Heavenly Father" (the beginning of the REST lesson) was taught/learned so beautifully. The Spirit was really powerful. We left a BOM with her, and assigned her to read Alma 36:17-21 as well as Romans 6 because we had talked a lot about the difference between listening to the Spirit and listening to Satan/the flesh. We encouraged her to take notes about what she read or write down questions. Sister Latu was inspired to let Alexis know that though she received the answer she needed, the Spirit would leave when we left, and Satan would come back and hit her again. We encouraged her to remember the thoughts and feelings she had during our visit. We visited her again Sunday night and she told us that even just later that night, Satan came back at her with that temptation. But she remembered! She stayed strong and kept to her decision! She also pulled out a page (front and back) of notes from the reading we left her. We had a wonderful discussion about what she learned. She really felt the Spirit as she read, and as we discussed again. It was neat to be able to teach a gospel principle (as opposed to a PMG principle) and see Alexis take it in and apply it to her life. The sad thing is that she is moving to New York this week, so we won't get to see her again. She doesn't have a phone, so we gave her a website card and the number to request missionaries. She's going to Brooklyn, and that might be the area that my friend Taeko Smith is serving in. I told Alexis to look out for her. That'd be neat if she was there! Alexis asked if she could keep in touch with us or call us if something came up. For sure! I hope she doesn't get lost in the cracks. I know we were meant to find her. It was a critical point in her life. She's receptive to the Spirit, and she's latch right on to the gospel. I hope and pray she calls and requests the missionaries there!
Saturday was CRAZY! One of Sister Latu's investigators in Anderson was getting baptized. We had work to get done here, so we decided it'd be best if we went on splits with members so that I could stay here and work while she went to the baptism. It was crazy because we didn't have everything worked out for rides and the splits until about 2 hours before Sister Latu needed to go. Everything did work out luckily, and we both learned some important lessons. The lesson I learned was that when I need certain gifts/talents, the Lord gives them to me. When I don't need them, he takes them away and gives me the opportunity to develop new ones. This whole transfer I've been trying to "shove a square into a circle hole" by focusing on figuring out how to use the same talents/gifts I had before. I finally realized that God doesn't need those things from me right now and He wants me to work on other aspects. So now it's my opportunity to give up the square and go find the circle. :)
The Lermas made it to church! (We had ward conference and the stake presidency was in charge of the last hour. Pres. Gibb asked Sister Latu and I to attend Priesthood because he was going to talk about missionary work. Many people told us we were in the wrong place before the meeting started. Kinda funny that they were all adamant that we were wrong rather than asking why we were there.) We sat by Br. Lerma (non-member) and as Pres. Gibb finished, Br. Lerma thought he was going to end and dismiss without a prayer, so Br. Lerma called on Br. Mills to say the prayer. Ha. It was so funny. We met with them after church and began teaching the Plan of Salvation. We gave a visual overview, and then dove in to the pre-earth life. Again, we were able to focus on him and his needs, rather than trying to teach the information. It was very much more effective.
And that's about it for this week. Thanksgiving - aka lots of food - is approaching! We get to play in the turkey bowl that morning, and then we have 2 dinner appointments. Yum!
sister humpherys
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