Sister Latu and I took a long break last Monday to iron out some kinks in our companionship. I had brought up some personal concerns the previous Thursday, and Monday S. Latu brought up some personal concerns, as well as concerns for the companionship. We took a long hard look and we discussed, and we were able to come up with some inspired goals. Our eyes were opened to what was taking place and why the frustration. It really was revelation. The solution we came up with addressed not only how to be a better companionship and help our investigators more, but it also addressed our individual personal concerns. God sure is able to kill two birds with one stone if we let Him. :) We're still working at the implementation, but things are starting to go better in that regard, and we're getting better at working as a whole rather than as two separate parts.
We met with Laurence 3 times this week - 2 lessons and a question/answer session. We taught him first the principle of following the prophet and obedience, stressing the principle of faith with each of them. We brought up how since the prophet is God's mouthpiece, following the prophet is following God and how commandments are given to us to bless us and make us happy. He told us that he understood what we were saying, and in his own words he said we were teaching him about God's prophet and that this is God's way. With that foundation, we then taught Word of Wisdom. I was hesitant to teach it earlier because I wasn't sure how he would react to it. He smokes and occasionally drinks alcohol and coffee. I wanted to make sure he had a good foundation before bringing up something that requires a higher degree of commitment. S. Latu didn't feel my same hesitation, but we decided to wait until this week. When we planned the lesson, I no longer felt hesitant to teach him. I felt he was prepared for it. So we taught it to him and he says he really wants to quit smoking, and the other things wouldn't be a problem to give up. He'll have to take some time to quit, but the desire is good, and he has already been taking steps to quit. We stressed that if he has that desire and commitment to act, the Lord will bless him with strength that he didn't have before when he tried to quit. The question/answer session was good. He continues to read the 3 chapters a week we assign. Hopefully soon it will become an ingrained habit that he does on his own. As for now though, he's up to 1 Nephi 12, and he's learning a lot. Friday we covered repentance. That's been something that's been on his mind almost from the beginning, as we've stressed faith, repentance, baptism, and gift of the Holy Ghost. He feels like he's stuck on the 2nd step. We went through the steps of repentance briefly with him, showing him how much of the repentance process he is actually doing. We assured him that it is a process and that there may be times of relapse, but the mindset is the key indicator. That helped him to see that he's further along in the process than he thought. He's still praying about being baptized, but still no answer. Or, he's not recognizing his answer. We're going to address that this week.
We had a big lesson with Destiny on Tuesday. Her in-laws (recently reactivated because of her asking him to baptize her), Bro. Ruby, and Bro. Hanson (EQP) were all there. We taught about justice and mercy. We more so hit on justice to kind of paint the picture of how much we need mercy. We left her with Alma 42, D&C 45:3-5, 3 Ne. 9:13, and a story from Gospel Principles ch. 12 to read. In the car on the way to our next appointment, S. Latu and I talked about the lesson. She felt it went really well; I didn't quite feel the same. I felt like we spit out what we wanted to share, but I wasn't sure on Destiny being able to internalize it. We had our other lesson on Thursday and it was AWESOME!! She told us she really loved the reading and really got a lot out of it! She LOVED Alma 42 (yes Danae, great chapter!) and she took the time to "connect the dots" with all of the reading. I feel it was the reading assignment that made the Tuesday lesson a success. It was through the reading that Destiny was able to internalize it. YAY!! We talked about the things she learned from the reading, and then tied that in to the next principle of faith. As we were talking, she had a light bulb moment (and she recognized it as such). In a previous lesson, she had said she would be fine with the terrestrial or telestial kingdom, that living with God and Jesus Christ wasn't necessarily something she wanted. We all found that crazy. But Thursday, she said she now understood why she felt that way. She doesn't want to live with a stranger! That was something that popped out to me (aka inspiration) as we were studying for her lesson. She realized that she needs to know Them more in order for her to desire the celestial kingdom. And she does want to know more. Oh, what a sweet dose of personal revelation she received right there during the lesson! In both lessons this week, we talked about loving Christ and Christ loving us. She brought up Thursday a concern that she feels that the emphasis we place on Christ takes away from her loving her Heavenly Father. She respects Christ for what He did, but she feels that the "glory" should go to the Father, since Christ was doing His will. We've talked a lot about the Godhead and how they are all 3 one in purpose, but somewhere there's an incomplete circuit, so that light bulb isn't lighting. It's an interesting concern, one that I'm going to ponder on and see what I can come up with. She told us that she and her mother-in-law decided to take the BOM in 40 days challenge together. Our relief society is doing it in 80 days, but they started in October. Sister Ruby Sr. is a great influence on Destiny. Hopefully she'll be joining our lessons via Skype once a week. :)
We were able to meet briefly with Mary Tuesday night before she left out of town again. She told us she was upset about our previous visit when her friend was there. We were trying to include her friend, and Mary felt like all the focus was on her friend rather than on helping her (Mary) learn. She was upset because she is committed to learning and making changes, whereas her friend is not. She also said she felt dumb when we kept asking her questions because she didn't know the answer. (I think she was just nervous and wanted to perform well and was too focused on trying to figure out what answer we wanted rather than speaking her thoughts.) We were really glad that she brought those things to our attention. After the previous lesson, we knew something wasn't quite right because she acted different during that lesson. We weren't sure exactly what it was, so we were glad she told us. We told her we were sorry for making her feel that way and we'd be better. We told her that we again would like to keep in touch with her while she is away. That didn't happen last time. But the other day she did call us just to say hi and see how we were doing. Hopefully she'll keep up her habit of reading unlike last time.
We went to see Jimmy with Sister Semon Wednesday night. He'd been drinking again. We decided not to teach the lesson we'd prepared, but we did sit and have kind of a DTR with him. I could tell S. Latu's impatience with him. Sister Semon took the time to ask Jimmy some questions about where he's at and if he wants to change and if he knows that Jesus Christ wants to help him. I was grateful for Sister Semon coming with us. In the car afterwards, she shared that she really feels like he is reaching out for help and wants to change, but because of his addiction to alcohol for so long and his depression that it's caused, he is unable to do it on his own. I'm really glad that Sister Semon shared that. Those were my thoughts and feelings, but I know S. Latu has no patience with him and wanted to drop him a long time ago because she didn't feel he was ready to progress. My heart aches for him. It's very interesting to see a man so drunk, yet also see how much the Lord loves him and how much He wants to help. I hope that he can be sober enough to let us help him get the help he needs so that he can accept the gospel. It's exactly what he needs.
Sunday we taught the High Priests. They let us choose what to teach. We decided to pull from Matt. 10 and 28:19-20 and talk about how the calling of the apostles was the same with or without Christ walking with them. We likened that to their calling to be missionaries, with or without a black name tag (a full time mission being likened to walking with Christ directly). We then told them about some of our investigators to show them that the field in Lafayette truly is white and ready to harvest. It was a great lesson and many of the high priests came up and talked to us afterwards. We're slowly getting the ward involved. It's good to see some progress in that regard.
Well, I believe that's all for this week. Take care! Happy new year!
sister humpherys
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