half the mission
It's crazy that Christmas time is here already. And by the time of my next post, it will be passed. It really just snuck up on me. This whole year has gone by way too fast. It seems like just a few weeks ago Sister Jenson and I were eating chips and salsa to celebrate New Year's. It will be that time again shortly.
We got to meet with Mary twice this week. Monday we taught her the cup lesson - visually showing the foundation that Christ established with apostles and teaching the gospel. It was a very effective lesson! Mary wanted to write it all down she liked it so much. She is still a little stuck on being the only black person at church. She questioned why there were no black apostles. She said that's something she's really going to have to work on getting over. S. Latu brought up that there are no Polynesian apostles either, and then Mary said that in her eyes, S. Latu is white. Ha. Then S. Latu said that to her, Mary is white. :) Oh what a sense of humor. We were all laughing for a while. Mary then brought up some questions. She went to church with a family member in Illinois and she got a little study book from the church. She was going through the questions, and she came to a part that was leading one to believe that we were children of Satan rather than children of God. She was quite upset that the pastor was trying to get people to think that. She read the surrounding verses and understood the true context, but she couldn't understand why the pastor was implying something that wasn't true. It was a neat experience to see her recognize the difference between truth and error. She told us after she got to that part in the study book, she didn't look at it anymore. She told us she's realizing more and more that not everyone teaches the truth about faith, repentance, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost. Oh it's so neat to see progression in people and see their testimony. The second time we met with her, her sister-in-law, Rene, was there. We taught another visual lesson, this time from Alma 50:1-6, about how to protect our families, our beliefs, etc, from the attacks of Satan. Mary really soaks it all in. She's back in the habit of scripture reading, and we see a great change in her - back to normal. However, she called us Friday and had to cancel an appointment and told us she was going to another church Sunday. That's quite worrisome. But hey, maybe she just needs to see for herself that they're not teaching 100% truth, and then she'll come back to church. She's leaving again on Monday for Christmas, so we're hoping to see her once or twice more before she leaves.
Laura is awesome! The lesson we planned for Tuesday was about the resurrection and judgment and we focused it on how learning about those things teach us more about Jesus Christ and bring us closer to Him (since that's what she wants to learn about). As we shared about Christ judging us and how much He knows us, she was really comforted. She said she'd never thought of it really being a merciful judgment. We brought up again her comment about not feeling worthy to be baptized yet. She told us that she feels that since she didn't go to church when she was younger, she feels that makes her unworthy to have His presence. We talked about how baptism totally wipes us clean, and things that happened before are no longer remembered by God. That REALLY hit home to her. She was like "ok, NOW I'll pray to be baptized on Jan. 8th". Our Saturday lesson was even better. She told us about her reading, and she really felt the Spirit as she read. She took lots of notes, and she shared some with us. She then told us that she had asked about being baptized on Jan. 8th. She received very direct revelation, and she recorded it all down. Heavenly Father told her she was on the right path, and she's always been a bright girl and He's proud of her. He told her that He doesn't want her to feel rushed into baptism. I can't remember the rest, but WOW!! So direct! She's more ready for baptism than she realizes!! But it's important that she feels that she's ready, so that feeling may take a little longer. But wow, I am so impressed with her. As soon as she prayed with real intent about the baptism date, such direct revelation came to her. The Spirit was so strong as she shared with us. We were all so happy! We went through D&C 20:37 with her to show her that she has met all the qualifications for baptism, and I think that was a bit of an eye opener for her. After that we talked about Christ satisfying justice so that we can receive mercy and be cleansed from our sins. Each lesson I can see her getting more and more ready for baptism. It's so neat to see that progression.
Laurence continues to do well. In the question/answer visit he asked why Laman and Lemuel were such traitors, and then later he asked about the building in 1 Ne. 8. We were able to pull out the principles of opposition and agency. He's really learning a lot. He as well is right on track for baptism but he doesn't feel it. He feels he needs to know more. We asked him again about praying for Jan 8th. He says he knows baptism is important, but he's still not 100% sold on This Church. He wants it to be true, but he's not sure. I feel that he really does know it, he just isn't quite ready to dive in head first without a better understanding that the pool is more than 3 feet deep so to speak. It'll come in time. He continues to come to church diligently which is awesome!
We got to meet with Anthony twice this week. And he came to church last Sunday! Tuesday we touched on forgiveness, since at the beginning Anthony had expressed concerns about forgiving himself and God forgiving him. We didn't have to spend much time on it though because he told us that he was able to move on after having confessed his sins, and he felt he had forgiven himself and been forgiven. Yay! I can see that he is a different person after these visits focusing on repentance. It's been great to be able to focus so directly on what he needed and see him apply it and have a change in his life. We talked about the next step for him, and he said he needs to stop some habits and start others. He wants to be a better person. Very admirable for a 21 year old guy. On Friday we talked about scripture study, and Anthony said that was one of the habits he wanted to get in to, and he was pretty excited about doing it. It's been so neat to work with him. Again, it's been a blessing that he's heard all the lessons before so we can focus on what he needs and go at his pace. The bad thing is that he is now home for the holidays until like Jan. 10th. And the Boomhowers are moving for 9 months. So we won't get to see him for a while, and when he comes back, we'll have to use different fellowshippers. The Boomhowers have been awesome, so hopefully we can find another family to work well.
Wednesday we met with Elizabeth and her 3 girls again. We shared the visual lesson from Alma 50 and talked about the importance of family scripture study and family prayer. The girls really liked it and were excited at least for family prayer, hopefully for scripture reading too. The girls are young - 5, 7, 10 - and they love to pray. They aren't very confident in it yet, but they love to do it. Elizabeth said it'd been crazy for her so she wasn't able to read much in the BOM yet. But SHE brought that up at the very beginning without us asking, so that's a good sign that she knows why we're here.
We were finally able to meet with the Workmans again. We shared the miracle from Luke 5:1-11 about Christ blessing Peter, James, and John with an abundance of fishes after teaching them. It was a really great discussion as we focused on what we learn about Christ from that miracle. It really hit home to them as we brought up that Christ is aware of and will provide for our temporal needs. Br. Workman is graduating, and is in desperate need of a job with no real prospects yet. They've been worried about that, so I think our lesson was very timely for them.
Friday we took Sister Franchois with us to see some people. We went to contact Richard, a referral from church headquarters. When Richard came to the door, he warmly greeted S. Franchois by her first name. We were confused. We soon found out that Pat - Richard's wife - and S. Franchois used to work together and the two couples are really good friends. Talk about an inspired member exchange!! We got to sit and have a visit and share a brief message and set up a return appointment with them. I'm convinced that all that was only possible because of S. Franchois' presence.
Saturday we met with Latasha again. Her boyfriend Calvin sat in with us too. She had read the REST pamphlet and had a question about Joseph Smith seeing God. We shared with her some other examples of prophets seeing God. Her stumbling block came not necessarily from Joseph's experience, but because she believes God is just a Spirit, everywhere and nowhere. (It's crazy to me how people can believe that, yet also believe that He is our Father. It seems so inconsistent to me.) We decided to spend our time talking about the role of prophets, how they're chosen, etc. She was very interested and agreed with what we shared about prophets, and then she was very shocked to hear that we have a prophet today. Because of time we had to leave her on a cliffhanger, but maybe that's a good thing - make her anticipate our next visit. She's so eager to learn. Calvin enjoyed sitting in and he shared his thoughts about things as well. The bad thing about the holidays is that people leave for a few weeks. :( I'm glad I'm not serving on campus though!
Saturday I also had the opportunity to return to Fishers!! Devon was baptized by Naoto. His original date was Nov. 6th, but things kept coming up. Devon is a great young man. Naoto is too. It was a great experience for him to perform the baptism. Devon was excited, and I could see him just soaking up everything Bishop shared in the talk about the Holy Ghost. The Spirit was really strong as they entered into the font. What a blessing it was to be a part of that. Oh, I'm so happy for him! None of his family was able to attend, so that was sad, but hopefully he will continue to be a good example to them. What a neat thing it will be if he chooses to serve a mission.
It was also great to see some ward members, most of all Sister Norton and Hannah. Oh it warmed my heart to see them. And they brought cookies for me! Paul was supposed to speak at the baptism, but he ended up being out of town, so that was a bummer. But he went to Utah - what a great experience!
We went with Destiny and her in-laws to go howl with the wolves. I'm not joking. It was a once in a lifetime experience, because I'll never go do that again. :)
Zone conference was great. Full of the Christmas Spirit, and it was great to spend time with other missionaries. We had some fun games, and great food. Pictures are attached. S. Marler from Kokomo was there in charge of the food and I got to talk with her and her daughter Caitlin. I was excited to see them both.
Well, time is short. P-day is over soon because Christmas will be our p-day. Love you all! Merry Christmas!
sister humpherys
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