We met with Judy last Monday. We talked with her about the spirit world. She told us of a dream/vision she had of walking her grandpa up to the gates and his family reached out to him. He looked at her and said he wasn't afraid to go anymore, and he walked through the gates. The dream/vision ended, and she looked to her husband and said that she knew grandpa died. Sure enough, he had. But she was at peace because she had seen the peaceful and restful state he was entering. Pretty neat. Judy is a strong woman. She has almost constant migraines and other health problems, yet she still allows us to visit her. Except for today. She had to cancel our appointment for today because the pain was just too bad. She's such a trooper though.
Angie continues to do well! We met Wednesday to talk about faith and the Word of Wisdom. We had a really good conversation about faith, and then by means of the Spirit, the conversation turned to forgiveness as I shared the experience of Corie Ten Boom and how forgiveness was an act of faith. Angie told us that forgiveness was something that she struggled with and asked for some help. We shared with her the parable in Matthew 18 about the servant who was released of a huge debt and then demanded payment from his own debtor for a much smaller debt. As we talked, I was reminded of something I learned from The Peacegiver and something from Boyd K. Packer's book Teach Ye Diligently. Number 1: us refusing to forgive someone is in essence saying "Christ's Atonement wasn't enough for that one. I demand more payment." How ridiculous is that?! Number 2: we often feel entitled to being treated right, but who are we to expect what the Son of God Himself was not given? Both those thoughts really put things into perspective. Forgiveness is still hard, but when we keep those things in mind, it's a little easier. Angie really appreciated our conversation, and said it helped her a lot. Needless to say though, we didn't get to the Word of Wisdom. So, we set up an appointment for Thursday. We went back and continued on from our faith lesson to teach the Word of Wisdom. The Spirit is pretty amazing. We knew that she drank coffee, but we didn't know she smoked. As we read the don'ts of the WoW, her eyebrows perked up. We asked her about it, and she shared with us that just yesterday she had been thinking about smoking and praying that God would help her to quit. Talk about truly being prepared! It was neat to see that God wanted us to teach the WoW on Thursday instead of Wednesday so that she could more easily recognize it as an answer to her prayers. We told her about the stop smoking program (7 days) and invited her to do it. We're going to start it Wednesday and she's excited! We had a lesson with Emma and Mikela on Saturday. We brought Sister Isaac and her 2 girls, McKenzie and Melainey who are the same ages. They are such the perfect fellowshippers! We heard from both Sister Isaac and Angie that all 4 girls were excited for the meeting Friday and all day Saturday and that's all they could think about. :) We played a game in which the girls had to "find happiness" after we had hidden 4 things that represent different kinds of happiness. We used the game to teach about the purpose of life and the pre-mortal life. Angie had to work Sunday, so we arranged for the girls to come with the Isaac's, but at the last minute, they chickened out and decided they didn't want to come without Angie. Angie apologized and said that the 3 of them would be there for sure next week.
We taught Michael this week about repentance, the Word of Wisdom, and baptism. He wants to quit smoking, and we may have to convince him a little more that he wants to give up his coffee. As we asked him more questions, we came to find out that though he said last week that he believed everything we taught, he doesn't know if Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet, and he doesn't understand why we want him to be baptized in our church since he's already been baptized. So there's more work for us to do in helping him to gain a testimony of this restored gospel.
We went to the middle of nowhere with Sister Lalonde again to visit Desiree. She is doing well in terms of reading and praying. We committed her to read 1 Nephi 1-3, and she said she read through chapter 15. Yay! She's got a lot of stress with the guy she lives with and at work, but she says reading the BOM and studying relaxes her. We talked with her about the purpose of life and the reason for trials. She's really warming up to us and Sister Lalonde. She's such a good person and she wants what's right. She's been realizing lately that where she's at is not what God wants for her and she's trying to do something about it. Bless her for recognizing that God has something better for her!
We finally got in to see Brad, a referral from the Peru elders that we got about a month ago. He's 25 and struggling with a recent break up that involves a daughter. It's really hard on him. He's a really neat guy and he opened right up to us about a lot of his thoughts and feelings. He admits he's confused about religion and that he's searching. He told us he was tempted to blow off the appointment and just not answer the door. But he was on the computer and randomly an ad popped up for www.mormon.org and he took that as a sign that he was supposed to meet with us. Yay! He says he's pretty stubborn and would need to humble himself in order to "confine" himself to a religion, but I really think he's more humble than he thinks. He recognizes that God has a plan and that He's trying to lead him. I'm really excited to get to work with him. We set up two appointments with him this week. The elders said he was awesome, and I can feel it too.
We got to meet with Deven again finally. He's still coming to church and doing well. He doesn't feel like he's really getting an answer about the Church being true or not though. I think that he knows it's true, he just doesn't know that he knows. And for an 11 year old, that's a hard thing to realize. We had a fun lesson with him about being cleansed through Jesus Christ and having faith in Him. Deven's such a bright kid and so willing to learn. I wonder if he's that interested in learning at school. :)
Mike. Finally he kept a commitment and read 1 Nephi 1-3. He said he didn't get much out of it though. I don't really know what he's looking for. We got talking about proof again, and he mentioned all the proof that's available for the Bible. Again, we brought up receiving a witness from God, and how given enough time, I'm sure there will be proof that becomes available. He refuted us again and said "you can't prove it to me". He was kind of taken aback when we told him that we weren't trying to prove it to him because we can't, and that's not what we're there for. He can't grasp the idea of learning by faith and praying to know something is true. It's so outside of/foreign to him. We did discuss about the examples of Lehi and Nephi in receiving personal confirmations of the truth, and the bad example of Laman and Lemuel not doing so and even rejecting an angel. I still don't know what Mike's motivation is. Yesterday the EQP brought up in ward council that Mike was pretty antagonistic/belligerent last week when the lesson was on keeping the Sabbath day holy (he's a 7th Day Adventist). Oh Mike. It may be getting to the point that we have to un-invite him to church. :(
Sister Healton came with us to visit Ruth on Friday. We didn't get to see Ruth earlier in the week because her daughter had an aneurysm. She told us she didn't get a chance to read in the BOM because of it, and she felt horrible about it all week. She said she kept wanting to read it. We took the time to read 1 Nephi 1 with her. We found out through that that she has a slight difficulty reading. It truly was inspired to have Sister Healton with us. She is a miracle herself in learning how to read. And she offered Ruth the BOM on cd that she can listen to as she follows along in the book. Sister Healton then said that she feels like she knows Ruth somehow, kind of like a kindred spirit or something. What a good fellowshipper. Ruth is still super excited about learning about the gospel. It's such a pleasure to teach her.
We stopped by Sister Eshelman's house to see how her job interviews went. She had 3 really good interviews that look promising. Her spirits were brighter. We promised her that as she came to church the Lord would bless her, specifically with finding a job. She volunteered that she'd be at church again yesterday. However, something must have happened because she wasn't there. :( We'll have to check on her this week.
We caught Sister Crull again finally. We were on her porch knocking as they pulled up. I could see her roll her eyes and I could tell she was searching for an excuse to send us on our way. But not finding one, she let us in. We talked a bit and shared a message about forgiveness with her. As we hugged her and left, I felt that she's slowly warming up to us. At first it seemed like she was just putting up with us, but I think she may eventually come to like us and even love us.
We had a good lesson with Jeff Saturday afternoon. We tracted into him last Saturday. He was really nice, and then let us in. His wife Becky at first seemed really not interested and like she might shoo us away, but as we talked about families and temples - they love Salt Lake City - she warmed up to us. As I was studying for what we would teach (BOM, pray to know, and Heavenly Father's love), I was concerned that maybe Becky would shut us down. I prayed hard that we'd be able to present the information and allow them to see how awesome the gospel is. We went over, and I guess in answer to prayer, Becky was sick. But we still met with Jeff, and it was a really great lesson. We showed him how awesome the BOM is and read from it with him. We asked him what his thoughts about it were, and he said that anything that helps him get closer to Christ is worth looking in to. He's really got his head on straight about learning for himself and not just blindly following what someone else (especially a pastor) tells him. I'm really excited that we were able to establish a good foundation with him so that if by chance Becky needs a little more work, we'll be given the chance since Jeff is at least partly on board already.
Saturday we finally got to see Tawny again. Her two friends, Krysta and Danielle, were there. We were able to talk with them all about being cleansed through the Atonement and exercising faith in Christ. Tawny hadn't read in the BOM yet, so we took the opportunity to read 1 Nephi 1 with the 3 of them. We had shared Alma 32:21 with them and Danielle continued reading silently on to the next page. She seems kind of interested, even though she readily stated that she has her own church. She's living with Tawny for the time being, so hopefully we'll be able to include her in on some of the lessons.
We met Jamie last night while tracting. He was the last door we knocked on. He ordered a video from the Church off a commercial, and the elders had met with him a few years ago. I think he's almost borderline argumentative on the differences in our doctrines, but he asked some good questions and actually gave us time to answer some of them. I saw a glimmer of hope as we shared with him some truths about the spirit world in 1 Peter. (He is in the same boat as Mike in associating our identity with our body and not our spirit.) I think if we can get him to feel the Spirit enough, he'll let us talk enough so that he can gain a knowledge of the truth. We set up an appointment with him for this week. I think it could go either way. I hope that the Lord softens more of his heart. I can see the goodness in him. I want him to progress!
That's it for this week. We've got some good things planned for this week. Yay!
sister humpherys
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