Well, it's been a busy week! The Lord definitely has had his hand in this area! We came here with 4 investigators, and now we have 8. The elders left us an empty schedule, and now we're getting booked up! This area is awesome! The work is so totally different from the other side of town a year ago. I hated to leave Kokomo with only one transfer left, but I'm so glad I got to come here. The Lord knew I was apprehensive about opening up a new area, so He decided to bless me with lots of things to do here. Yay!
We met with Frank twice this week. First off though, who is Frank? We were tracting on Friday, our 2nd full day here. When he answered the door, all we got out was "hi, how are you today?" And then he went off and said his son is going to a boarding school in Provo and they met a lot of nice Mormons out there and he was really impressed with them and he was interested to know more. He said he was busy (Paul was home from Utah for the weekend), but asked if we could come back. Up to this point, we still hadn't said anything except our greeting. Our jaws were probably on the ground. We showed him our wide open calendar, and we set up a time for Monday. Sister Scoresby came with us and she was awesome. (She served in Rome and didn't get many teaching opportunities, so she was excited to "feel like a real missionary".) We taught the Restoration Monday. He volunteered that we needed a prophet today. He was surprised to hear that we do have a living prophet. He seemed to like that idea and showing him the pride cycle of dispensations and apostasy helped really well. Sister Scoresby bore a sweet testimony of how having a living prophet helps her as a parent, and Frank really connected with that. Frank said there have been a lot of little "coincidences" leading him to learn more about the LDS church. We gave him a BOM and committed him to read 1 Nephi 1-4. He told us he had a strong faith in God, but he wasn't so sure about Christ. As we read the introduction of the BOM with him, we asked what stood out to him. The line that he picked up on was the one stating that the BOM is evidence that Christ is the Savior of the world. Awesome. His other son, Samuel, came home during the lesson and he sat and listened. He didn't seem interested at all. We went back to teach Frank on Friday. He said he felt so good after we left last time. He said Samuel really enjoyed it too! Frank had read the assignment and he liked it. And he remembered some details, so he did more than just skim over it. We began teaching the PoS, focusing on the importance of Christ and His crucial role in bringing us salvation. It was another great lesson, and again, Sister Scoresby added a lot to the lesson. We assigned Frank more to read, and left him on a cliff hanger about what happens after we die. We invited him to church, and he said he was going to ask about our services. He says he likes going to church. He said he couldn't commit to yesterday, but he'd try in the future. We're meeting with him again tonight, and I'm so excited to teach the rest of the PoS and commit him to baptism. He's so neat! What a miracle!
Tuesday we met Sondra, an inherited investigator from the elders. Her husband has been inactive, but he's getting back into it now. Sondra has been prepared, and the elders did good work helping her receive an answer about being baptized. She'd only come to church once though, so we talked with her about coming to church and the benefits of it. She says she wants to, but she doesn't always have Sundays off. We invited her to pray and ask God for how she could come to church more regularly so she can be baptized. They had us over for dinner Saturday night. We taught the commandments of obedience, follow the prophet, and the WoW. Vincent is great. We were mostly addressing Sondra, and he volunteered that he needed to work on quitting coffee. He is in 2 Nephi, and he offered to read to Sondra to help her get more done. They're so awesome. She has a 14 year old daughter and they really want her to get involved in the church. Hopefully we can meet her and help her develop some friendships with the young women. I'm really grateful for the previous elders (Magleby & Cubit) for laying the foundation for Sondra's testimony. She knows what to expect from our visits, and she knows she is expected to do her part. It's hard when you come in to an area and the previous missionaries didn't set that standard. I'm grateful I followed good elders! We set Sondra's baptism date for May 14th! She's excited to be baptized. We still need to work on her testimony of THIS gospel, but it's coming along.
We read with Peter twice this week and got through 1 Nephi 9-13. There's a lot of great stuff in there! Despite the distractions of us having to sit out on the porch and him sitting inside the door (no female present), he seemed to understand the chapters. He had a hard time recalling everything when we came the 2nd time, but he did remember some. Hopefully he will continue to recover from his stroke and be able to function properly again.
We met with Robert Tuesday and Thursday. He's been coming to church with his grandma in the ward. He did some time and attended LDS church services for a few years. Pres. Snow (EQP) came along with his home teaching companion the first visit. S. Charsley and I were really nervous - it felt like everyone was staring at us and judging us. Needless to say, the beginning of the lesson (Restoration) was very rocky. But it got smoothed out, and the last part of the lesson was really great. The Spirit was really strong. Robert doesn't know a whole lot of our beliefs, but he likes what he's seen so far. We asked what he wanted out of our visits, and he said he was looking for a closer relationship with God. Perfect answer. He's such a nice guy. He is out of town this week though meeting his 18 year old daughter for the first time. We encouraged him to especially make time to read the BOM so he doesn't lose those good feelings.
Wednesday we went out to see Heather, who got baptized a year ago. We mostly got to know her and her story. She came across the BOM in jail when a friend (who was a member) lent her a copy. She read it, and she took Moroni's challenge and prayed about it. And she got an awesome answer. She heard an audible voice saying "my beloved daughter, it's true". Ooh, goosebumps! What's more awesome, is that she wasn't the only one who heard it. Her cell mate, her friend, and her cell mate all heard it. The other two ladies also joined the church. Man, any time I think about that I get chills. I love the power of the BOM!
We met with Tim finally on Wednesday. We met him briefly at church on Sunday. His girlfriend in Washington is a member, and the missionaries came over while he was out there, and she sent the missionaries here to him to continue the lessons. The elders had committed him to baptism on April 30th, along with Charles. We asked Tim if he was still planning on that, and he was kind of surprised. He said he did want to get baptized, and he knew there was a baptism on that day, but he didn't know it was his baptism! Alrighty, some type of miscommunication. S. Charsley and I decided (in our heads) that we'd drop the date and aim for an early May baptism. We taught him the commandments of obedience, follow the prophet, and the WoW. The only thing he struggles with is coffee, and he said he could give that up. He said he'd wean himself off of it. S. Charsley was going to accept that, but I felt like he needed to give it up now. So I was persistent and asked what would keep him from obeying now and receiving the blessings. I told him the Lord wanted him to go home that night and throw out all his coffee and supplies. It took some convincing, but he finally agreed. We met Friday and we followed up - and he did it! He threw it all out! He is so amazing! We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson, and he really got it! He had asked about repentance and how that's done. He thought there was a public confession required before baptism or something like that. And the thing is, he was still willing to be baptized! The lesson went really well. We then asked him what he was thinking about the April 30th baptism, whether it was too soon, not soon enough, or just right. And he said "just right"! Yay! He's so awesome! He's such a humble guy. He's already in 2 Nephi, and he feels bad about not being further. He's read most of the gospel principles book, and he makes comments in class.
We met with Sister Robinson Thursday morning. The previous sisters in December had been meeting with her and said she wanted to come back to church. We planned to teach her about revelation through the BOM. She's quite the talker, and the conversation was nowhere close to that. It got on temples, and we talked about that, and the blessings of the temples. I shared how important those blessings are and how much God wants to give us those blessings by talking about the early saints being commanded to build temples in their poverty, even after they lost their temples. Sister Robinson got a lesson of patience out of that, and she said she was wanting to ask us about that because she has no patience and she can't handle things anymore. Then came the prepared lesson of the importance of studying the scriptures and praying. It really hit home to her. She volunteered to say the closing prayer, and it was the sweetest prayer! She's got a strong testimony. She'd be such an asset to the ward!
We met with Charles again to teach the last few commandments: sabbath day, WoW, and chastity. It's great because he already lives them and has seen the blessings in his life from doing so. He is so excited for his baptism, and so is the ward. He's been attending for about 8 years now. He's working with the scouts and the YM. He is beyond ready for baptism. It's so neat to see the blessings of the gospel in his life. I was commenting during my last few days in Kokomo, that I'd never personally seen a baptism come from a part-member family. Well, that's about to change!
There's a lot of great things happening here! It's such a blessing! I'm super sad though because I just found out I won't be able to attend Angie and her girls' baptism in Kokomo because it's too far away. :( I'll get to call them though at least. But what a great blessing to have 3 baptisms here! I love being a missionary!
sister humpherys
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