Dear Friends and
Family,
Wow, this week was AMAZING!
Monday we hung out with the Bartlett
sisters, as always, and then we had dinner with The N's.
Tuesday we contacted an awesome
referral from the Bartlett sisters named T. She works at a weave kiosk in
the mall and she is the only person who works at it so she is there ALL THE
TIME. Thankfully she is happy to have us come teach her at the mall and we are
happy to do it! She is super friendly and I am really excited to teach her J
We also had district meeting Tuesday
morning and we talked about the importance of using dinner appointments
effectively so that the members trust you and will be more willing to give
referrals. (Now it's time for my soap box- if you love me, please give the
missionaries serving in your Ward people to talk to. It doesn't even have to be
super intense, most of the time missionaries are happy with "well my
neighbor two houses down is pretty nice and probably would talk to you"
and you can ask the missionaries not to mention you, it'll be like they just
tracked out the person's home. Missionaries are constantly looking for people to
teach, and you guys have the power to help them!! Soap box finished, sorry I'm
so bossy) J
That evening we went to see Sister
G, and as soon as she opened the door she said: "I was about to
call you guys and see if you wanted to go out for ice cream!" Obviously we
were totally down for ice cream, so we went and we were able to have a really
great conversation with her about the Book of Mormon. She is definitely making
progress. It's slow, and maybe sometimes it is hard to see, but it is there,
and I have faith that one day she will be back at church.
Wednesday we spent some time
contacting potential investigators and got to see C, who we met a few weeks
ago with his mom K, if you remember K was super enthusiastic and let us
in when we knocked on her door. She loved us and told us repeatedly how
strongly she felt the spirit when we were in her home. We had a hard time
catching her after that, though, and when we saw C this time she wasn't
home, but we got to pray with C and that was good!
We also met and prayed with the
husband of another potential investigator named S, who we tracked into
and she invited us back but missed the appointment because of a family
emergency. When we went over this time she was at work, but her husband R was home. We got to talk and pray with him and it was really good because he
was pretty unhappy with us talking to his wife he previous times we had been to
the house. This time though he let us talk to him and pray with him, and
hopefully he will now be more open to us being over there!
That night we taught J the last
lesson with B. We talked about the things that will happen once he's a member
of the church, about callings and home teaching and receiving the priesthood,
etc. Things always go so well with J, he was happy, prepared, and excited
about everything we taught him. It's so cool to see how prepared by the Lord he
has been to accept the gospel.
Thursday we saw S again with
SB, she still won't let us inside her house, but she is always willing
to talk to us and pray with us, I have faith that we'll get in there some day.
We also tried to contact a media referral that we received about a person
requesting the Bible. We brought them a Bible, but it turns out they wanted a
Spanish, large print Bible! We don't have one of those on hand, obviously, so
we have to get our hands on one of those and bring it back:)
On Friday we finally got to see K again! We also met her daughter C, and was able to invite her to be taught
as well! K was as friendly and excited as ever, and we scheduled a return
appointment for Sunday afternoon. They are all such sweethearts, I know
they have been prepared!
We also saw Sister G again,
and when she found out transfers are coming up pretty soon she was super upset
because she doesn't want either of us to leave! She even asked us when we could
go to dinner before transfers. We figured out a day and she is taking us to eat
this week! Man, I love that lady!
That night we had dinner at The
S's house with J. It was so awesome to be with him the night before the
baptism because he was so solid, he wasn't jittery in the slightest! He has
seen the blessings of the Gospel in his life already, and he is going to be
such an amazing addition to this Ward.
J was baptized at 10:00 am
Saturday morning J
You guys, Saturday was such an
amazing day. We were standing at our door ready to head out to the
church at 9:00 am when
I looked down at my phone to see a missed call from J. The night before I
had had a dream that he decided not to get baptized and when I saw that missed
call panic flooded my heart, this was the one situation in which it was NOT
cool to be psychic, but we called him back anyway, and it turns out he was just
already at the church and wondering where everyone else was!!! You know it's a
solid baptism when the first person who shows up to it is the person getting
baptized.
The baptism itself was so much fun,
the Ward came out in full force to support J, and two of the elders who
have taught him in the past, Elder A and Elder W, were able to attend
the baptism. Elder W was actually part of the first companionship that
taught J, and to see him enter the waters of baptism a year later was so
cool for him. Both of the elders acted as witnesses and the spirit was so
strong, as Brother M performed the ordinance! I am so blessed to have
been a part of such a wonderful miracle. J is going to be the biggest
blessing to the Lakeland Ward.
After the baptism festivities were
over we went and saw J again after a long time to check and see if he had
read any of what we gave him. He said that he has, but didn't seem super
interested in discussing it, so I don't know. While we were over there though,
we had a HORRIFYING experience in which one of Js' other neighbors came
over. I could tell the guy was a creep from the moment he showed up. He started
talking about weird stuff like how we are all God, and Jesus Christ was never
meant to be worshiped, then out of the blue he looks at me and goes "you
know you'd look pretty sexy in a different outfit" that was followed by a
string of extremely vulgar things that I will not repeat here. I was stunned,
I've never had anyone talk to me like that, but especially not as a
missionary!! It was super horrifying and J did nothing to make the situation
better, so I don't think we will be going over there again.
Later that afternoon we had to head
to the church because that evening was the 40th Mission Reunion, and Sister
M and I received the prestigious honor from The AP's of getting
everyone attending the reunion to wear a name tag. The reunion was so amazing
though. We had missionaries who had served in the mission anywhere from 40
years ago to 6 months ago! And the building was full of converts whose lives
had been changed by those same missionaries. It was such a blessing to be there
and partake of the spirit that filled the chapel that night.
Sunday morning J was
confirmed a member of the church! B and L were also at church that
morning and L even wanted to bear her testimony! When she told us this we
were pretty stunned because the last thing she had told us about her belief
system was that she wasn't really sure she even believed in God, but apparently
this week she had been praying pretty hard for a new job that would suit her
much better than the jobs she has been doing, and right after she prayed one
day, she got on Craigslist and there was the job she had been praying for! She
sent in her resume and they called her back not even an hour later, and hired
her without even interviewing her! They stayed for all three hours of church,
and L sat by us in Relief Society. I think she is really opening up to us,
and with this awesome testimony building experience I think she is ready to
take lessons from the missionaries and get baptized.
That evening we had a lesson with
R. When we got over there our other neighbor, B, was in their apartment
and he stayed for the lesson. We had gone in planning to re-teach The
Restoration, but right after the prayer I called an audible and started
teaching the third lesson, The Gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm sure Sister
M was very confused, but she went along with it, and I am so glad we
were able to teach that lesson. The third lesson is all about faith,
repentance, baptism, and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. After I got
through repentance, R thanked us and said what we had just taught was
extremely pertinent to B's situation. B then looked at R and
asked if He had rigged this lesson and told us what we needed to teach, because
the last two sentences we said at the end of repentance were the answer to a
prayer and hit the nail on the head concerning all his issues. It was SUCH a
powerful experience, and the spirit was so strong. Then, S came in and
started listening, and S never listens when we teach R! She even shared
some powerful spiritual experiences in her life, and both S and B are going to come to the lesson when we teach R tonight. How crazy and
amazing is that?!
I am so thankful for the spirit, for
its consistent loving guidance, and the opportunity I have to bring it into
other people's homes and help it to bless their lives.
Sister
Hannah Thomas
ARLM
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