Mon, May 18, 2009

This week was sooooo awesome! Sigh. We have 6 new investigators which is a lot for our area. One of them is actually an investigator we had dropped my second transfer. He’s this minister we randomly ran into. He said he was at a point in his life where he was really searching for answers about God and specifically about the Holy Spirit. But since he’s a minister he was hestitant to talk to us since we are extremely unpopular in the christian world at least here in Texas. We taught him a quick lesson about the restoration then he had to go. We wanted to teach him more, but he was just super nervous to be talking to us. So he gave us his address and phone number, but said he would call us. Well, no one ever calls us so of course we made it a point to see him again. We kept going over to his home but he was never there. We called him a lot, but he always had something going on. So one day because of a couple of cats that followed us (long story) we ran into this minister guy again! He let us come and teach him and teach him we did. We talked all about the different roles of the Spirit. He was impressed with how our doctrine went along with the bible. He knows the bible extremely well, holy moly. He knows the greek bible really well also. So anyways this is turning into a way longer story than it needs to be. So we had this amazing lesson, but he didn’t want to set up another appointment and he didn’t want to go to church. He’s nervous. I would be too. This is his career and if he accepts this message his life will be completely turned upside down…for the better upside down. Also he will lose a lot of friends and support if he is baptized. I’m sure a lot of his true friends will stick by him, but they’re scared for his salvation. So we kept going over there, but he was never home and he never answered our calls. Usually we would completely stop trying to reach him, but he just so happens to live just around the corner from where we live, and we just couldn’t let him go. A couple times we drove by and knew he was home, but one or the other of us didn’t feel right about seeing him…until Saturday. It was pouring rain and we were not super excited about going knocking. Usually we like knocking in the rain, but not this time. We were trying to figure out what to do and all of the sudden Sister Denison said, lets go see Carlos. So off we drove and who do you think was standing outside his house when we parked. Carlos! Finally. So we wave and get out of the car and he let’s us in. He is just amazed at our timing because he had planned to take his kids out to the lake that day, but because it was raining the kids decided they wanted to go over to their grandparents. So Carlos had a whole day to himself and he decided he was going to dedicate the day to the Lord. And then we pop up. We taught the plan of Salvation and he was again just floored by the answers we had. It was like putting together a puzzle. He was aware of most of the pieces because he had spent so much of his life studying the pieces found throughout the bible. So it was so cool to watch him tie everthing together as we taught about the plan. Everything clicked. The fact that there is a spirit world and then another set of heavens after the spirit world made perfect sense. It answered his question about the different greek words for the english word ‘heaven’. Oh my gosh, I can’t explain what an incredible experience it was. He was scared to death. It was obvious the Lord was working in his life and we happened to show up right when he was ready (we tried so hard to go sooner, but it wasn’t meant to be). Anyways, he promised to go to church with us next week! Yay! His friends think he’s crazy and they are trying to get him to talk to all these people who used to be mormon but went anti for this and that. And they’re telling him all the other anti-stuff, but he’s resilent. He knows it’s true and you can see it in his face. The rain that day was a blessing because later we got to see the Puente family (I’ll write more about them later) because their car show was cancelled due to the weather.

It was zone conference this last week and we had Elder Richardson of the area seventy speak to us. It was amazing. Zone conferences are the most spiritually uplifting meetings I have ever attended. I don’t know how to explain how amazing they are. I don’t know how to explain the sense of brother/sisterhood you feel with all the other missionaries. And then our president spoke. He started to tear up as he told us about one of the Elders who asked president if he ever got discouraged. Then President teared up and said, “Yes, I do get discouraged sometimes.” And then the Elder asked how he got through it and president said to all of us, “When I get discouraged I read the scriptures to remind me what it’s all about. To remind me that even though it feels like no one is listening right now, we are on the winning team. Christ wins. This gospel will fill the entire earth.” He said some other stuff and of course ALL of us were crying and sniffeling because I’m not going to lie, this can be REALLY hard sometimes. But this is the most rewarding/ most fulfilling work I’ve ever done and we all felt that together as a mission family; and we all helped each other wipe away the tears. Zone conferences are amazing.
Sister Denison and I gave talks yesterday. It was fun. I love speaking, it’s true. I love speaking and then being able to feel the spirit speak through my words. It was so neat. I basically just bore testimony of Jesus Christ and the restoration. I had some notes, but I didn’t have to look at them at all unless I was reading a quote. The words just came as easily as if I was giving a memorized speech. I knew exactly what to say. It was so weird cause I always have to write out my talks word for word. Same thing with Sister Denison. We probably learned way more than the ward learned. It was so cool. Afterwards a guy who’s been coming to church with a member but hasn’t let us come teach him yet came up to us and said he wanted a lesson. So we taught him after church.
Some one was asking me if the economy has had any effect on proselyting. I don’t really have anything to compare it with, but I think the economy has especially effected the men of this country. There are a lot of men out of work or struggling who used to be hotshots. They’re searching. The reason why I think this is because 80% of those we teach are men.