We've had another miracle
week!. I don't know where else to start except at the beginning.
Monday was (of course) P-Day; things were going great, getting our
temporal affairs in order, when we received a phone call from a Former investigator
named J. [Background on J: Elder A had met J while he was on an exchange with
Elder T a few months ago and she had been super receptive to the gospel, she
had spoken with missionaries before and even begun reading the Book of Mormon.
Elder A was able to teach her a few lessons but eventually her boyfriend (the
father of her young daughter) returned from the camp where he had been working,
and he was less friendly towards the missionaries. Long story short: she was unable
to meet with the missionaries any more at that time, and she kind of fell out
of focus. Granted, we've seen her walking around town a few times, and have
talked a bit, but there has never been a time that she was able to meet.] In
her call she said that she had been going through a really rough time in her
life, that she was struggling with some personal things. She asked if we could
meet sometime that day and we said that we could. We contacted a member of our
branch (Brother L) to go with us, and arranged to meet J at the Church building
here in town.
We had a nice lesson with her. She has been reading the Book of Mormon and
since she started at the beginning she has made it up to 3 Nephi 12, she has
prayed about it, and believes it is true, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet.
She knows she needs to be baptized, but she also knows that she needs to make
some significant changes in her life before she will be able to accept that
ordinance. She informed us that things were tough in her life right now and we
offered her a Priesthood blessing for comfort and strength in this time of
hardship, which she welcomed openly.
Tuesday, we were actually able to meet with J again in the morning (thanks
again to Brother L, he has been an indispensable aid to missionary work here this
past week), and talked to her a bit more about the Plan of Salvation (which we
hoped would help give an eternal perspective to her current struggles). She
seemed to remember a good deal of it from an earlier lesson with the
missionaries, and it did seem to help her feel better. She also thanked us for
the priesthood blessing; she said that it had helped her feel better.
That afternoon was filled with our own personal finding, and in the evening we
met with an Investigator named J. He is a very nice older man, who lives a
simple humble life, but is all the happier for it. He has also read a
significant portion of the Book of Mormon in the few month since we met him,
but is having a difficult time grasping all of the concepts (specifically the
timeline of events) in the Book of Mormon and the history of the church
(Ancient and Modern). He is a very visual man, and he focuses a lot on the coming
of the Savior to the Americas, so we felt that showing him the film The
Testaments could really help him to visualize what that event could have looked
like. I think it did help; the spirit was certainly there, especially at the
end. J even commented that he felt something at the end.
Wednesday, was our District Meeting in the morning (over the phone this time),
in the afternoon was some more personal finding, and in the evening we were
able to meet with A (our young investigator) and teach him about the story of
Ammon's Mission to the Laminates. He has had all of the lessons (that are
appropriate for a child) and we are just waiting on permission from both of his
parents for him to get baptized. All we can do for him now is help him develop
a solid love for Church, the Book of Mormon, and the stories and lessons found
therein.
We also met with the S family and shared a spiritual though with them. At the
end of our visit we asked if they knew of anyone that would be interested in
talking to the missionaries and they gave us 3 names, one of which we were able
to contact so far.
Thursday, we had plans to meet with J again, and we did see her for a few
minutes, but we were unable to talk for any great length of time, and did not
have a lesson. Later in the day we did our weekly planning, and in the evening
we did some personal finding.
Friday we did some personal finding, worked on a list of former investigators (that
we developed during weekly planning) with whom we want to get in contact, and
had a lesson with A and S. A and S are progressing so well, they have both
committed to live the Word of wisdom, A is doing great, has quit drinking
coffee and tea and is living the other parts of that commandment as well. S is
still working on not smoking, but when we met with him Friday he hadn't smoked
at all that day. We taught the law of Chastity and Sabbath day observance. We
really felt that they could be ready for baptism by the 16th of December, but
they are having some trouble getting their work schedules in order, so they have
not yet been to sacrament meeting. But as of when we talked to them last they
were planning on being able to attend church with us this coming Sunday (the
16th).
Saturday, we had lunch with a man named G that we met while providing service
to the Special Events Society in helping to prepare for Winterfest (A kind of
Christmas parade/tree lighting celebration). They live in a little community on
an island across the bay. We had a nice discussion with him and his wife about
the Book of Mormon and what we do as missionaries, they had some good questions
about the church which we were able to answer. Unfortunately we were unable to
get a return appointment with them because they don't know when they will be
able to meet again. After that we did some personal finding and contacted one
of the referrals that we had received from the S Family.
Sunday, we had church in the morning, did personal finding in the afternoon,
and worked on going through and getting in contact with all our former
investigators some more, and even more finding in the evening.
That's all for this week, until next week…
Elder Thomson
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