January 20, 2014
Dear Family:
Well this has been an exciting week!
First week with the new comp, had two people get baptized and some extra
excitement that happened with that.
Monday was a sad day. Elder Hammond
flew out, Elder Feist moved zones but I got a new comp so that was exciting. We
squeezed in a trip to the bowling ally before everyone bailed. Elder Hammond
and I went back to pack. Elder Child showed up about 4:30ish I think. Elder
Hammond had a lot of stuff he gathered in the last 3 months. He shipped a box
to Australia that cost about $150 and loaded his suit cases until they couldn't
hold anymore. The office Elders were supposed to show up at 5:30 to come pick
him up to take him to L.A.X. I didn't get to go this time because I already had
a companion. The office Elders ended up being 50 minutes late and I let them
know that I didn't like that. He must have still made it to L.A. on time
because I haven't heard otherwise!
It's too hot for January!
Elder Child eats weird things
Tuesday we had District meeting as
usual. We met with Mike that day. I have to pray a lot to go into that house
with the spirit. They have two dogs that I really would rather not spend any
time with. And I love dogs!! We are working with some pretty stubborn people
right now. I am beginning to understand more the overwhelming amount of
patience Heavenly Father has for his children. How he does it, I don't know.
Mike is one of those people. The hand of the Lord is so prominent in his life
and after reflection and us trying to show it to him he still refuses to
recognize it. We have asked him to pray twice out of our 3 lessons. The amount
of times he had prayed in his life to that point he could count on 1 finger,
when he lost control of his semi. Both times he prayed he cried. He said he
felt enlightened. We try to help him see the correlation with that and the
spirit but he just doesn't seem to get it. We will keep working on it though!!
We met with Delphina and Melissa everyday this week to help them prepare for
their baptism.
Elder Child hits 6 months in the Mission and wanted to burn a tie
Wednesday was pretty much the same.
Delphina and Melissa got interviewed by the zone leaders. Normally that is what
the district leaders do, but I can't interview her because I taught her.
Thursday we had weekly planning.
Elder Feist had to come back to go to the doctor, so he stopped here and ate
lunch with us. He is in a trio. I feel bad for him, he is pretty much babysitting
the two that he is with. That night we ate with Mike's in-laws and he was there
so we taught a lesson after. That night I saw something I really didn't like.
We have been trying to chase down a family for a long time who's son just
turned 9. Now to get baptized he has to be taught by us. I was expecting this
to be the easiest baptism I have been involved with. His parents are both
returned missionaries (from the same mission which I think is a big part of the
problem), who have been home about 10 years and not a lot of that time in
activity. It was scary what their son didn't know and I was disgusted with his
parents (no I didn't say that, but I think by the surprise we showed I think
they know) . He didn't know who God is, and had no idea why it was important.
His mom has him scared of being baptized because he has to read pray and go to
church because he promised Heavenly Father he would and she straight up told us
she was not willing to do those things. She doesn't really support us being
there, but won't completely deny us. The husband and wife disagree about him
getting baptized. The dad however seemed remorseful. If we have any hope of
support it will be from him. It really blindsided me. I had no idea we were
going to have to try and talk a return missionary into letting us work with her
son. The idea didn't even cross my mind, but once it did there were a couple of
scriptures in Doctrine &Covenants I would love to share with her.
Friday we tried to met with Carlos,
but no success.
Saturday we met with Zack. We have
been trying to meet with him all of last week and this week. He is completely
different from Mike in every way except for in his stubbornness and the
greatness of it. He has had witness after witness showing him what he needs to
do. In the time that I have been here I have seen 5 very easily seen miracles
all testifying that he needs to be baptized now. He has had the discussions
before, we haven't gone over that at all. All we have done is shared scriptures
that we have been led to by the spirit. I originally wasn't going to teach him,
he is one that gets worked with enough and I didn't feel inclined to. Two weeks
before Elder Hammond left Zack kept popping into my head, I brushed it off for
a while. After a while I gave in and sought out to meet with him. The last week
he was here we finally got to meet with him. I had 3 scriptures in mind. Other
than that, no plan. By a miracle I wasn't expecting it turned into one of the
most powerful lessons I have ever taught. He felt something that night. He
admitted it to me. He knew what I was saying was directly from God. He
committed to being baptized on a specific date. After 8 years of missionaries
in and out of his life he felt something and committed, that is what he told
me. Unfortunately the spirit left with us and he didn't feel the same the next
day. He got invited to church by a member so his plans were all ready to go.
They said the same thing at church. A friend brought him a talk by President
Uchtdorf that talked about when the best time was to plant a tree. Another
miracle it stayed on the table until I saw it. The next huge one was that I
remembered what it said. I pointed out the other witnesses he had received that
he was choosing to not accept. We had another lesson. We showed him the hand of
Heavenly Father in his life. We testified our hearts out. We showed him
scriptures. Then scriptures that showed him what would happen if he chose not
to act upon this message. Sadly he still isn't giving in, now I am praying like
Alma did for his son.
Checking the Font Depth
The Baptism of Melissa and Delphina
Sunday was stake conference. It was
a broadcast from Salt Lake. President Eyring, Elder Anderson, The General
Relief Society President, and a member of the 70 spoke. They were all wonderful
talks. All about missionary work. I think some of the members think that they
will eventually stop getting hammered with the hastening of missionary work. I
am going to start telling people that it will never stop until everyone starts
to do it and we are ready to receive more responsibility. That night was
Delphina and Melissa's baptism. It is great to see the changes they have made
in their lives. Elder Child and I went early to fill the font. There were 4
baptismal services that day so I knew there was water in it. But we wanted
more!! So I changed and got in. I plugged the overflow drain so we could fill
it as high as possible. It was good, but then the ward mission leader came
behind me and put more in. Oh well! I wasn't going to try and get rid of just
some of it and lose too much. Melissa and Delphina both asked me to baptize
them. I try not to do that, I really want members to do it, but I always took
ladies over to be her fellowship and they can't baptize em! Melissa went first
and when she got in the water was right at the top of the stairs. When she went
under it ran over into the walkways, no big deal at all. When we got Delphina
in (which was scary because she can't really walk) and then 4 Elders, water was
running into the relief society room haha. Nobody is going to forget me!!
Somebody went and grabbed a shop vac and started on it right after the service.
I had Sister Tucker and Young from my district give a 5 to 10 minute
restoration lesson for their family that was there. Delphina and Melissa told
us about the overwhelmingly good feelings they had and the spirit they felt.
The ZL's hung out in the changing room. They forgot extra white shirts haha. I
hope this is a better letter and is a good one. I had extra time because I
didn't have to take other Elders to the library so P-day was a lot different
today. Well love you all!! Bye!!
I'm watching you. (This is one of the dogs that live here in our home share)