Monday, October 3, 2016

Another Crazy Week!

September 12, 2016

Hello, all!  It was a great week.

On Monday we had a lesson with the Ms again about temples and family history work.  Sister M wants to get her family to the temple.  She and K, the oldest daughter, have been to do baptisms for the dead. K loves learning about her family history and was making a FamilySearch account before we left!   They had ice cream sundaes for us.

On Tuesday, we met an elderly woman named K who wants to stop smoking.  She says she actually used to be a member of the church.  We have an appointment for tomorrow to start the stop smoking program with her.  We read it over yesterday and it is really cool.  I am excited to help her!  We just need to find a member who can help and support her through the process.

Wednesday was interesting.  We taught O, R's mom, with Sister W who was great to have there.  Then we met up with A to come to a lesson with A, who wasn't home.  So we went to see M, and after a minute, his dad came out and said they already belong to a religion and aren't interested.  We were able to answer a few questions and clear up some misconceptions about our beliefs.  He realized that our beliefs aren't all that different.  But we won't be teaching M anymore.  He didn't realize that baptism meant joining our church.  Whoops.  After that, we taught the Ms again and Sister B came.  Their granddaughter drew pictures of us :)  Then we had dinner at the Cs!  It was really good, but they gave us too many leftovers and Sister Minson isn't eating them because she thinks she is allergic to something.  Finally, we got to see O and his wife E again.  We taught the Plan of Salvation because O's mother has recently passed away.  They really felt peace and comfort from it and shared experiences that confirmed what we said.  It was awesome!  We had pretty much back to back lessons and members were at most of them.

On Thursday we had a zone training meeting.  President Cooper decided to remove some of the limitations that missionaries in our mission have on exercise, music, and studying.  We now go mainly by the missionary handbook rather than having extra rules.  This allows us to follow the Spirit and exercise our agency more, which gives us a whole lot of responsibility.  He also encouraged us to find any service opportunities we can, whether it be for members or the community.

On Saturday, we taught a less active member, Sister G.  She is really sweet.  She is a flight attendant, so has a crazy schedule and is taking care of her sick mother.  But she felt the Spirit pretty strong in the lesson and said she would definitely be at church the next day.  And she was!  Lots of members seemed to remember her and went up to greet her.  5 minutes before sacrament meeting started, the bishop came up to us and asked if one of us could give a talk on keeping the commandments.  A couple of the people who were supposed to speak were sick.  Well, it turns out our lesson with Sister G had been on the blessings of obedience, so I volunteered.  It actually wasn't that bad!

We had a meeting with the bishop on how to increase missionary work in the ward.  We shared a few things we learned from Elder Foster and came up with some great ideas.  It was funny, because after we came in from the meeting, the bishop asked his daughter if she would invite her friend to a youth activity.  She said, "No."  He asked why not.  "She's a school person."  What?

After church, we found a voicemail from a man named R who the elders had taught that we have been trying to reach.  He has been coming to church the last few weeks!  We never saw him!  We called him back and were able to set up an appointment.  We had a great conversation and he wants to be baptized!  We set a date as a goal for October 29, and he said he would read the Book of Mormon on the plane today as he was flying out for a business trip.  Yay!

Anyway, there are good things happening in this area even though it may not be as fruitful as other areas.  I am excited to see what happens as the members get more involved!  Hope you all have a great week.
--
Sister Porter
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Pictures:
1. Wendy's frosties!
2. Pretty scenery
3. This one is old...I don't remember when we took it, but I thought it was cute. :)



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