Monday, September 30, 2013

Week of September 30, 2013


Alright, well first things first- I am being transferred! I will be splitting Newcastle, so I'm excited about that! It's so weird to me... I'm going to have to grow up here shortly! Haha but I suppose that's not the worst thing that could happen.
So this week was amazing! Wednesday we had a really great experience! We went to Newcastle to work a bit and we stopped by a part member/less active's home and talked to them a bit. It was cool because she (the nonmember) talked about how prayers are answered and I just felt like I should share the experience about when I had a priesthood blessing and it healed my ankle. So I shared it and she asked, "What's the priesthood?" So we taught the restoration and things went great! It was really cool to see how the member still has a testimony, it's just buried pretty deep. He did a great job of helping us teach though! It was funny. I guess it dawned on her that only men could hold the priesthood so while we were talking she just said, "Chauvinist pigs!!!" Haha so we explained that, but the husband came to the rescue and said,  "You need to meet some of the women of the church. It's amazing how strong they are and how important they are to the church. We'll have to go sometime so you can see." He was telling us he struggled with the fact that we have so many commandments and that's why he left the church. He still reads the Book of Mormon and everything, but he said that Christ died for us because we can't keep all the commandments. But right before we left he said, "You know I will say this, when I was going to the Mormon church, even when I didn't agree with a lot of the stuff, I felt like I was blessed more then than any other time in my life." So we're hoping that they progress! And they're in Newcastle so I'll be able to keep up with them!
Friday I was on an exchange and we had a few cool experiences. The coolest one was we just stopped and talked with a lady on the street and we asked if we could pray with her. She said yes and when we asked what we could pray for she said she needs help getting over the loss of her son, so comfort and that she'll be able to get on with her life. So after the prayer we just started talking to her and stuff and told her that the message we share can help her understand where we're from, why we're here on this earth, who we are, and where we're going after this life. She wasn't living in either of our areas, so we told her that if she looks up the missionaries where she's living that they will help bless her life. We gave her a Book of Mormon and explained it, and she said she'd read it! It was just such a cool conversation, and we're really hoping she reads!
Saturday we taught someone that Elder Owen found while on his exchange.  He's such a nice guy! He's covered in prison tattoos though and can't drive for 10 years so we're wondering if we'll even be able to teach him or what's going on with that, but we'll teach him until we're told not to! He said he wants to get to know God so that he doesn't go to hell when he dies, and he wants to know how to read a Bible. We had him read a verse for us in the lesson and he pretty much can't read.  He doesn't know who Moses is, or Noah, and he's in a really rough situation in his life, but he wants to make a change, and wants to come to church. He'll be someone that I hope Elder Owen doesn't give up on! We don't know if we can baptize him, but I'd imagine that someone who wants to change as bad as he does will be ok. I wish I could teach him more! Like with him it's starting at the basics, and helping him understand God's love for him, and I think that would be so much fun to teach him and watch that change his life!
Yesterday we taught the L family. Oh my gosh that family is so prepared! So the dad was telling us about a dream that he had. He said that someone told him to put his face up against a rock, and a huge tsunami came and crashed down on them, and it washed everything away but his family was still pressed up against the rock and they were ok. So the scripture Helaman 5:12 says, "And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." So we shared that with him and his eyes just lit up! It was so cool! And he shared a couple other dreams in  Spanish with the branch mission leader so I couldn't understand them, but still the dream he had was unbelievable! Hahaha I was sitting there like, "I had a dream I was a Powe Ranger once..." Haha
Anyways, they're all just so in tune with the Spirit, and they're just so solid! So we set a date with them for October 13! We're so excited for them! They've been so prepared it's not even funny! I just love how Christ's promise worked in their life. "Seek and you shall find." Like he knew his family needed to be baptized, but he knew he needed to find the right church first, and he knows this is the true church. He's read the Bible 4 times! Haha it was funny though one of the first questions he asked us yesterday was if we celebrate Halloween. He said that if we celebrated Halloween then they were never coming back. Haha but the mission leader did a great job of explaining how the church isn't an institution that controls every decision. It gives guidelines and the father is the patriarch of the home and that they choose for their family what's appropriate. Haha the other funny thing was he heard we have multiple wives so we told him no and his wife said, "I said I don't care if they do, just make me the queen wife and you can have one to cook and one to clean and one to do laundry" hahaha and she was like totally cool with that idea! Haha oh man I just love that family! I'm excited to still be in the branch so I can watch them progress!
That's about it for this week though. It was a pretty big week! I'm hoping that this week will be a good one. Going to be knocking on a ton of doors! Haha but that will be good for the new missionary right? Well for me too. Haha but I'll be in a bike area for the next while! That will be exciting as well! I'll be out in the cold biking around. Doesn't that just sound right up my alley? Haha I'm hoping to that this week is successful so we have a ton of investigators again so I won't have to be out in the cold knocking doors! Haha we'll see what happens though.
Alright well I'm going to get going. Hope all is well back home! Pray for me because I'm going to need all the help I can get! Have a great week!

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