April 30, 2011

Hi Family!

Awesome week! Last Sunday was Easter and we pretty much forgot about the fact that a holiday was happening but LOTS of people came to the Square! Unfortunately we were only on the Square for 2 hours which is pretty typical for us. Anyway as we called our investigators during our computer/phone time we decided to give Richard and Denise one more try. We had been unsuccessful at reaching them for a month and we haven't had much time to think about dropping them. So we decided that this would be the call that determined their salvation. We called... and they ANSWERED! Yay! Not only that but they have been meeting with missionaries! Another Investigator Referral Confirmed (IRC) and because they made the 15th IRC for our zone this transfer we got to take a picture of us making a 15 - Sister Despain was the "1" and I was the "5", hard? Yes. Also our 89-year-old Grandma Flo met with missionaries too! Not sure how "there" she is but she loves those "respectable looking young men who are so polite and talk about Jesus Christ with her".

Monday night they changed our schedule so that we are actually on the Square for 6 hours. We don't know what to do with ourselves. But we were talking to this Spanish family by the Christus statue when the parents said that they had brought two of their 2nd cousins to Temple Square to show them around. Usually that is code for "Leave us alone; we are better missionaries than you" so we walked away and went to the basement to find more people. We ran into them again and struck up a conversation. The parents asked us to show the two girls (non-members) around! We took them through the displays of Old Testament prophets - Joseph Smith - Book Of Mormon display - Tabernacle - Assembly Hall - then the Temple Model asking the entire way about what they thought of it. When we invited them at the temple model one of the girls practically grabbed the card from us and said, "I want a Book of Mormon!" Awesome, you can have one. We will be teaching them until the missionaries come. They are pretty Catholic so apostasy will have to be on the menu for them.

Yesterday we got a hold of one of our investigators who has been meeting with missionaries for a few weeks now. His name is John and he had a stroke a while ago so he has a hard time talking. Maybe I am getting used to the way he speaks but he sounds almost normal now! I will just say that the gospel has cured him, sounds more "Ensign worthy". He is getting baptized May 7th! He sounded so happy too. Funny thing is his son joined the church without telling him so he started investigating around the time his son got baptized. Then we called Sandra. She was listed in our area book under my name but I had no idea who she was. I was feeling like a horribly organized missionary but we called her anyway. When I asked if I was speaking with Sandra she started speaking Spanish. That is why I don't remember her- Sister Despain talked with her. Good old Sister Despain started right up speaking Spanish and even proceeded to teach her a lesson! When they said the closing prayer Sandra started crying. Her husband just got deported (she lives in Fullerton, California - go look her up and baptize her!) and she is all alone with a 2- year-old. She said she will try to make it to church on Sunday. We will follow up! Later I got a call during Guest Services from a guy in Podunkville, Missouri who is currently meeting with missionaries. He called in to refer his best friend because he overheard a lesson and wanted it as well. It was just really neat to see how "people filled with the love of God are not content with blessing their family alone... but anxious to bless the whole human race." Funny part is his friend was sitting next to him the whole time. He was just embarrassed to call in for himself. They have the thickest accent ever; it is almost as bad as Africa. Speaking of which, a new investigator we have is from Nigeria but lives in Texas. When we asked why he went to the Baptist Church he said it was closest. When we looked up where the nearest LDS church was to him, guess where it was? Right next door to the Baptist Church. If only he had walked 20 more feet....

They are updating the "Gods Plan for His Family" movie presentation and as we were trying to get a sneak peek inside of what it looks like, the guy in charge of the construction project came out and invited us to see a bit of it. Looks like a disaster still but I hope it is good. We love taking families there because it is set up like an actual house so kids love it. But as we talked to him he told us tons of stories on his building, the sets for lots of other church movies! He did Legacy but says he can't watch it because of the guy that plays Joseph Smith - bad memories there apparently because he didn't go into any details. But cool guy. Oh and it was President Holmes' 70th birthday, they ordered tons of pizza and candy, ahh good day. Anyway that was our exciting week! More amazingness to come!