May 14, 2011

Hi Everyone!

It is amazing how fast time is starting to go! This past transfer has been a blink of an eye but don't worry, we still have one more week of it. But as for an update our investigator John did, in fact, get baptized last Saturday. We gave him a call and asked how he felt about everything, to which he responded, "I feel so good. There is such a difference." He continues to meet with his local missionaries and said that he wants to have a calling with the Boy Scouts! We love him; already asking for callings! Another one of our investigators, Sherri, found on mormon.org chat, is getting baptized next month! She was hesitant to give us her information so we waited till 9 p.m. by the computer with everyone yelling at us to hurry up because we needed to be home 10 minutes before. BUT patience paid off and now she has met with sister missionaries and her husband agreed to let her be baptized. I hope he will listen to them too. Chris is our current favorite, even though, of course, we DON'T have favorites. He read the entire Book of Mormon in a night and everything else he can get his hands on. When the missionaries stopped by Chris asked them when he could be baptized - because we had already committed him minus the date and he was so excited - and the missionaries said, "Uh... we will have to get back to you on that." We started laughing. How cool would that be as a missionary out in the field to meet with someone for the 1st time, they already had read the Book of Mormon, prayed about it AND attended church (twice!)? I think it would be awesome!! And that is what we shoot for with every investigator. He is set for May 26. Sorry about all the baptism stories; those are our celestial moments for the week.

Square stories: So I will start with happy stories and then tell stories that are funny now... and were slightly funny at the moment. So on Wednesday we had to cover Guest Services from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., talk about long day. But we had a solid 30 minutes on the Square. Right when we walked through the doors we got a tour with an older couple from Omaha, Nebraska. We took them to the Temple Model and they were fascinated by it. They watched ALL of the movie clips and asked tons of questions. I was looking at my watch because we now only had 10 minutes before we had to be at our assignment. At the Assembly Hall I decided to call Guest Services and tell them that we would be a little late. When I got back Sister Despain was telling them all about the Book of Mormon which led to the authority being restored on the earth (great lead in to moving them to the Tabernacle). On the way I was explaining authority to the husband with my favorite analogy of the "Telephone Game" where a comment starts off right in the beginning but as it moves from person to person it changes - and he finished my analogy for me! He totally got it! Which made him appreciate the Tabernacle so much more. We invited them at the Christus but they hesitated and looked at each other. He said, "Well, I am not going to convert" but his wife jumped in and said, "Honey, the missionaries aren't there to convert. I think they just want to share. Plus I want that book." Yay! I don't think I have ever had a guest use that line before but we weren't going to correct her about missionaries wanting to do a little more than share. He replied, "I am fine if you are". Bam! Go spirit. We ran back to Guest Services and had a day FILLED with setting up and arranging the Mandarin Tour groups. We had almost 300 people come at once. Total adrenaline rush. Love it.

Next story: Found this guy with his mom and little brother at Scriptures and Revelations. He joined the church last August and long story short his parents are Evangelical Christian scholars. Yeah.... interesting mix. His mom was quiet until halfway through the tour when she started bombarding us with questions on how we view the prophets' words and the Bible. She was a little outraged that we considered their words scripture. We showed her a clip of President Monson and the role of mothers, since she had an issue with women not being able to lead, and she was outraged because it was just based on good morals, not life-shattering revelations. I had to look at her and think "I love you; I love you." We stayed in control of the conversation and replied very slowly and patiently. Showed her the Temple Model; she hated it and basically said that we are full of falsehoods taking people down the wrong path (she was literally yelling btw). Her son was off doing other things avoiding the entire conversation. Poor guy. She basically said, very diplomatically, that we are going to Hell. I was trying not to smile and roll my eyes; if she would just listen she would understand that there is so much more that can help her life if she would let it. Funny how I didn't ever feel mad once about her going off because it made me understand how much she doesn't know and I cannot hold her accountable for that. I can only listen to what she has to say and help her feel the spirit enough to learn for herself through what we have around us in the Visitor Center. Her son mouthed "thank you!" as they walked away. We took lunch early; we needed it.

We had service this week cleaning the chapel that we exercise in! Probably our last service activity until Fall comes, but that is ok. The Square is busy! Lots of miracles to grab. More stories next week!