August 1, 2011

Hey!

First we had a zone conference which was slightly different than how we did them at temple square. First we had to drive an hour to get there and second there was zero role playing. Nice change, I am a fan (but don't tell them at the square). It was very spiritually uplifting especially since the week before we dropped many people and were unsuccessful at finding any potentials. Our main investigator, Norma, is moving to PA (nobody says Pennsylvania out here, they just say PA) because her apartment has high traces of lead and her kids all have poisonous levels of lead. I would move too. Anyway but once we dropped her we found people! That is why I love dropping people- I care, don't get me wrong, but the Lord blesses you.

We went to a scheduled lesson with a potential investigator, he wasn't there but his mother in law was. She was actually sitting with her son who is a member! We asked if we could teach her and she agreed. We have taught her two lessons so far. We asked why she was interested and she said that she hopes to understand her son but also see if this is something she likes. We have also taught her son in law as well. Then we were walking in another part of our area called Johnson City and ran into a lady with 5 kids. She said we could come back too! We taught her the restoration and when we asked if she had ever wondered why there are so many churches she said, "I don't know! That is why I go to two!" Well, hopefully we can get it down to one :) We also found a man sitting on his porch who was almost baptized. According to him he was dressed in white and everything and then his preacher came and took him away. Not sure how accurate that story was but he said that he was thinking about the church and wanted to go back, because his life was so peaceful there.

That is something that I have really come to appreciate from this church: it changes people. There is a recent convert in the ward of a week (we also have elders in the ward) and he glows. You can spot him in a crowd of people; he is happy and seems so at ease about everything. His friends notice too. That is why we focus on the atonement so much, because this is what it can do for people... so open your doors and don't slam them in our face. But hey we actually got someone to let us in! Amazing! Anyway now that we finally have the ball rolling we can keep it going. Oh I gave a talk in church yesterday AND we taught the 3rd hour on missionary work. I spoke on the plan of salvation which is the same topic I was given for my farewell talk, I laughed. Anyway gotta run bye!