December 8, 2014
Longmont, CO
Wowza what a week!
Did I tell you that, last week, we had no investigators?
Well, sort of one and a half, but not really.
That is not the case at this point. Last week we got to teach a
man we had met just the night before. He has met all sorts of people in his
life who have been members of the Church, and even wrote a research paper on the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in high school, but none of the
people he has met have really been able to answer his questions. "They must not
have been paying attention" he said. So he is excited to read the Book of
Mormon he already has a strong belief that a person needs to know things for
themselves. And we are so grateful for the wonderful Suzanne who came to our
rescue several times that evening, including being our member present so we
could even meet with him. Plus, her comments were wonderful.
The Elders did leave a couple of potential investigators for us to contact,
including one named F____ who is one of the sweetest guys I have met recently!
He also has known some Mormons throughout his life, and really wants to raise
his little son (18 months of adorableness who kissed my companion during the
lesson!) in a Church. He already had a Book of Mormon :) and he came to the
ward Christmas party we had on Saturday! Where he got to meet lots of people,
and get over that first hurdle of going into the church building.
The Hermanas tracted into and taught the first lesson to a wonderful
English-speaking sister. Who then dropped them because she 'found another
church'. They went to attend a baptism in another ward and discovered their
lost investigator there, who's sister was being baptized! They established that
it was the same church and got to meet with her again :) So they invited us to
hand her off to the English speakers. She has quite a varied background in
religion, but is very sincere and puts a lot of emphasis on the fact that having
faith in Jesus Christ should change your life, so she is ready to go!
Also, had an interesting lesson with a woman who the Bishop met and
referred to the missionaries. The first part of it we got to know her better,
the second part of it she seemed to be testing us for some reason, the third
part of it we got to teach about the plan of salvation and it was
wonderful!
Plus, after some area book overhauling and ward list updating and so many
other tender mercies that I can't even count them, we had a phenomenal week! We
have gotten our exercise walking and getting rides when we needed them (J____did let us come visit him!) We jumped a fence once or twice for shortcuts and
the weather has been beautiful. We have met so many people simply by not
walking past them that there is no denying that Heavenly Father is putting them
in our path and us in their path.
Did I tell you about the last week when the guy drove slowly next to us
while asking questions about the church? Yep! Then he finally stopped so we
could give him a pamphlet and some other information. Totally fulfilled one of
my mission bucket list items of wanting to talk to someone through an open car
window :)
Now I have enjoyed some reminiscing this morning, and wanted to share a
quote from last year at this time:
"A funny thing about missionaries. They hate getting sick. They will deny
being sick. And when someone finally forces them to stay home because they ARE
sick they are very grumpy about it. No, I'm not sick, but you hear these things
about missionaries. The cool part is really about the daughter of one of the
Spanish investigators. This girl is seven and she loves to go to church! You
may remember being around that age and even a little cold was just too much to
consider going to church sometimes. No. She cries and begs and wants
to go to church, sick or not. I want to be like her."
Last year, I actually had been sick that weekend. This year my poor Sister
Allen got sick! But she at least got to go to Sacrament meeting, then took a
much needed nap :)
"Picture 6: Ward pajama party! I mean, Christmas party... :) the theme was
Christmas morning so we had breakfast for dinner and lots of fun! Though our
plans for matchmaking were disrupted, it was definitely a great ward
party!"
Well our theme for the party this year was The Polar Express, and adults
were encouraged to wear ugly sweaters for a contest. Brother Seyfi won the
contest, but I heard there was some bias in the judges ;) We mustn't let on that
I know though ;) I don't remember what our matchmaking was last year, but we had
breakfast again and two families that we invited came! So that was super duper
exciting. Plus we took pictures, below ;)
Oh, plus exchanges con las hermanas de Boulder were super wonderful and we
all happened to be coordinating!
TMFWD: Christmas!
love, Sister Emily DeFord
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