Email Week 40!

9 MASANI! (9 months)

Wow, I am officially past my 9 month mark! CRAZY!

Well, this week has been wonderful, though I do have some not so great news. We'll get the bad stuff over with first I guess.

So Jim, yes, the same Jim that I have been trying to help progress towards baptism since I found him with Sister Gull on August 28th and that I have really grown to love since I have been teaching him for SO LONG, had a lesson with us on Tuesday night. It was a wonderful lesson, or so we thought. We were finally just super bold, but loving, with him. We had a font-side lesson where we went over the baptismal interview questions, and he passed all the questions and it seemed to go over well. So then we asked, "So Jim, what would be holding you back from being baptized?" and he said, "nothing", we invited him to be baptized the next night. The spirit was strong, and the only reason he said no was because he had to work, but after a lot of negotiating (lack of a better word) we decided that he would be baptized the 17th. We were bummed but excited that it wasn't too far away. BUT then, our phone went off at 4am that night (I love when my sleep is interrupted) and it was a text from Jim, that basically told us he didn't want to be baptized or meet with us anymore. He says he will continue going to church and will "let us know when he's ready". It was DEVASTATING. My heart was, and still is BROKEN. I couldn't go back to sleep, knowing that when Sister Fesili woke up I would have to tell her. So we spent that morning depressed, and un-focused, just super bummed about Jim, and I was exhausted, having only gotten about 5 hours of sleep. 

But surprisingly, that day turned out to be WONDERFUL! We picked up a bunch of less active families who are willing to take the discussions and want to come back to church! Miracles have been happening ever since Wednesday! Every day has been even better than the last! We have been truly blessed for our efforts! It was beginning to be very hard, especially when Jim dropped us, because it felt like we were seeing NO fruits of our labor, but we are finally teaching people and helping them progress. I know it's because of the advice that President Chambers gave us. He told us to start teaching the discussions to our stake presidency, bishops and ward mission leaders, and ever since we started that, we have been finding people like crazy. We only have 2 investigators but we are teaching 10 less active families, and have more appointments with non-members and other less actives this week that we will be picking up and beginning to teach :)

This past week has truly been wonderful! Our planners are FULL with appointments, this coming week is going to be BUSY! We are so so excited! We have really learned patience and humility. Even though it's been hard, I am thankful because I have learned so much!

Okay, so a little more detail about my week :)

I was finally able to meet the Miyasaki's, the non-member family from Guam with 9 kids, that Sister Dean and Sister Fesili met on splits. They are WONDERFUL! The husband is HILARIOUS! We talked to them for at least 15-20 minutes at their door. They said they were going to church with their friend (not in our stake) yesterday so hopefully they went :) They said they are willing to take the discussions but that their lives are going to be super busy until February....kind of a bummer :( but we are going to keep stopping by :)

There is a non-member named Elaine who I have known for a while, Sister Gull and I did service for her, and previous missionaries had told me that she was not interested, but lately I've been having the feeling that I need to ask her to take the lessons, so we have been going by pretty often and she has never been home. But the other day, she was home and let us in. We talked to her for a while and played with her TINY puppy Bella (cutest dog ever), and then we got to talking about what it is we do as missionaries, and I invited her to meet with us and learn more about what we teach. She said no one had ever asked her about it before and that she would definitely be willing to take the lessons. We have an appointment set up with her for the 21st :) I learned a lot that day about not pre-judging people based on what other missionaries say, and that I need to follow the spirit more quickly!

We finally met with Robert again after a few weeks and went over the restoration again, he seems to really understand what we're teaching, but we still haven't met his parents (they're definitely avoiding us) so we can't invite him to be baptized until we talk to them! We have stopped by so many times and get different excuses! But we will not give up because we LOVE Robert and desire his salvation :)

We picked up a new investigator just last night, named Brenda! She grew up Catholic, and is living with her boyfriend, Jerry, who is less active but has been slowly trying to come back to church! The spirit was so ridiculously strong in our lesson, so many tears were shed, I know that she will be baptized. We didn't set a date because she can't get baptized until they either get married or one of them moves out, but she said she will prepare for baptism :) She is the sweetest, we are so excited to get to know her even more and help her progress and increase her faith in Jesus Christ.

Noelle hasn't been coming to church because of stupid sicknesses in their house :( But she is doing well. I seriously love her family so much <3 We have developed such a good relationship with them :)
The Wilcox family that we started teaching a while ago are really progressing. Brother Wilcox has been at church every single Sunday since we started teaching them, and Sister Wilcox has been a few times but it's hard because she works on Sundays :( Their kids haven't been able to go because they usually head back to their dad's house before church starts, but they are trying to figure out if they can stay longer on Sundays so they can go :) Our relationship with them though is awesome, I just adore their family!

We also started teaching the Nielsons, who are INCREDIBLE. One of the most powerful lessons I have ever been in. They are really seeking the truth, they want to regain their testimonies. We asked Brother Nielson to say the closing prayer, and he didn't really want to, but he finally did, and boy, it was POWERFUL. He just started crying, and we all got emotional. It was beautiful.

A LOT of spiritual experiences this week.

Marcie is also doing really well! Love her more and more every time we meet :) She is just great! She has been spending a lot of time with the people that we have been bringing to her lessons, so she has tons of friends at church now which is great! 

We have lots of new less active families that we are working with but a lot couldn't meet this week so you will get an update on them when we meet with them again :)

We went on a BLITZ Saturday night which was AMAZING! Blitz is when the sister training leader's and your district leader and his companion come to work in your area, so you get triple the work done! I went with Sister Dean and tracked an apartment complex, Sister Olsszowka and Sister Fesili tracked another one, and the Elders tracked a neighborhood! We handed out lots of Book of Mormons and invited lots of people to church! We even set up a non member appointment! Many miracles came from the blitz, I wish we could do them more often!!!

The Hyer's are active but this week we had dinner with them and it was a BLAST! Their family is very musical so after dinner we had a little jam session, it was awesome! We made a video of them playing the ukelele and us singing along to "You Are My Sunshine!" it's cute! :) 

I ran into someone who knows Elder Bertch (my first district leader/mission dad) who is now home, the other day, so she texted him a picture of me and he said "Oh my gosh, Sister Love! her name says it all! :D" haha I miss that guy, he was such a good Elder, it was cool to hear from him!

Oh and a funny story, so Sister Fesili went out with the RS to visit people while I went with Sister Watson to pick up my prescription from Wal-Mart, and Sister Watson locked the keys in the car haha so we were stranded at Wal-Mart for quite a while haha I am just so happy I was with Sister Watson and not someone I barely knew hahaha. It was a funny and eventful night, for sure.

Lots of adventures. Love the Watsons so much, they're the bomb <3

I just want to end with my testimony that I know our Savior lives, and is very aware of each one of us and the struggles we have gone through. Relying on Him can bring more happiness and peace into our lives, and I'm thankful for that. I love my Savior Jesus Christ and am eternally grateful for His sacrifice.

I love you all. THE GOSPEL IS TRUE!

-Sister Love