Quite a Week

So I just had a rather surreal experience at the grocery store. We were walking up and down the aisles when this lady who was passing us stopped me and asked if she could give me something to read. I said sure, and then she handed me a pamphlet (she was Jehovah's Witness). It was kind of strange, since I'm used to being the person who hands other people stuff. It was a little weird to be on the other side of the fence. 

I don't even know where to begin with this week. It's been quite the emotional roller coaster. A lot of good things have happened, but we've also been really disappointed by a few people and had to watch a couple others go through some really rough stuff. It's been a test of faith, to say the least. 

New Years Eve and New Years were pretty uneventful. We had to be in a little early on New Years Eve, but we were out late enough to see some of the fireworks. Since basically every firework known to man is legal in South Carolina, it always sounds like a war zone outside on major holidays. We went and taught Brad a lesson, and he told us about all his crazy New Years adventures back in his wild days. Then we went and taught an investigator, although it was hard to concentrate since their neighbors were having a fireworks show outside.  He has had a kind of hard week; we were a little worried about him for a while there. One of his cousins died, and it really shook him up. But then the next lesson we had with him he really opened up to us. He told us that he's convinced that the Mormon church is good, and he wants to be a part of it, but he knows that the Mormon church doesn't want him to be a part of it unless he believes in the Book of Mormon and that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and he's not going to pretend just to belong. So he promised us that he would keep reading the Book of Mormon, looking for something that will help him to know that it's true. We promised him his answer would come. I really hope he gets his answer soon; he's been searching for it for a long time. 

Thursday morning was absolutely amazing. We had miracle after miracle. We had planned to meet with an investigator at 11, but plans changed and we couldn't go by till 12, so we decided to go see another investigator in the meantime. I can't remember if I've told y'all about her, but she's awesome. She's in her 50s; she lives with her boyfriend, and she just got out of jail. We had planned to teach her the plan of salvation, but as we got talking to her she told us that she'd just decided that morning to quit smoking because it was giving her bronchitis. Well, I look over at Sister Rowley and see her pull out a Word of Wisdom pamphlet. At first I was a little worried and didn't think it was a good idea, but as we talked with her about the Word of Wisdom the Spirit came. The lesson could not have gone better, and she commited to live the Word of Wisdom. She also brought up that she knew that their living together was wrong, and that she was praying about whether to marry him or move out. So we covered the law of chastity too. It was amazing, the two commandments that we were most worried about we taught in one lesson and it went perfectly. 

After that we went over to the other investigator's and had a great lesson with him, and he's promised us that he's coming to church once he gets back from New York in a couple weeks. By the way, he's from Yonkers, and I think Spencer would be his best friend if he met him. Also we found out he has absolutely no Word of Wisdom issues.. He quit drinking coffee and alcohol a few years ago when he realized he was depending on those things rather than God. So, that was really exciting to hear. And then, we went and contacted this mormon.org referral. He had requested a Book of Mormon, and when we first started talking with him, I kind of thought he was a member playing a trick on us. He knew so much about our church and the things he was saying, about wanting more purpose and hope in his life, just seemed to good to be true. But he was serious. He's 21, and he's just searching for something more. He researched our church for three days, and he said he already felt more hopeful as he read our beliefs. He's so prepared and so willing to accept the gospel. He's willing to give up whatever is necessary, make whatever changes in his life he needs to if he finds out this is the truth. So we're really excited to teach him more. 

Transfer calls were this week, and Sister Rowley and I will be staying together for another six weeks, which we're both very happy about. We really feel that a lot of exciting things are about to start happening in our area. And even though we've faced some hurdles this week, things are going well. We know everything's going to work out.