We've had a very good week although it's been pretty unusual. We went on exchanges with our sister training leaders on Wednesday and Thursday. I went to Simpsonville with Sister Paxman. It was nice to be there when I wasn't sick. We had a good day; we were really busy. We had a few great lessons with less active members and some of their investigators. My goal for the exchange was to bear my testimony more, and I was given lots of opportunities to do that. The last lesson we had was with a 17-year-old guy who the sisters just started teaching. He was raised Baptist but recently decided to be Buddhist. Sister Paxman and I both just basically bore our testimonies to him the entire lesson.
We talked about why we were willing to give up so much to share our beliefs with other people and how we had come to know that what we believe is the truth. We promised him that if he would sincerely read the Book of Mormon with the intent to act on whatever answer he received, he would come to know, just like us, that what the sisters have taught him is true. I love that about the Book of Mormon, that we can with absolute surety promise people that if they will read it and sincerely pray about it, Heavenly Father will tell them it is true. It's something I've been thinking about lately, why some of our investigators have gotten that answer and why most of them haven't yet. And the conclusion I've come to is that Heavenly Father waits to answer most people until they are doing all they can to learn for themselves, that they're reading every day and thinking about the Book of Mormon and are willing to give up whatever it takes to get that answer. And most of our investigators right now just aren't being very consistent about it. They have a sincere desire to know and to learn, but that desire hasn't translated into consistent action yet. So we'll have to figure out what we can do to help several of them become more consistent, earnest studiers.
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| A collage Sister Rudy works on in her spare time |
We've been able to do a lot of service this week for one of our investigators. She's in a really bad position right now financially, and she's trying to get her life back on track. For as long as I've known her, she's been talking about sorting and selling her things so she can get enough money for a car and move out of the trailer where she's living now, taking care of her mom. And this week it's finally started to happen. We've been helping her sort through her things. It's been a pretty rough job, mostly because they're having a rat problem in their trailer, and rats have gotten into a lot of her things. And she has a lot of stuff to go through: two rooms full of boxes. But we've made a big dent in it. And it's been great to see how she has begun to progress. She's reading all the chapters in the Book of Mormon that we give her and then some on her own. She doesn't fully understand the importance of what we share about the Restoration, but she's getting there. And her mom has also started to read the Book of Mormon.
We had an amazing miracle last night. We had about an hour left and we went to go see one of our less active members. He's a convert and used to be very active in the church, but became less active and then got divorced and has just been really depressed ever since then. But we leave him sticky notes on his door occasionally and go by with a ward missionary when we can. Last night when we saw him I think he was the happiest I've ever seen him. He told us he's planning on coming to the church for general conference! We had mentioned conference on one of our last sticky notes, and he said he's decided to come. And he's also been starting to read his scriptures again. I was surprised, but really happy that he's starting to get out of his funk that he's been in for the past couple years. It seems like the people that I least expect to change are always the ones that actually do change. It just goes to show you can't ever judge people.
Transfers are this coming Wednesday, April 2. I'm not really expecting to leave, but we'll just have to see. I can't believe how fast this transfer has gone by, time is passing too quickly.
I love you all, have a wonderful week!
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| Spring blossoms |
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