Summer Lull

It's been a bit of a summer lull here on campus, but we have been seeing a lot of miracles!

We finally had the breakthrough lesson with Kenny that we were loking for. He finally admitted that he knows the church is true and that Heavenly Father wants him to get baptized and change and become a missionary, but that he doesn't want to do it. We told him to come back later that night after he had time to think about what he is going to do. He came back and said that he is going to do whatever it takes to change and get baptized. He knows that the environment of the streets is taking a toll on him so he has been spending all day every day at the institute to get away from it. He is getting baptized on August 30th! We set a 14 day plan for him. His biggest struggle right now is quiting sm oking but he knows he can do it.

We got to meet up with Chenwei again this week. He is so cute haha he is this cute little skinny asian boy with a chipped tooth and big smile. We taught him the restoration and invited him to be baptized. His first response was 'yes!' Then, he said 'will it be soon?' and after we explained that we want to help him learn mroe and be prepared to get baptized onSeptember 13th, he said, 'will I be able to wear clothing?' Haha we explained that yes he would be wearing clothing, a jumpsuit, and he asked if he needed to provide it. How cool is that! He was willing to do anything in order to get baptized because he knows it is right. He has been praying and feels that Heavenly Father is telling him that this church is true. Also, he came to church yesterday, and loved it. I was greatful he liked it because I was ready to have a heart attack in Gospel Principles. A recently returned Sister teaches every week, and she doesn't use the manual. She's been teaching the Plan of Salvation for months now haha and yesterday she taught about Heavenly Mother, the Grand War, and intelligences using the Pearl of Great Price. All the missionaries wanted to take our investigators out of the class haha. The class is called Gospel Principles because it is supposed to teach the basics and fundamentals, not deep doctrine haha. Thankfully he liked it, he said he learned a lot.

We met a girl named Fan this week on campus. She is from China, and is getting her Master's Degree in Engineering.She is way awesome and is super sweet! My companion complimented her shoes, and she said that she wished she had bought a lot of pairs so she could give them to us. We brought her to the institute and gave her a chapel tour and a Book of Mormon in Mandarin. She came to church yesterday and really liked it. We're going to meet with her this week and hopefully teach the Restoration!

Eric is....Eric haha. He is so close to receiving a personal confirmation, I just hope he doesn't give up. Each lesson we have with him he says that it is going to be our last. This past week we taught him about Christ and Heavenly Father and what we need to do in order to gain a relationship with them. I gave him the talk 'Lord, I Believe' to read and 'Character of Christ' by Elder Bednar. We had a very very long lesson with him where he just barfed out all his concerns, which for us is really helpful because we understand better what is going on and what he is having a hard time with. It also makes it hard because we can't address them all at once. We can't really address all his concerns if he doesn't first have a belief in God or Jesus Christ. Like one of his biggest concerns is that joining the church would cause a rift in his family. Well, we're trying to help him see that he has to take it one step at a time. You don't start with College, you start with Kindergarten and work your way up. It really makes me hate agency sometimes haha. But that also makes me think of Heavenly Father, and how he must feel when we knowingly use our agency poorly. It was a great lesson though! He went home and stayed up all night studying the things that we gave him and said he really like the talk 'Lord, I Believe." He got 2 new jobs and wasn't able to come to church on Sunday but we hope that as we meet with him this week, that he will be able to build his faith. That's what it all comes down to is faith, it's the first principle of the Gospel! Nothing else can grow if it's not started with faith.

We also have a New Investigator named Rashonda. She is about 19, is homeless and works at Kroger and is way sweet! We gave her a chapel tour and she really wanted t come to church, but got called into work. It was really sweet though, right before the sacrament was passed, I turned around, and she had just walked in. She came up and gave us a hug and said that she was so sorry that she couldn't stay, but that she was on her way to work and just wanted to say hi. It was way nice of her to do that! We are looking forward to teaching her the Restoration because she goes to a baptist church and says that they don't talk about Christ very often, just about God and the Trinity so she really likes that we have such an emphasis on Christ as our Savior.

Kenneth is still diong great. We taught him some of the commandments and he agreed with them and is going to live them. UInfortunately he went out of town so he wasn't able to come to church but he will this week!

Lately I have grown such an appreciation for the Sacrament. I have had some special experiences with how important it is. I have realized that it's not just for forgiveness of sins or renewal of covenants, but it's acceses to the complete Atonement, which means healing, comfort, anything we need. It is in remembrance of what Christ did for us. I am so grateful to be able to take the sacrament twice each Sunday and have my testimony grow stronger each time.

Well it's been a pretty great week and I wish I could share all the adventures. Hope you all have a great week!

P.S. Sidenote, the millipedes are still raging :(

Love,