March Madness

I can't believe it is already March! Well basically. Plus we just did weekly planning for week 3 of the transfer. Where does the time go?

Well, I am really excited to share some of the things that happened this week, it was a great week.

My companion is the best, I love her. She is so fun to be around, and shares her Japanese treats, they are so good!

Well to start it off,

We had a miracle happen in Guest Services! Everyone always says that, that they get miracles in GS but it never happened to me. Well last Friday, I received a call. The man asked how much the tours cost. Oftentimes, that is the extent of the conversation, but I felt prompted (now I realize it was a prompting) to ask him some more questions. Well come to find out, he is from Washington and is not a member and has been curious about the church. He just feels really strongly that he needs to come to Temple Square to have a tour! Well I was shocked, how cool is that? So I was able to share a little more about the Gospel with him, and he is a little weird, but hey, that's okay, so am I haha. We talked about the Book of Mormon, which he already has, and I told him how it makes all the difference when you pray to know if it is true when you read it. He said that he wasn't sure how to pray, so I was able to pray with him over the phone, and he was really excited to learn more. He said that it feels right to him, and that God is trying to tell him something. He became our New Investigator! Well we called him yesterday and he said that he has been praying and reading (We left him with Alma 32 and 2 Ne 31 to read) and that he feels calm and he feels the Book of Mormon is true. We taught him the Restoration, and he said that it was really cool and that he believes that Joseph Smith really did have a vision. Well, we invited him to be baptized on March 22 and he said yes! So it turns out miracles really do happen in Guest Services, God's hand is in the work.

Update on Tim. So...He is doing great. He planned out the program for his baptism, and is doing so well. He said that he really wanted me to be in the program but that obviously it wasn't possible. I told him I would be there in a year when he goes through the Temple! He always thanks us for teaching him, and for having patience with him, it is so funny. We love teaching him. So, as of recent, his doctor still will not allow him to be baptized. So the Elders passed it up to authorities, and it got passed up to President Monson! So currently, it is probably being discussed and prayed over, here at Church Headquarters...right where I am haha. They will try to find a solution so he can be baptized without immersion, which is crazy. I am anxious to hear the news, because that has to take place, it is not likely he will be baptized on Saturday :( But all in the Lord's time, it will be worth the wait. It is hard being right here though, I just want to call the Prophet from Guest Services and say, hey President, what's up with Tim's situation? haha. I will just work on my Christlike attribute of patience.

On Monday, we took a tour of a Pentecostal Pastor and his family. That was fun! haha They were really sweet, but not very interested in learning more. Every time we would teach the history and beliefs of the church about Christ or Eternal Families, they would just say, yeah yeah, it's true! And when we would try to testify, they would stand up, ready to go to the next place. I think they were trying to brush off the Spirit. But hey, maybe one day they will remember how they felt and have a desire to learn more. There was a girl our age, she was really nice, she waned to take a picture with us. It's kind of funny how often that happens, there are pictures of all of us TS Sisters with random strangers floating around out there, so we are basically famous haha. Especially Asians, all of us blonde sisters always catch them snapping pictures of us when we walk by, it's so funny!

Yesterday, we took a tour of 3 people. They had combined two groups who were waiting for a tour. One was an older couple from Florida, and the other was a man from Germany who was here on business. On the way to show them the Temple Model, the couple said they were from Fort Lauderdale, and immediately, I brought up the Temple Open House that will be there. They said, yeah we know! We have watched them build it, we live right by it! They said they had tickets to go to the open house. So we got to show them what the Temple looks like, and what it is for, and how families can be together forever. Then we took them to the Assembly hall, and then the Christus. On the way to the Christus, I was talking to the German man. His English is pretty good, so I asked how he learned, and he said that he learned in the past two years, since he has been dealing with business with Americans. It was crazy! Well when we got to the NVC they were looking at the map of Jerusalem, and the Frank, the German guy asked about the Word of Wisdom, if we can drink Coffee, and why. I explained that it was a revelation from Heavenly Father, and that it keeps our bodies healthy and strong, and I testified how always keeping the Word of Wisdom has blessed my body and that I know that it really came from God, and that God created our bodies, so don't you think He would know best what is good to put in them? He said yeah, and that it made sense. Well we walked past the paintings of Christ, and Frank asked about them. He said, this seems like my religion, what makes your religion different than the other Christian churches? So we explained the Book of Mormon and Modern-day Prophets, and skipped the apostasy part for the moment. We said that we have free copies of the Book of Mormon and asked he seemed pleased, then I said, well we actually have German copies too, and he lit up and said he would like one. We took them to the Christus and testified of Christ. One of my favorite things to do when at the Christus is show how from where they are in the room, through the large window they can see the Temple, and also the Christus in front of them, and how it is through Christ that they are able to go to the Temple where they can be sealed to their families for eternity. After that, we went to God's Plan. We were waiting to go in when another sister asked if she could combine her tour with ours so they could go through at the same time and not have to wait for us. I really wanted to say no, because I wanted to have the three people to ourselves, and it makes it more awkward at the end, but of course I couldn't do that. So we combined, and just like I thought at the end, it was awkward. There were 4 of us standing in front of them, not sure who was going to talk, but we testified. The hard part is trying to invite them to learn more, because you don't know if the other group are members, and the other group doesn't know you, so I just said, well our three can come out here, and so we talked with them outside. We asked the couple if we could stay in contact with them to share more with them and see how the open house goes, and they said they didn't want to. We asked if they would like a Book of Mormon and they said no. Shot through the heart! Haha. We asked Frank if he would like to learn more and he said yes! We told him that we could have German sisters call him, and he was happy about that. He filled out a referral card, and got a Book of Mormon and was excited to read it. We invited him to pray each time he reads, and he accepted. We gave the referral to one of favorite Sisters, Sister Hodgkin (her dad is american, but served in Germany so she grew up there until 3 years before the mission, they moved to California). When we gave it to her, she said, what?! A German referred? He wants to learn more and took a Book of Mormon? And he is Catholic? Apparently they don't refer ever, so she is really excited to teach him, and this is her last transfer, so she only has 4 weeks to baptize him! haha I think he will get baptized, he was a miracle, and he is prepared. It wasn't anything that we did.

Well oh my heck, this is a long letter, sorry about that! I hope everyone has had a great week so far, and is ready to kick off the month of March! It's a new month, it will be what you make it. Happy March Madness to all you B-Ball fans, pray for inspiration on your brackets haha.

Until we meet again, farewell from Temple Square in Salt Lake City (Music & the Spoken Word Loyd Newell style haha),

Love,