Today, the Missionary Department came and talked to us about helping members do missionary work, it was way sweet!
So Tim is getting baptized on Saturday! It is going to be great. They finally got the step-by-step so it is for sure. He is so prepared, and so excited. It is really cool to see. Last week we taught him about looking forward, and pressing forward with faith by sharing the story of Lot's wife, and then 2 Ne 31:20, how he can be changed and never look back in his heart. He is already doing that, he doesn't even need us haha.
Robert finally called us back! (He is the Guest Services miracle) We had been trying to call him for weeks, and finally he returned our calls. We started talking with him, seeing how he is doing, and he told us that he was confused about baptism and wanted to know more about it. So we taught and testified abot it, and he said, wow that is so cool, I would love to be able to do that! THEN he said, do you think I would be able to come to Temple Square and get baptized? We were like did he really just say that? Speechless haha. So we invited him to pray for a baptismal date, and we will follow up with that when we teach him on Saturday.
Not sure if you remember Sandy, or Sandra, the one from chat with Bipolar Disorders, Depression, and she is suicidal. Well, we call her on Mondays. We called her, and she was doing pretty good. She has been reading and praying, but still did not go to church. She also said she thinks she & her husband will get separated. Well, she ended up having to go because her husband was home, but told us to call her back that night. This was divine inspiration because before we called her back, the local missionaries had randomly stopped by. Instead of teaching, they listened with love, and invited her to church again, but this time helping her see why, and telling her about Relief Society, and how great it would be for her. Well when invited to church, she usually says, well I'll try, but I have a lot going on, and I don't know if I will be feeling up to it. Well this time when they asked, she said, I will! She committed finally. I am so excited to see how she likes it, I know it will be really good for her to have that support system and to partake of the sacrament. I hope the members fellowship her well!
I am not sure if I have mentioned Aaron before. So she was an inbound call, she wanted a Finding Faith in Christ DVD. She is from New Mexico. And she is extremely hard to understand on the phone. Like when I talked with her, we have to input their name, age, gender, and address...Well, it took 5 minutes to figure out her name, and her voice is so deep I was so nervous to ask her gender. I was like, so Aaron....uh so you're um female? right? And she said uh YEAH. I felt so bad! But we've been calling her ever since. She goes to the First Assembly of God church. She reads the Book of Mormon. Well you can imagine how hard it is to teach her when you can't understand what she says. I try asking her to take her phone off speakerphone but it doesn't really do anything. Each time we call her, it is really hard because we just teach, and when we ask questions, we can't understand the response, so we just say, yeah definitely! and try to follow the spirit. So this week on Sunday, we called her, and I again asked for her to take her phone off speaker, and by the grace of God I could understand her! She said that she reads the Book of Mormon, and that she loves it! She has been meeting with the missionaries. She said well, i might go to church with them today. So we said MIGHT? We told her about church and how awesome it is, and invited her to try it out. She said that she would call the missionaries right then and ask for a ride. I think it was too late, I think the missionaries had already left for church, but we don't know for sure. We have tried calling her a couple times this week but she hasn't picked up. I am excited to see if she went, and how it was. Maybe she will go this Sunday if she didn't go last. She is one of those people that are hard to love, but once you love them, you really love them!
So the way it works with tours is that there are sisters that are at each desk at the entrances of the buildings. Those sisters contact people, and when the people say they want a tour, the sisters call the West Gate Booth, which has one companionship that deals with all the tours, and they text the tour out to all the sisters who have square time. Yesterday we were on square, and we got a text for 1 English. That means there is one person that speaks English. We responded, and went over to the location it was at. His name is Norbert, and he is about 29. The sister on desk introduced us and said that he served in Birmingham but has since got a little lost and is working on finding his way back. So, obviously, he is inactive. Well we start the tour, we wanted to start at the Assembly Hall, so we could talk about the reasons we go to church, and the sacrifice of the pioneers in that building, and how it applies to him. Well, we asked where the disconnect happened from the mission to now, and he started to tell us his story. I won't go into details, but he was excommunicated two years ago. He said he has never felt worse in his life, than in that moment when he lost his membership. He said right then, he noticed the light went out. He didn't know what he had until it was gone. On the duration of the tour, he shared more with us. He is going through some hard things, but is a really awesome guy! During the tour, I just had this thought/impression/picture (does that even make sense?) of just how he was one of Christ's lambs, and Heavenly Father was trusting us with one of His little lambs. I just felt so much love for Norbert. He has righteous desires, but I am not quite sure he understands how to accomplish those right desires. But we are going to call him every once in a while to see how he is doing. I felt so loved that Heavenly Father would trust us with him.
This week we have had a lot of people drop us, or we had to drop them. I was surprised that I wasn't that discouraged. I know that even though they may choose not to be ready at this time, or they really aren't ready, that God never drops them, and He will always provide other opportunities for them to learn of the Gospel, and choose to accept it.
We got to go to Music & The Spoken Word last Sunday, it was so great! It was based off one of my favorite songs, Brightly Beams our Father's Mercy. I am sure I will butcher this, but Lloyd Newel (of course haha...what are they going to do when he dies?) narrated about a story that a preacher had told of a ship trying to find the harbor, and a lighthouse who's light had already gone out for the night, how they crashed an died because they couldn't find their way among the rocks. Then he related it to how we are the light. God puts us on the earth, but only we can shine the light to help people know where to go! It is up to us on the Earth to show people where to go to find safety and happiness and truth. We have to be missionaries as members, or else the light to everyone's lighthouse will be out. It was so good!
Well I think that is about it, we are getting really excited for General Conference! It is going to be insane. We are excited for all the many opportunities and miracles that we will see.
Help someone feel the love that the Savior has for them today. It is a wonderful time to be a missionary :)
Love you!
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