This weekend we will be having the baptism of O and R. We've had a few issues with the day, but we are praying a lot and will be fasting with the Sister Training Leaders. The enemy has been working so hard on this family! But, we are not going to let him win. The Lord is guiding this work and is calling His families unto Him.
Training is a whole new pressure. It's hard not being accustomed to someone who is already used to teaching the basic missionary discussions, but my companion is so amazing! She just jumps right in, even when we have surprise lesson plan changes. She is really so valiant. We are focusing on how to contact more people and finding new investigators. Our district meeting today was another confirmation that we need to be better at that. It's been so hard for us these last 2 weeks.
We are slowly but surely helping J! She is a very unique investigator, different from most. When we came to her house on Friday, we didn't quite have a plan because we honestly were not sure what we could share with her. We started by talking about the chapter we had given her to read from the last lesson: Alma 34. This chapter has varying themes that we could pull from and we found ourselves talking about charity. As it turns out, her perspective of charity was very confused. She told us that because of past experiences, she's turned "cold". We explained to her what charity was and during the lesson she yelled out, "I found my problem! I don't have charity or love!" She told us in past lessons that she doesn't believe Jesus Christ is her Savior, understand the purpose of life, and that the goal of eternal life doesn't motivate her at all or being with her son forever. You're telling me, right? Later during the lesson she yelled out again, "I know what the mission of humanity is! It's having pure love (like the love of a child)!" It was a little funny, but more beautiful seeing her find her own answer. She told us that she knows that she has to develop charity and love, especially for Jesus Christ. On Friday, the Elders will be accompanying us to give her a blessing.
We found a new investigator yesterday. His name is E and we sat on his front lawn and we talked with him for a bit. He told us that he'd been drinking and smoking for 15 days. At first he was pretty distant and defensive against us. As we listened to him and asked him questions, we testified to him about the power of prayer. To start the process of repentance, we should ask God for help. We can do this through prayer. He told us he couldn't pray yet because he was "contaminated," or recently drunk. Over the short time that we had with him, his heart softened and when we challenged him to kneel down and pray before going to sleep, he told us he would try. We testified to him that if we have a true desire to communicate with our Father in Heaven, we are NEVER considered unworthy to pray. Before leaving, we prayed and asked him if we could send the Elders to visit him. "No. I want you two to come," he told us and said, "And thank God for sending you today." That morning we had been studying in Preach My Gospel on how to find people to teach. We had prayed (and cried!) a lot to be able to find those the Lord would have us find and I do believe that we were supposed to find E.
J didn't come to church although she said she would be able to, which was disappointing. Actually most of our investigators didn't come to church after saying they would. It made me sad, but we were glad for those that did come!
I love this work and love you all!
Hermana Whitman