Faith to be healed

This week has been really busy and filled with a lot of good appointments. (Which is awesome!) Last p-day after our awesome hike, we took one of our investigators shopping with one of the members to find her some church clothes. She said she didn't have any, so one of the members was willing to buy her some. So we took her and were able to get her two skirts and two shirts. She was really excited.

Today we had another really fun zone activity. We went golfing! We played all the districts against each other. I had only a few successful hits and putts. But as a district we got only 2 over par total so that was really good because no one else on our team had ever been golfing. I was coaching everyone since I knew everything they should do....I just couldn't do it myself. haha :) I just knew the technique. It was fun :)

This investigator we took shopping, reminds me of when Christ tells us that we need to humble ourselves and become like a little child. She is in her 50's but is just so innocent and kind to people. She is always smiling and trying to do her best. I absolutely love her. She had a pretty rough week this week though. She had to go to the hospital on Tuesday. Apparently she was at the doctors office for pain in her chest and the middle of her back and while they were there, she had a seizure. They called an ambulance and took her to the ER. So we went and visited her on Wednesday and took some men to give her a blessing. She did not look well when we got there. They blessed her that she would be healed from the things that were ailing her at that time and then told her that the rest was up to her. She had to have strong faith in order for the blessing to work. While we were visiting, her friend came in. This friend had gone 4 days without smoking but had gone on stress overload when her friend was in the hospital and so she smoked again. So I took her lighter and threw it away when we left. She has a desire to quit so that is good. She has gone quite a few days again so we are proud of her. On Wednesday we went and visited them again. When we walked in our investigator looked like a whole new person! She kept telling us that she felt so much better and that the men had told her that the rest was up to her faith. She said she had enough faith because when she woke up the next day she felt really good! She told everyone that it was the blessing and they have to have the faith. It's so adorable. She kept saying she knew it was the blessing that helped her feel better. While we were visiting we taught them about baptism and receiving the gift of the holy ghost. Her friend was out of the room for part of the discussion and we had just finished explaining to our investigator what a covenant was. So to check her understanding, we asked her to tell her friend what a covenant was. So she turns to her friend and says, "Ok, do you know what a condiment is?" Oh man I was laughing so hard. The member with us tried to correct her and said, "no, commitment..commitment." So then I was laughing even harder because all these people were talking and they were all saying the wrong thing. It was a funny moment, but you had to be there I guess :)

Those two ladies also came to church for the first time this week and loved it. Sister W and I spoke and they said we did a good job and they liked hearing us speak. We introduced them to the ward and told everyone they are getting baptized on the 9th! They are both so excited to be getting baptized. They have a lot of faith and they love having us come over. We go over probably 4 times a week. It's so awesome!

This week I went on exchanges with Hermana J. I love her to death. We went to the Spanish area. She wanted me to be able to say something in the lessons, so she wrote down a little snippet for me to say in Spanish. I just read it and she helped me with the pronunciation. (side note: I'm singing a song in Spanish at a baptism on the 9th.. you can't be serious. Sister W is playing the piano and Hermana G is going to sing a part and Hermana J and I are singing together because we don't want to sing alone. Also because I don't know Spanish!) So anyway, it was fun to be with her. We got to know each other a lot better and are good friends :) She is going home this transfer so I'm sad about that. But that was a fun adventure!

We have been visiting this week as well with one of the men we have been teaching . His wife is visiting her mom so she wasn't there. We went and read from the Book of Mormon with him a few times. He has a hard time retaining information as well as understanding the "thee's and thou's" so he reads everything twice to help him. He had an accident that caused him to have a hard time with those things I think. So we help him out. He is starting to get a lot more comfortable with us. He is starting to crack jokes and he hugged us the other day before we could do anything so that was awkward. But he is willing to try this stuff and to put forth the effort, he is just a little scared he said. So hopefully he will come around. I really like him. Unfortunately he didn't make it to church this week though. He did come to a baptismal service this weekend though. The Elders had a baptism so we invited him and he came. He was asking if anyone had ever drowned when they got baptized and he was so sure that some had to have in history at some point. "Especially since they used to baptize in rivers! If you slip, your a goner!" haha he was funny.

We got two new investigators this week too. One is a woman. Her daughter is a member in and she has been going to church with her daughter because her daughter just had a baby. So her daughter came down so we could have a lesson all together. The mom wants to keep going to church with her daughter until she can come down and go to our ward with her so she is more comfortable. We will try to change that though. She said she would get baptized when she got an answer but wants to take things slow because she is old and set in her ways. She seems pretty solid though!

The other one the sisters found while we were on exchanges. He is pretty cool. He has a stutter but is perfectly confident and doesn't care. He really wants to come to church but works on Sundays. He already asked his boss twice to get it off and his boss won't let him. So we are praying for a miracle because he is on date to be baptized on September 13th. We set the date out there so we can pray for a miracle and he can come to church. He is super funny. He also came to the baptism and was telling everyone the story about how we found him and then the lesson we had with him a few days later. We are excited to teach him and help him prepare for baptism.

We also taught a part member family. The husband is a member and even served a mission. They grew up in a small town and when they got married, everyone was really judgmental, including his family. So they got offended and pushed away. The wife took lessons from missionaries online a couple years ago. She said she is willing to go through the process again and see if this is the right timing for her family. Hopefully as they pray they will choose the right step instead of trying to please men. She is just really turned off because she thinks religion is supposed to bring families closer together, not rip them apart.

We are teaching a few less actives and recent converts as well. I am trying to get to know everyone in case Sister W leaves this transfer. Which, I had a dream last night that I was the one who got transferred and not her. We shall see! I hope she doesn't leave! This transfer is going by so quickly. We are hoping to be able to reach the standard of excellence by the end of the transfer so we are working hard. We had a good, full week so hopefully we will have another really full week! As I said before, we spoke in church this week. I spoke on missionary work because this ward is mostly converts, so I thought they would be more missionary minded and they aren't. :/ They are good but we need them to step it up because our area is so huge! It is hard to find "the one" when we don't have enough miles to get anywhere. Also, I CRIED when I gave my talk. I NEVER cry anymore so that was super weird.

We might be biking a TON this week because we are out of miles. But our area is huge and we have a lot of appointments so I'm not sure how we are going to be able to do it. ;) Oh, we also went to a funeral. Remember the girl whose mom died? The funeral was this week. Well I'm not sure what it was to be honest. We thought it was going to be the viewing on the night that we went but when we showed up, everyone was sitting down and watching a slide show. But one of the girls recognized us and took us right to the front to see the daughter. So everyone stared at us as we walked to the front and we awkwardly stood in the aisle while we talked to her. Hopefully it was a good thing that everyone saw us walk in and try to comfort her instead of getting mad and wondering why were there. Someone was getting up to a podium when we walked out so I'm not sure what it was that was going on! So ya! A really good week full of lots of good lessons and progress :) Thanks for the prayers and support! I love meeting all of these amazing people ready to accept the gospel. I hope they all can keep the faith and hold on through their trials!

 

CG Mountain

Why hello there. Guess what I just got done doing? Going on a hike! This
morning our zone woke up bright and early so we could begin hiking up CG
Mountain at 5:30a.m. It's our zone activity for the day, but could not be done

in the heat of the day, so we got permission to go early this morning! It was really fun.

The beginning wasn't too bad and there is a little landing halfway up, but the Elders

wanted to be adventurous and go all the way to the top. Which there was no trail.

It wasn't any worse than paving your own trail on any other mountain, except that

you have to be careful not to step on the cactus!!! That definitely made it a little (a
lot) tougher. There is a cactus that is called a jumping cactus and it is
allll over the mountain. If you get close enough it'll just latch right
onto you and then "climb" up your body without you realizing it and then it
gets smashed into you. Luckily I didn't get any cactus stuck on me! But
Sister J had one on the back of her shoe and it got jammed into her
calf when she was hiking. So it took some time to pull it out. haha it was
a sight to see as we were all pulling cactus from each other. It was super
fun though! Although going to the top was very steep. I basically rock

climbed on the way up! haha. It was really fun though. Apparently some

people behind me said we all went right over the top of a rattlesnake. I didn't see it,

and it's probably a good thing cause if I had I probably would have freaked

out and slipped! But it was a super fun zone activity.

This week was really good. We had interviews with President T on
Tuesday. Interview are always really short and fast. Sister T said one
of their biggest regrets will be that they don't have time to get to know
the good missionaries who don't have problems because they always have to
deal with the people who are struggling. So I try not to add to their
stress and just figure things out on my own. I love them though. They are
super awesome and they do so much for us.

This week we had some super exciting things! We taught the trailer park friend's about
the  Book of Mormon and read some with them. They love it. They said they
read together and talk about things together all the time. They take their
books with them everywhere they go. It's adorable. So we asked them to be
baptized on August 9th and they said yes! :) It was awesome. I asked one of them
if she would be baptized, and before I could even ask the other one, she said, "Well I will
too!" So we are really excited about that. They are just so prepared and
willing to do anything. One of the ladies just found out this week that her brain tumor
is back. This will be her third time fighting cancer. (Please keep her in
your prayers.) Later this week we taught them again. We taught them about
faith and repentance and told them one of the ways they will have to repent
and make a change in their lives, is to live the Word of Wisdom. We were a
little nervous how they would take it, but they were super optimistic.
Luckily one of them just drinks tea and said she will just drink herbal instead,
but the other smokes. She was strong though and just said, "It's fine! It's
going to be hard, but I can do it!" We are super proud of her. It's been 3
days now and she says it gets easier by the day.

They were supposed to come to church on Sunday but one of the ladies wasn't feeling
well and she woke up late. She texted us and said that she would still come
though because she just needed to have the faith and do what is right.
However, after she got all ready, her husband had to take the car so they
didn't have a ride to church and it just had one hour left so we didn't go
get them. However, we had a mission president's fireside that night so we
asked them to go with us to that instead. They both loved it. One of them started
crying and said she hadn't felt anything like that with such a strong peace
until that night. The other lady really enjoyed it too. She is so strong. She didn't
feel well that night either but was persistent on coming. I'm really glad
they did though. They had a really fun time I think.

This week we also went with a brother in the ward to give a potential
investigator a blessing. Her mom had cancer and was just waiting to
die because she no longer wanted to do treatments. The daughter was having a hard
time with that so we went and gave her a blessing and it was really good.
She listened really intently and it was powerful. Then Brother C also
gave her mom a blessing. The mom wasn't really awake and coherent but she
seemed a little more peaceful after the blessing. The daughter told us the next
morning that her mother passed away that same night. I think the blessing
was a blessing of comfort to her and a blessing of release. She was no
longer in pain. The daugher isn't doing very well right now, so hopefully when
things pass a little with the funeral and such, we will be able to teach
her about the amazing plan that God has for us and for her mom.

We also taught the father/daughter investigator's this week. The dad kept saying that
this is going to be a really slow process for him and that he just wants to
take things slow, and it takes time for him to take things in, and he
hasn't even read the Book of Mormon yet, and has only been to church once...and
on and on. He seemed a little on edge or perturbed or something when we got
there so maybe he is going through something right now that made him a
little grumpy. But we read some of the Book of Mormon with them and they
liked it a lot. It went really well. They were supposed to come to church
as well but the daughter called us when we were driving to church and said her
dad was sick so she wanted a ride. So we sent someone to get her. It is so
awesome that she still wanted to come! Then the dad ended up showing up
half way through Sunday School. He was super happy to be there and you can
tell he's getting to be more comfortable there. This week he was in a nice,
green button up shirt and we gave the daughter some extra clothes we had lying
around and she wore one of the new outfits we gave her. It was cute. So we
had some good things this week for sure!

We also helped a member paint this week. She is opening a school! It is a
smaller school. Apparently there is an LDS man who made some curriculum

that gets around the common core. She hated common core, so she decided to open

a school with his curriculum. It's super cool because it is only three days a week and
parents can come sit in on the lessons as well. Public education seems to be going really

downhill I guess. So anyway she is trying to get this school done so we helped her
paint this weekend.

Lastly we had a really fun night on Saturday. We asked a family in our ward
to host a little dinner and movie at their house. We invited our recent converts and

we also invited the father and daughter, as well as the two women we are teaching.

Another member family brought our recent converts and also helped
bring dinner. The father and daughter enjoyed the dinner but ended up having
to leave before the movie because something unexpected had come up. The
rest of us watched "The Mountain of the Lord." It's a movie about the
building of the Salt Lake Temple. It was really good and I think they all
really enjoyed it. It was a nice change and fun to have them get to know
other people.

So this week we made some good progress! We still need to find some new
investigators and such but it will come! I'm so happy and blessed to have
the investigators that we do have. They are really great and I admire them
a lot. They are all so strong and have been through a lot. I'm so grateful
that I was raised in the church and have had this gospel to help me
throughout my life. I'm glad I get to be here and learn more about the
church and come even more fully converted myself. One of my favorite things
to do is to study the gospel now. I wish I could just sit down and study
for hours instead of only one. It's not enough! So make time to do
your studies! It will help you greatly. Have a good week! :)

Light Show

Wow this week has sure been a busy one! We have had some really good lessons and experiences this week. In this area we do family home evening with older couples/empty nesters. So last week we taught them the Book of Mormon and they pretended to be non members/different religions. Which is really cool because a LOT of this ward is made of converts. So that was fun to do a little role playing with the members. This week we will be teaching the Plan of Salvation and hearing their thoughts and insights on this doctrine. Tuesday was a crazy day! We had some really good lessons and good success on Facebook. I have been messaging a lot of people from home and asking them if they know of anyone who needs a message and a few people have given me some names so that has been fun. We also followed up with a family about how their family mission plan is going. It turned into being an awesome discussion and resulted in the mother planning to take us to meet her friend! She said she had to hurry and do it before she chickened out though. So that was so fun! It is fun to see how people work up the faith and courage to do missionary work. It can definitely be hard. I was thinking today about how scared/nervous I was to talk to everyone I saw about the gospel, and how much I have grown. Now I'm actually seeking to find people that I can talk too instead of running away from people ;) haha. So it just takes faith to take that step and start practicing! God will help you. God is disappointed when we don't share this amazing gift that we have. (D&C 60:2-3...I read that this morning when I was thinking about how I have grown and what our responsibility is to share the gospel). Anyway so that was really fun to spend time with that family and help them to be brave and recognize opportunities they have to do missionary work.

The craziest part about Tuesday was the massive Haboob that rolled in! It was actually a little blessing because we were in a member family's neighborhood just looking for more people to visit. We saw another family near by so we decided to talk to them about the family mission plan because we didn't know who they were. When we got in there we soon realized that they were severely less active. They were super nice though and while we were there, the storm rolled in! So we had to stay there for an hour! haha. They wouldn't let us leave because it's dangerous to drive in a massive dust storm like that. The dust was so heavy that we couldn't even see our car parked out front on the street. And you could smell dust in the house that was being blown in through cracks and crevices. haha. Anyway they were really nice and said they would love to feed us sometime this month. They also have two kids above the age of 8 that aren't baptized! ;) haha Apparently they are both converts and the parents are not fond of the church so that is hard. Hopefully we can get them to be more active now. That storm was so crazy though! There was literally lightning on all sides of us. It was amazing. It was like a huge light show all around us. I tried to capture it on video abut it just didn't work too well. We saw some of the craziest/longest lightning bolts I've ever seen in my life though! It was so amazing and super fun to watch! I wish I could just show you cause it was SOOOO cool.

This week we had a lot of good lessons and one day we had miracles happen! We had a bunch of appointments set up right after weekly planning so we didn't have time to go home and eat so we just skipped lunch. We wanted to get member present lessons at all of our appointments so we had 2 young women wanting to go on missions, come out with us one right after the other. So we went to our first appointment. This woman was a referral from her father because he was just recently baptized in a different ward. The woman lives in an RV outside a motel. We had to teach her standing up because there wasn't room in the RV. She sat on her bed and we stood in the tiny, tiny kitchen. Midway through the Restoration, her friend crammed in there with us. At the end of the lesson we asked the first woman if she would be baptized when she knows this is true and she said Yes! Then her friend said she would also like to learn more and wanted to read the pamphlets we have. They said they would come to church that week and would bring their husband/fiance too. So that was exciting! We then took another young woman out and our appointment we were supposed to have cancelled on us, so we just taught a mini lesson on her doorstep and turned it into a teaching opportunity. We decided to just make some rounds in the trailer park to some of our people to check on them. One guy had come to church last week but hadn't talked to us since so we were a little worried about that. But we swung by and he was outside so we talked to him about church and how he felt and such. We had a really good lesson on what it was like to feel the spirit. As we were finishing with a prayer, his friend walked up and said he wanted to learn more. He wanted to know what made Mormons different and said he had time to have a lesson right then. So we went inside and taught him the Restoration. He really liked it and he had some good questions. He said he wanted to come to church and check it out. So we got two lessons there! Then we went and saw a man and his 13 year old daughter. The daughter is super cute and outgoing. They have been saying for a few weeks that they want to come to church. However, they were robbed last week so they didn't come, but they promised they would come this week. We had a good discussion with them as well. Soooo we had a lot of really good lessons and already had 5 member presents in the span of 3 hours! WOO! That is SO good. Later that night we also stopped by a part member family. The husband fell away because of bad experiences about 12 years ago and the wife has taken lessons online/facebook 2 years ago. They were super nice and they have a 9 month old little girl. They are also really busy, but the wife said she would be willing to take the lessons again! WOO! So we are really excited for that as well. Hopefully we can find a time to pin them down :) So a lot of good lessons this week and many fun times :)

Sister W and I just get along really well and we have a lot of fun together. So by the end of the week, we had about 12 people that said they would come to church hopefully. So that would have been super awesome if they all showed up! BUT, only the father and daughter came. It was probably best though because we were able to give them some good attention and they loved it! Especially the daughter. We had a super awesome family of girls take her to young womens and after church they were all hugging her and she was having a really great time. She said she would be going to mutual this week with them too! The dad even said he liked it and would like to get a manual for the classes. GOOD SIGNS! :) We told them we would come by and teach them some lessons that will help them be prepared for church. They haven't had any of the lessons because they are just looking for something different and wanted to come to church to test it out. Oh ya! Getting people to church can be so hard, but they are really excited about it! It was so awesome. :)

We have been focusing on getting referrals this week because we need new, solid people to teach. We were able to get a couple but not able to teach them quite yet, so hopefully this week we can do that with the members!We have found that the key to helping the members really is following up with them so they realize that this is a for real thing, not just drop it off and they forget about it. Just like Elder Ballard's talk in General Conference, we have to follow up with the people we talk to as well! So if you are doing missionary work, you have to follow up! :) So I'm excited for what the rest of this transfer holds :) Have a good week!

Kickin' it in Casa Grande!

Well as you can tell from the title, I got transferred to Casa Grande! It is so different down here than what I have been used to for my whole mission. My past areas have been filled with pretty well-off /rich people. In a few areas I did have an apartment complex though. Here it is completely different! There are a few nice communities, but the rest of the area is ghetto. Tons of trailer parks and run down houses. Our area is HUGE! (compared to my last areas). Just guessing that it is 30 square miles. Not sure though. It takes a half hour to get to the edge of our area and we only cover one ward. Down here it has a bigger desert feel than my past areas. It takes a little getting used to and I still feel like I'm on exchanges with the Spanish sisters or something. But it's good! I always
hear that Casa Grande is awesome :) So I'm really excited to be here.

 

I love my new companion, Sis W, to death although she is almost done with her mission! She will go home the end of next transfer, so she has three months left.  I'm so glad to be with someone who knows what they are doing! It's like I'm finally getting my training from someone experienced! We get along super good and she actually reminds me of Aunt Darci when she says certain things :) It's fun. Our teaching pool is very limited right now so we are trying to meet new people and find those

ready for the gospel, which is kind of hard with such a huge area and random people living out in the boonies, but it's fine :) We will figure it out. This ward needs to be more excited about missionary work so we have been brainstorming how we can get people to help us out more since it is hard to find people to teach.

Anyway to back up a little bit, the few days before transfers were jampacked. Sister A and I had a lovely P-day filled with packing for me. However, we went and got Cold Stone for a little celebration/party. It was fun and we got a lot done. Plus we went to the girl's home that came on the mini-mission with us for dinner. Her parents aren't members and they were totally against her joining the church, so this was a huge step for them. It was really fun! They even asked us a few questions about what we do as missionaries and the logistics of it all. We then played a little game with her dad because he loves games. It was really good to just allow them to interact with us and see that we are normal :)(kinda) haha.

On Tuesday we had zone meeting. That was awesome because we are close to the Gilbert Temple and our leaders got permission for us to finish zone meeting on the temple grounds :) That was super fun and we got to have a little bit of "alone" time on the grounds to just think and make goals for
ourselves and such. It was nice. We then had a lesson with one of our convert

and the members we taught him with. The convert told us that both Sis A and I are so special to him and that we are his rock (except Christ). He said he wants to keep in touch with us forever :) He is adorable. The sister member cried when I said goodbye and she ALMOST started to make me cry, but I held myself together. I love her. She has done so much for me being in that area. We also had a lesson with another guy that night. He also wasn't very happy to hear that I was leaving, but I think he has attachment problems so it's probably a good thing. The Bishop was out of town, but he was super nice and called me to tell me goodbye and thank you for everything I had done for that ward. (Which
wasn't really much, but it was nice anyway :)

Then as I said before, I got transferred to Casa Grande! It has been fun but like I said before, we are trying to find people to teach. We do have an investigator who lives in a trailer park and we taught him in a HABOOB! My very first real haboob (monsoon). It starts out as a wall of dust and wind blowing in and then it RAINS. It was lightning every 5 seconds probably and it was raining real hard. But before the lightning got bad, and it first started raining, we taught this guy in the rain. We didn't
have another female so we couldn't go inside so we just chilled outside. We were SOAKED and had to end the lesson a little early because of the storm. It was fun though :) So ever since Thursday it has been overcast mostly and super HUMID. Yes, humid. It gets dang humid during monsoon season. Usually at least 80-90%, but one day it was 100%. Crazy right?! So that is interesting!Anyway, the guy we taught in the rain, came to church this Sunday and "gave it a try". I'm not sure if he liked it so we need to check with him. He isn't very talkative and doesn't open up much so it's kinda hard to teach him.

For the 4th of July we had to be in by 5 unless some members invited us to be with them. Our Ward Mission Leader had us for dinner. His wife is due to have another baby boy this week. They have a two year old boy already. They are super cute. Anyway we had some yummy hamburgers and then they took us home. They were going to go to a party for fireworks which we couldn't do. It was fine though because I have been so exhausted. Sister W and I just relaxed at home and told each other
stories. We got to know each other a lot better and it was really fun. So no fireworks for me this year! We have a few recent converts that we usually go read the Book of Mormon with so that has been fun. Sister W is really good at making the scriptures come alive for people and helping them see how fun and good it can be to read. So that is awesome! I'm really excited to be here. :)

We had a few crazy experiences with dogs yesterday. There were so many angry looking dogs in fences that we needed to go in. So we would just pray for safety and cautiously head in. :) It all worked out. One dog was barking like crazy until we got in the gate, and then it just went and
cowered in the corner. So who knows? Maybe we had angels with us. :) It's been an adventure and it's hard to learn the area since it is so huge, but Sister W has a GPS so that is really handy. Trying to learn a new area is always so exhausting so I've been extra tired and trying to get fully unpacked. I think I finally got the unpacking part pretty much finished, so now I need to focus on learning who the people are and their names and what they need etc. It will be interesting to see what they decide to do with us next transfer. By the end of this transfer Sister W will have been here for 6 months so I wonder if they will transfer her with only one transfer left. Who knows?!

Anyway it's been a good week even though it's extremely hot and muggy. I'm going to freeze when I get home because I think it's cold in our apartment and it's usually around 80 degrees inside! My hair is so dead from constantly being in the hot air. It's like blow drying it all day everyday so ya, it's pretty dead and nasty. Oh well. I'm just rambling now because I don't have much else to say because I still don't even know who is what and where they are! haha. So maybe next weeks letter will be better :) Well have a good week!

P.S. I know this is Christ's church on the Earth and I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have to be a missionary and spread God's love and peace to his children :)

A Plain Jane Missionary

Wow this transfer has flown by so quickly! I can not believe that it is already time to be moving again. So we had transfer calls last night and it turns out that I'm leaving the area :( Bummer. I really have loved this ward. The people are amazing and I love all of them. But I guess I'm on to new things! But I'll be honest, the worst part about leaving, is the task of packing. I acquire so many new things every transfer. Especially clothes....I get all the hand me downs :) Which I love, yet it takes so much dang space. Anyway so that is my task for today.

So this week was a little slow, yet good. We had a fun P-day activity last week. We played "live clue" (like the Board game). However, instead of murder, we did "Who converted 'George' with what tool (like Book of Mormon, testimony, etc) and Where (church, members home, etc). So that was fun! I also threw a football with a bunch of Elders before that started and they were all super impressed at my football skills. They kept asking "Where did you learn how to throw a football so well!?" and "Where are you from again?" haha I just told them that my brother is a State Champion Quarterback so it's no big deal ;)

So this week we finally got in with one of the lady investigators we have to find out why she didn't think the Book of Mormon was biblical. She had some silly concerns like that the Book of Mormon tried to copy some things in the Bible but didn't even write them down correctly, or that the church wasn't established until after Christ came. She would never let us teach her the lessons, so those misconceptions could have easily been cleared up in the first lesson. She was kind of mad and was getting a little contentious saying it could NOT be from God because it wasn't biblical. When we told her Joseph Smith hadn't even read the Bible all the way through and that he only had a 4th grade education, she was really surprised and you could see her walls coming down. So we bore our testimonies of the Book of Mormon and also about how much we love the Savior. We told her the reason we wanted to share this with her is because we love her. She told us we are her friends and she enjoys us coming. We took her a talk to read called "The Blueprint of Christ's Church." It shows that everything we believe is straight from the Bible and that we match Christ's church when he was on the Earth. So the spirit was really strong and went great. We were so excited! She finally was listening. However, we went back last night and she told us that nothing in it was biblical....even though every reference it gives is straight from the Bible. She kept making excuses and when we would say, well what about this scripture (that would be from the Bible and totally contradict what she said she learned from the Bible) her response would be, "Well I don't know...I don't want to delve into that. It's just not biblical." So she said we are taking things out of context in the Bible. Long story short, she said there is no way she could ever believe it. So that was depressing. Her heart is definitely hard to the truth and we think that she might be a little scared of change also. I just hope someday her heart is softened and she recognizes the truth.

We had a couple good lessons with another guy this week. He is slowly progressing. He used an analogy that the way he feels is like seeing a $100 bill on the ground, yet he didn't want to put in the effort to pick it up... So basically he likes what we have to say, but he is too lazy to act on it. But something tells me that he understands and likes more than he lets on. He has gone to church 3 times in a row and he is reading parts of the Book of Mormon. Things just seem to be clicking better with him so that is awesome. We sent him to the singles ward to see if he would like it this week. He did like it but he is 31 so he isn't young enough. He can still go to the activities and such though. Anyway so he is a work in progress but seems to be doing well!

We also taught a couple other guys this week. One of the men really needs to go. He always dominates the conversation and he seems to be getting anti material from somewhere or is talking to someone because he had some very nit-picky things that he led onto that we hadn't even ever mentioned. So we need to get him out of there because he talks way too much and we can't figure out what the other guys concerns are. So that is frustrating. We'll have to work on that. The lesson went really well even though it could have been better if the one guy hadn't been there. We took a member couple with us again. I love them so much. They are the best fellowshippers. They were converted when they were 20 and they just relate with people really well. They just had their 50 year baptism anniversary Thursday! Awesome!

We finally got to teach our convert this week! He has been having some health problems and he is finally feeling well enough for a lesson. We had the lesson at a member's house so that was fun. It was like back when this convert was taking the lessons and figuring out that what we were telling him is true. I love this guy. He is like our grandpa out here :)

Sister A got sick this weekend so we went in early on Saturday. We watched a pioneer movie (Legacy) and did a lesson with over the phone. I read some scriptures and caught up in my journal. It was nice to get some extra things done but a bummer to be inside.

I am sad to be leaving this area and our investigators but a change of scenery will be good too! I'm excited to see where I am going! I know that the Lord puts us where we need to be for a reason. I have learned a lot in this area and have grown a lot. This will be the first time I get a companion without going to training meetings every week. So now we will have an extra hour to proselyte each day as well. That will be nice. Anyway stay tuned to see where I am shipped to :)