This has been such a fast week. I can NOT believe the transfer isalmost over! We get transfer calls this next Sunday. I sure hope Istay again. I'm just loving it here and I haven't really gotten tiredof the area because 1) it is so huge, and 2) because we barely got theYSA branch.
So the Spanish sisters found a lady a few weeks agothat lives in our area. So we had an appointment with her. She isreally cool. She is Jamaican and has like 6 kids. She is Pentecostal(and guess who else was Pentecostal....! The girl who just got baptized onSaturday so she will be an awesome help to us, but I'll tell you about
her baptism later). So she really wanted tolearn about the church and was really open to things but she had areally hard time with the difference between a prophet and the spiritof prophecy. But she wants to meet with us again and she seems to havea really strong faith in God already so hopefully she will pray and beable to feel that it is true. We have another appointment with herthis week so we are excited for that.
We got to go to the Phoenix temple open house this week! A sister from our ward
took us and our mother investigator and her family came behind us. It was a tiny templebut it was really pretty. It had an oval baptismal font and I reallyliked it. The mother investigator seemed to fit right in with everyone. I'm sure anyonewho saw her and her family would guess that they are members. Sheseemed to like it but we weren't able to talk much after because shehad to leave to babysit. Also, the temple was so small that the carshave to park at a water park and then they have a bunch of charterbuses to bus you to the temple and back. Crazy! But ya it pretty muchtook up our whole afternoon once we drove there, went through it, haddinner, and drove back.
Our soon to be married couple is getting excited about their wedding!
We planned all the details this last week and made assignments to people
in the ward so hopefully people come and support them. The bride was
nervous this week that she isn't going to be a good enough member.
It really made me think about the different lifestyle and commitment
that is made when you become a member of the church.
We truly are a peculiar people. So fellowship is so
important because we need to be there to help themalong the way as they make this huge transition. Most of the convertshave always expressed that they don't feel they know enough or thatthey are way too far behind, so we need to be there to support andhelp them feel involved and needed in the ward and as our friends.
I heard from the older man from my last area who got baptized. He
contacted me on Facebook! He recently got his patriarchal blessing andis doing so awesome. I hope to be able to come back next year when hegoes through the temple. He is also in charge of the home bound for thesacrament. I'm sure he loves that :) It is so good to here about howwell others I have taught are doing, and it's so sad to hear about theones that have fallen away too...it's so heartbreaking.
This week the church building got broken into! Hard core. Thepeople threw rocks through the windows on one side, and then smashedthe glass on the door to get in. Apparently they think they werechecking for alarms when they threw the rocks through the windows. Sothen they grabbed the stone roof tiles that they keep in the back incase they need to replace one, and smashed the door handles on all theBishop's offices. They also broke into some file cabinets. It was sobad. So we are assuming it was done by someone who knows the church alittle because they didn't go into the library or take/mess with anycomputers. Assumption: they were on foot and we're looking for cash.Silly people, don't they know Mormons are way more efficient andresponsible than to leave any money at the church? Haha. So the policecame and dusted fingerprints and found some blood as well, so they arelooking for the culprits!
We also had the Halloween party this week in both the family ward andthe branch. So guess how we dressed up!??? We dressed up as eachother, but we don't do that sissy stuff where you ONLY switch nametags...no. We wore each others clothes and we bought wigs!!! Yes, Iknow...I look hideous as a blonde...but it had to happen. I even puteye shadow on my eyebrows to lighten them up as much as possible so itdidn't look quite as ridiculous. Not many people got it in the family ward.They thought we were just wearing wigs...but the ysa on the otherhand. They appreciated it :) They took tons of pictures of us and wewere pretty much the life of the party there. They were having a danceparty and dinner though so they turned on church music while we werethere. Haha, it was a good time.
So our young woman got baptized this week! It was so good.
She was so happy. There was so much support for her too! The Branch Presidentbrought table clothes for the podium and seriously every girl who camebrought refreshments. I have never seen so many refreshments in mylife. It was a full on feast! We literally didn't eve go home forlunch, we just ate the snacks. So many people came to support her aswell. It is so awesome how willing the ysa is to help and to supportothers. We all need to take a lesson from them! But the baptism wasso good and she was confirmed on Sunday :)
Also, we taught Elders Quorum on Sunday...ya they didn't have ateacher so the ysa elders quorum president asked us to teach. Not sureif it's against the handbook or not, but the high councilman said itwas fine so we did. It was so weird and I'm sure I'll never get thatopportunity again. Haha everyone was like "hey! You can't come topriesthood! Why are you walking down this way." So that was funny andit was definitely a surprise for them when they announced we would beteaching the lesson. :) haha good times.
Anyway this week was really good. This week in gospel principlesthe Patriarch here said, "You can't sink a ship unless you let thewater in. Satan can't influence us unless we let him in." Then HermanaR and I were talking about the story where Lehonti is on thehill and Amalickiah wants him to come down. He asks him three times tocome down and each time he says no. But then Amalickiah says hewill come half way up and Lehonti can bring his friends with him too.So Lehonti does it and he eventually is killed because of it. Thepoint is, that is how satan works too. He works on us multiple timesand keeps trying to get us no matter how many times we resist histemptation and tell him no. So he compromises and makes things seemnot so bad. If we aren't careful, we too can die because of this.
Spiritually die that is. But there is always a way out.
The Savior is there to help us get back up the hill.We can get out of Satan's grasp by repenting and enduring to the end.So be careful and never let the adversary into your life! But, he willkeep trying so if you slip, repent and get back up on that hill beforeit's too late.
Anyway I love you all! Thanks for all your prayers and support!
PS: that story is found in Alma 47.
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