so this last week...

March 19, 2012

 This last sunday we planned some stop-bys for a few families. While we were leaving the home of the first family, I had the name of a less active family we've been hearing a lot about come to my mind out of nowhere. (They used to be one of those really beloved and involved families where the mom was primary pres and the dad was Elders Quorom pres, then their son went on a mission and apparently they had a really hard time with that, especially the mom, and went inactive in the middle of his mission. Then the son got home and went inactive almost right after... how sad is that?? The ward has sent missionaries over several times to try to get them back but they shut the door on every missionary sent.) We're taught over and over again that all good thoughts come from the spirit so anytime I have thoughts like this I just hope that it's the spirit talking to me but it doesn't always turn out fruitful. I suggested, with faith, that we go see the XXXX family. When we got to their home, both Sister Mayer and I felt sick to our stomachs about it. We didn't know if we were just nervous because of what we've heard about their family not liking missionaries or if it was the spirit telling us not to go in. We said a prayer, asking if we should go in, and right when we started saying the prayer, both of our nervous stomachs went away. We went up to the door and we started talking to the mom who was really nice. She said it was wierd that we were there but so glad because she was just thinking the other day about the ward and wondering if anyone even missed them. I think she was also feeling sad about other things so it was really good we stopped by. Without us bringing anything up, she said she wanted us over for dinner and to do FHE for their family. She asked us to pray about what to do FHE on because she knows her family needs the spirit in their home again but she's not sure how. She's really excited for us to help bring that spirit back. This story just goes to show that by following all our "good" thoughts, we won't miss out on the opportunities when we will be led by the spirit to do the Lords work. I feel blessed to have the opportunity to be led by the spirit on so many occasions like this!....

So today's the day we go see them! AHH we're pretty nervous because every time we told someone about seeing them we got shocked faces and our bishopric made a big deal about it in PEC and then someone else told us he would fast with us for it... we weren't planning on fasting about it until after that moment... We've been praying about what to teach all week and we felt really good about focusing on the BOM but we just didn't know what to use from the BOM. We both found different things in our studies this morning, neither of us felt like it was right for the XXXX at first during our personal studies but we realized that both our studies kind of blended and worked together when we talked about it in comp study. We feel like we know what we need to talk about now so hopefully we're not wrong... we're completely relying on the Lord with this lesson. I'll let you know next week how it goes... cross your fingers!

We went tracting for the first time this week and this is what happened (another letter to pres):

This week I experienced what Sister Mayer calls "the real mission life." The last 2 weeks we had very few cancellations and our schedule was really busy with lessons. This week was different. We had a lot of cancellations so we had more time to tract. The first time we did it this week we found 2 girls, Lea and Tracy, walking on the street that the Lord has already started to prepare to accept the gospel. They both have very young daughters and are looking for a good family oriented church, centered around christ for their daughters to be involved in. We thought “perfect!" They told us they're both addicts and looking to overcome that. We thought "we can help!" We were able to use HTBT (how to begin teaching in preach my gospel) with them to understand that the gospel is exactly what they're looking for, invited them to church, and we gave them a copy of the Book of Mormon. We set up an appt to see them Saturday but for some reason we forgot to get their exact address, we only knew the street they were on. The day of the appt we weren't able to get a hold of them so we decided to tract their street until we found them. We finally found someone that knew where Lea lives so we got really excited! When we got to her house, though, no one answered the door so we were a little bummed but we didn't get discouraged because both Sister Mayer and I know that the Lord placed them in our path for a reason. We tracted down the rest of the street then prayed about which direction to go next when we came to a corner. When we started walking down the direction we both felt the Lord wanted us to go we saw Tracy walking down the street! She walked back to Lea's with us to try again but she still wasn't there so Tracy said she'd talk to Lea about seeing us another time. We left to continue on with our day but right after we left our next house I felt like we needed to go back to Lea's. Right after we parked, Lea and Tracy turned right down the street we parked on! We got out to talk to them and hopefully give our lesson but they were in a big hurry so we didn't get to talk. Even though we never got the chance to give our lesson to them I know that something will come of this. They have not been placed in our path that many times for no reason! We will continue to pursue things with them because we KNOW the gospel will bless their lives whether it's through our hands or other missionaries down the line. The least we can do is continue to plant seeds!

.... needless to say, I'm not so scared of tracting anymore!

We also had our baptism last saturday! It was really great! Hailey's dad got to perform the baptism, which we were really surprised about because they were less active just recently and they still have difficulty with coming to church because of their autistic son. The bishop talked to him, though, and approved it so that made the experience extra special! Hailey is afraid of water, though, so she really didn't want to go under the water. He had to do it 3 times before she got fully submerged haha it was sad but funny. She told us after that she wasn't embarassed anymore and she just feels good!

I can't think of anything else right now and i'm kind of in a hurry cuz sis mayer is waiting on me but I love you lots and lots!