So to start off... the mission has been going crazy about numbers and a certain number of baptisms that we have to get, right? Well, I have been stressed this week about getting that. It’s a commitment we made with the Lord. The zone leaders have been making us put baptismal dates with every contact we have. It’s hard to do, but we have been keeping focused on our purpose here as missionaries. As it says in Preach my Gospel, we are here to invite people to come unto Christ through faith, repentance, baptism, the gift o f the Holy Ghost and perseverance. So we have been planning fools. I haven’t written in my journal or written down anything at night for myself. Every night this week my comp and I have been going through old forms, searching for old investigators, part-member families, and all sorts of jazz until bed time. It’s been rough and we’ve gotten really frustrated at times. We just need to find these people. It’s what our mission president has asked of us. We have talked with our district leader every night for about an hour instead of 5 minutes (which is normally how long we talk) because he is checking up on us making sure we are progressing, finding, inviting and everything else. It’s been tiring that is for sure, but we have 3 people with baptismal dates because of it. So, it’s working. Yeah!We found Shantal and Luciano, brother and sister of 15 and 11. They are the Rodrigues family’s neighbors. We have been teaching them for a little and they are progressing really well. We tried talking to their mom but she doesn’t want anything to do with it. She is very supportive and kind though. She went and bought them nice dress clothes for church and they showed up yesterday on their own. Yes! We also are teaching another girl. She used to live in the states. Her family lives in the states and they were listening to the missionaries and then went to church, but then moved back here. They took the lessons for a time before an elder said in English, under his breath, that their house was dirty or something not very kind. He didn’t realize they knew English and the mom said never again would she listen to missionaries. But we are teaching her daughter. She will be baptized on the 23rd with Luciano and Shantal if everything goes as planned. Also, a new family from a nearby city moved here. Everyone in the family is baptized, except the 14 year old son who has a different dad. He was also taking the lessons, but wasn’t "feeling" it. So we are trying to ease our way in. He’s a cute kid; reminds me of one of the Schills. They are great though. We are hoping he will be baptized in time as well.
We decided to go see our old investigator who is the lawyer. He is so nice. He asked for a Book of Mormon and we took it to him. He just got busy and every time we went back, he wasn’t there. We called him and set up an appointment. We went and saw him and he was telling us about his wife. She is very against our church and him listening to us. He said it would take some time with her. He went on to say a bunch of cool stuff. He wants to be a member, but with a religion difference in the marriage, he said it would be more than difficult. They have young kids and he says he wants her to do this with him. Thing is... he hasn’t even prayed. But he read the Book of Mormon and he believes it to be true. It was a very powerful lesson we had with him. Then we wanted to go over Moroni’s promise about praying about the book. His phone rang and he asked for permission to answer it. While he was talking and we were waiting, someone bursts through his office door. Uh oh... we look behind us and he says this is… my wife. I got up to kiss her, this being the custom here, and she walked right past me. If you live here, and don’t kiss someone you know, they hate you. It’s just not good manners not to give a kiss on the cheek. So we knew she was wasn’t happy with us. He introduced us and she verbalized her disinterest in us. She told us he was working. She barged out of the room and he hangs up the phone. We just quickly said, we will let you be. He said, "This is what I mean. That’s what I have to get past." We left so quickly without teaching anymore and feeling really embarrassed and hurt. We were sooo bummed. We felt so strongly about him. We went home for lunch and were so distraught. We thought the whole hour about how we could do something... and I thought of Shaquel’s story of some missionary, I don’t remember who, who made cookies to that man and took them to him after he rejected them. Welp, we searched for a recipe and made Choodle. Chocolate Snickerdoodles. I also was thinking of the story about the best family dad baptized and how the wife started out hating them. Well, we feel strongly he is being prepared, so we will do all our part to make sure if it is his time, we are there. We made them cookies and took them to the office with a nice card written to her, inviting her to church, saying we were sorry and testifying of the blessings that came with the church. We fasted for them as well. Now we have no idea what else we can do. If it is his time, they will come. It’s just a bummer, but we still have faith something will happen. He’s such a great guy.
After that we decided to make cookies for everyone in the ward. We made almost 100 all week long, and took them to members. We won some people over who we hadn’t before.
Our little Christmas tree!We had ward council yesterday. We have most of the callings filled. No one in Relief Society or priesthood though. We have a DOM, ward mission leader, I mean. He’s gonna be great. In ward council we mentioned that since we have all these kids we need families and members to be sitting with them and supporting them. We can’t sit with them every week because one day we won’t be here. Many members do not understand their role as member missionaries. It is challenging. But the bishop is supporting us, thank heavens. Everyone is excited for these kids and for Yuri and all. It’s been good… he’s progressed a ton too.
I love you all. Lovesssss....!!! Love, Ash.
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