Wednesday: Today was a day ill never forget! We finished
our exchanges earlier than we wanted due to Elder Costa having to go to a few meetings.
But he went to a Spanish meeting (but yet he doesn't speak Spanish he speaks
Portuguese) so I was on splits (a brief time with a new companion) and Elder
Mitchell's and I went to his area and did service for a new investigator they
had. She was a widow lady and was extremely happy that we were helping her rake
up all the leaves in her hard. After two hours we had a leave because we had a
lesson with an investigator in my area. We taught Selina Gao the importance to
keep the sabbath day holy and in the prayer at the end of the lesson she said
"I'm sorry for not going to sacrament meeting, I promise I will keep going
to that." And she has been going to church for the past two years but not
to sacrament because her little brother likes to sleep in. She is on date to be
baptized on December 10th. We had a lesson with Evelynn and after the lesson
her father told us they are going to take a year long break from missionary
discussions, and wants her to be going to church for a whole year to really
know if she wants to be baptized. It broke my heart when he told us that. After
that we had a lesson with the Malmstrom family and wow was it good! We talked
to the two parents who are less active and they have unbaptized kids. After a
few minutes Elder Costa asked the big question. "Why don't you guys go to
church?" And they told us their thoughts on how God wouldn't have just one
true church on the earth and that all religions are good. We talked briefly
about the plan of salvation and how we were given our agency. Brother Malmstrom
was telling us how be believed in God and Jesus Christ, but he was questioning
why the Bible was written by prophets and not Jesus. So basically what he
claimed and his questions contradicted themselves. So I confronted him about it
and his wife who was more active during her childhood started teaching and
testifying for us what we were teaching! It was amazing! He had a lot of
questions about Jospeh Smith and we tried our best to answer all his questions.
We basically have a timeline of Jospeh Smith and all the things that were to be
about the restoration. There were times where it was very intense but we didn't
run. I bore my testimony on the Book of Mormon and that I had just completed it
and believed with all the surety of my heart it was true. We got him to commit
to read 3 Nephi 11 where Jesus appears to the people on the Americas. It
was a solid 2.5 hours of intense conversation but I felt so good
afterwards.
Sister Malmstrom told us that they have been through 10
sets of missionaries and they all were too afraid to be bold with him and ask
questions. He was baptized as a kid and then never went to church again. So
basically he had no understanding of anything. It was a great experience. Elder
Costa and I were praying in closing to our night and as I prayed in close we
were both in tears of joy and had a really good bonding time. Really spiritual
experience.
Thursday: We ate at the Perrys home, our next door
neighbors. And then played games all night. We played a new game to me called
Settlers of Catan, it looked really weird at the beginning but it was actually
a really fun game that required luck and strategy! Another game I never played
before was called Mexican Train Station. It was a domino game and was pretty
fun. It was hard being away from family but I know I am serving and helping the
people here in their time of need.
Friday: very mellow day. Had our meeting with the Woolums
(our elderly missionary couple) but they didn't have any new names of people
because sister Woolums has been really sick lately. At night we went to a
church building so Elder Costa could do his online divers Ed stuff and I got an
email from my mom and it was my patriartical blessing! A blessing a guy gives
who doesn't know you and will tell you about your life. It is given from God
and he is the instrument.
It's crazy how the guy didn't know me at all but in the
blessing it describes me perfectly. I got my written copy of it by email.
Saturday: We started our day by going over to Elder
Rodriguez and Elder Peterson's home to give Elder Peterson a blessing. He
recently lost a family friends dad and feels like he can't help them out unless
he is there. But we gave him permission to email them. I told him to bear his
testimony of the plan of salvation to them since they are non members. We
stopped by Robert Jiron's home to invite him to come to church this Sunday
since we are speaking in the sacrament meeting, and as well, Elder Costa Is
playing the violin. He told us he would come so that's great!
Sunday: Today was a good day! We spoke in two different
sacrament meetings. We talked in the Heytsbury Ward at 9 about missionary work
and it was really powerful and brought the spirit. Robert Jiron came!
We have been trying to get him to come to church for over
a month! He really liked the meeting and loved when Elder Costa played the
violin.
Hopefully he will continue to come and grow and gain a
testimony for himself. We also spoke in the Crescent Ridge 1st Ward at 11 about
missionary work as well. After that we went
to the Indian Ridge Ward to see if Selina Gao went to sacrament meeting and she
did! She should be prepared to be baptized on the 10th! Good week overall.
Love,
Elder AshbyPicture of Elder Costa and I eating with the Perry's on Thanksgiving.
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