Hello family and Friends!!!
Monday on p-day we went hiking as a district. Yes, even the sisters came with us
hiking
and surprisingly they kept up with us. We went hiking at Mount Minia.
This was a two hour hike that we went on. The height of this hike was
astonishing! The view was great and you could see the whole area of
Wharagire. It was also a nice day, we all hung out at the top of the
mountain and just glanced at how far we came. It is a good thing we took
some pictures and I will be able to up load them soon.
This week went by way too fast! We are still in a three pair companionship, only until Thursday though. On Thursday
we have transfer day where we get to find out if we are staying or
moving to a different place and that is also the day where Elder
Christensen will be getting his new companion..FINALLY! He has been
waiting for awhile. We have been bouncing from one area to another
covering both our areas and meeting all the members from both different
wards. We had a rescue night at the chapel on Wednesday
and we were able to go on a trade off with one of our members who is
the Ward mission leader. Rescue nights are nights were members and
missionaries of that ward get together and go out to bring back recent
converts, less activities and to also strengthen the members more. It
was a fun night, Elder Hall went with our ward mission leader, brother
Hurakie and I went with Elder Christensen to his area. We were able to
split and go visiting members in both areas. Elder Christensen and I saw
his ward members playing touch at the fields. Knowing us Americans love
to play sports, we decided to park the car and go join them in a game
of touch with the rugby ball. We joined up with the adults and played
against the youth. The adults that played with us the first game were
kind of not coordinated but I'm guessing they did that on purpose
because the next game we played against the other youth group and using
rugby language, we SMASHED them. I was surprised at how well the adults
on our team were able to keep up with the youngsters. They may be old
but they had old school rugby style of game and were a little bit wiser
at making the moves. It was a great night to bond with the members and
the youth. At the end, the adults, which would be our team, won both
games! woot woot!!
The next day which was a Thursday,
Elder Hall and I were able to finally work in our area as just us two
because Elder Christensen went on a trade off with the zone leaders in
their area. It was quiet without a third person but also nice because we
were able to work a whole day in our area. While going through our list
of former investigators Elder Hall and I stopped at one of our former's
house that used to be taught by past missionaries. We knocked on the
door and a dad about in his thirty's came out at the door. We talked to
him for awhile and he expressed, "its been almost a year since you boys
have been around." Elder Hall and I just looked at each other, smiled
and said "sorry for the hold up." He laughed and asked us what we could
do for him, we were looking for his flatmate that lived with him, he
told us that she moved to a different area. She was good friends with
him and his partner. We were able to talk to him and find out that he
has been to jail six times in his life and right now there are some
trials he was going through. We expressed how God is our loving Heavenly
Father and that he cares about every one of us. Then an impression came
to my companion and I to share a scripture, he invited us in and also
invited his partner to come listen to us. We expressed the importance of
the Book of Mormon and how the Book of Mormon can help their family.
Their names are Taylor and Trinity. Trinity, the girl told us that her
dad was going through heart surgery and has cancer. Listening to her we
could tell that they needed that moment with us to help them out how and
to get on the right path. We gave them a commitment to read and pray
about the Book of Mormon. Taylor said "You know, I like the way you two
talk. It's comforting and uplifting". We were able to get a return
appointment with them on Wednesday
and we will be able to have the opportunity to teach them. Elder Hall
and I got back into our car and said a prayer of thanks and gratitude of
the miracle that we were able to experience and be there at the right
time and moment.
On Friday we were able to go
see our progressing investigator named Sterling who is 18 years of age.
Well, I have been teaching Sterling since September but this time with
Elder Hall. We had an appointment with Sterling that afternoon with me,
Elder hall and Elder Christensen, all three of us. All of us showed up
to his house and were able to catch up with him, a little bit of recap
is that Sterling has been going through an addiction of smoking and has
been working on it ever since. He has been going to his addiction
recovery classes that we showed him and he has been getting involved
with the members and church a lot. On this particular visit Sterling
expressed to us that he read 1 Nephi, chapter eight the last time we
were at his house and he had read it right after we left. We were able
to go over the chapter, and explain to him about the tree of life and
how the tree of life represents Heavenly Father and his goodness. We
also explained the importance of the iron rod and how by following his
teachings we can overcome the mist of darkness and temptation that is
around us. Sterling, with a little help, was able to understand the
passage of scriptures and really apply it to himself. Elder Christensen
then had an impression to share another scripture which talked about the
anti-nephi-lehis digging up their weapons of war. He asked "sterling
what is your weapons of war", sterling replied "my cigs" and he asked
him boldly "sterling will you bury your weapons of war!?" Sterling
nodded and was up and ready to go outside with us to his back yard and
dig a hole and put his box of smokes in the ground for good. We were
able to go out exactly as the story said and Sterling started digging
his hole and dropped his cut up smokes and put the dirt on top!!!!!
Afterwards he was shocked and told us that his heart was pounding the
whole time he was digging the hole. At that moment with the inspiration
of the Book of Mormon, Sterling was able to make a commitment to stop
smoking and hasn't smoked since then!!! WHAT A MIRACLE AND A CHANGE HE
MADE!!!!
On Sunday night at a fireside Sterling came up to us and said "I wanna get baptized on the 15th of November at nine o'clock in the morning". He grandmother was there to hear it come out of his mouth and we were all excited that he said that!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment