Monday, October 20, 2014

The Importance of Keeping a Journal

Dear Family and Friends,

Sometimes it amazes me that so little and so much can happen all in one week. My first impression of last week was that nothing happened but when I was going through my journal trying to think of what to write I realized that a million things happened! Needless to say I've learned that keeping a journal is quite convenient. 

Here's my week.

Monday-We went out to eat with a couple in our ward as part of P-day. We asked them how they met and it turns out that he had a spiritual impression that she was the one while he was on his mission. When he finished his mission he flew out to her country and married her within 10 days! Yikes! They are the best couple though. 

After that we had family home evening with a less active in our branch and her friends. We played the family flour game, a game where you pack flour into a cup then turn it over and put a penny on top and everyone takes a turn cutting off a piece and saying what can hurt the family until the penny falls and then whoever made it fall has to collect it with their nose. Everyone loved it! 

Our members friends opened up to us and we ended up having a REALLY good lesson with them. After that lesson, our less active texted us and told us that her friends wanted to meet with us again. After that we went finding and talked with some of the local Amish population. 

Tuesday- Spent the day finding and met with a bunch of new potentials. That night we taught the Landeros brothers about the Book of Mormon. The spirit was really strong. We set a date with Eduardo and confirmed Juan's date.  

Wednesday- We had district meeting up in Bradenton, but had to leave early to go to a member-present lesson that we had previously set up. The lesson went great and our new investigator, Pedro accepted the invitation to be baptized and will be baptized on Nov. 1st! He is really excited about it and yesterday at church announced it to almost everyone he talked to. 

That night we had a lesson with one of our male investigators and because we can't go into his house we asked him to come outside. He was really shy and didn't want to. Later we found out that he was scared that we were going to try to force-feed him the sacrament in the parking lot! Haha! We taught him lesson 3 and assured him that we would not force him to do anything. He was so relieved and said he would be coming to church in the near future.

Thursday- taught and planned all day. We taught lesson one to our less-active's friends again and they all accepted the soft-commit to baptism. We started the lesson with the usual (using the pamphlet and whatnot) but we could tell they weren't listening to it so we took a more personal route. By the end,  all three of them were crying because the spirit was so strong. Our member testified and it was beautiful! 

Friday- We taught Pedro lesson two and spent the rest of the day finding and biking around. That night we helped a new senior couple move in to their apartment which is right above ours and got to know them. Their names are Elder and Sister Anscough and they are from Salem, anyone know of them? They are amazing and we are so excited to have them here! 

That night we had a really awful object lesson with one of our other investigators. I was so embarrassed. For all of you missionaries who know of the tea-bag rocket lesson, NEVER do it outside on a windy night. The thing flopped and our investigator was more in shock than in awe... enough said. Luckily we recovered really well and he opened up to us about some things that have been holding him back from joining the church. What do you know, God really does "make weak things become strong unto us" ;) 

Saturday-We were going through our potentials and found this random guy we had never met. We called him up and asked him if we could meet up. He was more than willing to meet up and said, "Bring your Bibles," so we were really skeptical at first. What we found when we got there though was quite the opposite of what we had thought. 

His name is Ronnie and he's actually really interested. He told us all about how much he loves the Bible and how he has read it several times. He says that he just wants to know who Gods real people are because from what he's gathered from the Bible he knows that there was a falling away and that it is supposed to come back. He says he thinks its come back but he's not sure which one it is. As you might  imagine we were MORE than happy to clear some things up for him :) He's quite a talker so we didn't get to finish lesson one, but we left him with a good cliffhanger so our next lesson with him should be really good. 

We also met this really sweet old man walking around who had met the missionaries before and wanted to know more. 

Sunday- We had a really good day at church. We worked with all the youth in the ward to help them see how they could do missionary work. We pulled them out one by one and talked with them. It just so happened that one of our investigators was there that day and when it came his turn we were able to teach him and set a baptismal date. That makes 3 dates set this week! 

After church we had a lesson with our ward mission leader and one of the Landeros brothers. It was spectacular. I've learned that there really just isn't any other way to teach than with members. 

Then after that we went contacting for a bit. We went to this house where we had met three Cuban men before. The last time we had walked by they didn't seem all that interested and we couldn't even remember their names.  I wasn't feeling up to knocking on their door but my sweet little companion insisted so we did. I was so glad. We were able to strike up a conversation and then have a lesson. 
As we taught he gained more interest. I'm so grateful that we have people to help us in our journey through life when we have doubts or fears. 

After that we went to a part-member's home and had a dinner of beans, eggs (my favorite... not) and squid. Add that to the list of new things I've tried on the mission! The lesson was really good, it was one of those lessons where I knew that the spirit helped me to speak because my Spanish was a lot smoother than it normally is.

Monday- We went out to Longboat today to see some of the sights. It was beautiful! The island is super touristy probably due to the gorgeous beaches located nearby, so there's lots to look at. Florida is just starting to cool down and temperatures are perfect. We had so much fun going around and seeing new things. 

So there you have it some bits of my week. I hope you all have a great week! 

Con Amor,

Hermana Mathis  

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