WELL... this week was a week indeed! I don't even remember half of what happened, but I know that we have been busy and working hard, so that's always a blessing! I definitely went to bed tired each night - also a blessing. :)
We have been trying to contact a lot of Potential Investigators this week, and because of that, Heavenly Father has blessed us to be able to find 3 new investigators!! It has definitely been a blessing and a half. I'm not sure what the difference has been, but we've been seeing a lot of the Hand of the Lord in our lives this transfer as far as finding new people to teach goes, so that is definitely something that has been wonderful to witness. Heavenly Father is SOOO good to us.
We got a call early in the week from one of the counselors in the Mission Presidency saying that his Grandson's girlfriend wants to learn about the Gospel and could we meet them on Wednesday night at their business (a funeral home in town) to teach them.. Well, let me think about that for a second.. YES! So, when Wednesday rolled around, the Grandson showed up (he doesn't go to church very often), and the Girlfriend was no where to be found.. He said that she was at work a little later than normal, so we were all assuming that we were waiting for her, but... alas.. after making small talk for like 10 minutes, the Grandson goes... "..I have some sad news... Trinity will not be meeting with us tonight.. she has to work late, but she will definitely be here next week. She's more excited about this than I am!" Well, that was awkward because all of us were under the impression that we were waiting for Trinity, but no... it turned out to be a blessing though, because we were able to learn more about her and teach the Restoration to him and help him feel the Spirit. They want to get married, and he wants to marry her in the Temple, and she really wants to learn about the Gospel, so we're REALLY excited to teach her. It should prove wonderful. SUPER HAPPY! :)
After that lesson, we went and contacted a Potential Investigator who I think I mentioned a few weeks ago - Katie who has been sober for 8 years and is interested in us coming back. Well, we went and contacted her and she totally set up an appointment with us and we're going to teach her this week! She is awesome!.. and she has 3 little girls who TOTALLY need to be baptized too. :) I love families.
On Friday, we went to contact another Potential and in District Meeting on Friday morning we were practicing how to effectively street contact and teach Doctrine so that we are able to give people a "clear choice" on whether or not to accept the message of the Gospel. So anyway, basically what it boils down to is this. What my approach has been the last 9 months:
"Hi! We're the Missionaries in the area for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and we go around sharing a unique message about Jesus Christ and how the same Gospel that He set up when He was on the Earth has been restored for our day. Would you be interested in learning more?" WELL.... I suppose there's nothing inherently wrong in that approach, and it's been semi-successful, but.. there's a better way. PLUS.. that way they weren't learning anything or feeling the Spirit... so they pretty much were never interested in learning more.
WELL.. we were reading in Preach My Gospel in Companion Study on Friday morning and came across this gem - (Ch 9- Teach When You Find, Find When You Teach).
"Finding and teaching are related, connected activities. When you meet people, be prepared to teach brief summaries of restored truth so that the Holy Ghost can bear witness that you are the servants of the Lord. In many situations, you will need to be able to present a message in a minute or less. People are accustomed to short, powerful statements. For example, you may testify of the message of the Restoration in just two or three sentences:
(approach number two- a.k.a. the WAY BETTER FINDING APPROACH). 'After centuries of being lost, original truths of God (the gospel of Jesus Christ) have been restored by a loving God through a living prophet. We have evidence of this that you can hold in your hands, read, ponder in your heart, and pray about to learn its truth for yourself. Will you allow us to...'" ...and then you invite them to learn more.
Anyway, so ... the two approaches take essentially the same amount of time, in fact.. the second one has less words, and one is teaching doctrine and allowing the Spirit to testify, and the other is not. So, we've been using the 2nd approach all week and the results have been AWESOME. So many more people have been interested.. It is amazing! :)
Another fun thing that happened this week was when we were contacting another Potential Investigator and we see one of our 9-yr-old investigators (her and her grandma and aunt are learning about the Church), and she freaks out and starts biking toward us and is like, "GUYS!!! (to all of her friends) THESE ARE THE SISTER MISSIONARIES! THEY TEACH US ABOUT CHRIST AND I LOVE IT WHEN THEY COME OVER. DO YOU KNOW WHO LIVES IN THAT HOUSE RIGHT THERE? TALON? OKAY.. SISTERS! TALON LIVES IN THAT HOUSE RIGHT THERE AND HIS FAMILY WANTS TO TALK TO MISSIONARIES!" (it's in all caps because she was basically screaming all of this. Then, she proceeds to bike around the neighborhood and show us where everyone lives and tells us that, they too, would be good to go by and talk to.) It was adorable. We were actually on our way to contact one of the families that she mentioned anyway, and one of them became a new investigator actually, so that was awesome. It was so beyond adorable to hear her so excited about the Gospel. Little kids are SUCH awesome missionaries, and so full of the Light of Christ - it never ceases to astound me.
Also, a funny story before I end: So, our entire District lives in the same Apartment complex and we came home for dinner one night to see some cupcakes at our doorstep.. We're a little sketched out because we don't know where they came from... So, we're texting around and find out they're from the Elders... WELL... it just so happened that in the meantime we were examining them and saw a nice, giant thumb-hole in one of them. A funny text resulted when we asked them about it. (See pictures).
Well, I love you all! I hope that you have a wonderful week and know that you are cared for, loved, and prayed for always. Have a glorious one! The Church is True! :) <3
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