This was a day late because of Memorial Day:
I'm hanging in there, and God has decided to dump
some pretty fantastic blessings on our heads. I'm very grateful for the
stuff that happened this week.
I heard from the Sisters
that are serving in Jurupa 1st ward about a couple of my old
investigators. One of them is having back surgery soon. She felt like
the sisters showing up to her house was an answer to prayer. I texted
them and sent them to her house for Mother's Day, telling them to be
sensitive because her son died around this time last year, so I was an
indirect answer to her prayers! She committed to come to church every
week after the surgery, and committed to baptism. I had her so stinking
close to baptism when I was in Jurupa, and then she went cold and
dropped us. I sent her a letter in
the mail, we'll see if she responds.
Another
investigator that I had high hopes for has been flaking out
on the sisters. A former companion of mine in Jurupa is now in my district in MoVal, asked Pres to call her and ask why
she hasn't been working towards baptism. Both of us talked to her, and
managed to get her to want to come back to church and get baptized. She
was so grateful that we somehow have a way of getting her back on track.
Hopefully the Sisters can finish the job. One of the
sister missionaries who took over the area directly after we left, was strong enough
to push her through all the lessons and got her and her inactive
boyfriend married, now we just have to get them through baptism and into
long-term church activity.
Interviews with President
were this week. I brought up to him that "L.A,", who I baptized in
Jurupa in October and recently took me out to dinner, is getting
married in the Newport Temple in October. I lamented that I probably
won't be able to go. He said that Elders have gone to San Diego before,
and Newport is roughly the same distance, and me attending her temple
sealing would be a definite possibility. He instructed me to pray about
it and ask him again in September. Last time I was told to ask him again
about something, it ended up being a "no",
but I really, really hope I get to go! "L.A." was a tough nut to crack,
and she loved us so very much, and she's so strong in the church now. It
would make me so happy to see her sealed for time and all eternity.
Saturday
evening we met an inactive member of the Samoan ward that had
some pretty deep questions. We answered them and got her in a pretty
good mindset over our first and third dinners of the night - not even
joking, my companion literally ate three dinners, I only could stomach
two. We may also teach a non-member friend of this Samoan family, we'll
see.
Sunday, somebody brought a friend to church that pulled
aside and wanted to learn more! We taught a pretty great lesson and will
be seeing this guy again today at a member's house. We would have told
the zone leaders about how thrilled we were to have a new investigator,
but our phone started acting funny. In technical terms, it was power
cycling. In practical terms, it was useless. We borrowed a phone from
our dinner appointment to text in our numbers. Then we headed to our
last appointment of the night.
At this appointment, I was amazed
again at how prepared these people were that God had put in our path.
This was a part-member family that has been eluding us for the past
three weeks. But the two daughters agreed to take the lessons, and one
of them asked if Elder Owens could baptize her. Now we have five
investigators, instead of two. We exceeded my goal and more than doubled
our teaching pool! I couldn't be more pleased.
Our original
investigator is doing fine. The 8-year-old little sister is getting
baptized on Saturday by my companion. The alcoholic was out of town this
weekend, but we haven't given up on him yet.
Our
memorial day was pretty great, too. The Samoan ward invited us to a
party that lasted most of the day, and then we went to a barbecue at our
bishops house for dinner and the rest of the evening. A couple of the
recent converts and less active families that we work with were there,
so I didn't feel completely useless. Some of the little kids tried to
climb on my lap and chased me around with Nerf swords, so that was an
adventure, as well. My companion and I had a blast! Pdays are pretty
cool to begin with, but this was even cooler. Next week we are going on a
hike.
This has been a massive email, so I'll
close with a line from a conference talk that struck me this morning,
maybe because it echoed the sentiments on prayer that I shared with the
inactive Samoan and because I've had so much to thank God for this
weekend. "Sharing our thoughts, feelings, and desires with God through
sincere and heartfelt prayer should become to each of us as important
and natural as breathing and eating."
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