Hey Guys!
This week was a good one- We got 7 new investigators. We gave a blessing to a less-active sister named Eva Davis. All 7 of her grown kids live around her and were asking about our church. We committed Sister Davis to invite her kids to listen to the message in her home sometime. She went in for surgery- she has breast cancer- I think she got a full bisectamy- spelling??
We also gave a blessing to a sister who's just not recuperating as she should- her potassium is low- We taught a guy named Darris- He's 23 and has a pretty nice house- He’s married with 2 kids already- We are going to see him again on Tuesday- he said his wife should be there this time-
We taught Kenan again- He understands the Gospel of Jesus Christ now and is preparing to get baptized July 18- His Dad, Brother Johnson is starting to become active again and his new wife is not a member. We are going go see them on wed. night and see if we can get her excited about the gospel as well.
We saw Thaddeus and Krishel. Thaddeus has a really good heart. We watched the restoration dvd with them and they loved it- They want to come to church but Thaddeus is on probation right now- He told us why he's on probation and it is a pretty dumb reason I think but anyways- The Probation Officer said he couldn’t come to church probably because they have been messed with in the past with people saying they were going somewhere and going somewhere else. So we have an appointment Tuesday morning with Thaddeus and his probation officer- Hopefully they'll be able to see this is the real deal and their heart can be softened to let him come to church. I feel like it will go smoothly. It was cool because his girl Krishel and him aren't married- We committed them to set a Marriage Date goal as to when they will tie the knot- so they are praying about that but we talked about eternal marriage as well as a goal for them eventually and Thaddeus said that's what he's been saying all along in their relationship. He told us he's always been telling Krishel "I don’t wanna go to heaven if it ain't with you." I thought that was cool- We are probably going watch Together Forever with them soon.
We saw a car driving with a bumper sticker that said "whatmormonsdonttell.com" I don’ know if that's a good site or if it's an anti site. But I drove right up beside them and they looked surprised to see us- I gave them a big smile haha
We had another lesson with the Passmore's. They continue to prepare to be able to be temple worthy once again. They are a sweet older couple. I feel like they depend upon us for strength right now a little bit so we are doing our best to help them out.
We went to see a part-member family- Sister Shin, the member answered- we set it up to go see them tomorrow. We read in our area book that her husband has wrote anti articles about the church and that the last mission president said to be cautious about visiting with them- So I'm a little scared and a little excited to see how that goes.
We had a couple really good lessons with Greg. He tried to drop us when I got here and I talked to him on the phone and said to give us one more shot if we could see if we could resolve his concerns. He said ok and after 3 weeks after that of trying we finally got back in with him. We read a few chapters out of the BOM with him and helped him to understand exactly what it is and what its purpose is for us today. He says he feels a spiritual connection with it now and now keeps it next to his bible as scripture instead of in his bookshelf as just another book in the world. AND we finally got him to come back to church. He said he enjoyed it. He now calls me "Agent Johnson." lol
I went on another exchange to Albemarle, the small town where Kelly Pickler is from. There are a couple church members there who went to school with her. It was really hot there and we biked around the town all day. It was a really good exchange. We taught like 3 new people. We also saw a guy that was in a motorized wheelchair and he was trying to put up a mailbox. He looked like he was struggling some. I kind of just felt like riding by him but Elder Merrell who is who I was with decided to stop so we stopped to help him. Elder Merrell is a special guy. He's not mentally retarded but he has some mental handicap- I’m not sure exactly what but he wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to serve a proselyting mission or not but he was able to- The guy that we stopped to help didn’t have any legs so I’m glad we helped him after all. It took about an hour but it was well worth it- we then taught him a little bit- I’m not sure if he's accountable or not but he sure enjoyed our help. He said he wouldn't have been able to finish it without us. Elder Merrell was a great example of just pure love and concern demonstrated for me. He's just always so happy.
Sunday night we went to check up on a member referral for the like 5th time. She finally answered and we were able to get in with Ann and her son Zachery. We were there for about 1 1/2 hours. They are pretty cool I reckon. They said they would try to come to church this next Sunday. Ann recently got divorced. They are fixin' to move in the next few weeks, so I immediately told her we'd love to help and do what we can. She said she would probably take me up on the offer. We gave them both their own BoM's and they are excited to read it. She's had hesitations about it in the past because she didn’t understand what it was. She knew pretty much the Joseph Smith story but she thought the BoM was his Joseph Smith's words and other prophets from the 1800's words but she now understands that it's a record of an ancient civilization and that God spoke to those people on the western hemisphere at the same time he was in communication with the people in Jerusalem and the Middle East. She said that cleared up a lot and she's willing to learn more now. Zachery is a bright boy too. They are animal lovers to the extreme. They have one parrot, 2 chinchillas, 2 cats, and Pomeranian dog. I think I might have missed something too haha. I’m excited about them though. We have it set up now to teach them next Sunday at our Bishop's house.
