It's been a good week, despite a few heartbreaks. I'll leave out names, but someone we were teaching who was one of our miracles decided that he just isn't ready to give up drinking. He believes it's all true, would love to be baptized, but loves the alcohol too much to change right now. My heart literally broke. He was disappointed too, asking if he could still come to the church and see us every week. Of course he can, maybe in the near future he'll change his mind.
On a happier note, we were able to find another five new investigators to start teaching! Four of them we picked up from English class. One of them is ________, he's from China. He said, "Yeah...actually, I'd really like to learn more about your church. My grandmother is Christian so if you have time, could you teach me?" Bless him, I have all the time in the world for him! Haha, we're excited to see him this week.
Traveling this week was great. We didn't have to travel more than 20 minutes! It was lovely. Speaking of lovely. Sister Stanburry from London is Sister Mckinnon's new companion, so we all live together. She has a really thick English accent. We all feel so un-educated around her, she's so proper in her speech! Haha, we all have a good laugh. She's probably had enough of our English jokes but...I still think it's pretty funny.
Anyways, the ward had another two baptisms on Saturday. Our investigators from Iran were able to come so they could see what a baptism is like. If you remember our investigator, ________, who we baptized a few weeks ago, well - it was her boyfriend who was just baptized on Saturday, so that was cool to see. Next stop...temple marriage. :)
I'll include a story that was shared with us this week. We had zone conference and our stake president spoke. He is just the greatest guy ever, stake president for the third time, former mission president. He talked about his conversion when he was 15. His dad hated God, wanted nothing to do with the church, his mom died when he was 18 so he and his brothers were split up in different homes. At 18, he was encouraged to serve a mission. He received his call to Perth on a Thursday, left for the MTC the following week. During his first training meeting in the mission, his mission president asked him to turn to Moroni chapter 10. He opened up the bible, literally had no knowledge about the scriptures or doctrine. He only knew that it was true from a single prayer when he was 15. About three months later, he wanted to go home, called his stake president and said to book a flight, he was done. His stake president asked him if he would stay 30 more days, so he did. He ended up finishing his mission. He was married at 21 shortly after returning home. At 36 was called as mission president in the Perth mission, the same mission he served in. The message he gave to us was that we don't know who we are. We don't know our potential or what God has in store for us. He said that any missionary who ever asked him to go home, he treated them like they were a future prophet, because for all he knows they could be the future prophet. Think of President Hinckley, who also wanted to go home from his mission. But words from his father to "get up and get to work" helped him to serve faithfully, and later to become the prophet of the church. Remember, we don't know our real potential, but be faithful and live worthy for those callings that He has in store for us.
I love you all, have a great week :)
Sister Raitt
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| Opera House - taken during our 5:00 a.m. run |
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