Monday, October 16, 2017

Elder May: Chapter 77



 

2nd week in Brandon, FL and he is loving it!  And… the weather is FINALLY cooling off so he has officially made it through his LAST summer in Florida – not that I am counting or anything.  He is official 10 days from being out 18 months.  I remember when Hunter was gone, once we got to 18 months, time moved much faster.  Much faster the last 6 months than the first.  Love him, miss him but oh, so proud of him!  Enjoy!!

Chapter 77 ~

1.  That zone Conference though!
2.  These former investigators are so cool!
3.  I don't care about my happiness anymore. All I want is for my family to be happy.
4.  Danny came to church again!

Hey everybody! We had a really good week. There were a lot of places we stopped by, people we met, and life's we blessed. First off though, I'll talk about how our lives were blessed.
We had a visit from a seventy to our mission. He and his wife came and taught us so very much! He taught us more how to work with members of the ward, how to teach by the Spirit, shared stories about missionaries he knows, and his wife told an awesome experience they had.

One of the stories they shared was that an elder walked right into another churches sermon and listened to it. Gladly he was following the Spirit when after the sermon he and his companion talked with the preacher and said "we were sent here to help you find true happiness." After they taught and baptized the preacher, the preacher closed down his church. His last sermon he introduced the entire congregation to missionaries and told them "this church is going to be closing. This is the last sermon. It will be given by the Mormon missionaries. Anyone that wishes to leave can do so but I testify that what they teach is true and will bless your life." Of the 300 members of the congregation, 200 or so listened and were baptized. Then the Church bought the building and switched out the signs out front and now that is a branch of the Church. Because those missionaries were bold and followed the Spirit.

The seventies wife then stood and told us of her conversion, and the conversion of most her family. Her brother has now been reading and finished the whole Book of Mormon but refuses to meet with the missionaries. During the zone Conference she was inspired to send a text to her brother, explaining what the missionaries’ do, why we are out here, what we sacrificed to come here, and why he needs the Church. She knows that was a prompting from the Lord and will keep us informed how it goes! So cool!

The second quote comes from this week as we have been talking to all of the former investigators that we feel inspired to visit. There has been a lot of blessings that have come our way through doing so. We will be teaching; a family of 6 that couldn't come to church because they had no car at the time but have recently bought one, an interested woman that still had her Book of Mormon, and we have been able to find in their neighborhoods and we have a lot of work to keep doing.

Third, there was an investigator that we recently found that we got to meet with who told us he just wants his family to be happy. We were teaching him about the restoration of the gospel and it was going great. He was engaged and saying things like "I think God should put some prophets or apostles back on the earth so we can know what to do." We keep going and he didn't have a ton of time so we went to the part about Joseph Smith. When he sees the picture of the first vision and reads the page in the pamphlet we gave him he says "Wait, Joseph Smith....saw....wait....what? I don't believe it." Then his phone rang and he said "hold on a second." How do you hold on a second when he just said he doesn't believe in this?! We knew that we'd either be asked to leave or we can try to understand what was wrong. We stayed cool, calm and collected, answered questions and random off the wall concerns, and eventually he understood what we believe about prophets and apostles. He told us he doesn't like reading but wants to know if this is true. It was intense but he said we can come back and share this message with his family and they can all learn and understand together.

Fourth, our investigator Danny came to church again and he loved it again. We are going by to 
finalize his baptismal date and start on the path to help him understand, live commandments, and enter the gate. I'll keep you updated on all of that. He's so cool.

I love you all and will talk to you later. Enjoy these pictures! Bye now!

Haydon Lane - so cool!








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