Tales from the Week written May 19, 2014
We had a few really cool events this week. The first cool event of the week was a lesson with Taylor again. Last Sunday, there was a lesson on the Word of Wisdom that was kind of poorly done. Taylor was there and there were lots of questions from various people about all of it and few of the questions got very good answers. So we decided to do a recap of the lesson with him when we went over. I had all sorts of examples and stories ready to give to him. We started chatting about it and he seemed fine with everything. I asked him if he even had issues with any of the things we're not supposed to drink. He told me no, that he's fine with it all. Oh. Well I guess we don't need all of these stories and examples then. We still had some time left, and he told us that he wanted to read from the Book of Mormon about the part when Christ comes to the Americas.
So we flip on over to 3 Nephi and we took turns reading. We got through the whole thing and he said that it was a cool story. Then we discussed the things taught and the lessons learned from the chapter. Of course, we brought up baptism again and asked him if he had prayed about the Book of Mormon. He told us that he had and that he got an answer. He told us that he was sure the Book of Mormon is true because he had prayed about it multiple times and gotten the same answer every time. That was an incredible moment. That has happened so rarely on my mission that whenever it does happen, it is truly a miracle. We asked him about baptism and he said that he does want to be baptized, he just has some concerns. He's unsure about a support system in the church. Which is awesome that he's thinking about this because usually the missionaries are the ones most concerned about it. His concerns are definitely legitimate. There isn't anybody his age in our branch, except for his girlfriend, who is going to leave for a mission soon. He doesn't have any family support or support from his friends. It's a tough situation all around. But the important thing is that he knows the Book of Mormon is true and he wants to be baptized. It may not be here and it may not be for a while, but at least he's got an answer from prayer.
The next cool event was on Saturday. We had another all day service day. We started in the morning, raking leaves again for a less active family. We raked for some three hours, then we moved over to the church. It was our turn to clean the chapel, so we helped the branch mission leader and one other member to clean up the chapel. Then they made us lunch, that was sweet. To finish up the day, we headed over to the Ventura's house. They were having a birthday party for their three year old son. It was a big family event, so we went over early to help out. And we scored some carne asada and hot dogs. Totally worth it.
And the final story happened on Sunday. We didn't have anything to fill our evening and were dreading three hours of looking up people and knocking doors. Then, I got a Facebook message from a missionary in the ward next to us. He told me that a woman had showed up to their ward who lives in our area and she wants to go back to church and wants the missionaries to visit her. Sweet. We got her number from him and gave her a call. She was free that night, so we had something to fill up some time. We went over and she was very excited to have missionaries come visit. She was baptized in El Salvador, but since coming to the United States, had stopped going to church. She told us that she had felt something and knew that she needed to go back to church. And she had a friend living in the house who was interested in learning more about God as well. Awesome. She had a question about what is a testimony, so we threw together a lesson on testimony and she and her friend both loved it. They both agreed to come to church next week and to meet with us again to learn more. And to top it off, they gave us some pupusas to eat for dinner. Best lesson ever.
So things are moving along over here. Slowly but steadily, people are progressing. And I think as long as the slope is positive, then we're all good.
Love you guys!
Elder Erickson
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