It's been another hot week here in Chino
Hills, California. I'm going to die come summer. And I can bet you I'll
end up in the desert for the summer......UGHH. I want to go to the
desert, but I'd rather be there when it's not 115 degrees. But really,
it's been a beautiful week! Not just weather wise either. Missionary
work has been hoppin' this week.
Tuesday we
went to visit a potential and we saw 3 kids throwing a football in the
street. Sister K really wanted to throw the football so we went over
to them to ask if we could join. There were two boys, G(14) &
D(13) & 1 girl, N(15). We started talking about who we were
& what we do. We asked them if they were familiar with the church
& the boys said they just started learning about the Mormon Trail,
Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and the Book of Mormon in school. I ended
up talking to the boys more about the church while Sister K was
talking to N. I asked the boys that if they had a Book of Mormon,
would they read it. They said yeah! So we went to the car to get them
one.
Meanwhile, they asked N if she wanted one & she declined.
That's really when Sis K focused on her & talking more with her
& getting to know her & I introduced the BoM to the boys &
read the last 2 paragraphs of the introduction with them & committed
them to read & pray. Then another boy, No(15) came out of his
house & asked what was going on. Nonchalantly I walked up to him
& said "hey! do you want a Book of Mormon?" & he took it &
said "yeah sure, I'll try it out" We ended up talking to them for
probably 30 minutes out in the street & at the end N accepted a
BoM & we set up an appointment with them for Thursday at 4.
MIRACLES!
Wednesday morning was
interesting....for the first time on my mission I met an actual basher.
No, not a Bible basher, strictly a Book of Mormon basher. He was working
on something in his garage & we saw that his truck said "bible
detective" on it so naturally we were curious to know what that meant,
& HEY a perfect conversation starter, right?! He started going into a
bunch of deep things that Joseph Smith & Brigham Young have said
& he kept twisting our words. He was quite knowledgeable factually,
but that was about all he had going for him. It was one of those moments
that you always think about, you know, the missionary talking to
someone who is bashing & all the missionary can do is bear straight
testimony. Well, that's what we did. "You believe that Joseph Smith was a
prophet"....he said....and....? "I know that Joseph Smith and Brigham
Young were truly prophets of God..." he would usually cut us off...it
was fun! hahaha
MIRACLE OF THE DAY: we found a lost member! He's been living here for a year & his
records were never transferred. We found him because we were walking in a
little house/apartment complex thing and one guy was outside & so
we started talking to him telling him who we were & he was acting
super strange like he didn't want us to talk to him, but I kept walking
closer to his house still talking and when we got up to him he said "I'm
actually a member" Turns out he was raised Mormon & left the church
about 35 years ago. It sounded like his family was still active; he
even had nieces/nephews on missions. He moved to the canyon (carbon
canyon, part of our area) about a year ago because it was cheap rent
(most of the canyon is where the most expensive houses are, but the
place he lives is a really small, rundown house complex). He gave us an
envelope that he was planning on sending to Bishop with his information
& him wanting home teachers that has been sitting in his house for
about 3 months. MIRACLE. If he wouldn't have been outside & if we
wouldn't have been walking by at that EXACT moment, we would've passed
by his house & that envelope would have stayed in his house for who
knows how long!
Thursday
was probably the best day of my mission so far. We did service at the
thrift store after studies in the morning, then we had a lesson with
M & the girls then went home for lunch. G texted us telling
us he was kinda sick so he wouldn't be able to be at the lesson. We said
we'd still like to meet with the others, and he said that he'd text
them, but then he never let us know what was happening, so we didn't
know for sure if we were still meeting. Well, we were & we were
late. BUT it's okay haha.
When we got there it was No, D, N
& their "mormon friend, J"! Oh cool, they have a member they
brought! So thinking he's a member I asked him what ward he's in &
he looked pretty confused, so I said "have you been baptized?" he said
"no, but I want to. I'm planning on it." WHATTTTT so cool!!! Turns out,
his parents let him decide what religion he wants to be & he did
some research on other religions & found he really liked The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He said he's talked with
missionaries before, but never had lessons. So No, D, N, J
& Sis K & I decided to walk to the nearby basketball court
to wait for E (mama B's daughter), who was going to join us for the
lesson because she knows a couple of the kids. As we were walking No
was asking really awesome questions about the afterlife & such.
So
we shot some hoops for a few minutes & as we were doing that G
came because he was feeling better, and D said "hey should we invite
R?" R is the son of a less active member who hasn't been
baptized. "Yes! go get R!" haha Then N invited another one of
their friends, Na, to join in, too. So picture this. Sis K & I
along with 8 young teenagers (including E) sitting in a circle on the
basketball court outside teaching the Restoration of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ. It was so boss. R & Na had to leave in the
middle of it, but I was able to give Na a Book of Mormon before he
left. At the end of the lesson we invited them all to be baptized, &
at least the boys said that they would like to. We set up a regular
appointment, every Thursday at 4, but J said that he wants to have
lessons at the church!! how cool is that? SOOO COOOL.
5 NEW
INVESTIGATORS. ONE DAY. Kids are awesome. They're so open & even
willing to invite their friends! Next step for us is meeting their
parents & getting permission. Hopefully all goes well with that.
Friday we weekly planned pretty much the whole stinkin' day, thanks to getting 5 new investigators the previous day. :)
Saturday- HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!! We
"heart attacked" J's door & a new member in our ward, a young
mom who just moved in named K. Her husband is a nonmember, they
have 2 young kids. We met a nice lady named N who is very religious,
but not the kind who hate mormons. She has her own beliefs but is still
very Christlike, which is awesome! She didn't accept a book of mormon,
but that's okay. :) Then we pretty much spent the rest of the
day trying potentials/less actives, not much success, except you know
how we're really focusing on prospective elders? Well, we met one named
S who said he'd be open to us coming back, which is HUGE,
because most prospective elders we've met are NOT interested at all. We
were supposed to have a lesson with J at the church, but he never
showed up. It's hard because all of these kids are too young to drive
themselves....
Sunday was good as always. Ward
coordilation with Brother H is something I really look forward to
every week. This week was especially good. He
gave me the challenge to act on every prompting that comes to my mind,
to "GO NOW", not take a second thought to it. He said
he's excited to hear what happens this week, that I'm going to go up to
people and say "can I share with you my testimony of Jesus Christ?"
hahaha I don't know about that, but I'll do what the spirit directs :)
xoxo
Sister Viraldo
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