Hellooooo!
I am doing really well.
This week was a mixture of so many things! From the lows to the very
highs.
Monday we went to hippie
Dillon's house, but he wasn't there, so we went & delivered thank
you notes. As we drove up to the Dyerly's house to deliver theirs, we
saw Brother Dyerly outside & knew it was going to be a greater
challenge than anticipated. We drove past their house, parked on the
road & made our way to their house. Luckily, he was nowhere to be seen, so we ran up to the front door to stick the note
in. As we were doing that, Bro Dyerly was walking up to his gate &
began to close it. "Oh no! He's going to lock us in!" We
surrendered. We had no choice but to make ourselves known. The plus
side to being defeated was we got invited in to have birthday cake
with his family for Kira's bday. & it was delicious.
Tuesday I gave a training
in district meeting on "What we do & how we do it". The
WHAT in what we do is teach the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. The HOW in how we do it is with POWER & AUTHORITY.
Later that day we did
service for Sister Hemsley, who is just about out of her house and
moving up to Wrightwood for the summers & to Arizona for the
winters. We just helped clean bathroom floors & closets. We
ate dinner with the Chaffee's & the Perez family, which is a new
family in the ward. They used to go to the Spanish ward in
Victorville but became less active a couple years ago & just
decided to come back & they want to come to our ward. They're a
really sweet family!
Wednesday we had a lesson
with Betty & Mary, volunteered at the library & I don't
really remember what else. We had dinner with the LaFevers and then
visited the Huttons at night.
Thursday was kind of a
down day. We visited a few potentials we had & none of them are
looking too promising. BUT we did get to see Virgie on her 89th bday!
We also had a lesson with Diane. We talked about the Book of Mormon &
the importance of it. The lesson didn't go all that well. She wasn't
accepting the commitments we were extending too well. Not that she
was rejecting them, but kind of hesitantly saying she'll read the
Book of Mormon.
In all honesty, I was
thinking we were going to need to drop her because she's not ready.
As we were walking out the door, to our complete astonishment she
said "did I tell you who's baptizing me?" Sister Wagner &
I pause with amazed looks on our faces & say "What?"
"Yeah, I want my nephew to baptize me in December when he gets
home from Arizona." Our faces must have been in complete shock &
excitement because she said "Look at your faces! I have
goosebumps!" So I asked Diane when she decided she wanted
to be baptized, & she said "when you started coming over."
I assumed she meant the sister missionaries in general, so I inquired
more. "no, when you did. That's when I started thinking about
it." I don't know if Diane is one of the reasons I was sent to
Phelan, but now I believe I didn't hurt anything by coming. ;)
DIANE WANTS TO BE
BAPTIZED! We're HOPING we'll be able to teach her more & she'll
want to move it up before December & her nephew can come up for
the weekend. Yes, her nephew is a member & has authority to
baptize her ;) He recently got back from a mission! So, that made us
super happy & quickly turned the day around.
That night as we finished
planning for the next day, Elder Wurst, our district leader, called us
& asked how we felt about doing an "emergency district fast
to find". We agreed without the realization just what that could
mean for us. It was amazing that just at the right moment, after a
couple days of feeling really low, he decided to do a district fast.
Friday we weekly planned
for dayz. We did a little tracting & came across a house with a
gate, but we opened it & made ourselves at home. A lady answered
the door & let us in to talk. She is 7th day Adventist & very
active in her religion. Unlike any of the other active Christians
I've run into, she was super friendly & allowed us to talk. It
was interesting hearing what her beliefs are, & surprisingly they
are very similar to what we believe! I came to the conclusion that
day that 7th day Adventists are my favorite religion other than ours.
That might be a very ignorant conclusion, but a conclusion
nonetheless. She told us that in the past she's just sent people away
that have come to her door because of the different religions &
she already has hers, but she told herself "the next time
someone comes to the door I'm going to talk to them" & that
was us!! No coincidences.
Saturday was so great! We
did quite a bit of tracting. We got in a couple's home who are
Pentecostal. They gave us ice water, & we accepted. They tried
converting us, but we declined. One thing that got me fired up was
they were trying to tell us we believed in the Trinity. But in
reality THEY believe in the trinity. They believe the Father, Son &
Holy Ghost are one being, aka the trinity. I explained that we
believe in the Godhead. We believe the Father, the Son, & the
Holy Ghost are 3 separate beings. & they tried telling us that
was the trinity.... If you're confused at what I'm saying, don't
feel bad, I'm still confused myself. They offered us a couple
pamphlets, but we also declined those. They were very friendly
people, but I didn't like when she told us: "I will pray for you
that God will reveal the truth to you". I got us out of there
before they found another subject which to "prove us wrong"
with.
As we were walking down
the road the lady came out & said "where's your car?"
"oh, it's just down the road here!" "Okay, do you want
a sandwich?" "No, thanks though!" When we got into the
truck we listened to Elder Holland's talk titled "The Only True
God & Jesus Christ Whom He Sent". If you aren't familiar
with this talk, I'd suggest you listen to it! It's amazing. He
explains our doctrine of the Godhead and refutes the idea that some
people have that we are not Christians.
Sunday after church we had
a lesson with Dillon W. It was....an interesting one. He read 3 Nephi
11, which was the chapter we left him with, & much much more. He
is really into researching things & finding differences between
the Bible & Book of Mormon (which are only differences because
he's interpreting the Bible incorrectly, but he doesn't know that).
He enjoys finding deep doctrine that confuses him because of his lack
of testimonial foundation (if that makes sense). On the plus side, he
only finds excerpts from lds.org
(or so he says) from Joseph Smith & Brigham Young. Either way, we
bore our testimonies to him & encouraged him to open his heart &
ask God for truth. That was probably the best drop-lesson I've had on
my mission so far, so that's a plus! :)
My email this week is
titled "from the lows to the very highs" because that is
exactly what you experience on a mission. Specifically this week. I
was feeling down for a bit but after that fast, even though we didn't
find any investigators & even had to drop one that we had, I felt
better than ever! I love this gospel. I know that it's true. It's
always amazing to me to see how my testimony grows each & every
day even when those I meet try to tear it down. I know that the Lord
hears & answers prayers. I know this is His work & will not
leave us alone in it.
Thanks for the awesome
email. I love & appreciate all you do for me!
Have a wonderful week &
I'll talk to you next week.
xoxo Sister Viraldo
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