| show details 12:29 PM (21 hours ago) |
We're going to try to send out Christmas cards, so could you email me some addresses? If you email them this week, I'll get the email next Monday, and then I can send the cards out next Monday. Here's the people whose addresses I need:
PapaKen, Lola, Julie Calderon (is she still planning on serving a mission?), and all Mom's and Pop's brothers and sisters, if you have their addresses.
There was a picture in the Church News this last week of the youth from our ward (Anaheim 2nd). It's in an article called Sacred Sacrifices, and the picture is at the Newport Beach Temple. We were just around the corner! We were there for an outside temple tour with the mission president, and we watched them getting their picture taken.
I've been having a hard time feeling excited about teaching inactive people, and we do a lot of that because one of the apostles said that a happy missionary teaches 20 lessons a week, and we can't get that many with investigators. Also, Sister Cooprider doesn't think knocking works. She says it works in Spanish-speaking areas, but not English, and it is true that we haven't gotten inside any door we've knocked while tracting since I got here. Of course, that doesn't mean so much since we hardly ever knock. But! We had a really amazing lesson with an inactive woman this week, and we're really excited for her. A while ago, someone from church asked her to feed the missionaries, so she's been doing that once a month. The last time Sister Cooprider was over there, she read Ether 12:27 to her, about weakness being made strong. Then, this last week, the ward council prayed about her and decided to invite her to take the missionary lessons, which is what the ward council does; they call it the 15 name program. They pick people to invite to take the missionary lessons. So the woman, Patty Spathes, accepted the invitation, and we taught her for the first time last week. At the very beginning, she told us that the only reason she agreed to take the lessons was because Sister Cooprider read Ether 12:27, and that scripture really made an impression on her. Afterwards, Sister Cooprider told me that the only reason she read that scripture was because the DVD she had meant to show wouldn't work! Patty told us that this is it: after these lessons, it's going to be all or nothing with her. She says she knows the devil is freaking out right now, and her life has suddenly gotten a lot harder since she agreed to take the lessons. She hasn't been to church in ages. She's probably in her fifties now. She had lots of "plan" questions, so we taught her the plan of salvation, which is lesson 2, instead of the restoration, lesson 1, like we had planned. She knows the Bible, but she apparently has no knowledge of the Book of Mormon. She had so many good questions, and she took notes in the Book of Mormon that we gave her while we talked. She was just amazing! When I asked her to read 2 Nephi 2:22-25, about the fall, she read the first couple words (it was "now behold," or something else meaningless), and then she couldn't finish because she started crying! So we read the rest of the scriptures for her that lesson. It's amazing how scriptures that don't seem that touching to me can have such an effect on her. That scripture is good, but I think of it as being more informational. But it's scripture from God, so the spirit could witness to Patty that it's true.
We were teaching another inactive named Bev. It's amazing how little most inactive people know about the gospel! I assumed if they were once a member, they must still know at least the basics, but so many of them don't! They don't know anything!
Anyway, we were at Bev's house, and her neighbour Avery dropped by. Avery is seven, and a non-member, and she is so receptive! She just wants to know everything, and she's so interested in religion! And she asked for a Book of Mormon! Afterwards, Sister Cooprider said we probably shouldn't have taught her or given her a Book of Mormon since we didn't have her parents permission. They've tried to talk to her mom, but now she's avoiding us. Avery has a rather morbid obsession with crucifixion, probably from her Catholic upbringing, and she has the attention span of a squirrel, but she's so open and receptive, and so interested in everything! We gave her a Book of Mormon and she immediately opened it up to a random page and started reading out loud. Then she looked at the pictures and wanted to know who everyone was. Why can't everyone be like Avery? :)
Love,
Sister Duque
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