11/25/13: #Missionlife

We met Terry, who has come to the church for some financial aid. She's very nice, more legit than I thought. But we're still not sure if we'll be able to do much for her. It's so sad to see people in such hard places :(

 

We found out that Gabriela has a lot more issues with the church than we thought. Just because most other Christian churches share a view that is different than our view, doesn't mean theirs is correct...hmm, how to get this across...but they're gonna be out of town pretty much until I get transferred, so that might be the next missionary's job.

 

We had a miracle exchange this week! I don't think I could have pulled that baptismal date out on Quentin without Sister Ruiz's help. It's great to have new people around to ask the basic questions :) So QUENTIN ACCEPTED A DATE!!!!!!!!! Finally, haha :)

 

This is what Quentin's life is like:

"Sorry Quentin, we cancelled vball for tonight because the Spanish branch is playing bball. But you can crash it if you want."

"I would totally crash that...but the Spanish elders already invited me."

"...of course they did."

then

us: "Hey Quentin, want to come with us to Thanksgiving dinner at the Wilmotts? You don't know them, but they're super cool."

"My family isn't doing anything. Sure."

Hmong elders: "Guess what sisters? We just invited Quentin to thanksgiving dinner at the Wilmotts!"

"We...totally already did that."

"Oh, well, we invited him to church, too!"

"We did that too."

"And the devotional next week?"

"Yeah."

"Oh...well we did too."

-stop trying to steal my golden investigator-

then

"Hey Quentin, we haven't seen you in like two WHOLE days. Feels like forever. What have you been up to?"

"Well yesterday I went with the Hmong elders to dinner at some Hmong persons house because they needed a guy there, then we watched the Restoration. I really liked that. Then earlier today the Spanish elders and the Hmong elders and the English elders and I went out to lunch together because they wanted to thank me for giving them rides to vball, bball, church, appointments, and everything else in the past five weeks."

"Oh. Cool."

This is called immersion. It works great.

 

Our investigator Kim is doing all kinds of missionary work for us. But seeing her do it so shamelessly has really inspired me! She just means it, and says it lovingly, and no one is ever offended :) Trust me, sharing the gospel is a LOT easier than we tend to think it is. If we love it, we tell others how awesome it is, like anything else we love. That easy :)

 

I met with one of my old investigators from Waunakee this week. He was in Green Bay for the week and wanted to meet! It was awesome! And Bro Grant was a huge help. Jim is struggling with the concept of rebaptism. He's been an Episcopalian preacher for like 35 years, he's written whole books on Acts, and other stuff, and...he believes Joseph Smith is a prophet, without a doubt. He shares the BoM with like everybody. But although he understands our stance on why he needs to get rebaptized, he doesn't accept it. He knows it makes sense, but he's holding back. He grew up believing you were only supposed to get baptized once--not to mention he's a preacher, so he baptizes people, but he didn't say that--and so he just doesn't know what to think. Anyone got some help for that?

 

It's been a week full of blessings for everyone around us. Fun times. Priesthood blessings work :)

 

Angie, a used-to-be-less-active-member, is on FIRE! She loves the gospel. And it's so incredible to see her seeking the opportunities to go to the temple, know the scriptures, and find answers. She's amazing.

 

We had four people at church Sunday: Kim and her daughter Madison, Chad, and Quentin. Kim loved it, her first time. Chad's first time was last week, which wasn't the best week to be at church, but this week was a million times better. Great stuff. Madison loved primary. It's a good time to be in GB:)

 

It was a good personal growth week too. I feel like I learned so much from everyone around me, especially my investigators. So many good people that teach me so much :) I'm gonna miss it here. A lot.

 

Sister Neal