1st off I saw all the emails about Gavin and I have
been praying for him! I put his name in the temple here also. I love
Gavin so much I am so sad to hear her was so sick! Poor little man, I
got him a little surprise today I will send home. I saw the pictures you
sent and I have to say he is a trooper, he is smiling in most of them
hahaha that says a lot.
This week has been really good! We were able to do some
service and had some really powerful lessons! On Thursday evening we
role played with Randy (our assistant ward mission leader) we role
played to prepare for Hong's lesson, he is the Chinese foreign exchange
student who did not believe in God at all. So the role play was for the
plan of salvation, and it was super simple and just about Jesus Christ.
Well at 7 we had institute and an investigator came to it so we had to
be there. It was Dallas, who is the homeless guy with PTSD who we are
teaching, he is one of the scariest people we teach, but he has gotten
so much better and he really loved institute so we could not just leave
him there, but we had Hong at 8 so we went on splits. I took Eliza from
the ward with me and we went to teach Hong. This was one of the absolute
coolest lessons ever! When we first started teaching I was keeping it
super simple, like the role play, that was awful, I could just see how
it was throwing Hong off more. So I had this thought that just said
"just throw it out the window and teach the whole plan of salvation" so
that is what I did. Once I did that it went so much better and Hong
understood! Even the words that we thought he would not understand he
did! He loved it so much and felt the spirit, I pulled out my little
diagram and started laying it out. By the end he asked if he could take a
picture of it with his phone so he could remember! Oh we asked him if
he has prayed yet and he said no, but then took that answer back cause
he said that one night he was really homesick and could not sleep, so he
prayed to God and he said after that he was able to go to sleep :) oh
and he has been reading the Joseph Smith story in the Book of Mormon. At
the end of the lesson we asked him to pray and he did! It was such a
sincere prayer and so powerful! He asked if the plan of salvation was
real and it was so sweet! Oh also Eliza asked him "Hong do you believe
in God now?" and his response after pausing for a moment was "yes,
something is there" awwwww how awesome is that! That is so huge for
someone to go from not believing in God to believing! WOW! So that was
my experience with Hong, he even came to church and FHE this week.
The lesson Sister DeBry had with Dallas was super awesome
too! Apparently he opened up so much more and loved meeting people
there. That night he called us at later and just chatted for 45
minutes...crazy! We ended up telling him we had to go to bed and
eventually hung up, but that was funny.
(Now the bouncing around of what happened is going to start haha)
On Sunday we had Dallas and Krista who is the elders investigators
who they are turning over to us come to ward prayer/dessert at bishops.
That was neat there were 5 nonmembers there, it was so productive. This
week we have met so many potentials, well more than normal and it has
been really awesome, the work is really starting to move forward, now I
just hope I stay another transfer :) haha
Oh on Friday night it was the YSA Friday night activity
and we normally never go, cause there is no point for us to go, but
Krista was going so we went and so did the elders who were teaching her,
and well we got roped in to doing a jello eating contest...bad Idea, I
will send pics home. I felt like I was eating so much and I would look
down and it looked like I did not even make a dent! Then I had a green
beard and teeth the rest of of the night.
So Wednesday we had zone training and it was awesome!
The last half at least, we had a really hard morning, so it was hard for
us to focus during the first half, but after, it was nice. I have felt
like I have needed a blessing for weeks now, and it seems like I just
never had time and I really felt the need when I was at zone training,
so Elder Thomas gave me a blessing, and Sister Debry had Elder Page give
her one. Oh my goodness I can not even explain how much better I felt
after. I had so much built up in me and I couldn't let it go, until
right then, and because of the blessing I was able to find relief and
relax and just literally feel the weight come off of my shoulders. He
gave me a wonderful blessing that I know came from Heavenly Father, and I
still feel so so much better. I had questions answered during that
blessing, that no one knew I had, So I know that it was from Heavenly
Father. I am so thankful for this gospel and the peace and joy and pure
happiness that comes from it :)
Well this week is my birthday!!!! wahooooo! I am gonna
be 21...how crazy is that. I feel so old haha. I got aunt Debbie and
Aunt Diana's cards :) please let them know how thankful I am for the
gifts and the cards :) They just made my day, mail is always awesome :)
I love you all have a wonderful week and I will write you all next week :)
-Andrea
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