May 23, 2011
Hey family,
Things have really picked up out here in the Roseville area. Our teaching pool has grown and miracles have been happening all over the place it seems. Last week we found 20 potentials and 9 new investigators, this week we found 13 new potentials and 3 new investigators. This is definitely the Lord's work, things happen that we can't do on our own. A struggle for this area has been getting investigators to church. That turned around yesterday when we had 5 of our investigators there. It was really sweet. Church is so huge for these people's progression, that's going to be a bigger focus for us I think. But it was an awesome feeling to be sitting down and finding more and more walk in. One investigator who came was a man who we haven't been meeting with for very long. He actually came with his girlfriend (who isn't an investigator (yet)). He's really solid, an awesome guy with a strong faith in the Lord. The crazy thing is he actually went in for heart surgery today, and he's expecting to be at the hospital for a few months recovering. He said that he'd love to have the missionaries come over and see him from time to time to read the Book of Mormon with him. He's been reading it and really likes it. And our ward mission leader works with a few different hospitals and said that he'd be willing to drop in on him too. So he is in a pretty unique situation right now as far as investigating, but we're excited to keep in contact with him still.
Another investigator who made it to church yesterday was a lady who's been meeting with the missionaries for close to 9 months now. She's sweet. She has a strong desire to be baptized and knows that the message of the Restored Gospel is true. The hang-up has been that she's been living with her boyfriend and hasn't felt like the time has been right for marriage or separating. The boyfriend hasn't shown very much interest in talking with us either, so she's been in a situation that's been pretty tough for her progression. But last week Elder Ploeger and I had a lesson with her that went really well. We read 2 Nephi 32 with her and broke down the doctrine of Christ with her. It was something she's heard before, but the gift of the Holy Ghost stood out to her this time. We went over what it means to have the gift of the Holy Ghost and this really re-sparked her desire to be baptized. We explained to her that the influence of the Holy Ghost is what's going to guide her in her quest towards baptism, and that even though she doesn't know how to handle her tough situation she can have faith that the Lord knows exactly what steps she needs to take to make it to the waters of baptism. So we gave her three categories: church, prayer, and reading the scriptures. We told her that these things are going to invite the spirit into her life more so she'll know what the Lord wants her to do. And after giving her these three categories we had her come up with daily commitments for her to do in each one - she came up with (1) coming to church every week, (2) reading the scriptures every day, and we said we'd remind her with a text every day, and (3) praying every day about marriage. That last one was my personal favorite. So we wrote down her commitments that she came up with on a sticky note and put it on her fridge. We were half-expecting to only see her at church yesterday, but the whole family came. The boyfriend said he'll be there for our next appointment at their house.
congrats to rochelle and bryce, that's exciting. love is in the air.
have a good week guys, love ya lots
elder lamb
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