We've had a great week!
Monday we taught our new investigator, Jeff. He's the one who loves his kitties. We went over and followed up with him on whether he had been praying to know that what we've taught him so far is true. He said that he's been praying every night to his dead cat, Mr. Gus and that he hasn't ever had an answer from God. We decided to change our lesson plan and teach him about the importance of praying directly to our Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ. So Jeff LOVES cats. It's almost creepy how much he loves his cats. But his kitties are his only family, so of course he loves them! He's always talking about how he lost his cat, Mr. Gus....and out of nowhere, I was prompted to share my story about how I lost my cat, Stinky, when I was in the third grade. I loved that cat and was devastated when he died!!! By the end of my story, Jeff was tearing up. Poor guy. But I explained to him that talking to Heavenly Father helped me through my cat's death a lot more than praying to my cat. I distinctly remember praying and asking Heavenly Father to take good care of Stinky for me until I was able to take care of him again. Jeff liked that.
We also followed up to see if he had read the Book of Mormon since our last lesson. He said that he had read what we assigned him, which was Alma 32, just barely 10 minutes before we came over. At least he read it! We assigned him Enos 1, which is all about how God answers prayers, and committed him to praying directly to Heavenly Father in the name of Christ. He said he'd give it a try.
The next time we saw him was Friday night and he told us that he's been praying the way we asked him to, and then he goes on to pray to Mr. Gus...he really likes talking to his kitty! He said that his prayers have been going for at least 15 minutes every night now. We taught him about the importance of the Book of Mormon and how he can receive answers to all of his questions by reading it. At the end we shared Moroni 10:3-5 and asked him to read it. He read aloud the 5th verse, "And by the power of the Holy Ghost, you may know the truth of all things" and he sat there and thought for a solid minute.
So a little background on Jeff. He LOVES to watch TV. That's all he does when he's home from work. He knows every TV show ever made it seems like. It's funny. He especially loves the sci-fi shows.
After reading those verses and thinking for a minute, he said that he thought of a show that he used to watch a while back that wasn't on any more. It was about a space ship that went out searching for the source of all truth, and there needed to be 10 volunteers to run it. And there needed to be volunteers because they would be risking their lives. He talked about that for a while and then said that he would be one of those 10 people to volunteer because he really wanted truth. I got all excited and pointed to the book of Mormon saying, "Jeff!! THIS is your ship!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" He let that sink in. He said that he would read at least 5 minutes every single day. :)
I asked him what show he was talking about and he said that it was Star Gate. Sweet! I told him my dad used to be addicted to that show and wouldn't let me or my siblings watch anything else. He was like "Yep. Sounds about right."
I also told Jeff that my sister's name was Belana. That's all I had to say and he was like, "Oh yeah. Star Trek." He knew the exact season and episodes and everything that had to do with Belana. hahahahahahahahhahahaha. I know I'm meant to teach this man!
We actually saw Donna this week!!! We stopped by on Tuesday and Saturday night! She loves having us come over, but we still haven't been able to get to the bottom of her concerns. Every time we go over to her apartment, there are way too many distractions and it's hard for her to focus enough to feel the spirit. SHE asked us to give her a church tour and she scheduled it (not us this time) for this Friday morning! I'm way excited to get her into the church where she will feel the spirit and there won't be any distractions! I'll let you know how it goes next week!!!!
We stopped by and visited with a cute lady from the Philippines who's been in our ward for at least 10 years. She is older and doesn't have a job so all she does all day long is fold paper into little triangles and then put them all together to make animals and shapes. She made both me and Sister Udall swans in our favorite colors. :) I'll send pictures! It's pretty cool.
Remember the Greenhalghs? Sister Dorothy Greenhalgh was the one who emailed you the picture of me and Sister Udall with her three girls! Anyway we had a lesson with their family again this week. I love them so much. One of the twins, Abby, said the sweetest prayer at the beginning- she prayed that transfers wouldn't happen because she loves us too much. (oh yeah, transfers are this Thursday by the way) It was just really cute! We talked about the importance of studying the scriptures and committed them to study every single day!!! We shared a really cool story with them from one of the recent Ensign magazines. I'll forward it to you- I love it. Anyway. It's SO important for families to read the scriptures as individuals and as families. That's how we prepare for eternal life together!!!
Wow, sorry, this is a long email. I didn't think I'd have much to write this week...but I guess I was wrong! haha
We had a REALLY cool miracle this week! There is a woman in the ward who lives in a mansion. Her name is Sister Coury. She gave us a tour of her entire house- it even has secret hiding spots in the walls!!! She has two Hispanic maids that work for her from El Salvador. She's giving both of them a copy of the book of Mormon is Spanish and is always trying to have them sit down for a lesson with us! It's pretty cute. Okay, so Friday we had an appointment at 4pm. We went to the door and knocked before I realized, "Oh no! She asked us not to come this week because she'll be recovering from surgery!!!" So we ran back to our car before anyone saw us. haha! We were going to drive to the library where we could work on our progress record and do some online missionary work, when I decided to look at the phone. We had just barely missed a phone call from Sister Coury. I called her right back and she asked if we were close to her house. We were about five minutes away so I was like, "Yeah, what can we help you with?" She then went on to explain that one of her maids had just lost her brother, who had been battling cancer all his life, from a heart attack. This maid had just talked to her brother on the phone the night before and he sounded great, so this death was really unexpected. The maid's name is Delila. She had to call her mom who lives in El Salvador, and she didn't have the heart to do it because she had just lost her dad the year before and knew this news would hurt her mom. Sister Coury told us that Delila was a MESS and the only thing she could think of that would help was talking to us! We went over immediately!!! We gave Delila a hug and sang her some hymns. We talked about hope and faith in Jesus Christ. We shared our testimonies of the Plan of Salvation and how this isn't the end. We were there for about an hour and a half, and before we left, Delila still looked sad, but her face wasn't red any more and she wasn't crying at all. It was a miracle! We committed her to read the Book of Mormon every day, because that is where she will find true peace. She said she would!!! :) It was amazing to be God's hands in that moment.
It was a great week. Transfers are coming up this Thursday. My friend Brother Mercer asked if he could throw me a good bye party. haha! He's such a funny old man! I have no idea if I'm actually leaving or not. But if I am, I'll be sure to send you my new address as soon as I find out!
I love you! Have a great week! Whatever you do, read the book of Mormon!!!! I promise, you need the spirit more than you need the time it takes to read it!
Love,
Sister Anderson
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