Hey fam!
I know that subject line sounds ominous, but don't worry I'm
good :) hahah alright the good news and the bad news has to do with
investigators that we are teaching. Everything else is wonderful haha!
Anyway! This week was pretty slow with teaching visits. We
had a lot of people cancel on us, or people just weren't home. They were still just out with family or
something like that. Who knows hahaha.
But this week we got a lot done with the ward list. I don't know if I have ever
explained the ward list before, if I have and I have completely forgot, I'm
sorry please forgive me because I'm going to explain it again. You can just
skip the next paragraph, OR you can read it because I'm going to explain it in
a fun way ;)
*clears throat*
Let me spin you a tale, it's a grotesque tale, a tale that
has frightened off missionaries for 5 years....... this is the tale of the San
Rafael 2nd ward member list......
*lightning flashes* *thunder crackles* *scary organ plays*
Once upon a time, there were 3 wards that used to reside in
the San Rafael city area. For some
strange reason these 3 wards condensed into 1 single ward. This ward is a
wonderful ward. Full of very active and devout members. Full of kind souls looking for ways to share
the gospel. This congregation was a very small group consisting of about 70-80
saints who attended their meetings on a weekly basis.
Elder Field, Elder Siebach, Sister Jeffery, and Sister
Neilson all were transferred into the ward with the most righteous intentions to
help this ward grow and flourish. To find ways to maybe find the lost sheep who
had wandered away from the fold. To begin their course of action they asked for
a full copy of the ward list. But what they received was a journey that would
take them 1 and 1/2 transfers for them to accomplish. The ward list was placed
before them. The number of baptized members who should be in the ward….1068
members. That means over 900 people in the area were inactive. Scared for their
life they started searching for help. Along the way the discovered efforts from
past missionaries who have undertaken this great journey and have failed. Ward
lists with notes on them, dating back to 2008. A total of 18 different
missionary lists were found, all with different notes and markings. The Nobel 4
devised a plan, they will abridge these lists as Mormon did of old.
*scary organ stops playing*
*clears throat again*
Anyway I hope you all enjoyed that theatrical explanation ;)
The big happy awesome thing we did this week is we fully abridged that list. We
now have a ward list devising of all the missionary notes from the past with
plenty of our own. We are going to sit down with the Bishopric here soon devise
a plan of attack on the list. The Bishopric is actually pretty impressed with
our efforts and are backing us 100% which is really exciting :) so pray that
this goes well and that we can find good people to teach and reactivate :) I
want so desperately to see this ward grow. :)
Anyway now to the good news/bad news portion about
investigators. Well as you know we have been working with a lady named Celeste.
She has a Baptismal Date set for the 14th of this month. The bad news is we are
going to have to push the date back again and possibly drop her as an
investigator, because she isn't showing up to church and is only half keeping
commitments..... we are very saddened by this :( She has that desire to be
baptized and she knows it's true, she just...... Isn't committing to it :( and
it breaks my heart..... We are going over tonight to talk to her about it and
to see what's holding her back. I'm not looking forward to this conversation,
but it will be good and constructive hopefully. :)
The good news is instead of Celeste coming we got another investigator
named Elise to commit to coming to church!! Unfortunately, she was extremely
late and missed the entire Sacrament Meeting, but since church was only an hour
this week there was a baptism right after for an 8-year-old in the ward, so she
came to that. We had an awesome conversation about the similarities and
differences of Jehovah Witness’s baptismal services and ours. She was quite
pleased and liked how ours was done :) We talked a little more about what
baptism means and how it's important. She was curious about the interview
process and asked what questions were asked, so we busted out the questions and
went over them with her. We had such an awesome mini lesson right there. She
had concerns and I think we cleared them up really well. We introduced her to
the sister missionaries. They got talking and me and Elder Siebach got
distracted by some ward members offering us pizza (yes I was distracted by
pizza does this shock any of you ;) ) we talked with them for a bit and we
turned around and she was just in tears....... I started freaking out
internally. I walked up and the sisters and her finished up whatever
conversation they were having and then she told us she had to go. We walked her
to her car and she drove away. It was a really good visit!! But I really wanted
to know what the sisters were talking about, so I went up and asked Sister
Jeffery. She told me:
"We were just talking about the talk I gave in
sacrament meeting about love and charity being the pure love of Christ and I
just told her about how much you Elders loved her. How you Elders love her the
way Christ loves her. And she broke down a started crying. She told us she has
never felt so much love and fellowship from any other church. But she felt it
here and she really loves it here."
My heart then just broke and then repaired itself to do an
Irish jig all at once. I can't wait to see Elise again!!! Hopefully we will
extend a Baptismal invite :) and another cool thing her sons have been asking
about us!!! She said that she has taken them to study and attend other churches,
but all they ask about is ours!!
Guys isn't life awesome when we have the spirit with us!!
Haha the spirit just constantly testifies to others that there is something different
about us, something good about us :) it's awesome!
Anyway I think that's all the highlights from this week!!
Other than we had root beer floats on New Year’s Eve with Officer Horner :) He
is a member who takes us out anytime we see him haha! I will have photos
:)
Anyway I love you all and I hope you all start out 2017 a
little bit better than how you started last year! Go make some spiritual
goals!! I know I have a huge list of things I want to achieve this year! And I
think I should be able to do it! I'm on my mission for this entire year! I'm
excited!!!
2017 here I come!!
Love you all!!!
-Elder Riley Field
Pics
Officer Horner and the squad :)
No comments:
Post a Comment