Dear Family,
This past week has been great! So tuesday we were able to go over to this
less active ladies house and she was not doing well. we have been meeting
with her for a while and been able to gain her trust. she has been trying
to stop smoking and so we asked if she was done. she said she bought
cigarettes so we asked her if we could take them. so we did! then she said
"since you took them you do the blessing" (referring to me, we give her
blessings all the time) so I gave her a blessing. This last friday we met
with a less active lady who has a non member husband and she knows she
needs to come to church but she doesnt feel the urge to change certain
things, even though she knows they are wrong. So I said "well if you give
up one hour then you will take the sacrament and fell the spirit again,
then you will get the urge to stop the other things'. Then she said "I had
a home teacher when I lived in Belgium as a young girl and my parents were
very less active and they smoke and drank and he said those same words and
my parents sacrificed that hour to go to church and then they went to eh
temple and got fully active in the church. so its funny that you say that,
maybe I will'. That was awesome!!!
This last week we also clipped horses hooves! to help out a less active
family that needs to come to church! I have pictures! it was really fun!
This last Sunday was fast and testimony meeting and President and sister
black were supposed to come to church but they went to our other ward.
Well John and Melinda Bulmer went because we promised them we would be
'speaking'. So after church they texted and said "can elders baptize into
the lds" so we said yes. which is ironic because we fasted for baptisms!
well it turns out that she had a great experience during a surgery she had
last week and felt that God was with her! so Hopefully they will be able to
get baptized soon! the only problem is that they want both elder Golden and
I to baptize them. haha.
Well this last Tuesday we had zone meeting and it was great! we talked
about bearing testimony frequently. so our apointment with the bulmers
cancelled for 2:00 so we were pretty bumbed. We went to see Beverly (a
potential investigator who we go try to see every tuesday and she is never
there) and as we are waling to her house we decide to go help some people
with a u-haul trailer across the street. As we are walking we see a wallet
on the ground so we get ahold of the owner of the wallet and while we were
waiting to meet up with him at his house we talked to the people with the
u-haul. His name is David from San Jose, moved here a year ago. he
accepted to come to church and to read the book of mormon. So we walked
down to the wallet guys house and he was so grateful and tried to give us
money but we said no, we just wanted to help. As we talked with him we
found out that he knew Mormons and lds people worked for him previously.
well he said we ould come meet with him and he couldnt remember his number
so we went into his house. we talked for a while and he is so proud of his
family and his children. he talke dbaout his wife who died a year ago and
he gets really emotional when he talkes about any of his family members. So
we told him that families are forever and he said "I'm here alone. that
doesnt seem like forever. I keep thinking my wife is going to walk through
that door any day, but she is gone" So we explained that even after death
we can be with them. We then gave him 'together forever' ( a cheesy movie
that we have been challenged to pass out by our zone leaders) and its
awesome that we have that challenge because it was able to help him and
otherwise we wouldnt of had it with us but I feel that that challenge was
given for us to be able to help this guy. Its cool to see how everything
works out cause we knew that Beverly, the place we were originally going to
see, wasnt going to meet with us, but there was a reason to go see her and
there was also a reason for the zone leaders to issue that challenge with
the 'together forever' dvds.
Well today we were able to go to the temple!!! awesome!
Thanks so much from your support and your love!
I love you all!
Love,
Elder John
