March 18, 2013

This week was great! We were able to get 3 new investigators and help less actives finally get to church! A few weeks ago we taught a Hispanic family; Abel, Aldo, and Abel jr. This week his wife walked in as we were finishing up the lesson and we were inviting them to church. We asked the wife if she would be willing to give the kids a ride to church because Abel had to work. She said that she was the one originally that wanted to become a member of the Church but her husband did not allow it because of everything going on in his work and the sports he wanted to do. Her history is amazing! When she was in the military she had to have a 'buddy' that she went everywhere with, because the females had to be in pairs. So she would go to church with her LDS buddy. she said that at first she would just sleep through the service but after a while she would sit through it and she really loved it! So she is so happy that her husband wants to pursue this! They were supposed to come to church but her father was in the hospital. I consider that to be a good excuse. But we are so excited to be able to stat teaching the whole family! And the members that we brought with us this last time are great and they have really clicked with the family!

One major bummer this week was that our investigator, Raul who was set with a date for baptism on the 13th of April, is now not meeting with us anymore. He said that his parents don't want him to be meeting with us and they don't want us to call his house. So he said he would continue meeting with us after he got a car. and since he doesn't have a job that is going to be in the far distant future. Despite us giving him options and promising him blessings he did not want to nurture the seed that was planted. It was ironic because we just read Alma 32 and discussed the principle of nurturing the seed right before he told us this. now it turns out that his ground is barren. not because the seed wasn't a good, true seed. but because his ground is barren.

This week has been a great one filled with trials... the trials are becoming less and less about me and myself... and more about peoples choices... sometimes no matter what I do I cant choose for them and can't make them choose eternal life!

we were supposed to have a bunch of people at church this last week but non of them showed! a new investigator that we got on friday was supposed to come. her name is Ashlee and we knocked on her door and did an Easter message approach. she let us in and we shared a message about Easter and then got the conversation toward different aspects of the gospel. she then asked how are mormons different so we were finally able to explain!! she was excited and sounded interested... but one draw back was that her mom is a prophet at their church and ashlee believes that she can tell the future and crap... so a kinda stinks... but we will see!

Love you all!

Love,

Elder John

pictures: Robert Pike: leaving on a mission this Wednesday

John Bulmer: Investigator we helped rake leave for