Email 02/16/2011

We had a lot of really amazing lessons this week but i don't have time to write about them..


We are teaching this family and they have this dog that they have to put away before they can let you on their property. It's a huge dog that jumps higher than the fence and it just really wants to bite us. Basically we are terrified of it, it's not a nice dog not even to the people who own it.. SOOO we had dinner with them the other night (Our second dinner...another story) and we had to run out to the car to grab our phone and we thought the dog was put away so we stepped out of the house and NOPE there's the dog and he tried to bite me in the butt, but got my skirt and totally pulled my skirt down to my ankles! LOL! Luckily I had a slip on. But I couldn't stop laughing to get the dog away from me! Hma O and I were the only ones who saw it all, but it was intense! I almost had a chunk of my tushy taken out...he just depantsed me so I feel lucky I guess.

I really used to like dogs before my mission but really? What is this? Everyone's animals always sit on my lap during our lessons but lately the dogs have it out for me.

So 2 dinners same night--- that was fun. We had a dinner set up with an English ward because it was their turn but we had an appointment with one of our Spanish families that night and it was around 6, so we were pretty sure they were going to try and feed us. We tried to cancel dinner but no one answered so we had dinner at the English house and then we prayed our guts out that the Spanish family wouldn't feed us. NOPE big green chili rellenos (Big green chili with queso in it) waiting for us. I wanted to die. We probably looked like we were going to cry when we walked in and smelled it. I just never want to eat again.


"R" is about 30. His big hobby right now is fighting with armor and stuff with his buddies. So he used to be really into partying but a few months ago he decided he wanted to change and wasn't happy. He didn't grow up with a religion or church at all but felt this pull to go to church so he invited himself to go with some friends that live in one of our wards and he's been coming with them and we've started teaching him the last few weeks. It's been interesting because first thing he tells us is that he doesn't believe in Jesus Christ, but our church is the only one he just feels good at something feels wrong at all the others that makes him want to run out so he wanted to know what that was. He has progressed ridiculously fast it's been sooo cool to see him change. The other week we were struggling because we asked him if he would pray about these things and he kept saying after he did research then he would pray in a few months. So I blurted out the weirdest testimony of my life about how life is unfair sometimes? And about what the Atonement means. That someone has been through everything he has ever been through. And then he opened up and started telling us about his life and all of this crazy stuff. So I told him it's not about praying after you research crap on the Internet it's about tonight. Going home asking, "Hey God, is what the girls told me true? Is Joseph Smith a prophet? Do you love me? Is this your church?" and I promise you'll get an answer. So he agreed to try it.

So we go back for our lesson this week and we teach him at this member's house and they have little boys under 4 running around screaming. Talking about the Plan of Salvation pictures and running? So it was a giant failure and he wasn't getting anything out of it because we were just trying to yell over the craziness. He was yawning and I knew he wasn't listening at all and we were wasting our breath. I was getting frustrated so I was like, "Look I'm gonna sum it up in 1 minute. The most important part if you get anything out of this is the Atonement." So he listened that whole minute lol! Then we asked him how his prayers were going...expecting to hear he didn't have time or something. And he's like.."Really good actually, I know it's true I got an answer to my prayers." My eyes must have been huge.. WHAT?! He said he can feel himself changing but his hold back is that he wants to get more tattoos...which I told him was stupid. So he's doing awesome!


"L" and "C"- We have had SUCH good lessons with them lately! So we went back this week and "C" was with their little girl who was sick, so it's just us and "L". He's the less interested out of the two. We sat down and he tells us he has a question he has been thinking about. His question was when he gets baptized and married in the temple, can his family not come?

UMMM what?! So he starts to tell us about his week and how he thinks he wants to get baptized and how he's had all these signs and how he is starting to change and become a better man. He and "C" aren't married. We started asking how he felt about marriage because they would have to be married to get baptized and it was so cute the way he talked about her. So for the first time ever we committed him to propose lol! It felt weird but he was so giggly about it he said he wanted to. They've been together 20 years...it's about time! We are really excited about them. He was a completely different person than our last visit, we had the hardest time getting in with them for like a month. We couldn't get in to teach them and now whenever we are in the area we stop by and they invite us in and they never want us to go! They just want to know more. Now we just have to get them to church...which is the battle. It's like pulling teeth. JUST COME TO CHURCH. We're currently bribing them with cupcakes.


OH we had a crazy experience this week...

So we got this referral from a guy who asked for a Book of Mormon from Mormon.org and asked for the missionaries... So we went over and he was so excited to see us (which is unusual) he knew that we couldn't go in with just him (I think he read about missionary rules online) so he grabbed two chairs and brought them outside. He was really nice and really excited and started telling us about himself and asking us nice questions. Meanwhile we are excited because he is golden, but then we come to find out he is a youth minister at a local church and is concerned for us. He said he' s been feeling this reallly strong pull that he needs to read the Book of Mormon and learn more about the LDS religion and that God keeps telling him to look into it. But he thinks it's because God wants him to save us. He said all of this in a very nice way so it was weird because we were a little taken back. So we get in to a discussion and we start explaining the Book of Mormon, but before you know it were in deep doctrine and discussing Christ's fore ordination and whether we consider him Deity before earth life...but that all boiled back to the Godhead.. It was complicated. We also tried to explain Authority and Priesthood which was a giant flop because then he explained how he had the Priesthood because "Anyone who is a believer has the priesthood, all you have to do is believe and you have it." ...We're like umm surprise no you don't have it...It was pretty much a bible bash, but a really nice one with no contention? The weird thing is we are going to keep working with him. We asked if there could be a possibility that God has lead him to the Book of Mormon and LDS religion because he wants him to know the truth and the fullness of the gospel? He said "no, he feared not" But...we fear so! So next lesson should be interesting:) He also prayed for us that we would go home and study to know of these things and see if their may be error in our ways... That was nice of him?

It was just weird because it was so friendly. It never got heated...and at times he was actually listening and interested. Next week he will either have anti information to ask us about ...or he might have read the Book of Mormon and actually felt something! I'm hoping on the second. That's what happened with "B" and now she's a member.

Okay I'm out of time!

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