Tues. March 7,2017

 What a wonderful week this has been! I seriously am on cloud nine! So last Tuesday I told you about our two investigators (They are called TRC's and some of them are real investigators, some of them are members who volunteer and some of them get taught for a job and you don't know which are which). The first one came to us ready to know the gospel and wanting to know the gospel and it was fantastic! He progressed so fast! On Wednesday we taught him about tithing and he said "oh! I will pay that this Sunday when I go to church!" so anyway he progressed really fast. On Friday he told us his daughter set up a meeting with the missionaries that night because he has been telling her about what he is learning and his granddaughter is dating an LDS boy. Anyway, he said he was excited! We taught him our lesson and I felt really prompted to invite him to be baptized... of course I thought this was crazy because we only teach them for a week and this was our third lesson with him, but I did it anyway. When the spirit prompts it's better to act than to doubt ;) and so I invited him to follow Jesus Christ and be baptized. AND HE SAID YES! He told me that he wants to finish the Book of Mormon but after that he wants to be baptized! I was so excited I thought I was going to explode! We wrapped up our lesson and closed and taught him about baptism and what he has to be doing to be baptized in our last lesson with him and it was so cool. 

     Last week I also told you about our TRC who was a struggle for us. Sister McDonald and I cried a lot after that lesson because we felt like we had failed and that we had no direction to go from there. The next lesson we had no idea what to do so I felt prompted to prepare three lessons and go in and show her the three lessons and let her be led by the spirit to pick the lesson she needed. We did that and she picked the Restoration. We taught her about the Restoration and the spirit was so strong! I felt so good! We taught her about Joseph Smith and the first vision and it was amazing! I was feeling so good by the end of the lesson I was practically floating! I extended the invitation of praying to her and she looked me in the eyes and said "uhm, no. I don't feel comfortable with that." My heart dropped. It took everything I had for me to not cry right there in front of her. We didn't know what to do so we closed and left. I felt so discouraged again. What was I doing wrong? The next lesson we didn't plan a lesson. We felt really strongly that we needed to just talk to her. We had a lesson that whenever investigators turn down an invitation it is usually because they are afraid of something. We went in and talked to her and it turns out she wanted God to be real, she hoped God was real! But she knew that if she prayed and it turned out that he wasn't there, she would be crushed and it would be very hard for her to recover. I started talking to her and before I even knew what I was saying I asked her "How do you ever expect to find out if God is there and if he loves you, if you don't ever intend to ask?" I'm sure the surprise on my face probably matched the surprise on hers after I asked that but she thought about it and said I made a good point and she wasn't sure. We were out of time by then and so I bore my testimony that if she would pray she would KNOW God was real and that he loved her. I invited her to pray and she told me know, again. I was again very discouraged until she looked at me and said "But will you invite me again tomorrow?" I said I would and we left. We went beck to teach her the next day, our last lesson with her. We walked in and asked her if she had thought about our last lesson. She said yes and I sat there fully expecting her to tell me she had and I needed to blow it out my ears, until she looked down, her voice started shaking and she said "I think... I have decided... that I want to know. I have decided I'm going to pray. I don't think I'm ready today and I might not be ready tomorrow, but I want to know." I teared up listening to her talk about how scared she was but that she was ready to know. I cried telling her how much God loved her and that I promised her that because she was taking a risk and acting on faith, really wanting to know, that she would not be crushed. That she would know God was real and that he loved her. It was such a special moment. The rest of our lesson we taught her about how the Holy Ghost communicates with people and the nature of God, she was afraid he would be angry with her for not believing in him sooner. It was a beautiful lesson and the spirit was so strong because of her faith. My joy at getting her to commit to prayer was the same as when our other investigator said he would be baptized because for her, it was a bigger leap of faith to pray. I have so much love in my heart for her. 

     The rest of my week has been fantastic! Sister McDonald told us a story about how when she was little her family had a turtle that they kept on a leash in their backyard and how one day they went outside to feed it and it had magically gotten off of its leash and "it ran away." Needless to say we were all laughing about the fact that somehow her turtle "ran away" and they never found it. We all joke whenever we lose things that Sister McDonald's run away turtle took them. Other than that it has been a pretty slow week! Thank you for all of the mail and the emails! They never fail to brighten my day! You guys are amazing! I love you all so much! Talk to you next week!