This week was super good! We had a busy week and taught almost 15 first lessons which is a lot for this area.
We had an amazing lesson with Jaelen this week! We stopped by because we hadn't been able to contact him at all recently. He said his phone was broken and he showed us and it was destroyed haha. So we were like, "Can we just do a lesson right now?" And he said yes! So we went for a walk down mainstreet in Hopkins and ended up sitting on a bench to read 2 Nephi 31 with him. As we read, we talked about baptism and how if Jesus needed to be baptized even though he is perfect, we obviously need it even more! It really started clicking with him and you could so easily tell he was feeling the Spirit. He was in tears by the end of the lesson haha. At the end of the lesson, we asked him to say the closing prayer and ask God to give him an answer about whether this church was true. He said a super sincere, good prayer and after he finished we asked how he was feeling. He said he had a warm feeling in his chest and felt super calm and peaceful. We were like, "That's the spirit, bro!" We then had him read D&C 8:2-3 where it talks about the spirit speaking to your mind and heart and he was like that is exactly what is happening!! We were so hyped and we were like, "Wel,l there's your answer. He was so excited to get an answer like that! So we took him home and he said he was gonna tell his dad about what happened and then we texted him Friday and Saturday and he didn't respond. Then Saturday night he texted us and said that he was going to his dad's church on Sunday. We were like, bro.... He said he was going to go and then decide if he wanted to switch to our church or not, and now he won't respond to our texts or anything so it went down the toilet kinda. So please keep him in your prayers.
Ok, so coolest story of the week: we were in this old, rundown apartment building trying to visit a less active member. They didn't answer.... Elder Gooch and I both had an impression to tract the building, so we did. And the third door we knocked was a Jehova's Witness lady haha. So we were like ok this is going to be a treat, but she was so cool. She was like, "Hey, how are you doing?!" And we were like, "Good! Can we share a quick scripture with you?" And she said yes and ran inside to get her bible. So we are like, "Oh great, she is gonna bash with us..." But she came out and we shared Helaman 5:12 and she loved it. She was so excited to hear it haha, and she asked for a Book of Mormon, too. We set up a return appointment for Sunday evening with her and she was like hyped for us to come back! So Sunday evening rolls around and we were walking to her house and she texts us and was like, "I have to leave in like 20 minutes." So we ran to her apartment and texted the brother that was our joint teacher, Brother Hadley, and told him to hurry and get there. So we got there and she said she had like 15 minutes, and we started teaching the restoration and Brother Hadley got there right in the nick of time. We were teaching her on her doorstep because of the rule of three, so Brother Hadley got there like at the end of the lesson, but he asked some killer questions about what made her want to meet with us. She said she had been praying if the Jehovah Witnesses was the right religion for her and we knocked on her door like 15 minutes after she prayed so she figured we were an answer of some sort to her prayer! Haha so we asked why she was questioning her religion and she said she felt like it was a little over the top and she felt condemned to go to hell if she did anything wrong. So we got to explain to her that it isn't how it's supposed to work and read Mosiah 26:30 with her and said God always forgives if we repent. She really liked that so we set a baptism date with her on December 10 and she said we could come back this week again haha. So rub a dub dub, J Dub in a tub!
We also decided to go back through our way old potential investigators list and we found this guy named Howard who is 62 years old and is a lumber jack. He is the coolest guy haha. He reminds me of Vince Papale. He's like a really old teenager basically! He was a media referral who wanted a bible and we went back and he was like super interested in talking to us. He wasn't really interested before, so that was cool. We taught him the Plan of Salvation kind of because he said he felt like he had fallen away from God after growing up in a strong Catholic home. We talked about how he can get closer to God by doing the little things like reading the scriptures and praying and going to church. So he said he would come to church with us this weekend and he would read the scriptures every day he had time (he works like 15 hour days) and would pray more sincerely! He previously had just said the Lord's Prayer every day, so we also taught him how to pray. He is honestly a super cool guy who just wants to come closer to God!
Funny story of the week: we were tracting this apartment building by our apartment this week and we felt like we should go into this one building to tract. We found a young mom and her son and had a first lesson with them and then we knocked on this one door and an old lady answered. She said she wasn't interested, so we asked if there was anything we could do to help her out. She said no unless we could help her find some leprechauns! And we were like uh...? She said so she could find a pot of gold haha. So I said, Well, I don't have a pot of gold, but I have a Book of Mormon and that was as valuable to me as a pot of gold!" She seemed tickled pink to get one so she took it and said she would read it. After she closed the door, Elder Gooch says, "Wow! You really pulled that one out of your butt!" I was like, "Yeah I did, but I meant it." Haha, so it was pretty funny! Then a squirrel ate a whole chocolate bar out of my hand, wrapper and all. Like it took it and wrestled it out of my mouth haha. It was crazy!
I'm really loving the mission! We had a fun week and are having a zone p day today and doing some zone service as well! It's been a fun day so far just playing basketball and football with the zone! Hope all is well with everyone back home! I love all of you and miss you a lot but I'm supposed to be here right now. There are a lot of people we are helping here.
Oh, one last cool story. So this family is in our ward, the Memea family, and their dad has been less active for a while I guess. So we stopped by their house a few weeks ago and had a super good lesson with the dad and kids and he came to church that week. Then they fed us the next Sunday and came and did a service project with us that week, too. He's been to church the last three weeks and has come to like every ward activity in that time too! It's so cool because he is an awesome guy. It's so cool to help people with coming back to church!
Anyway, love you all and hope you have a great week!
Much love,
Elder Beach
#10 #MavUp
