May 23, 2016

This week is the last week of the transfer, so by Saturday we will know where we are going and stuff. I will most likely not be with E. Farnes anymore, which is weird! But things are going well, we are having a lot of progression, which is amazing to see. Another really cool experience this week was the fact that Ron came to the baptism of an 8-year old. He was moved to tears. The Spirit was so strong! It was very awesome. After the baptism, he went up to the newly baptized 8- year old and shook his hand. He got choked up and said "I am honored to be here". It was touching. Ron is progressing a lot. Ethan is still doing well, and although we weren't able to meet with Alfonso this week, he still wants to meet with us, which is awesome. We have had a couple of interesting experiences with other people in his neighborhood though. Whenever we drive by they like to yell "church of Satan" which is the church they claim to belong to. Not super pleasant. E. Farnes and I have dealt with the problem by quoting Joseph Smith at them.  " Silence, ye fiends of the infernal pit!"  Well, inside our car. If they could hear inside our car, they would be like, "whaaaaaaaaat?" 

Some cool experiences this week were finding investigators in places we didn't expect, like the mother and grandfather of an investigator that we already had, and also being able to do service for a less active sister and her husband. We pulled a stump out of their yard, which was fun. Those 2 new investigators that we had were pretty interested too, which was very cool. Amy, Jason, Alex, and Jason are still struggling with health issues, but their faith is still strong, which is something we are so grateful for. Thanks for your prayers, they have been very helpful. We have also been able to do lots of service at a horse farm, which has been awesome. We have been building jumps for horses and stuff, which is cool. Because summer is coming up, we are doing lots of service which is so awesome! 

One experience I had that taught me that happened while we were on
exchanges this week. We were driving to drop by a less active sister
and her non-member husband, and as we were driving, we started to
drive past a neighborhood that we had worked in recently. Instantly, a
thought came to my head: "Go see Solomon". Solomon was a potential
investigator that we had been trying to make contact with in that
neighborhood. Previously, we hadn't had much luck. I almost
rationalized the prompting but at the last second decided to follow
it. I turned into the neighborhood and we went to visit Solomon. We
caught him at the perfect time, and discovered that his family would
be moving out to St. George for a new job that he had got, and that
they would be moving in the next couple of days! We were able to have
an amazing lesson with him and his wife, they were both touched by the
First Vision especially. After we invited them to read the Book of
Mormon, they asked us how they would be able to contact the
missionaries in St. George. We got their address and sent their
information to St. George so the missionaries could contact them. 

It
was such an amazing experience and really taught me just how important
it is for us to follow promptings from the Spirit! I almost justified
it and rationalized that thought away, but if I had done so, we
probably wouldn't have made contact with them at all and would have
missed the opportunity to introduce them to the truths of the Restored
gospel.

That taught me a very valuable lesson to never rationalize promptings.
I am so grateful that at the last second I turned on that street. 

 The Church is so true! Jesus is truly the Christ, the Only Begotten of
the Father, and He loves us infinitely.