Holy moly, this has been a crazy week. I'm sorry if I forget details or skim over stuff. This has been one of the best weeks of my mission.
Okay Monday was a great day. We were housing and this guy came out and immediately said no to us. Somehow we brought it back around and he talked about he believes in being born again. I said, "when you are born again, you still suffer pains and have hard times again and again. What would you think about only suffering during this life and having nothing but happiness after this life?" That seemed to perk his interest and we set up a lesson for Sunday.
Tuesday we met with W again. The lesson was talking about how the liahona is our guide to happiness. We related that to the Book of Mormon. She seemed to like it and she was interested in becoming happier. She is happy but the idea of becoming happier excites her. Later that night we had a prompting to visit a old investigator. He was home and he let us in. He had every addiction that is possible.. at least it seems like that. He had beer cans in the corner. Tabacco and pills on the table. Porn on his couch. He just has a rough life. He said he wants to change. He turns to us after we said he can change and said "what advice do you have for me?" We then shared baptism and told him to come to church. He agreed!
Wednesday was sooooooo crazy cool. First we met with M. He is starting to become a dropped investigator. He is slightly mental but that is not the problem. He isn't keeping our commitments and he doesn't remember anything. I feel bad since he is mental but there isn't much we can do about that. We can keep trying but we may need to give him a break.
After M we met T. Man, this guy is incredible. The other elders found him on splits and we needed to visit him again. So he had cancer in about April of this year. At that time he came really close to death and saw a light. He pondered about his life and what that light was. When the elders came by, he saw that light again and felt warm inside. So he wanted to learn what we had to offer. He read the restoration pamphlet twice but didn't fully understand it. But on the back of the pamphlet it says "what should I do?" and under it it says read the Book of Mormon. So he said to us "I would like a Book of Mormon please. I like reading and I would like to know what kind of book this is." In all honesty we didn't teach really at all in this lesson. We jointly testified and he told us his concerns. He is a cram school teacher and after this huge test the college students have, he will arrange his hours to come to church and eikaiwa. This man is amazing.
Afterwards we had a lesson with W again. This lesson was about knowing if Jesus is the Christ and prayer. She was so upset because she prayed to have it rain. well.... it didn't rain. We taught her the importance of patience and understanding when you wait for prayers. The member we brought there really helped her. Also we did our lesson in the chapel. We told her that she would feel the Spirit there. At the end of the lesson she said I feel warm here. I feel like something is surrounding me. Well W, that is the Spirit. We challenged her to pray. she said she would
This is still on Wednesday. It was really jammed packed. and we still have another lesson with a new investigator named C. She said she wanted to believe God and wanted to pray. So we brought the Branch President and taught her prayer. Great lesson!!! She said she wanted to pray all the time and that she wants to come to church. Especially since her kids are wamp and skipping out on school. Her sister too is going through cancer. She wants to pray for help. It goes to show like in the 32 chapter of Alma that people that are in bad circumstances are attracted to the blessings of the gospel. I'm so grateful for the power of prayer.
Thursday we only had eikaiwa. Not much happened.
Friday we went to a new investigator who dropped after the lesson. Just a old man complaining about how God didn't exist because his life was terrible. He wouldn't listen to our explanations. Se tried but when you harden your heart, you won't understand the gospel.
After all was said and done we went finding and found another 2 moms that were really interested. Super super blessed. One said she wants God to exist. the other one said that she wants her family to be happier. We have an appointment on Wednesday with her. The other mom said she will come to church maybe next week or the week after.
Saturday we had to take the language assessment exam. The computer was really old so we had problems. It took a huge chunk out of our day. Not really happy about that. We went and talked to some people and then we tried to visit S. That man with lots of problems. He recommitted to come to church.
After him we visited the N family. They aren't progressing. The mom keeps saying she forgets. The main reason she started the lessons was because the kids were interested. She said that they weren't really interested now. I asked her if they were doing anything we were asking. She said no. My thought was, of course the kids don't have interest, you aren't doing anything with them that will help them. We can only meet them once a week and we give them things that will help them through the week but they aren't following it. And they aren't progressing. We may need to give them a break.
Afterwards we met this guy who dropped after we taught him. He is a great guy and believes in nature. He believes God made nature but thinks nature instead of God. We tried to work with that but he said "I'm okay with how I'm living now." This is another thing that is opposite of the people before. The people who aren't compelled to be humble or who are not humble, are hard to teach. How can we teach these people and have them accept it?
Sunday, we went to go pick up S from his apartment. He came to church with us. He felt really good and said he might come next week. Not only that, but our members friend came again to church! We taught him during 3rd hour and the lesson was really good! After church, Elder Olsen randomly said "lets go downstairs." I thought that was random but said okay and went. Down in the lobby was this random woman named M. she said "where is the priest? I have something to confess." It was random but we grabbed the branch president. They talked for about 30-40 minutes or so. The BP gave her a Book of Mormon, taught her how to pray, and then had us set an appointment with her.... for tonight. :) She wants to change and wants to learn. Her husband's sister is a member of this church living in America so she came to our church for help. The church is soooooo amazing.
We headed out and met up with a member for a lesson but that person wasn't there. So we headed over to a less actives house. The less active wasn't there, but their daughter... (the less active's sister's daughter. The sister died so they took in the girl) was there. She was super cool and she wants to come to an activity soon!
After that we headed to that appointment with that man from Monday. He was good. We learned a bunch about him but he asked about almost the resurrection of animals, if we believe in aliens, and things like that. Some deep stuff. We taught and even though he was firm in his faith, he said we could come back. Things may change with him!!!
Over all this week was amazing. We just worked hard and the Lord did the rest. Elder Olsen and I teach with great unity. We are looking forward to Christmas with our hopes that we can give Christ and Heavenly Father some of his children.
Elder Jameson
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