Hello family and friends!
So this has been a super slow week and super up and down week. Tuesday was super hot and slow! Our less active canceled on us and gave us a ton of excuses and everyone else cancelled so we saw a member and sang to her in the retirement home and she's the best. I love her! We then sat on a curb and tried to figure things out. Where we were going to go who we would see...But we taught one of our investigators Tuesday night about women and the priesthood and it was everything she needed to hear to understand the different roles. She's very big into women's rights and such. We set her with a baptism date too!! November 29! She has to take care of a divorce, that why the date is later.
Wednesday we went to the hospital and did service and saw a less active and dropped an investigator. We have now dropped 5 in the past two weeks. We have one progressing and one family of three kinda progressing and everyone else isn't too elect or doesn't have real desire. They have such potential they just won't DO anything! But Wednesday night we taught a part of the young women's activity all about missionaries. We taught how cool PMG (Preach My Gospel) is! They had some good questions too. We heard cool stories from other sisters in our ward who served missions.
On Thursday we went to seminary to talk about how we decided to serve a mission and we weekly planned. We have decided to use family history as a good street contact topic. We also have other creative finding ideas. We then got more appointments cancelled and had dinner with a less active at Marie Calendars. It was yummy but he could talk forever!! He's funny though! Then we went and tried to find. It was a long night. But we had to go to the grocery store and the gelato was on sale so we bought some. I got sea salt caramel aka liquid caramel! Soooo good!
Friday was great! We had zone conference! We learned a lot about companion unity and working with members and to accept the new mission president and respect and love him and be loyal to him. It's so sad president is leaving! We are going to have a mission conference next month. That'll be good. We learned a cool way to work with members! We went to see our recent convert, because she has been in the hospital for a few days last week having tests done for her Multiple Sclerosis. She's doing alright.
On Saturday we taught a less active. She's really wanting to change her life around and quit smoking and go to the temple and she's understanding the Book of Mormon too! She comes to church pretty frequent. Then we went to the temple visitors center with the investigator we just set the baptism date with! It was so nice! On the way there we rode with a member and his son who is going on a mission soon. The five of us talked about some cool things and M. was telling us about the importance of praying always and fasting. She's bomb! We listened to good church music like I LOVE THE LORD by BYU men's chorus. (Mine and Brother A.'s favorite song! The A's are like our mom and dad and the H's are our grandparents! I love this ward!) It was awesome she really loved it! She felt the spirit and is so excited to learn more.
Sunday was crazy up and downs. To start off we had ward council which went pretty well. Then we got a call from our investigator we went to the temple with, saying good news and bad news. Good news her husband came to visit so she can get the divorce started. Bad news she wouldn't be able to come to church because of it. Then our recent convert wasn't feeling well so she stayed home. But good news the Jewish dad and his Catholic wife and their son came! Then after church we studied then went to a pass off lesson for a friend of one of the members who does not believe in God and is kinda contradicting. It's interesting. But it was cool cause we got a new investigator and she has potential she just has to stop being stubborn and let God work on her! Then we went to a baptism for a man that I contacted in Azusa. We were going to the library and we locked up our bikes and the spirit told me to go talk to him. I was in an irritable mood that morning. In our companionship we weren't too unified. It was a hard day. So we go in and I disregard the prompting. We go back out to get our bikes and he was still there and so the spirit prompted me again so my companion kept walking almost getting on her bike and I with my helmet on, started to walk towards him and we started to talk to him and had a lesson right there. He got baptized on Sunday! He had asked too if I would come! It is so cool that he remembered me. The baptism was really special too. He is in a wheelchair and there were four elders who helped baptize him! The Jewish and and his family came to the baptism too. Then after the baptism we went to see our investigator we took to the temple and she wasn't there but our recent convert was and we talked to her for a bit. Then our investigator came home so we read a scripture with her and talked to her about the divorce and church. Then we went to a lesson where the investigator set us up and had a friend there to contradict everything we said. It was terrible we kept trying to finish the conversation smoothly to leave and finally we did. The spirit was not there at all! So we went home and ate our gelato. It was so up and down and it's been crazy!
This week more than any other I have learned that when times get hard remember to turn first to The Lord not to gelato or to vent to your companion but first to The Lord. It's easier that way. I love this gospel and I know it is true! I'm so thankful for the atonement and that Jesus Christ made the sacrifice for us that we can return back into His arms and feel His love. He is always there for us but we move. We decide how close to God we want to be.
Thanks for all your prayers and support! I really appreciate it!
Love, Sister Riches
