September 9, 2013

What an interesting week. It started off fairly good, but by the time we made it to the end, it had taken a slow turn in the wrong direction.

Our one investigator that we have set for baptism on the 21st isn't going very well. He seemed like he was doing really well when we first set him. After he saw his sister get baptised he kept saying how he wanted to follow and he wanted to do it, and he would do it the next weekend if he could. So we set him for baptism and we've been going over every day and teaching lessons and trying to help him be ready. The one thing that is holding him back is his smoking, so we made him a quit calender and he was determined to follow it and stop smoking so that he can be baptised. Then this week he started saying things like, "we'll just shoot for that day for now," and "we'll just plan on the 21st but.." At the beginning of the week it seemed like it would be alright and that we'd be able to work through it and help him stop smoking and progress. Then on Friday we had a lesson with him, and now we're looking at dropping him as a set and possibly as an investigator for the next bit. He didn't seem all that invested in the lesson, and I don't know what it was but the Spirit was having a really difficult time being present. His sister even sits in for all the lessons and helps us when we ask her, and she's been trying to help him stop smoking and read, since they live together. So we're going to see what happens this week, and then decide what's happening with him.

The other problem that we've been having is that he's pretty much our only investigator, and not for lack of trying. We've been knocking doors, and talking to around 120 people on the street every week, but we haven't been able to get a single investigator out of it. There've been missionaries in this country and in this area for so long that pretty much every one has heard it. We meet people a lot that even just got talked to by the sister missionaries in the area right next to ours. Not cool. It's been making us think that there has got to be a better way to go about it all. We've been trying to work with the members but they've actually proved to be fairly difficult. I think that this ward has just had missionaries for so long that they take it for granted, as opposed to Cambridge branch, where they haven't had missionaries in forever so they were more than happy to get involved. It makes it surprisingly difficult to do this when members treat you like some sort of alien. We have met some really awesome LA families (less active) that we're working with, however, and there're a couple of active families that have been extremely helpful, but I can count them all on one hand.

But, enough of my complain-athon. Even with everythig the way it is I still love being in this area, and my companion is pretty awesome. So far I don't think we've even had a single argument. Which is pretty awesome. Makes me nervous.. Like maybe I got a really awesome companion because my next one is going to be difficult to be with. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Love ya heaps!
   E. O'Neal