This past week was so awesome. I love how the Lord works.
So, we've been having a pretty difficult time recently finding people to teach. Since we're double covering one ward (two sets of missionaries - a set of Sisters and a set of Elders), we've split the ward boundary into two areas, and we have the area with basically nobody; hardly any members, and only a few former investigators that have since moved out. It's been rough. We've tried to knock doors, and we talk with everyone we see on the street, but it's honestly not that effective. Even for the ones that we get a return appointment for, we show up and they're either not interested (they probably didn't expect us to show up) or it's an incorrect address and we just end up talking to a random dude, that usually isn't interested either. Even though I love this work, it's still hard to put up with. I think eight weeks of rejection would get to anybody.
This past week, the Lord gave us some additional help. It was Friday, and we'd just finished seeing the one less-active that we've been working with. On the way out I got a referral at the office from the Sister missionaries. The house was actually just down the street, so we headed over, and on the way I could feel something different. For some reason I was really optimistic and hopeful. When we showed up to the house there was only a fifteen year old girl there, but she was really open to talking to us. We talked at the doorway for a bit, set up an appointment for the next day when her mom would be home, left a Restoration pamphlet and left. When we showed up the next day, the daughter wasn't there, but her mom was, and she was super excited to see us. I'm normally pretty skeptical about teaching Christians, because they usually seem to be pretty hard-hearted. This woman, however, had been prepared for years. She had read the entire pamphlet that morning, and was so excited about what it says. She talked about how lately its seemed like something is missing in her church; how it's always kind of disorganized and just doesn't feel right, and how she's always admired the LDS church and how organized and family focused it is. Apparently she grew up with a lot of members, and even had lessons about eight years ago, but it just never clicked. I don't want to make this story super long, but I'm still buzzed out about it. The Spirit was so strong, and you could feel how ready she was as she talked. We ended up extending the invitation to be baptized, and she said probably, dependent on if she receives the answer that this is true. I'm really hoping. Though, I have to admit that I'm super nervous. Who knows what the adversary will do to get to her before we have a chance to go back. I guess this is where the faith comes in.
My storytelling isn't the best, and it probably came out kind of disjointed and confusing, but I hope it made sense. One of the things that I loved most, was that as we were teaching her, I could not only feel the Spirit testifying to her of the truthfulness of our message, but I could feel the Spirit testifying to me as well. I walked out of the lesson a little bit stronger in my testimony. Gotta love how the Spirit works.
That ought to about do it for now, and hopefully I'll have some good news next week, so long as I don't get transferred on Thursday.
Love ya!
Elder O'Neal
P.S. Kurt Caselli died? Really? That pretty much just destroyed my entire universe.
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