Well family! Hello!
Update on the companion: I've been in a trio since last Tuesday with
Sisters Sutton and Nasman. All we know is that there is a transfer
happening later this week. I am absolutely positive that I will stay
in this area, but as to who my companion will be... That's a
completely different story. Stay tuned until next week :)
Update on the priests: So about half of them had kept their commitment
to read, better than none! Also, five of them didn't show up this
week. We scared them off. Haha! We started class with each of them
sharing with us their biggest doubt about the gospel. It ranged from:
"Why can't we drink coffee?" to "How do I know that Jesus Christ even
lived?" and everything else in between. The rest of class we talked
about, "Why does it matter if I found out?" It was absolutely
fascinating. But I want to go back to the coffee question. We had two
of the boys ask about it. We asked them if they were to rate their
testimony on a scale of one (you're an atheist) to a ten (you're
Joseph Smith), where would you rate it? Thinking they were all that,
they said, "umm 9. Yeah definitely a 9". Then, being the brat that I
am, I gave them a little perspective. Joseph Smith lived and died for
the church. Everything he did in his life was because he KNEW without
a doubt that this is Gods church and that he was doing exactly what
God wanted him to do. He only came to this because He prayed and asked
God for himself. He gained his own witness of the truth. I love the
line in Joseph Smith History where he says, "I knew it and I knew that
God knew it and I could not deny it". We asked these two young men if
they would be willing to die for the gospel.... Silence. One of the
boys started laughing and said, "alright, I take it back. I'm not even
CLOSE to a 9". We want to help them see where they are, so they can
move up the scale. Not one of them has ever prayed and asked God if
the church is true, or if God even exists. They are all going to do it
this week. Stay tuned.
Update on Elder Anderson: did you know his wife is from Tampa? They
came down this weekend to meet with mission presidents in the area and
spend time with family. He use to be the Tampa stake president, so he
called a special fireside for all of the Tampa stake. Mariah and
Prisicilla came and we all got to sit on the front row. We talked to
them about who he was and they were so excited. Mariah, she's 10,
decided she really wanted to meet him. I asked her what she would say
if she met him and she said, "Hi sir, my name is Mariah and I have
been learning about Jesus Christ with the best missionaries in the
world, Sister Sackley and Sister Huber. One day I hope to be
baptized". I could not believe it. We grabbed Sister Cusick and had
Mariah practice on her. Sister Cusick thought it was the sweetest
thing and she said she would make sure Mariah met him. At the end of
the meeting, Sister Cusick had us go up. Sure enough, Mariah went up
to him and shook his hand and said exactly that. He was surprised and
then looked up at Sister Huber and I and smiled, and then turned to
her and said, "You keep listening to what they are teaching you and
you will be baptized one day!" She was on cloud 9. Priscilla shook his
hand and said it was one of the best days of their life. It was a
moment that I will never forget and definitely a moment those girls
will never forget. They are amazing.
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| We taught the girls about the temple this week and why we have them. They were quite interested in being able to be married forever, so we shared some pictures of sealing rooms. They saw the mirrors and were curious. We explained how you can see forever back and forth with our iPad. The girls had never seen that before and were SO intrigued. At the end they both said, "alright. Looks like we'll have to get married in the castle". We sure do love them. |
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