When Elder Skordas and I arrived here, not much was
happening. The past missionaries had been teaching a lot of guys from a
barbershop who weren't progressing at all. When the sisters would call
them, the guys would set up appointments but when we call, they weren't
interested. So this week has been continually working through the people
already there so that we can get a hold on all the people we are
working with.
Before last Sunday, we had set up a lot of appointments
with people. We had about 13 teaching visits scheduled for this past
week! 8 of them canceled but the ones that happened were super great!
E. and his wife, I., are doing the best! We taught
E. for the first time last Sunday night so about a week ago. We began
teaching his wife on Tuesday night and also had an appointment on
Saturday. In our appointment on Tuesday, he kept his commitment to read
in the Book of Mormon and she had listened to the audio that we sent
him. That was cool that she had already listened to the Book of Mormon
before we came. We read from 3rd Nephi 18 and talked about the
importance of coming to church. A couple days before this, I had a
realization about something that we believe as the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints. Other churches attend their churches so
that they can fellowship others. We talk with countless people every day
who say, "I don't think you need a church to have a relationship with
God. I know I should be going to church to fellowship others, but I'm
just to busy but I have God with me. I don't need to go to church." I
realized that they go for others! To talk with their friends, fellowship
others, maybe serve some veggies at the luncheon afterwards, but as
members of Christ's church, we attend for all those reasons plus for
ourselves. We go to church for us. We go so we can become clean from our
sins, repent of wrong doing, more fully take upon us the name of
Christ, and always remember Him. So to get to the point of all this, we
taught E. and I. about how church is for them. They can receive
strength and a deeper desire for God. They can have blessings and
happiness in this life. This clicked with them and they said they would
be at church! Right at the end of this lesson they asked if we believe
in Hell. We explained a little bit but said that our next message would
be focused on the answer to that question!
On Saturday, we taught about the Plan of Salvation with
our branch mission leader there. They didn't read because they hadn't
found time but were making time on Sunday so they could have it read
before our next appointment on Tuesday.
We talked about the premortal life and that made sense
to them. We read 2 Nephi 2:22-25 and it clicked that the fall of Adam
and Eve is God's plan, not their failings. This literally blew the mind
of E. He sat on the couch just staring into space and saying, "wow..
I didn't know this. I always thought they were just bad." haha! It was
funny how much we shocked him!
We talked a lot about how THEY can progress in this life
to prepare to meet God. They said they want to go to Church but can't
this Sunday but will be there for the next week. E. walks dogs for
work and all his clients dogs are at his house. He said he can't come to
church because he can't leave the dogs at home. We talked about baptism
and E. said that he would get baptized but I. didn't really
answer. Haha E. couldn't really understand why he needed to be
baptized again and then his wife said, "E., you didn't take your
other baptism seriously and so that one was a joke. This one will make
it valid." That totally helped him out and he understood! Lol! These 2
lessons were really good and the Spirit was strong!
We didn't have any other appointments this week with
nonmembers but we visited members and they shared everyone they could
remember who had been at church. We now have a list of names from the
past of friends who came to church.
Sunday, after church, President and Sister Mavromatis
came over for lunch. We talked about our area, the vision for people,
what he can do to help us, etc. Etc. It was super cool! He was here fore
about an hour and a half.
Well! That's the week! Elder Skordas and I are going to go into the city and find something cool to do! It's been a great week!
Elder Bushman
No comments:
Post a Comment