Monday, March 7, 2011

Boy! That felt like a week and a half! (Jan 19)

IT WAS!
Hello! Whew...
This week has been a good one. we had wonderful meetings with faith-filled persons and great answers to prayers and We are SO BUSY!
Last Monday night Jan 10 after we got all of our missionaries in their new areas and snug and happy and all that jazz We had a wonderful lesson with this Gal that missionaries had been trying to get a hold of for months and We finally did! She is pretty cool. Think Tonks from Harry Potter. Pink hair and all. She has so much faith. Like in her prayer at the end of the lesson she asked for God to let her know if the Book of Mormon is true in a dream. Yes, she requested a vision. Hello Nephi! So cool.
Last Tuesday Jan 11 we played Bus driver and got some missionaries to meetings and then we had a great meeting with a guy who I think I mentioned last week. He's on probation and he is overcoming some stuff BUT he has one of the greatest desires to change that I've ever seen. (Ya know one thing I've learned out here is not to judge. I look back at how I viewed people a couple years ago And hearing the word "Probation" was an instant Judge reflex. Same with Hearing "L.A.'s most wanted" But now I've learned that some of the greatest hearts and nicest people have gang tattoos and are trying to make changes) SO we met with him and we had a great lesson with our friend from Bloomingdale's. (she called us Sunday night at 12:00am With all these questions about "How do we KNOW that Mary was a virgin, and how we KNOW that Christ wasn't just Joseph's son?" and stuff like that. That really comes down to reading the account in the Scriptures and asking God if it's true. Asking if What the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenents, Modern day Prophets, and all that Jazz is saying is TRUE.) So we talked about faith and prayer and a lot about Christ. I mean this gal comes from no religious background so it's understandable that she has questions and doubts. But she is standing strong and she's progressing so well. (IN FACT I'm going to spoil the ending of the email [mostly because I'm already writing a lot and I'm sure you'll get tired if you read through this whole thing {you can thank me later ;) } ] SHE PASSED HER BAPTISMAL INTERVIEW Last night [Tuesday Jan 18] AND SHE'S GETTING BAPTIZED THIS NEXT MONDAY!!!!!!!) So that was our Tuesday.
Wednesday last we knocked on a door of some potentials that were super drunk last time we saw them BUT they wanted us to come back, and when we did none of them were home BUT this other guy (Ski Cap) was. AND he wanted to learn more! Sweet! So we talked with him about God and how he could strengthen his faith and it was a really good meeting.
Thursday we met with Ski Cap again and invited him to be baptized in Feb. He is willing to prepare! Wow! and we met with our Probation friend (gotta think of a better way to remember him...He highlighted the book of Mormon according to what he would want to read when he's in a particular mood e.g. blue when he's sad and yellow when he wants to be happy etc. so We'll call him "mood book") So we met with Mood Book and he's doing pretty good. He has like a million things he's working on. His back got all messed up in an car accident so he's on meds, he's getting his wisdom teeth out soon so his jaw hurts, he's got to go to addiction recovery classes so getting transportation to those is tricky-so pretty much we talk with him and he vents and we help him realize that God is there.
Fri we had a couple good meetings one with Mood Book and another with this busy member who is SUPER cool but super busy too so she doesn't always make it to church. We talked about a lot with her-- mostly about how wonderful it is to live in a time with a Prophet and the Church. Good stuff.
Sat We met with Ski Cap and talked about the plan of salvation and where we came from before this life. He is really grabbing onto the things he learn and reads. Like he totally read and understood the first few pages of the book of Mormon (which we don't see in people very often so this is a nice surprise). In the evening we met with Tonks and her Friend and we talked about the importance of reading a praying to know that our message is true.
Sunday was great! Before church we met with Ski Cap and because he lives/supervises at a home for guys who are trying to change their lives around our lesson turned into a sort of group therapy session, which is good I guess. Church was great and Bloomingdale's made it to church. And after church we watched Finding Faith in Christ (Soooo good! I totally recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it. It helps explain Christ's ministry from the viewpoint of one of his apostles [Thomas] and he's talking about it with his friends. Cool way to tell the story) and then we went to a member's home and ate dinner and taught some more! Woot!
Monday was fun! We met with Ski Cap and it was fun. We talked about part two of the plan of salvation and he really understands and stuff. So that was cool. We knocked on a door and were welcomed in by some Spanish people and they fed us and a half hour later we realized that we don't understand Spanish as well as we thought we did. Wow... they talked fast. They weren't mean or anything; it was just that we couldn't understand them. ha ha. oh well.
Tuesday we trained the zone on how to make our companionship studies more effective. Mostly involving the spirit more. And we met with this cool black guy from Mississippi and we had Bloomingdale's's baptismal interview (Which took a really long time 1 1/2 hours and we were hoping that she was ready and feeling confidant. But really it's nothing to worry about) and she PASSED! Woot!
So that was my week.
long stuff.
THANK you for your love and support
AND HERE'S A SHOUT OUT TO BARKER COUSIN HEATHER! CONGRATS ON YOUR UP COMING WEDDING! Thanks for the wedding announcement. You have my best wishes and my blessing and may you both live a long and fruitful life in joy and happiness. mazltoff!
I love you all!
Be well!
be good!
Be better!
-Elder barker

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