Sister Ure and I have been jamming out to Christmas tunes. We have three CDs that we rotate through - The Messiah, The Forgotten Carols soundtrack, and the recording of the MoTab/David Archuleta concert a couple years ago. It was such a blessing to start the Christmas music - before, we had a some CD with country LDS songs, and I had to just bite my tongue - as much as I love country, this CD was just not good. The Christmas season came just in time. It's weird coming to terms with the fact that I won't have any semblance of a white Christmas this year, but the few presents under our imaginary tree and the constant Christmas music has reassured me that it is indeed December.
But anyways - starting with last Monday - after serving in the VC all day (literally: from 9am-6pm), we had a couple lessons. We taught Leo again, and he's taking HUGE strides. Before we started meeting with him, he didn't believe there was a God. Then at our last lesson, he said that he thought of God as a "force", not as a man. But at Monday night's lesson, he likened God unto a scientist - not a force, but a MAN. It's still hard for him to comprehend everything God is, growing up as of yet without any knowledge of God, but he's slowly getting there. He's been praying, reading the Book of Mormon, and coming to church - I know those are the three things we need to do to increase our faith in the gospel. Around here, we call these primary answers "CPR": Church, Pray, Read the scriptures. But it's amazing how it really works! I've seen it in my own life - when I'm slacking on one, two or all three of those areas, I do doubt more. Those are the three simple things we need to do, and still it's hard. I'll talk more about this later on, but I know that the guidelines of CPR are essential to our faith and our ability to return to live with God.
Tuesday was my very first zone conference. There were a lot of people there - I met a few new people, but I mostly just know all the sisters at the VC and the elders that bring investigators to the VC a lot. It started off with a talk that Elder Holland gave at the MTC a couple of years ago, "Feed My Sheep". It was similar to the one he gave in General Conference a couple months ago, but he really focused on why we teach people and not lessons. Missionary work has changed so much and I really believe that it has become very effective. From all the people I've met, everyone needs the help of the gospel. Elder Holland said, "If you listen with love, you won't need to wonder what to say." The biggest piece of advice that I heard from everyone before my mission was "Don't be a robot." Sometimes, I do still see missionaries that act like robots - that don't truly listen to the person. When you learn to listen, you learn to love people so much more - you feel the love that God and Jesus Christ have for them. It really is amazing. It's hard, but it's possible. It's a process I've been working on for the past few years - and it's probably a subconscious reason that I decided to serve a mission. If you haven't read President Monson's talk from the priesthood session of General Conference, I suggest you do. I'll even include the link:
http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/see-others-as-they-may-become?lang=eng
I know that the gospel addresses every need that our friends and family members have - we just need to listen.
Anyways, back to Zone Conference: we did some roleplays on how to contact member referrals, and I felt pretty comfortable with it. After lunch prepared by the stake, we had a huge gift exchange that Sister Meredith had organized. Members from all the wards had donated not just a gift, but a whole bag of goodies and other things for us. It took forever, but it was a lot of fun. I ended up with some chocolate syrup and ice cream toppings, and my companion got that Messiah CD. Afterwards, President and Sister Meredith talked about charity. Charity is so so important in missionary work, and they are both such great examples of charity.
Crazy story from Tuesday: we have this investigator named Jackie - I don't think I've mentioned her before. Before I came here, she was progressing, she had a baptismal date, and she was snapping out of her deep depression that she's had for decades. Then she got pneumonia and we couldn't get in touch with her for a few weeks. Her baptism was supposed to be this past Saturday, but the pneumonia dropped her back to her depression - Sister Ure told me that she was worse now than she had been when Sister Ure met her. We finally got back in touch with her and started seeing her infrequently, but she was just so down that it was hard to feel the Spirit in her home and teach her. It went on like that for a couple of weeks, but last week she agreed to go to the Relief Society activity on Tuesday night. We had to work at the Visitor's Center so we weren't going to make it, but we got a ride all set up for her and everything.
After Zone Conference on Tuesday, the day of the RS activity, we saw that we had a voicemail from Jackie, and we were worried that she was going to bail. But we didn't expect to hear what we did. She called us to let us know she couldn't make it to the activity because a friend of hers had come over, had a heart attack, and died in her home. We were absolutely stunned. It sounded like the most incredible lie ever - but it was the truth. Sister Ure and I were so frustrated because it seems like there's always some roadblock that's keeping Jackie from doing what she needs to do; she needs to read the Book of Mormon but she can't find her glasses, she needs to come to church but her son is coming over and she doesn't know the exact time, she needs to pray when she's depressed but she can't bring herself to do it because her depression is so bad. So the fact that this happened was really insane - she's been through so much and wants to do the right thing but there's always something in the way. And then her friend dies in her home! It was just so sad, and so overwhelming - but she finally let us bring over some priesthood to give her a blessing. Since that blessing, she has been more calm, and has been more attentive in our lessons. Her depression is still bad, but she knows she can overcome it - and she WANTS to over come it. Desire is the most important first step - desire leads to hope and faith. We gave her a new baptismal date for February 12th and we're so excited. We know that she can get there.
I really didn't want this one to turn out so long! I'll wrap it up real quick here. Craig's still doing great - he made it to all three hours of church yesterday, he's keeping all the commandments we've taught him, and he's still set for his baptism date on the 29th! We do have a baptism this weekend, by the way - Leo's mom, Ling, is getting baptized this Saturday! Her husband was baptized about a month ago, right before I got here, so he is going to baptize her. We wanted Leo to be ready for this date too, but he still needs more time.
Another miracle: on Thursday morning, we received a call from Michelle, one of our recent converts, on behalf of her friend at her assisted living facility, Rebekah. Rebekah is staying there, but her husband Dave is an inactive member staying at another assisted living facility and he had called her, asking her to send over priesthood from our church to give him a blessing. A couple men from the ward went over. We went to see Michelle that day, so we stopped in to see Rebekah as well, and we have a return appointment with her this week to teach her the first lesson! Everything happens for a reason. Sister Ure and I are REALLY bad at asking for referrals - we're just too busy focusing on the person we're teaching at every lesson. We had made a goal for that day to ask for referrals from everyone we went to see - and we totally forgot. But I believe that Heavenly Father knew we'd forget, so He had Michelle call us that morning so we could get in touch with Rebekah. Just another little miracle.
We had a really powerful lesson on Thursday night with Gerry and Raul. Gerry and his wife, Elizabeth, had been investigating for over seven years and Elizabeth was finally baptized this summer. Gerry knows it's true, but we can't understand why he won't be baptized. Raul is Elizabeth's cousin who lives with them - he just started investigating a few months ago. Sister Ure and I were so excited for this lesson as we planned it that morning - we planned to talk about Alma the Elder and what he did when he learned the truth of the gospel from Abinadi (Mosiah 17 and 18). We were going to commit both Gerry and Raul to baptism and make it happen. The lesson was going SO WELL - we read verses 9-11 in chapter 18 and we were about to extend when Elizabeth jumped to defend them. We could tell that it wasn't going to happen with Raul, but Gerry was on the brink - we really thought he would accept. But then the moment was just gone. So that was unfortunate. Baptism is a leap of faith, but Gerry's doing everything he's supposed to - except church I guess. So it's just sad.
I can't remember what happened Friday - VC all day. But on Saturday, I met this man from Sri Lanka. He's not a member but has a co-worker who gave him a Book of Mormon and has talked to him a little bit about our church. He asked about tithing and the Book of Mormon and other things like that - he even tried to bring in his Hindi Indian friends who were looking at the view outside, but they didn't want to come in. We showed him the Book of Mormon in his native languages, Sinhala and Tamil. He talked about traveling to Jerusalem and the peace he felt there. He filled out a referral card, so I can send the missionaries over to see him and teach him more! Totally golden.
And then Sunday - we had SIX investigators at church! I never thought that getting investigators to do those primary answers - CPR - would be the hardest part of missionary work, but it is! I always thought teaching the Word of Wisdom or the Law of Chastity or the Law of Tithing was hard - but it really gets down to the basics: if they pray, read the scriptures, and attend church, they will have the faith to follow those commandments. Nhi and Josh both promised they would come last week and they didn't, but they did this week! And they made comments in Sunday School and Relief Society, which really showed us that they are learning and retaining the things we are teaching them. It's just such a good feeling when investigators show up for church.
Anyways, that's all the news I have. Life's great, and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else!
