I hope you have had a good week! We have been so blessed being on the Lord's
errand...
- I RIPPED MY SUIT COAT :( oh my goodness gracious I am a little flustered at this... I turned a corner and the banister in our apartment went in my pocket and ripped it to shreds. Like right down the side. I will send it to you today, is that ok?
- We had a crazy week. We have had on our plans every day for two weeks to see the Edwards family (LA). We have been unsuccessful EVERY DAY.
- One story real quick. We get a call on Saturday from a Sister who was crying and in need of an emergency blessing and couldn't get off the couch. We drove there as fast as we could and could not find a male in sight so we just went in. She looked malnourished, maybe 100 lbs. She was crying but no tears, very dehydrated. Her husband had been gone for a week and there was no one to pick up dog poop INSIDE the house. It was crazy. We gave her a blessing and she was in a lot of pain, but we got it out of her that she was having a narcotic withdrawal and wanted to die. I needed no further indicator, and Called 911. They got there and took her to the Hospital and we called president Perry. he said we did the right thing and told us to go to the hospital and check her in and be with her till the ward could get there. Bishop Williams and the Relief society pulled through and we didn't get home till 10:30 CRAZY and we will keep going to see her. I know what the bottom feels like and she was at the bottom, spiritually separated and in despair. We were able to administer hope through Jesus Christ and will be there wherever we can. WOAH I'm still in shock.
We have one investigator with a baptismal date. (wooohoo yes yeah!!!) her
name is Esmerelda. She is awesome. We met with her for the first time this week
(the sisters taught her for a long time) She has told us many times that she
knows the Book of Mormon is true and she knows the church is true, but she has
felt that she will never be clean enough to be baptized. She said she can't
forgive herself for some of the things she has done. In our lesson, we taught
about repentance and forgiveness and she kept saying "I know part of repentance
is forgiving myself, and I just can't do that." We turned to the gospel of Jesus
Christ pamphlet and looked for a part where it says to forgive yourself. There
is none. This doctrine of forgiving yourself is kind of a grey area, because the
only forgiveness that matters is Heavenly Father's. I think a better way to put
it is after Father has forgiven us we should forget about it. Anyway, we said
"Imagine kneeling before the judgement bar of God and he says [Esmerelda, I
forgive you] and you say [Well, I know you forgive me, but I don't forgive
myself]" She came up to us yesterday in church after Sunday school and said "So
what do we do about this interview thing." haha I have to tell you that this
week has been a bunch of blessings like that. The Lord is preparing hearts and
Esmerelda is evidence of that. The sisters worked so hard to get her to where
she is and we are blessed to be able to be here. Not to say it didn't have it's
downsides. I ripped my favorite suit coat.
We had 3 investigators at sacrament, what a BLESSING! We saw Kim, Esmerelda, and Margie. Kim is really doing well, coming every week, and we haven't even met with her. We keep trying to and they never pull through. We met with Margie yesterday, (Sunday night) and what a meeting that was. So Margie's husband, Bruce, is a member. He has been less active for a while but the sisters helped him come back and in the process started teaching Margie and Felicia (daughter, 20). Felicia wants Bruce to baptize her. Bruce wants to baptize Felicia. Bruce was very scared to go talk to the bishop because he thought he was going to be excommunicated or something but he put forth his faith and met with the bishop and now he is reading his scriptures every day along with "The miracle of forgiveness" and he is coming back. We are so excited for him. So we were sitting around the table with Margie and Bruce last night and Felicia and her boyfriend were in the next room just talking so naturally we invited them to join and they did reluctantly. We just went through from Bruce to Josh (Boyfriend) and asked everyone how their spiritual progression was. Bruce told us he is re-activating, Margie has read the Book of Mormon every day and is starting to feel of it's power (she has a lot of questions about the Indians in the movie "The Testaments" it's pretty funny) and Felicia said she hasn't been reading so we renewed the commitment there, then we got to Josh, Who we have never taught. Keep in mind this is after a long discussion and testimony session of the Book of Mormon. He was just silent the whole time. As we sat there Elder Narramore and I were searching for the inspired question to ask, the one that would open a door, so we opened our mouths and asked. "What is the most important thing in your life right now" he said "Seeing Felicia every day" (nice) Then we just sat there and felt inspired to ask "Where do you see yourself in 3 to 5 years". His answer was a complete surprise, he said "I want to have read the whole bible and Book of Mormon and know where I stand and I want to be married to Felicia." Wow if one scripture has ever proven true, it's proverbs 15:22. Felicia then said, "I want to be baptized and get married in the temple, so you have to be a Mormon" We had them both write these goals down and we are here to be their guides as they do this. We are going to see them tonight to have family home evening at a member family's home. What an amazing blessing to be instruments in the Lord's hands. I can't imagine myself being any more happy!!
We taught the Tallmans, David, Daniel, and Esmerelda. Let me tell you about David......
I had such a good experience praying and seeing it answered, then our meeting with him went even better. The Lord has truly prepared him and he is feeling the strength that comes through faith in Jesus Christ. We had him over at the Pursleys house for dinner and a lesson and it was apparent that the spirit would be accompanying us that night from the beginning. There were tears from both sides of the table as Sister Pursley bore her testimony. We transitioned over to the couch and watched finding faith in Christ then bore testimony and told him that he was ready to be baptized this week. I felt like Paul or Peter, "if ye have felt this pricking in your heart, follow me down to the water today". He accepted and told us he just needed to pray about it right away and get back to us. The sad part of all of this is that two days later he let us know he was just too stressed to make a decision and would just wait and be taught in Washington (he moves today) so that was a bummer but was it really? A man who had no knowledge or testimony of Jesus Christ a week ago has a testimony and is striving to act in faith. Mission accomplished.
Daniel Diaz was a good lesson and one filled with testimony as well. He has recently converted from Atheism to Catholicism and is a hard case to crack, but we haven't been confounded and I know as long as we are obedient we won't be. He has a sincere desire to find truth he is just finding a lot of differences in his church and Christ's. (which makes sense because they are different) but we explained that "Blessed art thou, Simon bar Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but the Father, which is in heaven" He will receive his answer and be baptized We have no doubt.
We also did some service this week for a recent convert in the Salem ward who's husband is not a member. His name is Jake. he really appreciated our service and even came to a linger longer yesterday where we had the soldiers in the Elders quorum rally around and meet him and fellowship him. He wants to meet and they made us cookies.
We had 3 investigators at sacrament, what a BLESSING! We saw Kim, Esmerelda, and Margie. Kim is really doing well, coming every week, and we haven't even met with her. We keep trying to and they never pull through. We met with Margie yesterday, (Sunday night) and what a meeting that was. So Margie's husband, Bruce, is a member. He has been less active for a while but the sisters helped him come back and in the process started teaching Margie and Felicia (daughter, 20). Felicia wants Bruce to baptize her. Bruce wants to baptize Felicia. Bruce was very scared to go talk to the bishop because he thought he was going to be excommunicated or something but he put forth his faith and met with the bishop and now he is reading his scriptures every day along with "The miracle of forgiveness" and he is coming back. We are so excited for him. So we were sitting around the table with Margie and Bruce last night and Felicia and her boyfriend were in the next room just talking so naturally we invited them to join and they did reluctantly. We just went through from Bruce to Josh (Boyfriend) and asked everyone how their spiritual progression was. Bruce told us he is re-activating, Margie has read the Book of Mormon every day and is starting to feel of it's power (she has a lot of questions about the Indians in the movie "The Testaments" it's pretty funny) and Felicia said she hasn't been reading so we renewed the commitment there, then we got to Josh, Who we have never taught. Keep in mind this is after a long discussion and testimony session of the Book of Mormon. He was just silent the whole time. As we sat there Elder Narramore and I were searching for the inspired question to ask, the one that would open a door, so we opened our mouths and asked. "What is the most important thing in your life right now" he said "Seeing Felicia every day" (nice) Then we just sat there and felt inspired to ask "Where do you see yourself in 3 to 5 years". His answer was a complete surprise, he said "I want to have read the whole bible and Book of Mormon and know where I stand and I want to be married to Felicia." Wow if one scripture has ever proven true, it's proverbs 15:22. Felicia then said, "I want to be baptized and get married in the temple, so you have to be a Mormon" We had them both write these goals down and we are here to be their guides as they do this. We are going to see them tonight to have family home evening at a member family's home. What an amazing blessing to be instruments in the Lord's hands. I can't imagine myself being any more happy!!
We taught the Tallmans, David, Daniel, and Esmerelda. Let me tell you about David......
I had such a good experience praying and seeing it answered, then our meeting with him went even better. The Lord has truly prepared him and he is feeling the strength that comes through faith in Jesus Christ. We had him over at the Pursleys house for dinner and a lesson and it was apparent that the spirit would be accompanying us that night from the beginning. There were tears from both sides of the table as Sister Pursley bore her testimony. We transitioned over to the couch and watched finding faith in Christ then bore testimony and told him that he was ready to be baptized this week. I felt like Paul or Peter, "if ye have felt this pricking in your heart, follow me down to the water today". He accepted and told us he just needed to pray about it right away and get back to us. The sad part of all of this is that two days later he let us know he was just too stressed to make a decision and would just wait and be taught in Washington (he moves today) so that was a bummer but was it really? A man who had no knowledge or testimony of Jesus Christ a week ago has a testimony and is striving to act in faith. Mission accomplished.
Daniel Diaz was a good lesson and one filled with testimony as well. He has recently converted from Atheism to Catholicism and is a hard case to crack, but we haven't been confounded and I know as long as we are obedient we won't be. He has a sincere desire to find truth he is just finding a lot of differences in his church and Christ's. (which makes sense because they are different) but we explained that "Blessed art thou, Simon bar Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but the Father, which is in heaven" He will receive his answer and be baptized We have no doubt.
We also did some service this week for a recent convert in the Salem ward who's husband is not a member. His name is Jake. he really appreciated our service and even came to a linger longer yesterday where we had the soldiers in the Elders quorum rally around and meet him and fellowship him. He wants to meet and they made us cookies.
Our second new investigator is Felicia's boyfriend Josh. Cool kid and we
even listen to the same techno music. (well, not until after I get home, and
even then I might have to do away with that stuff)
In the past couple weeks I have felt yet another change come over me. I
don't feel like I'm a rowdy 20 year old trying to be a missionary anymore. I
feel like I am starting to understand what it means to be lost in the work. I
don't care so much about anything other that working hard. It's a huge blessing
and an answer to prayer. I am so excited to be a missionary. WOOHOO!
I am trying to be ware of Pride. I don't know at what point I can rejoice
and still be relying on the Lord. I am very thankful and I know that of myself,
I am nothing. As to my own strength, I am weak. I struggle every day with the character weaknesses that God has blessed me with,
but the beautiful thing is that when we mess up and then repent, we are still
being exactly obedient. It's when we mess up and give up that we are in the
wrong.
Presently smiling,
Elder Skyler Mark Andreasen
Elder Skyler Mark Andreasen
p.s. I choose Christ
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