Wednesday, November 19, 2014

A good week

This last week was a pretty hectic one, but quite good, I must say. I've been having some stresses, and a couple of things went worse than I would have liked, but overall, it went really well!

On Tuesday night last week, we talked to J. and B. about some questions that they had about tithes and offerings. We talked a bit about those things, and we're going to explain a bit more in depth today, and taught the Gospel, and they really liked it! Tonight, we're meeting with them, and for some reason, they didn't come to church, so we'll see what happened.

Wednesday was packed with lessons. We met with L. G. and his friends for lunch, and talked a bit about the things that we do as missionaries. We then went and visited with Hna. G. and read with her in the Book of Mormon. She said that there were some people that she worked with that she was going to invite to meet with us. She's an awesome member missionary. We then met with I., and this time around, he had questions about tithes and offerings. Hmm. Same questions as J. and B. We taught about those things in depth with him, and he committed to come to church. We also gave him some good chapters in the Book of Mormon to read this week. Later that night, we went and met with L. and took Hno. L. with us to teach. We taught the Gospel, and it went so smoothly. The Spirit was present the whole time, and would fluctuate in strength throughout the lesson. Whenever Hno. L. bore testimony, the Spirit always got stronger. We committed L. to come to church with us, or to go with Hno. L. to his English ward. We haven't heard back from either of them, so we'll see who he went to church with, because he didn't come to our meeting. We then went and helped a member's son with his math homework, as he's been struggling lately.

Thursday, we did weekly planning, which went normally as always, and took up our early afternoon. In the later afternoon, we went and visited with a part-member family with the hopes of teaching the non-member husband. However, we ended up sharing a message with the wife and her kids, and after the lesson, she asked if we could give her kids a blessing. She said that they possibly had an anxiety disorder that would prevent them from doing well in school, and she was quite worried about it. So, we gave her children blessings, and asked her if she would like one as well. She nodded, and we gave her a blessing as well. The Spirit wasn't quite so present with the kids' blessings, but with hers, the Spirit was very, very strong. She thanked us for coming, and we went to our dinner appointment with the H.'s. After eating, we helped them set up some lights for a party, (which will be spoken of later), and had coordination.

The next morning, we got a call asking if we could go back to the H.'s and put the lights back up. Apparently, they'd fallen down. So, we planned that in later in the night, and went about with our day. We went to a lot of different places trying to find someone to teach, and did some street contacting. We didn't have very much success the whole afternoon, and at 6:00, we went and visited with B. We started off talking about the temple, and how he can prepare to go, and we answered some questions about the temple garment that we wear, since he'd been reading the temple pamphlet. Then he went off on a tangent, and kept talking, and talking, and talking. So we got out of there a bit late, and had to rush to Hno. H.'s, set up the lights, and rush to our dinner appointment. We ate with the N. family, and shared a message with them about faith, hope, and charity.

On Saturday, we started the day off with some service for an investigator in one of the Poway English wards. After we finished, we went to visit with F. We knocked, and his friend came to the door. He then went and knocked on F.'s door for like...5 minutes...and then came outside to knock on his window. He finally woke up and came out, (this was at 11:30), and we talked to him about the 10 commandments, and the Law of Chastity. (It's a lot easier to teach the Law of Chastity as part of the "Thou shalt not commit adultery") Later in the day, we went to visit Hno. L., talked a bit with him, helped him out with some things that needed doing, and went on our merry way. We then went and visited the H. for a little bit, (since it was Bro. H.'s father's birthday, and Sister H.'s birthday, they invited us), and ate some cake and ice cream. We shared a message with their family about Nephi building the ship.

Sunday was pretty great, because I. finally came to church! He showed up at the very end of Priesthood, but he liked it pretty great. During sacrament meeting, he kept writing down questions, and after the sacrament had been passed, he said that he liked it a lot! So we're pretty excited for that. Later that night, we went to the mission president's fireside in Spanish, and it was pretty good.

Yesterday, we had some ups, and some downs. We started the day off with a doctor's appointment for Elder G. He needed his ADHD meds refilled, so we went to visit the specialist. The specialist took him back for about 30 minutes, and I sat in the waiting room. I read some chapters in the Book of Mormon, and then sat there in boredom until Elder G. came back. We then went and did some things to get ready for our Branch FHE, (which is tonight, by the way), and then went to our first lesson. It was with some Guatemalans who we'd met before, and they invited us into their apartment for the first time. We sat down, and shared the Gospel with them, and at the end, I asked them a few questions to see what they understood about the lesson, and then I asked them about the Book of Mormon. We had previously given them a copy, but they didn't know much about what it was. I testified to them that it was a record written by their ancestors, and that it contained the fulness of the Gospel. We invited them to read it, and apply Moroni's promise. We then went to pick up H., a young adult in the branch, to go with us to a lesson. When we got to the lesson, the investigator had cancelled the appointment by not showing up to their own house. Pfft. So we went to contact a referral with our member. She was sitting outside when we got there, and after introducing ourselves, H. just took the reins and started teaching this woman all about the church. He gave tons of personal testimonies, and invited her to attend church with us. All of this happened in about 15 minutes, and it was awesome. Then, we got a call from the H., and they asked if we could come and help them move some heavy items. We went, and helped, and then they gave us some ice cream. We sat and talked with them for a bit, and then Elder G.'s watch went off, telling us that it was time to go if we wanted to get home on time. We told the H.'s that we needed to go, but they kept talking for a bit. We finally got out of there.

Today, we're going bowling down in Mira Mesa for cheap. Poway doesn't offer many cheap attractions, so we usually just play sports or travel outside of the zone to do stuff. As I mentioned before, we're having a branch FHE tonight, with the intention of strengthening the branch in their families, so that they become more converted and happy in the branch.

Other than that, there's not much that's happened! We have MTE's this Friday, so that'll be...fun. I'm kind of looking forward to it, and kind of not. But, S-O-C-K-S. It is what it is.

Have a great week this week! But don't have too much fun...

-Love, Elder Crook

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