I have to apologize again for taking so long to send you this email. Sister Rasmussen and I went on a hike with Talu, Alaina and Paaga. It was so fun! Pictures will be placed randomly in between stories. :P So many amazing things happened this week, I'm so excited to share them all! We will go in chronological order of events.
So we were having a lesson with our new investigator Lisa, and it was going really well! She is nice, and she knows a lot about the gospel already, without being able to connect that it is the gospel of Jesus Christ, so it's nice to teach her because she agrees with everything we are teaching and has educated feedback. She's pretty awesome. As we were getting ready to get up and leave, she told us that if she were to consider herself a part of any religion, she would say she's Mormon. ...Say what? We were stoked! She told us that her friend growing up was Mormon and she used to go to church with her all the time. She liked it and wants to understand it better! Woo Hoo! All we need to do is put her on date and she will be set! It was a pretty awesome miracle.
Another day, we had a lesson planned with the investigator who lives in the boonies and has a bunch of schnauzer dogs named Theone and we wanted to ask Jaynie (a member that lives out in the boonies) to come with us, but we TOTALLY forgot to ask her to come. When we pulled up to Theone's house, Jaynie was sitting on the front porch chatting with
Theone. Heavenly Father was picking up our slack! Haha! He's got our backs! We had a beautiful lesson where both Jaynie and Theone cried and I got a little teary eyed as Jaynie bore her testimony and told us that Theone will really study out the things we teach her and gain a firm testimony for herself. It was cool! What sweet people.
Teaching Keith is always a wonder because we never know if he is going to be drunk or high or whatever. We never know if he is retaining any of the information that we are telling him, but this week it was clear. We brought a member with us to his house to help us teach, and he sat down on the back porch with us and listened intently, giving good feedback and asking intelligent questions the whole time. He didn't smoke once, and he was very polite. Everything we taught, he got! It was a big miracle!
Two more miracles to go, hang in there! We tried to contact our potential investigator who lives at the supposed "drug house," but as we were walking up the driveway, someone in a truck parked outside the house called out to us and told us that she wasn't there. She asked if she could use our phone, so we let her. She had scabs and blisters and cuts all over her arms, chest, neck, and face, and some of them were still bleeding. She was probably in her early 30's or late 20's, but she looked closer to 50. Drugs are bad, people! Particularly meth. Don't do drugs. After she tried to call her boyfriend a zillion times on our phone without any luck, we sat and talked to her for about thirty minutes. She told us a lot about herself, and claimed to be Atheist, but we knew better. She ended up telling us she believes in Christ and God, but she thinks we should rely on ourselves rather than God. We said she was exactly right about that, but explained that God is there to help us. He's not going to simply lift us up with His hand and move us around, we have our agency, and it is still up to us to
act. Her name was Jessica, and we will be seeing her again. :)
And lastly, we went back to talk to Keith again one day, but he kind of ran away from us and hid in the house. His friend Gabrielle stayed outside and talked to us for the first time! She admitted that she has kind of been running from us, but she explained why in full detail. She opened her heart to us, and told us more than she has told anyone else in the past year and a half since all the craziness started. She loves God and had a beautiful relationship with Him, but since her
husband was out in prison and things spiraled from there, she has been very bitter. She told us that she remembers where her heart used to be, and she would eventually like to get back to that point. The fact that she even talked to us at all was a miracle, let alone that she told us exactly how she was feeling. She is a good woman, and she will be blessed because of her faith. We just need to keep it going!
Some other interesting things that happened this week include - meeting a man named Vladimir and discussing "Christian Beliefs" in general, singing at a baptism for a sweet little girl in the ward who's dad and majority of her extended family are nonmembers, having 6 people at church, and being asked out over text by a potential investigator. :P Those are all things that have wonderful stories behind them, but because I hiked again today, I am unfortunately out of time. I am so grateful for the many miracles that happen on a daily basis, and for the chance I have to be a part of them. Heavenly Father is one amazing miracle worker, and I love Him for showing me that hard work and persistence pay off! I love you! Keep holding to the rod!
Love,
Sister Nicole Guilott
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