Dear Beloved Friends, Family, and Other People,
Well, the weather here is great. I love how I always talk about the weather, but that's obviously the only noteworthy subject of conversation here in the land of snow and ice (other than Obama and Putin).
This last week it was consistently between -2 and +2 C for the high, which means the snow is melting a little faster than usual. Sister Williams and I have even dared to go running outside in the mornings and believe me-- we get super duper strange looks from people since everyone is still dressed up like Eskimos in 100% fur coats or coats that look like sleeping bags. The fact that we aren't wearing hats is probably the biggest element of concern since not wearing a hat is against every kind of fashion/health code from about October to May here. But I love running, and it's fun to get outside of our little tiny apartment to exercise (we had been running stairs for a couple of weeks....but I hate that).
The coolest thing this week was a member referral a dear recent convert (found in September, baptized in November). She's an awesome lady and frequently tries to involve her friends and aquaintances with the church. The lady she referred us to this week is a colleague from work. Sister Williams and I were in the country side (read-- three hours outside of the city) visiting a less-active when she called.
"SISTER BROWN," she begins (she has a louuuuud voice), "I AM AROUND THE CHURCH BUILDING RIGHT NOW AND MY FRIEND WOULD LIKE A LESSON. COME TEACH US."
I explained that I wasn't anywhere near the church right then and said I'd find someone. So, I called up the elders (oh, how I love elders!) and they were free and close to the church and so they met with her. I ended up having a meeting with this lady the next day because she came to English Group. The Elders had taught her the Plan of Salvation, but as Irina explained "WE JUST DIDN'T UNDERSTAND IT. DO YOU HAVE YOUR LITTLE PICTURES?" Fortunately, I did happen to have my Plan of Salvation pictures in my purse, so we retaught the PoS and committed her to baptism! It was so cool because she accepted the date immediately and is totally prepared and willing to change her life.
The next lesson we taught with her was the Restoration and we asked her "what prophets have you heard of?" and she reads right out of the brochure that Joseph Smith was a prophet. It was amazing to hear her answer that and totally believe it. So cool. :)
Another cool experience we had was sitting on a bus. I'm not going to go into the details of how much I hate talking on transport (I do)-- but I do it anyway. What I really love is when people start talking to us first because that usually means that they're actually interested and not just feeling obligated to talk to us. Sister Williams and I were sitting on a bus this week and the lady across the aisle started to talk to the lady taking money and said "these two girls are American!" (as if we can't understand her....) but then we strike up a conversation with her, do a street lesson (explain the Book of Mormon) and were able to get her number. Her reaction: "Well, I'm Muslim....but this is super interesting to me! I'll definitely read it."
We had an all-time record high for lessons taught to investigators with a member present, and I would definitely call that inspired planning. During weekly planning last week we very seriously debated/calculated/prayed about how many investigator meetings we could get and couldn't decide between nine and six, so we chose sevn and then received eight! It was awesome. And if two of our meetings hadn't fallen through, we would have had ten. Investigator work in this area is really picking up. We have one baptismal date right now and another couple dates that we're seriously working towards with people.
One of my more disappointing lessons this week was with a less-active and her daughter. I've been working with this lady for eight months trying to activate her, and it's been coming surely but slowly. People at church are now stopping asking her if she's an investigator, so I would say that's progress. We're working towards baptism with her daughter and we made some things very clear to them that they need to do (come to church [on time], pray, read) and our meeting with them Sunday was extremely disappointing. Sometimes I really just want to rip my hair out at times like this. Her daughter is 11 years old and doesn't know who God or Jesus Christ are and has never prayed. You know that section in the Doctrine and Covenants (D&C 68:25) where it says the sin will be upon the parents if they don't teach the Gospel to their children? Well, I firmly believe that, but this lady doesn't seem to understand the hurt that she is doing to her daughter. I feel like I am the mother of both of them when I explain basic things like this. The mother says "well, it's her choice to accept the Gospel/Jesus/God (insert any Gospel principle/lesson)." And my answer is, "you have to give her a choice and teach her about it, otherwise how is she supposed to know that it's an option to believe in God/Jesus/etc!!!!!!" It's extremely frustrating how thick some people are, but it's really just helping me develop my patience with them.
Another cool story is about the mother and daughter (age 60 and 40) that were baptized years ago and are just now starting to want to come to church again. Anyway, the mother is reading the Book of Mormon like crazy right now, and in the last month has already read 50% of the Book of Mormon. The daughter at our lesson this week said "I'm just reading the Bible right now...if I start the Book of Mormon, it will be too confusing" and the mother turns to her (unprompted) and says, "You know, I used to just skim the Book of Mormon so I didn't really understand it at all, but now I'm reading it, I really see that it helps explain the principles in the Bible way clearer than the Bible was written. If you want to understand the Bible, you have to read the Book of Mormon." I was just flabbergasted because that was the perfect testimony that the daughter needed to hear, and she agreed to start reading the Book of Mormon again this week. It's awesome the work that we're doing with these people!
Ether 4:12
"And whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do good is of me; for good cometh of none save it be of me. I am the same that leadeth men to all good; he that will not believe my words will not believe me-- that I am; and he that will not believe me will not believe the Father who sent me. For behold, I am the light, and the life, and the truth of the world."
Ether 4:15,16
"..when ye shall rend that veil of unbelief which doth cause you to remain in your awful state of wickedness and hardness of heart, and blindness of mind..then shall my revelations... be unfolded in the eyes of all the people"
The church is true. It really is.
Have a great week!
Love always,
Catie
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