Tuesday, January 30, 2018

The Greatest New Year's Resolution Ever

Hey everyone!

You know those weeks where you do lots of things and they're all very well and good but there are one or two things that blow everything out of the water so much that they seem like all that happened that week? That's this week.

It's been the best week.

So we had exchanges in Rosamond to start the week, and that was cool, but what happened after exchanges was way cooler. Last week a member on base called us to tell us that he'd given our number to a person who came to his office (he's an optometrist.) I was all "neat!" (he's always doing missionary things.) I figured maybe it'd turn out to be something after a few weeks or months, he'd have to follow up with her a few times.

Fast forward to a little after exchanges end. I'm sick because fast food (why do I ever eat it, what's wrong with me I almost always feel cruddy) and we get a phone call! It's Gina! That's the lady's name. She tells us she lives on base and met with missionaries in LA and wants to meet with us. Wow! WOW. That doesn't happen to us very often! So we set up an appointment to meet at the church.

On Friday, when the appointment was, things went sideways some. The member who was going to come with us had to cancel, and we couldn't meet with her alone, so we were stuck. We were eating dinner on base, though, and the members we were eating with kindly offered to let us have the lesson at their home! (They told us they have a 100% success rate of people getting baptized after having a lesson in their home.) They got along really well with Gina, and we got to know where she's at really well. Basically- her resolution for New Year's is to get baptized. Again, WOW.

She's already had the first two lessons and knows basically everything else. She's been to church a bunch and has been reading the Book of Mormon (she hasn't finished it because she keeps going back to re-read things), believes the church to be the restored church, and knows that Russell M Nelson is a prophet (she watched his message this past week. She was distressed, asking us what was going to happen to President Uchtdorf because he was one of her favorites.) The only thing I can see standing between her and getting baptized right now immediately is that her boyfriend is a member, but is in Tennessee at medical school right now. I don't know if she wants to wait for him to come back to visit, but I'd imagine she would. I hope he does soon.

We also got an incredible opportunity. I mentioned last week that members of the ward council had been asking us recently for people to visit and for our help, and now we've been invited to come to Ward Council this Sunday! Which is really really cool, because missionaries haven't been to the ward council here in at least six months (we did every week in all my other areas.) It was a great meeting and they got to see how hard we're working and the miracles we're seeing.

The Stake President spoke in our ward today, and something he said really struck me. He talked about how people can memorize all sorts of facts about sports and figures, and asked if we know that much about the Savior. More than just being fans, we take His name upon us, we should know Him very, very well. Do I know him better than I know how to swim? Do I recognize His attributes better than I recognize the fighter jets that fly over all the time here? What better way to learn that by serving our fellow man, just as He did. I have a lot of renewed motivation for my studies and work after hearing that.

Thank you for all your support!

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