So basically, the first of the week was incredibly hard, overwhelming, and difficult. The Elders gave us all their supplies, area books, and information. We spent about forty-five minutes on the phone with them double-checking information, getting some we didn't have, and frantically writing down everything we need to know for their area.
Tuesday, we went with them to a lesson with one of their investigators. She is the caretaker of a less active man.
She was very sad the whole time that the Elders were leaving.
Then the less active's man ferret climbed up my leg.
It wasn't very encouraging.
They left Wednesday, and Sister L and I were driving to the most northern part of our ward boundaries to visit some people. We toyed with the idea of running away into the Adirondack "mountains." (People call them mountains. Really they're just hills with lots of trees on them. I guess I've been in NY for a while though, seeing as I still think they look like mountains.)
Then we decided it would use up too much mileage in the car and wasn't worth the trouble.
It was actually a really cool experience. At home whenever I faced an overwhelming challenge like this, I'd call my parents or a friend, google it, and then pray about it. But it was REALLY cool to be completely isolated from all resources and just rely on the Lord and my companion. Sister L and I really learned how to deal with new and difficult tasks put in front of us by simply praying first and relying completely on the Lord, and helping each other. I still feel a bit overwhelmed at times, but it's going a LOT better, and I have a better idea of how to handle things by relying on the Lord now :) as opposed to google.
So Thursday, we helped clean the house of a less active member.
It was a new experience.
I helped clean her floor. There was a lot of black, chunky, unidentifiable gunk that was stuck to her floor.
The next day, she called to thank us. We missed her call, so we called her back.
She thanked us for our service. And she said she was reading the Book of Mormon!
The problem is she's very confused. She thinks the Book of Mormon is taking place in today's time. I don't know how many times we've told her it starts in 600 B.C, but she called us and was like, "I always KNEW Jerusalem was going to get destroyed. With all the fighting going on there these days? Oh! I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner!"
"Sister R, this takes place 600 years BEFORE CHRIST WAS BORN."
"And those brothers! Oh how CRUEL they are!"
Yeah. One day it'll click.
Things started looking up for us come Saturday. Our investigator (whose dad, brother and sister are members but her mom and step dad aren't) who we hadn't been able to meet with regularly at all texted us, asking if we wanted to come by. We stopped what we were doing, immediately ran to the car, and zipped on over there.
We talked with her for a bit, and she told us about an amazing experience she had with deciding to go to BYU-I. She had put in her deposit to another university, but as soon as she did so, she did NOT feel right about it, at all. She started thinking about BYU-I again, and felt really strongly that this is where she should go. We shared with her a Mormon message on mormonchannel.org called "wrong roads." After showing her, she smiled and said, "Wow. That's crazy! That's exactly the experience I had!"
The rest of the lesson was incredible. OH HAPPY DAY! I was freaking out on the inside, but trying to remain composed on the outside :)
We had a sweet lesson with our elderly investigator! We taught about the Book of Mormon, and basically gave an introduction of it, explaining what it was, and how it was set up.
Basically the golden part of the conversation was this:
Me: "THE BOOK OF MORMON HAS ONLY BEEN TRANSLATED ONCE."
Him: "It has?! Oh well now I'm really excited to read it! That's amazing! Why didn't you tell me this sooner?!"
Sister L: "WE HAVE BEEN TELLING IT TO YOU!....youjustcouldn'thearus."
Him: "What?"
Sister L: "NEVER MIND."
Anyway. I dilly-dallied too long on email and now must dash. I love you all so much!
Hurrah for Israel!
Sister Stimpson
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