Mission Log - August 14, 2017 - T8, W1 - Member Missionaries make it Work

Dearest family and friends,

Woo!  It has been a very good week.
Ya know, fixing a bike, can make you kinda tired... 😆

We had an awesome lesson with Kevin and Caleb!  For weeks, we'd been having lessons with them - we knew they were so prepared!  We even organized a church tour for them.  But they just hadn't committed to being baptized.  So, we were finally able to bring their fellowship, Ricardo and Alejandro, the Bishop's sons.  Ricardo went on his mission but had to come back because of some medical issues.  He's going back out as soon as he can, though!

We went in.  We had planned to review the importance of baptism, but the lesson took a different turn when Ricardo started pumping out all these questions of the soul.  It was a humbling experience; I realized that our lack thereof might have been why Kevin and Caleb hadn't committed yet.  Sure enough, once it came down to their beliefs and desires, we discovered that Kevin didn't actually know what faith was or how to develop it, and Caleb, the older brother, didn't particularly see the need for a particular baptism.  Ricardo then said "I understand your concern," then proceeded to share some scriptures and his testimony, and they both agreed to work towards being baptized!!

We can't do this without the members.  It's like a doctor's office - the nurses are around people in critical condition all the time.  They have a lot of people on their hands and they really can't be laser -focused on each one.  But the families of the patients - they can stay with them, comfort them, bring cards or flowers, and when the patient's all healed, take them home rejoicing.  That's where the members are so important - they can look after healing individuals way better than we can.  And even though we're all brothers and sisters in Christ, it's even better when the members ask us to teach their family and close friends.

We met a man named Roman and his cousin, Luis.  We planned to teach a basic God is your Loving Heavenly Father, but Roman had a ton of questions and comments - he expounded on some pretty solid doctrine, such as how Jesus Christ is our advocate with Heavenly Father, because of His Atonement, we all will be resurrected to be judged of Him and His Father, and the difference between temporal and spiritual death - he's very smart, so we skipped to the Restored Gospel and the Book of Mormon.  He was a little skeptical, but he accepted it and promised to share with Luis.  He told us, "I'm not TAKING it - I'm just BORROWING it.  If it doesn't feel right, I'll give it back and you can give it to someone else." :)

We had dinner with a returning member, and she is amazing!  She's had a hard life - she left the Church for a while, but she's coming back strong!  As we shared the dinner message, she added some insights from what she'd been studying that morning in a talk by Richard G. Scott about recognizing answers to prayers.  She's so awesome!

A very good week indeed.

Love, Love, Love,
Hermana Smurthwaite

P.S.
​Also, got some new shoes!  The old ones were falling apart.  R.I.P. :(

These were the ones I came out in. They certainly made their mark...

Here's the new ones: