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Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Week 95: Following Promptings Blesses Lives of Others

We had a family home evening at the gabaldon family last monday.
Dear Family,

Wow this was one of the quickest and coolest weeks of my mission. We have seen the Lord's hand in our work this week and we felt that we have truly been on the Lord's errand. We have seen some great things with our investigators and we have met some great new investigators. Elder Mclaughlin is awesome and we have been working hard.

So one of the most like definite promptings we received this week happened on friday night. We had just finished our last appointment and it was a little after 8. The whole night I had this family in my mind that was a family a little bit less active that I just felt like we really really needed to visit. So we decided to go visit them on the way home. We got there and the mother was the only one home. We talked to her for a minute and everything seemed pretty normal and her husband wasn't home so we left after a minute. So I little confused as to why I felt that we needed to visit her and we started to go home and we remembered another family that was right close to there that was less active. We went by and we invited in. We talked to the brother and soon found out that his wife had been sick for over a week and was not feeling well at all and we were able to give her a priesthood blessing and Elder Mclaughlin was voice for the blessing and did a great job. It just reminded me of what Pres. Monson said about receiving a prompting and the great feeling of following it and seeing  it bless the lives of others.

Another amazing experience we had was a family we found. This last week we have been looking for stuff to do productively instead of just tracting so we have been looking for recent converts that we dont know and less actives as well as former investigators that have potential so we were looking for some former investigators on friday afternoon and we asked people where a certain name was and ended up going down an alley. We met a group of people and asked them about the person and they told us where their house was and then asked if we had any more names and asked if their name was in there. It wasnt but they said they have been taught before and then We asked them if they want to listen to the missionaries again and they expressed that they did. Then one of the ladies there lead us to her house that was in a little ways and Wow there whole family was just there waiting for us!! The dad was really cool as well and said he doesnt have any vices either like beer or smoking or gambling or things like unto it.... Anyway we are excited for that family we shared about the Book of Mormon and gave them a Book of Mormon and the spirit was very strong in that lesson.

By the way our Elder Quorum President is this guy from Pennsylvania that lives like a few block from us. He served a mission in Chile back in the day and married a philipina lady here. Anyways he worked with us this week and took us to this place that has ridiculously huge hamburgers.(next time I get a burger there again I'll take a picture) and he is pretty cool. He actually knows quite a bit of tagalog. Speaking of white people we have an investigator that also lives just a few blocks a way from us(strangly enough both our elder quorum president and this Canadian guy live in apartments about as nice or a little bit nice than our missionary apartments, I was surprised because I would of though they would have really nice houses and all. ) anyway Elder Valdez and Williamson talked to this guy in the market, he is a 71 year old Canadian dude(his wife is also a philipina) he has jewish blood in him and is a jew but he believes in the bible and new testament including about Jesus Christ being a God and our Savior and everything(I thought jews dont believe that Jesus has come yet??) anyway he said he wants to listen and so his house is in our area and we went to to him and he invited us in and he asked if we were jews, I said no and he said "yeah you are! isnt that lehi guy from Jerusalem??" So yeah he said back in the day he read a bit of the Book of Mormon and is interested in it.. Anyway so we taught him about the apostacy and he said that it totally true and we taught him the Joesph Smith story and he said it was also true and that he had seen Jesus as well!! So his story went something like this. When he was in his 20's he wanted to know if the bible was true and he wanted to get forgiven of his sins. So he kept praying but he said he didnt pray sincerely and it was repetitive prayers. He said one day he came home from swim team practice and was really tired and alone. He said he opened the door and that Jesus was standing there in his room. Then he said that Jesus said to him if you don't mean it dont pray at all. And he said he felt really super scared and bad and he got on his knees and begged forgiveness and when he opened his eyes that Jesus was gone. So anyway that was his story. After we shared our testimonies about how Joesph Smith restored the gospel and how we came to know it was true. We challenged him to read the Book of Mormon and to pray and ask if it was a true book. It was a very interesting experience. Anyway we go back to him on Friday so I hope and pray has been reading the Book of Mormon.

So we are teaching a really cool family. The Paz Family is a part member family, they were baptized by Elder Reiner and those guys back in the day(I was probably in ramon about that time so we were in the same district) anyway the Parents and some of their kids are already baptized and we are teaching one of their kids named Perry and his wife Emily. They got married a few months ago and should have been baptized like a few weeks ago but Sister Emily got a job on Sunday so their baptism is kind of on hold for now. They are really cool though and yesterday they were able to come to church but than had to go to work after so its an improvement but thier not quite there yet. They are really awesome. I am really impressed with Perry he totally gets the gospel and lives it. Last night his wife came in and she had C2 bottle(its like this iced tea little kid juice stuff that members apparently dont know is against the WOW because they give it to their kids all the time) And he was like "HEY THATS C2 Why do you have C2 thats not allowed!!!" And she said oh it just has water in it.(I dont how she had the bottle in the first place but whatever ) I was impressed with him though it was great. He is a really good guy. If they can step up and take care of the little problem with working on sunday they will be great members.

So I know this work is so true and One thing I've learned that as we do the right thing and are in the right place at the time(like being on task and doing your best to be diligent) the Lord uses us to bless the lives of those around us and its so amazing to be a part of it. I know more than ever that the church is true and that gospel will always bring happiness and eternal life. I love you tons and I am so thankful for all you do and all you are. Hope you have a great week and good luck with all the deadlines and moving in and stuff!!!

Love,

A.J.

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