Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Legacy & South Pointe: November 15-21

Hi everyone--I hope you're all doing well!

We taught Steve and Lois again. They're amazing! We weren't able to get a member to come to one of their lessons, which I guess is actually good because at that lesson Lois asked something that I don't think she would have told us about that if we brought another person. Other than that, they're doing super well! Lois just started a new job and they're working hard to get Sundays off so they can come to church. In our lesson with them Lois told us she felt warm fuzzies when she prayed and asked God if the Book of Mormon is true! She then said the closing prayer and thanked God for the peace that she's beginning to feel as she meets with us, studies the scriptures, and prays. Steve is doing awesome too; he just doesn't talk as much as Lois does. But it's neat to see him progress! When we taught him in the second lesson he said he would be baptized as long as he doesn't have to give up his thing with the Word of Wisdom, but now he admits that he wants to quit and needs to.

On an exchange with Sister Perkins, we saw an older, really frail lady walking down the sidewalk with a walker and we asked her if we could help. I couldn't understand much of what she was saying, but I think it was something about how she just got out of the hospital and had no money so she was trying to find an old friend's house. The only problem with that is that all of the houses look alike. We walked with her (and she walks slow) until she found the house and talked with her along the way. We quickly realized she didn't remember anything we said because she kept asking the same questions. We didn't really know how to help her, but then she found the house and we waited at the sidewalk while she went to the door and was there for several minutes. We checked and saw someone hugging her and figured she was taken care of, so we left. Definitely not something we see every day!

Eugene - a lot has happened with him. Earlier in the week he came out with us to inspired knock and we found a new investigator named Tom! I'm sure it might have looked odd to other people, since Eugene wasn't wearing what the typical member does. But it's awesome that he wanted to come out with us so badly! He had been asking us ever since we met him if he could teach people with us and we put it off until now. Later we had a lesson with him and we found out his Word of Wisdom problem is bigger than we think. We taught him again and his cousin, Daymond was there.The member that came with us to that lesson was absolutely perfect! He was less-active for a while and shared his story with them. When Sunday came around we went over a few minutes before their ride was supposed to come to make sure they were ready and Eugene, Daymond, and Carl (Eugene's brother) came! We got to church and after the sacrament was passed Eugene's friend named Ryan that he invited came in too. We've never met Ryan before, but Eugene told us about him. A few minutes later we saw Ryan drinking from a flask. This was by far the most interesting and disruptive sacrament meeting I've been in! We didn't quite know what to do because we were sitting so far away from them. However, we have decided to drop Eugene because he just isn't keeping commitments besides coming to church. Sad to say, but he is absolutely not ready to be baptized right now! Hopefully he will be later :)

Just about every new investigator we found this week is a nurse. I don't know exactly why we've been meeting so many since I'm not having any doubts about nursing school! It's been interesting though.

We found an awesome new investigator named Karen! Yes, she is a nurse. It was cool how we ran into her because we had planned to visit Eugene (he lives in the same apartment complex we live in) and we usually park close to his building, but for some reason Sister Cheyne parked in our reserved spot and then we met Karen along the way as she was getting groceries out of her car! She just moved here from Chicago for family reasons and told us she wanted to find a church! We taught her about the Restoration and then before we offered a closing prayer, we asked her if she wanted to ask God for anything and she told us she had a lot of regret for things done and not done in the past. We taught her briefly about the Atonement and the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I can't wait to teach her more about the Atonement!

We taught Michael at the church and had a fantastic lesson with him! A member that I'll call Sister D came with us. She was baptized in high school and has a story that is incredibly similar to Michael's! We taught Michael about the Restoration and he asked so many good questions and even repeated things back to us to make sure he understood correctly! Sister D asked him why he wants to meet with us and he said that he wants to learn about all religions and decided to start with Mormons (he'll end with that too!) and Sister D shared how she did exactly the same thing and the missionaries that taught her kept inviting her to be baptized (which we have in every lesson) and she never accepted it at first (Michael hasn't either) but then one day she said, "How about December?" So we're hoping that Michael will listen to the Spirit and take the next step in living the Gospel of Jesus Christ! It's cool because we still have the font reserved for December 3 for Eugene's baptism, but Eugene won't be baptized then and we know someone will be ready then. Maybe it's Michael!

We haven't been able to contact Derrick at all, so we dropped him. Just in case you're wondering what happened...

We had a really cool experience when we were on our way to a lesson with Eugene (he's pretty flexible with time) and on our way we saw a moving truck with some guys loading it with furniture. We asked if we could help and they accepted. We also called the elders to come help and they showed up in 5 minutes. Meanwhile, we learned that the person moving out was named Steve, the person they hired to help was a friendly less-active member, and Steve used to live with his parents named Steve and Angela and his wife and son but was moving out because everyone needed more space. Once the elders arrived Steve Sr asked Sister Cheyne and I to just talk with Angela because she had a major surgery recently and was feeling pretty lonely. We went to the back porch where she was sitting and had a great conversation with her and she wants us to come back! It's amazing how service softens people's hearts :)

This morning we were halfway through our workout at home when we had the impression to go to the gym. Weird. But we did it, expecting to run into someone who needed to see us or talk to us or something and we did! When we got to the gym someone was there and went into the bathroom shortly after we arrived. They left the TV on and it was playing some televangelist show. Oh my goodness, the things that preacher was teaching were so not true and went against the Bible. It's crazy how some people twist the gospel around and try to distort it to make life's requirements seem easier! I'm glad we listened to the prompting and were there for that person.

Have a happy Thanksgiving! I'm grateful that we can enjoy the blessings of the restored gospel and I'm so grateful for all the prophets that had a hand in creating the Book of Mormon, since I can't imagine it being easy or quick to engrave anything on metal plates or protect them from Lamanites or angry mobs. Look at how much good has come from the Book of Mormon! Think of the blessings that you enjoy because of the understanding of eternal truths that the scriptures teach!

Love, 
Sister Bedont 

We found this drawing of the Las Vegas temple on a chalkboard at church!

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