So this week, I am a little short on email time, so I will have to hit the highlights and keep it simple :)
This week has been interesting for sure, mostly revolving around my companion who has had some health issues. I have sorta been playing the whole "mom" role this week. I make soup, I talk to doctors, I tell her to take a nap when she doesn't want to... all good practice for the future. Yet, this week we have still taught a lot.
Monday is when things got interesting, We taught Tom, who is planning on being baptized the 30th of January, but we are currently helping him quit smoking. We also taught Megan who is a friend of a member who is super solid and will be baptized this year. She just wants to know everything first. My companion came close to dying... like chest pains, headaches, fatigue, etc. And this has been slightly building up the last few days. So I rushed her to an Urgent Clinic and got things checked out. Yea, they weren't the smartest people ever. We are still trying to work on what is going on with her. They did tests and then told us to come back today. So the whole week, I'm like... how do we work and also not have my companion be a sack of potatoes and just throw her on my back and take her teaching. We have the best members on the planet. I dropped her off at one member's home and they feed her and let her sleep while I took their daughter and taught lesson. We picked up this bible loving lady named Alicia and set Will on date for February. Will is also another cute investigator that is so humble and keeps every commitment we give him. If he's not 'golden', then he is a silver!! We also taught Jim out in the cold and got him ready for the priesthood.
Tuesday, we had to take it easy. This was the worst day for my poor companion this week. We still taught our investigator named Brenton at Barnes and Noble and he is the GM and we teach him at the Starbucks. It is so weird teaching with coffee all around. But, he took a Book of Mormon. He is a really cool hipster of a guy. Then, everyone just cancelled on us, which was a tender mercy. The Ward members again stepped up to the plate, bought us food, oranges (which Pres. Rogers told my companion to eat to get rid of the shakes), and got priesthood blessings. We went home early. I put her to bed and then went to town cleaning the whole apartment because that is all I could do... oh and update the area book.
Wednesday. Priesthood blessings are awesome. My companion was determined not to stay inside and we ended up teaching 7 lessons that day. But the most important miracle that day was Nohelia. We tracked her... she was baptized at 12 years old but just went less active. She is married and has the cutest 1 year old and wants to remember her beliefs and come back!! That also opens the door to teach her catholic husband! We visited a few less actives and taught Will again about the plan of Salvation.
Thursday we taught this older man named Gary. Oh boy! Gary has been baptized into 5 different religions and been to like 50 churches. He loves the Book of Mormon, but doesn't want to go to church, be baptized or keep the word of wisdom. Doesn't quite get that you can't pick and choose the gospel either. Oooo well... agency. But at the end, he went on a rant about how he could speak in tongues. hahahahah oh my. So weird. I couldn't keep it together. Sounded like gibberish. The other miracle was teaching this 10 year old named Wyatt. He is a current foster kid of a member family and he wants to be baptized. He knew so much about the restoration that he was really almost teaching us. So proud of him, and he should be a quick investigator to member because he has been attending church for about 3 years now.
Friday... I woke up early and went to Zone Conference. That was fun. We got pounded on the Book of Mormon and how to use it more in lessons. Also, I have to read the BoM again cover to cover before Easter and mark every reference to Christ. :) I have been reading about Mosiah and Abinadi. SO GOOD. I have always loved the Book of Mormon, but a mission has really strengthened my love for it even more. We got home late, had dinner and went to the Ward Christmas Devotional. Lots of musical numbers!
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| At Bishop Duke's Home |
Saturday, nothing was flowing that morning and we have been starting to work at a slower pace, and nobody wanted to talk to us. My companion had improved a little each day, all because of the power of the priesthood and the Spirit (for reals thought! It works) We taught some slightly recent converts about the restoration and they actually were doing good and wanted to come to church! Woop Woop! We saw Jim, we saw Nadine, she is literally a whole email in and of herself. That night, we were both feeling good, so we went out and started OYMing (open your mouth) and the first guy we talk too is this guy named Scott. He works for the energy business and lives in Binghamton and as soon as we gave him a Christmas Card, he goes "YOU GUYS ARE MORMONS!! I WANNA GET INVOLVED IN THE MORMON CHURCH!" That was sweet. WE gave him all of the info for the Church and the Elders in Binghamton to follow up with. We then just started tracting and met some people that couldn't speak any English. LOL We then found a guy named Mike who was a trooper and we should teach him tonight! Then we found Jessie, who is covered in Tattoos. He let us in and his wife was there too. He seemed like a super nice guy... turns out he was a heroin addict back in the 90's who found God and never looked back. He studies the bible, loved the idea about the Book of Mormon and started investigating. We go Sunday and he starts going off about the 10 Tribes and Lehi and how they relate to native Americans, anti-christ and aliens. To make it worse, he said God created ethnic people on the 6th day and rested and then created Adam and Eve on the 8th day... and yup you guessed it, things totally went down hill from there. We just had to grin and bear it until we got out of there.. and we were like "what just happened????" People are so weird sometimes. Poor Heavenly Father, He must have an eternal face-palm and head shake thing going on all the time, because His kids are SO lost sometimes.
Sunday was Church, we just rested, taught Him and saw Derek. He is going to get baptized this next year too! He just needs to quit drinking. HE believes the Church is true! We had the best lesson with our JW investigator named James and watched the restoration with a member and prayed to know if the Mormons are right. It was sweet. We wrapped things up with the 1st Presidency Christmas devotional.
Never a dull moment in my life!!!
Everyone, take care and I know that this gospel and Church are true!
Love, Sister Kylie Williams.
