Week 41

This week was a little long. I was on exchanges for 48 hours straight in my area so my companion had to go with another sister. It made for a tiring week, but it was good and I learned a lot from the sisters I was with. Both sisters came in to the mission at the same time as my companion, so it was cool to see all of the progress they have made already. 

We had a cool experience this week. We were contacting and knocked on a door of this lady. She started talking with us and then she told us she was a member. She had moved here from Mexico and when she got here she couldn't find the church so she had started going to a different one. She wasn't very interested in coming back to church, but she happily accepted a Book of Mormon to start reading again. We walked around the apartments behind her house and she came out the back door. We awkwardly laughed and said hi again, and then we asked her if she knew of anyone in the area that might be interested in learning about the gospel of Jesus Christ. She said she had actually invited someone to our church a few months ago that had taken the lessons in the past. So she gave us his address and we drove over. He had actually moved but as we were talking to the person who lived in the house now, someone randomly walked by holding a Book of Mormon. We were like... umm, ok we should probably talk to that guy. So we finished talking to the person we were talking to and went to look for the Book of Mormon guy and we couldn't find him for the life of us. So we took it as a sign that we were in the right area so we knocked on two doors. The first person wasn't interested, but was super nice. Then we started talking to the second person and he wasn't that interested either. He had taken the lessons about 15 years ago and had been a little offended by the missionaries that had taught him. We asked if there was anything we could do for him and he said he actually needed help cleaning some stuff in his house. So we went back that Saturday with the Elders and cleaned his house. At the end of the day he invited us back to share a message. Then on Saturday we got to share the message of the restoration with him and he agreed to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. It was so cool! I have actually never had someone take us up on doing service for them, and we try to ask everyone. So it was cool that it worked out and that it softened his heart enough to let us teach him. I think he was a little surprised when we showed up on Saturday in pants ready to work, but he was grateful.

Our investigator passed his baptismal interview this last Saturday, so this coming Saturday he will be baptized. He is just so sweet and so excited. He called us and was just like, "I'm getting baptized next week!" It has been one of the coolest experiences to teach someone who was so prepared and so ready to accept the gospel and who really wanted to change his life to be happier. 

That's really all I have to report on this week. Not a really long email, but I have a bunch of pictures from our hike this morning so hopefully that can make up for it this week. 

I love you all - have a wonderful week!

Sister Doxey