So on Monday night we had FHE (family home evening) at our Stake Presidents house and we had some investigators there! We are teaching a couple named Leo and Soriah and they are friends with one of the members in an English ward. Some of the sisters taught a lesson about using time wisely to do the things that are most important. They used the object lesson where you have sugar, some marbles and then two tennis balls. The sugar represents things we want to do (like going on Facebook, shopping, sleeping in, etc), the marbles represent things we should do (like go to work, do our homework, clean, etc) and the tennis balls represent things that we have to do to get closer to Heavenly Father (pray, read the scriptures, go to church, etc). If you put the sugar and marbles in first, there is no room for the tennis balls, but if you put the tennis balls in first, then the marbles and sugar all fall into place. It was a really awesome lesson! We had a lesson with them later on in the week and Leo was still talking about how much he liked it.
Thursday was an AWESOME day! So we decided to bike since we are really not wanting to get close on miles this month. And as always, just our luck, it was the hottest day it had been yet haha. It got up to 111 degrees. Thank goodness for double layers of sunscreen though! We spent some time biking around and trying to visit some less actives or potentials before dinner and we weren't able to find anyone. We had about 30 minutes until dinner and just decided to bike over there and try a less active that lives really close to the family we were eating with. We have tried and tried to find them at home, and we always seem to stop by when no one is there. So we knocked, and I had one mighty prayer in my heart that they would be there so we could get some water. We knocked three times and as we turned to walk away, the mom answered the door! She let us in and gave us some water and then set up a time that we could come by because they had to leave for a softball game! We were so stoked! Then we biked over to dinner. Okay here is where the mighty miracles begin! We were having dinner with a part member family. The wife is a totally active member, and the husband is a man that we were teaching when I first got here. The missionaries had been teaching him since January when I got there. He is a totally awesome guy, had been taught all the lessons at least twice. He was reading the book of Mormon and praying with his family every night, but he just would not come to church and we couldn't quite figure out why. We had been visiting them and both of us had this feeling that we needed to stop seeing them for a little while, but weren't quite sure how to go about, not wanting to offend his wife. One day they sent us a text and asked if we could take a break for a few weeks. WEEW! I mean, we were super bummed to be dropped, but we knew that is what needed to happen. It had been about 3 weeks and we weren't quite sure when we should try back again to see how they were doing, and then saw that they had signed up for dinner so we decided to just wait until then. When we got there, Mariana wasn't home yet, but Johnny was. He was his totally normal friendly self! He opened up the garage and we sat there and just talked while we waited for Mariana to get home. So during dinner Johnny made a comment about how it had been a while since we had been over and Mariana said "well you are the one who asked for them not to visit!" and he said "Well i just meant for them not to come for a few weeks and then to come back!" We shared a message after dinner about reading the book of Mormon and committed them to start reading together again. Then we asked Johnny who he would like to offer the prayer and he said "um... I will." It was all we could do to keep our jaws from dropping open. Hermana Blackford has only seen him pray once and it was after they had had a really awesome prayer lesson. Mariana had also told her at that time that it was the first time she had ever seen him pray. And he hadn't prayed since then. So when he offered himself, we were ecstatic! As he prayed, he said "thank you for bringing the sisters back to our home and helping it to feel normal again". The reason we usually stop visiting people for a little bit is to let them think about what we are teaching and also, to realize that when they are doing to things we teach them about, and when we are visiting them, the spirit is there. When we leave and don't come for a while, the spirit is not there as much. We leave for a while to let them feel that lack of spirit! And this is what happened with them! As we left we asked what a good time would be to go back and they said probably Sundays. Sister Blackford said "so next Sunday would be good?" and he said "no! This Sunday!" Oh boy oh boy are we excited to be visiting them again! They have such an awesome family and we cant wait to see how much stronger they get as they continue to learn and grow together!
So Saturday there were three baptisms in some of the English wards and we were able to go to all of them! It was so exciting to see all of those people making that choice to enter the path of Christ! One of them was a guy named Nick Simmons who just a month ago, was invited to the fhe at President Sanders house and met the missionaries then for the first time!
This week has just been such a whirlwind of working with members and our branch presidency to get things set up! We are really excited for how involved the members are starting to get and cannot wait to see the miracles that follow! Love you all so much and I hope that this is a fun, exciting, spiritual week!
Love you all!!
Hermana Lundquist
