We got to go the temple last Thursday which was so awesome. I always love going to the temple. I was a little worried because we got a text from the Zone Leaders on Wednesday night saying, "The temple is having technical difficulties. We will probably be doing baptisms tomorrow." Doing baptisms is not a bad thing, but I did not want to do that. When we showed up to the temple, one of the workers said that they had just got a new AC unit or system or something, and it had been leaking on the projector so it pretty much broke it. However, they were somehow able to get everything fixed for us to do a session, so I was very relieved. Has the day of miracles ceased? Haha we had a great session, and it was great to be able to see some friends from the zone.
We had a lesson with Daniel this week, and we basically just talked about the restoration of Priesthood authority. We figured that he didn't really get that quite yet, so that's what we focused on. After a while of talking he just stopped and said, "Wow that makes sense. I get it now." Daniel is such a funny guy. He's just kind of odd and awkward, but he's so funny and we love him. Like half of the time he seems like he completely understands everything we say, and then like a few minutes later or the next day he doesn't really get it at all. However, our focus with him for the past week has been the Priesthood, and I am fairly certain that he understands what it is and why it's necessary. That was our goal for this week, and he seems to have it down. It was a great moment when he just said, "Yeah that makes sense now." It's so awesome when things just finally click with people. We were supposed to have a lesson with him yesterday, but we weren't ever able to get a hold of him on the phone or by stopping by so I'm not sure what happened. We are planning that whenever we have another lesson with him, we will set a solid baptismal date to work towards.
Switching gears here - there is a lady in the branch named Ruby Blount. She is in her 60s or so, and she was baptized some 20 years ago. Not long after, for some reason that I don't know if she even understands, she removed her name from the records of the church. She just told us, "There were some things that I had to work through." Not sure the whole story, but she left the church. Then about a year ago, there were some missionaries who knocked on her door (I think they were sent there by another member), and she almost immediately had her testimony rekindled and she started coming back to church. She has been meeting with our Branch and Stake Presidents over the last little while, and she is working towards getting re-baptized. She should actually be setting a date here in the next couple of weeks. She is so awesome, and we love her. She's such a sweet lady and she has such a great testimony. She has said so many times that being baptized again will mean a lot more to her than the first time because of all of the work she has had to do to get to this point. We love her, and we're excited for her upcoming baptism.
When we weekly planned this week, we basically went through our list of people that we are "teaching" and with almost all of them we just said, "They need to understand our purpose. We are here to help them come unto Christ through the waters of baptism. And we pretty much need to lovingly give them an ultimatum. Keep commitments, or we stop coming by." We have done this with a couple of people already, and it's so much easier to just be straight up with people from the beginning. We have had some really good lessons with those people where we have told them our purpose, as plain and clear as we can. And we tell them that that is the reason we ask them to read, pray, come to church, etc. We are asking them to 1) repent, and 2) be able to decide for themselves if they want to be baptized into the Lord's Church.
We also got to go see Robert again last week. We haven't seen him for a few weeks because he has been sick, and because he lives like 30 minutes away in Altoona. I'm not sure what to do with him. He is an honest seeker of truth, he loves meeting with us, and learning from what we have to share with him. However he can't read very much because he is blind in one eye, he doesn't drive because he can't see well and doesn't want to wreck, and won't accept a ride to church. Even if he did, it would be hard to find someone willing to drive 60+ minutes to get him. Haha it seems like many people who have lots of potential also have lots of issues. He really wants to just be a part of the right church. He knows that while many are good, not all of them are the true church. He wants to find the true church and be in it to stay. However, physical ailments are inhibiting that right now. Tough situation.
Alrighty, well this was a good week. Finding has been a little bit more productive than weeks past, and we have a few potentials that we are excited about. Alabama spanked Louisville on Saturday, and everyone is looking forward to another CFP championship. The work is rolling forward "boldly, nobly, and independent" and it's a joy to be a part of. Love y'all, have a good week!
Elder Beach
#RollTide
#1-0
PS - We found a ping pong net and a couple of paddles at the church that we borrowed haha. We had to put our desks together in the apartment to make an oddly shaped table, but it worked. When you work hard, you gotta play hard sometimes too!
Temple trip!
Our Zone at the temple.
Our district at the temple.
Ka-bobs
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