May 31, 2010

FAMILY!

The work is going good. Im getting better at this whole missionary thing every day i think. Prayers are keeping me going. I think to myself, how lost and hard this world/life would be without prayer! And why dont we pray more!?

We had Zone Conference last Wednesday and have interviews this Friday! I love seeing President Malit and Sister Malit! I learned a lot from Zone Conference and it was great to see my fellow missionary friends. Mom, i told Elder Darrington how you and his brother work together... we think thats pretty cool! E. Darrington truly is one of my favorites!

We are getting some new good investigators... and they are families! It's so hard to tell how they will be but so far they are great and seem interested. The hardest thing, i find, is getting them to church! We try so hard to emaphize the importance but they never come. If anyone has advice on what we could do ill take it!

We do have one AWESOME investigator! He is the only person in his family that isnt a member. The tatay has been a member for awhile but the mother and other kids are recent converts (within the last year i think). Albert will be 18 next week. The second week i was here we tried teaching him and it was an absolute struggle getting him to even come in the house. He wouldnt look at us or give us the time of day. I tried asking him if he knew that he is a child of God and the God loves him... He didnt know and didnt seem to care to know. What i would call stubborn to the max!... Well... two weeks ago he attended the multi youth conference with his siblings and other nonmember friend. Something awesome must have happened at youth conf. He was at church that next sunday and when we went to teach Tatay Fermin he came in and opened a Basahon ni Mormon and read with us. After we turned to him and told him we want to teach him and asked when we could come back... He said "Tomorrow!"... oh, you have no i idea the excitement that started running through S. Taperla and my bones!! So we had a great lesson with him last week and he asked lots of questions... and he was at church again on sunday! And we are teaching him tonight too! I cant even explain the happiness i feel to see this total 180 change in this young man! He is a great example of Ether 12 and God making weak things strong after the trial of our faith. He took action/exercised faith and went to youth conference and now God is strengthening him! We also found out that he was the only one from our branch that bore his testimony at YC! He said that he isnt a member yet but he knows that this church is true... what faith huh! Man, the church IS true!!

We keep trying to teach this catholic 82yr old lady that loves to read. We always saw her outside her house reading so we gave her pamphlets to read. She read them so this week we tried teaching but she kept saying how she hasnt heard about Joseph Smith being a prophet in her books (Duh... cause they are catholic)... She also said that Adam wasnt a prophet, just the first man, which i didnt know that they catholics believed that. She was funny but frustrating at the same time. Its funny how those people that are such good people and seem to have such great faith because of how religious they are, actually dont exercise faith at all cause they are so blinded. If only she really opened up and gave it a chance she would know.

The last thought i have is about family. This sunday the district president talked about families and temple marriage! And then in sunday school we talked about families. "Families are the most important institutions in this church." And then i was reading in the 'Preparing to enter the Temple' book and it says how other things in the church are organized in regular buildings but families, we organize them in the temple because of how important they are. Remember that... Remember to love your family!... Family is where its out. If we arent striving to strengthen our families we have nothing! I love my family so so so much!

Well keep it real! I love you all!

Gugma
Sister Carissa Jones