Good morning!
It has been an eventful week. This morning was a little interesting. I got two stitches in my eyebrow! I took a nasty fall while running this morning and kinda face planted, and had a nice cut like in my right eyebrow. It was kinda bleeding through a couple of bandaids, so I called Sister Wood and she told me to go to the doctor, and at the doctor they decided to stitch it. I was surprised, its really wasn’t that big of an ordeal. I just feel stupid that its from tripping and falling on my face, not something cool.
I think I had two really special experiences this week. One was on Wednesday; it had been a little bit of a rough day just with dropped appointments. We were going to see a family we had talked to on Saturday who said they really wanted someone to talk to and wanted God in their life (they were a little tipsy). Anyway, it was a little bit of an ordeal to find the flat, and when we did, and finally got them to answer the door, they did the whole “Oh, the appointment was today?” and “How about we call you” type deal. I can’t say I was disappointing cause I wasn’t surprised. Anyway, as we were leaving the flat, we needed someone to unlock the gate so we could get out. There was a lady by the gate just looking out into the street with her back turned towards us. I greeted her and asked her how she was doing, thinking she could help us get out. She was a little emotional and told us she was feeling sad. We started talking with her and found out that she is/was mourning her husband who died two or three years ago and left her to raise her three sons. We started talking with her about how we are missionaries, and we share a message that can bring peace and happiness to our lives and also about how families can be together forever. She allowed us to come into her home and we taught her a modified restoration lesson, and talked a fair bit about how she could be sealed to her husband and family forever. It was a cool experience because I definitely felt we were put there at the at the right place at the right time. Sounds like she is pretty active in her church, but we are meeting with her again tomorrow.
The other special experience happened yesterday. So, a lot of our investigators are students, and they are all getting ready to leave for their “summer,” most won’t be back until like February. So the ones that we have been meeting with a lot we have been kinda having wrap-up visits with them, taking their contact info to help the missionaries where they are going home find them (if there are missionaries where they are from) and encouraging them to keep learning about the gospel. We have had some nice appointments with these students, and I am going to miss a lot of them. But none was sweeter then our lesson with Sinazo last night. Sinazo is the one who is pregnant. On Friday we went by her dorm to schedule a appointment, and we asked her when she was due and she told us this week! So that kinda alarmed us since she is not going home till tomorrow because of finals. Anyway, we scheduled the appointment and encouraged her to come to church, but told her not to go into labor on the way. We didn’t really expect to see her, but she came anyway. Anyway, in our appointment with her we read a chapter from the Book of Mormon (she has actually been reading hers). After we read the chapter, I just bore my testimony to her that I knew we were supposed to find her and her friends and that everything that we had taught her was true, and that we hoped she would continue meeting with the missionaries, going to church and eventually get baptized.
During sacrament I felt impressed that we needed to give her a blessing (I am sure she is freaking out), so we taught her about priesthood blessing and she said we could give her one. So I gave her a blessing. The spirit was very strong through out the appointment, and she was tearing up a little. After I gave her the blessing, I asked her to say our closing prayer. Sinazo is fairly reserved, and when we first started teaching her I thought she was the least interested of her friends and she has often been a little hesitant to pray. She said a beautiful prayer, thanking our Heavenly Father for the missionaries and the things that we have taught her, especially that God loves her and that there is still hope even though she has made some mistakes. I think you can tell a lot about how an investigator is progressing by the sincerity of their prayers, and Sinazo was very sincere, which gave me a lot of hope that she will be baptized at some point. It was especially special to me because the appointment right before that we had talked to her friends, one of which (Anita) who seemed pretty apathetic and not really that interested in the missionaries coming to visit her at her home in Queens Town. I was feeling a little discouraged because I was wondering if we had wasted out time with these girls, who I have been teaching since I got to this area, like four months ago. It left me reflecting on my purpose as a missionary. It seems like a lot of the investigators I have taught that actually got baptized have made some mistakes in there lives, and repentance and the peace that if brings really resonated with them. It made me think about what it means to “Cry Repentance” and how I think the reason I am here is to help people learn about Christ so they can be freed from the guilt and pain and other consequences that comes from sin. I am so thankful for the atonement of Christ, which allows me and those I teach and come in contact with to repent of our sins.
Anyway, some other nice things happened this week, we are starting to teach a guy named Collins, who is from Ghana and is looking for work. He is a super nice guy and came to church, but he is kinda homeless right now, so that might be a little complicating. We also met a really nice family, the Fourpence family, a newlywed couple and their baby from Zhim. Hopefully they go somewhere.
Anyway, well I love you all, have a great week!
Love,
Elder Martin
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