September 23, 2013

What Do You Mean, "That Long?"

Dear Family,

I had an awesome week, do you know why?! Because I got to teach the Plan of Salvation like 3 times! It is seriously the best lesson ever! And our investigator R came to church!!! She is doing so awesome! It is really funny because there is a lady in the ward and she is famous for her hugs. She will even go up behind the Elders and hug them when they least expect it! IT IS HILARIOUS! We assigned her to be the investigator hugger to everyone we have that comes to church. This ward is really good at making people feel welcomed! 

Yesterday was the best day ever. It was a day that only happens on "The District" Videos. We had 4 lessons with investigators 3/4 of them were AMAZING and NONE of them fell through! I thought it would never happen. 

One of the coolest things about teaching people is changing what we are going to teach to fit the needs of the person. For example, when we were teaching our investigator C we planned on teaching the Plan of Salvation. Which we did, but when we taught the atonement the spirit prompted me to ask her if she knew how to repent. When I did I realized that she had no idea how to repent. I pulled out the Gospel of Christ pamphlet and did an overview of how to repent. Here we are trying to help her change and have the atonement in her life, and had one idea what we were talking about. The spirit is just awesome.

One other lesson was with our investigator M. She is a former investigator, but her teaching record is nowhere to be found. She recently went through a tragedy where she, her boyfriend, and son were hit riding their bikes by a drunk driver. Her boyfriend passed away, it is a miracle that her 3 year old son is still here, and she is doing tons of therapy for her broken leg and hurt arm. Every time we went over to help her, her friend L was there and L would keep taking over, and not letting M talk, and just try to "challenge us." When we went over on Sunday it was just her and her son. M's whole attitude was totally different. We were able to teach her the Plan of Salvation and talk to her about where her boyfriend is and gave her peace to what will happen when she dies. It was amazing to answer some of her deepest questions. It was our "trifecta" at its best because one companion would play with her son and two would teach and we just kept switching off who was playing with him. The two teaching were able to put our full attention on her and she was able to put her full attention on us teaching her. And she accepted a baptismal date! Good things happening in Saco!

I'm not telling you about the not so good one...you don't want to know. 

On Friday we had interviews with the President, which are always good. President Stoker is awesome and has a great desire to do what ever he can to help us. The only bad thing that happened was he asked me how long I have been out and I told him 5 month (Can you believe it!?) and he said, "Oh really, that long?"... what does he mean "that long!?" Am I supposed to know what I am doing or something!? And then her told me to be prepare for leadership. All I could think was, "crap, I am screwed." I sure hope he means not for awhile!...or ever! I thought that was one of the perks of being a sista! Anyways I'll think about that tomorrow. 

[Sorry, Bethany.  I couldn't resist the quote!]

Another funny thing that happened at interviews is when our Zone leader was giving the lesson he started blacking out and getting sick...that part wasn't funny. The funny thing was after he got some water and sat down he asked some Elder for Advil. None of them had some but they directly looked to us. Of course we had some. I thought to myself, "You know, you may have been out for almost two years and know way more stuff than I do, but hey, I've got Advil!"

Oh yeah, another sweet thing that happened when we were teaching R was she kept having the question, "Why did God pick Joseph Smith to be a prophet?" It is a good question and the answers we had weren't really doing it for her. Throughout the lesson and talking to her she got an answer that was right for her. It was totally the Spirit. It just shows that when the Spirit is there I don't really have to worry about giving the perfect answer -- the spirit will tell them all things. By the way, her answer was kind of cute/funny she said, "Well, he was the only one that would step up and do something about it!" I guess so, R!

Alright I am all out of stories that you want to hear. I love you all! Good things are happening in Maine! I feel like I am home here!

Sista Lassen