Monday, October 21, 2013


Great things are happening people. GREAT. THINGS.
We met a girl named Precious at our bus stop at the beginning of the week and she was really nice. We sat down on the bus and I proceeded to tell her all about the restoration and showed her how great the Book of Mormon is and explained where it came from. She was hooked. Totally wanted to learn more and we met with her Tuesday and taught her the full restoration and she had great questions and seemed to really like it. She said that she has never been baptized and would love to be baptized when she knows it's true. She came to church and loved it, is coming to home evening tonight and we are meeting with her again tomorrow and will hopefully be setting a baptismal date with her. God. Is. Great. 

Tuesday Rayman showed up to his appointment early. He sat down and said that he had come to tell us that he wouldn't be able to meet with us anymore. Sister Huppi and I were speechless and didn't know what to say. I'm sure we both prayed in our hearts and then somehow, by the grace of God, we proceeded to have an extremely spirit-driven lesson that was exactly what he needed to hear. He shared with us that the night before when he was contemplating not meeting with us anymore, he was translating a Japanese proverb that said, "Don't run from those who come to you."
This experience really impressed him and I asked him if he was going to take the advice or not? He laughed and said he would and we continued to teach him about the story of the  Tree of Life in the Book of Mormon. I don't even really remember all that we taught, I just know that at the end of it he felt much better and wanted to continue to progress towards baptism. 

We had dinner at Momma Shepp's house again and had some leftovers from her little Canadian Thanksgiving... so delicious. We've been trying hard to work with the members more and focused a lot of the week on meeting with them. 

Thursday we taught Rayman again who now is super solid and totally came to church!! Which is a huge deal because he said he always had a rough time coming to his old church. He loved it though and then texted us later that day and said, "It's so weird, I was watching this show and a line from one of the characters stuck out to me and it said "Someone who can't sacrifice anything can't hope to gain anything" Today of all days!"
God is totally speaking to him all the time! It is so cool! 

That day we also taught Shannon about Temples and family history and she and Dominique were interviewed for their baptisms. Elder Locklear is our district leader and he later told us that her interview was a very spiritual experience. She bore her testimony to him and told him that the day that we met her on campus she had been going through a hard time and prayed for help... soon after we talked to her on campus and taught her the restoration. I still remember how matter-of-factly she accepted baptism. The Lord is so great!

We then taught Qiuyuan the lesson that I have been not too excited to teach her... I know how much she likes coffee but we had to teach her the Word of Wisdom eventually. Then God proved my fears wrong again and the spirit testified to her that this law of health made sense and that it was for her benefit. She is doing her best to live it and also came to church on Sunday! 

Friday we got to work in the kitchen this time at the soup kitchen and it was a blast. There is a man there named Rob who is a pastor for his church and he is just so fun! He sings songs we don't know and is always being funny. Right before we left I came to him and said, "Hey Rob, have you ever wanted to see a Mormon baptism?" He responded with, "Of course I have!" and we told him all about Dominique's baptism and he said he would be there. 

Saturday was baptism day! Dominique looked so beautiful in her white baptismal dress and boy was the spirit there! Our zone leader Elder Anderson baptized her and we sang "I Stand All Amazed." It was great and Rob came along with quite a few other non-members! Oh it was great. She bore her testimony at the end and it was just beautiful. 

The next day she was confirmed as a member of Christ's church and received the girft of the Holy Ghost. We had a great turn-out at church but Chris wasn't there... And we couldn't get a hold of him. His girlfriend Ali texted us that he was in North Carolina visiting his dad. Hmm.. this made me worry a little. We didn't hear back from him for the rest of the day. Then today he called us and told us a crazy story. He went to North Carolina to get away and was wanting to abandon ship and not get baptized. Then last night when he was alone he said that he heard a small voice tell him, "Read scriptures." He ignored the prompting twice and when he couldn't fall asleep he decided to start reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning. He kept reading for ten hours and got all the way to ALMA! He told us he's not sure what happened but that he is definitely getting baptized and that we don't have a thing to worry about! He sounded so happy!

I KNOW GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS. We have been so worried about Chris wondering if he would ever really stop smoking and change to get baptized and the Lord is so good. :) I love my Savior so much. I know that God is real. There is no way these things just happen by chance. This is Christ's Church and it is so great! I love it! All we have to do is keep going! Keep calm and Morm-on! ;)

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