Hey, so this week has gone pretty well. We have had some really good experiences and some really disappointing ones.
We were having a really good week with P. We set a goal this week and made a plan that he would quit smoking starting Saturday afternoon. He said the next morning would be the hardest, so we thought it was great because we would we with him in the morning and do a lesson before church, then he would be at church during that time. And right after that he could go to his daughters birthday party and keep himself occupied. We planned a lesson about fasting and started teaching, and he just taught us basically, he said he already read about it in the back of the scriptures, and he already knew everything, it was really amazing. We ran into a little bump because later in the week he called us and said that he had just read about tithing and wasn't sure that he could be able to do that. We agreed to talk about it in the next lesson. Everything was going really well and when we talked to him on Saturday he had officially quit smoking and everything was good for Sunday, but then Sunday came around and he just never showed up and never answered his phone. I'm worried that he gave in Sunday morning and was too ashamed to talk to us, I don't know why else he would have disappeared like that. So we will try to get in touch with him and show our love and support.
A is still chugging along, we see him about once a week. He came to church this week and fasted to receive an answer so that is a big step for him.
M wants to be baptized, but hasn't committed to a date, he was sick this Sunday so we didn't see him this weekend.
We have two other solid investigators. I'm really grateful that we have a good pool of people to teach, a pool this size has been pretty rare for my mission. It's made it a really good time when you can lose yourself in studying and praying for others. That is hard to do with few or no investigators.
Z is a guy that describes himself as a "realist" so he can't believe in things he doesn't have evidence for. He really likes everything that we teach and says that he comes to our meetings with the hope that he will get convincing evidence. We have been working with him a lot to talk about what faith is, turn him to the scriptures and prayer in order to get his own personal "evidence" because really that is the only kind of evidence we can give him, is to help him have his own spiritual experiences.
Then V from English, he is a little contentious and gets in little arguments with the members we have on lessons sometimes. We had an interesting experience with him yesterday. He brought a friend to our lesson, who was being very contentious and even rude to us. and V really stepped up and defended us and our faith and what we were teaching, so I think that could have been a really pivotal moment in his conversion.
A, Z and V all made it to church this week.
Well that is really what we have been up to this week. It's been nice to be busy with all of them and our other usual business.
We took one of the inactive members who we work with to the Noels for dinner this week and that was a really good time. It made everyone happy because the Noels wanted to meet more of the inactive young members and we love Sister Noel's cooking so it was good for everyone.
Well I think that is about all I've got this week. Have a good one.
Elder Topham
We were having a really good week with P. We set a goal this week and made a plan that he would quit smoking starting Saturday afternoon. He said the next morning would be the hardest, so we thought it was great because we would we with him in the morning and do a lesson before church, then he would be at church during that time. And right after that he could go to his daughters birthday party and keep himself occupied. We planned a lesson about fasting and started teaching, and he just taught us basically, he said he already read about it in the back of the scriptures, and he already knew everything, it was really amazing. We ran into a little bump because later in the week he called us and said that he had just read about tithing and wasn't sure that he could be able to do that. We agreed to talk about it in the next lesson. Everything was going really well and when we talked to him on Saturday he had officially quit smoking and everything was good for Sunday, but then Sunday came around and he just never showed up and never answered his phone. I'm worried that he gave in Sunday morning and was too ashamed to talk to us, I don't know why else he would have disappeared like that. So we will try to get in touch with him and show our love and support.
A is still chugging along, we see him about once a week. He came to church this week and fasted to receive an answer so that is a big step for him.
M wants to be baptized, but hasn't committed to a date, he was sick this Sunday so we didn't see him this weekend.
We have two other solid investigators. I'm really grateful that we have a good pool of people to teach, a pool this size has been pretty rare for my mission. It's made it a really good time when you can lose yourself in studying and praying for others. That is hard to do with few or no investigators.
Z is a guy that describes himself as a "realist" so he can't believe in things he doesn't have evidence for. He really likes everything that we teach and says that he comes to our meetings with the hope that he will get convincing evidence. We have been working with him a lot to talk about what faith is, turn him to the scriptures and prayer in order to get his own personal "evidence" because really that is the only kind of evidence we can give him, is to help him have his own spiritual experiences.
Then V from English, he is a little contentious and gets in little arguments with the members we have on lessons sometimes. We had an interesting experience with him yesterday. He brought a friend to our lesson, who was being very contentious and even rude to us. and V really stepped up and defended us and our faith and what we were teaching, so I think that could have been a really pivotal moment in his conversion.
A, Z and V all made it to church this week.
Well that is really what we have been up to this week. It's been nice to be busy with all of them and our other usual business.
We took one of the inactive members who we work with to the Noels for dinner this week and that was a really good time. It made everyone happy because the Noels wanted to meet more of the inactive young members and we love Sister Noel's cooking so it was good for everyone.
Well I think that is about all I've got this week. Have a good one.
Elder Topham
And some of us at Stolby. The blue jacket is one of our investigators.
