Hola! I hope that everyone has had another great week and that you have a Happy Valentine's Day tomorrow. For those of you who are going to try and do something special, good luck. :)
This past week has been quite a crazy one. We have had some up's, some down's, some realizations, and some very spiritual experiences! We have been busy...but that has been a great thing. Sometimes we have skipped a meal because we have had so many appointments. But this is like the one time in my life that I have actually been kinda happy to skip a meal (except for Fast Sunday, of course) :) all because we had some appointments. We got a lot of new investigators last week and so we had some return appointments with them. Unfortunately, none of them came to church and some of them might be dropping. But I have really learned a lot about the importance of the Spirit in teaching this week. I have come to realize that there is a complete difference between teaching a lesson and teaching a person. Agency is something that makes it impossible for us to make someone believe something.
One big experience was as we went to contact a referral who was the wife in the home. When we knocked the door, the husband answered and we asked for his wife, "B". Well, he immediately said, "Oh, we are Catholics so yeah...haha And at this door we did something different than all the other ones we knocked on. Instead of saying what a great message we bring, we asked him a few questions about himself and why his beliefs are important. We were persistent with him until after about 5-10 minutes talking at the door, he invited us in and we had an awesome lesson about the Plan of Salvation. It was very powerful. And so right there I realized that it's more important to teach people specifically than just a lesson. The way to really get to someone's heart is by asking them specific and inspired questions.
Later this week, we visited with another family that we knocked into last week. We had a pretty good lesson with them. But the mother told us that they have had many Jehovah's Witnesses and other religious people in their home before and have pushed them really hard to get baptized, so they weren't interested. Well, my companion and I didn't know this beforehand and I thought it was interesting that we actually never really talked about baptism with them. They said that they liked us because they feel we are friends to them and that we aren't there just to force them to do something or baptize them. haha Well, baptism is the goal, but we are there to first get to know them, then teach and invite. So we are hoping that eventually they will come to church and even be baptized! :)
Anyway, good week. Attached is a picture of a basketball rim built into a tree! haha Yep, that's how we roll here in Nebraska trailer parks. Gotta love it :) hahaha
Have a great week everyone. Thanks for your love, support, and example. It means a lot!
Love,
Elder Vawdrey
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