Busy Week - Lots of Teaching

This week was probably one of the busiest weeks I have been a part of. We started off the week playing some good kickball, nothing too crazy. We had an all-day zone conference, which somehow I got signed up to conduct. It was amazing, as always, to hear the wise words of President Dymock. He also trained us on how Christ accomplished the Atonement by using multiple dimensions. Needless to say I was scooping my brains up off the floor after the meeting. We also had a stake coordination meeting with the stake presidency and President Dymock. On top of that, Elder Nickerson and I were asked to speak in Sacrament meeting. There was a lot to keep us busy this week!

Now for the part that I actually enjoy - we got to teach a lot of people this week. We had dinner with the Hassnawi family at a member of the Stake Presidency's house. We taught about prophets and the Bible. Things are going really well with them. They didn't get to church this week, but we are hoping for next week.

Larry B - he is the man! We taught him the Word of Wisdom and he immediately surrendered all of his alcohol, coffee, and tea. (Elder Nickerson is 21, don't worry.) So we disposed off all of it. He had his baptismal interview with a member of our mission presidency due to his questionable past and was cleared for baptism. Also another plus ...  Larry hasn't smoked anymore meth. We need to get this man the gift of the Holy Ghost stat!

The Poitra boys are still doing well. We had a member bring them to church; they slept through all of sacrament meeting but loved primary and young mens. 

Sweet story of the week: I was on exchanges with my old pal Elder MacDonald; he was a former assistant to the president and now is a district leader in our zone.  We had a goal to find 3 new investigators this week. It was Friday and we had 0. We had only one available hour in our schedule. So we prayed and prayed our guts out. We went to check up with a former investigator who we lost contact with. We caught her at the right time. She was a Jehovah's Witness for a long time. She said she really regrets raising her kids that way because they turned out weird, haha. Anyway, we taught her and she was pretty moved by the Joseph Smith story. She asked us to come back on Monday and said that she will read the Book of Mormon. We called her yesterday to confirm our appointment for tonight. As we talked, she was like, "Oh and by the way, I went to your church this morning with Sandra (one of the less-active members)."  She attended a neighboring ward on her own! I was pretty floored. Cool little miracle there. :)

We have 8 people on date for baptism and the ward is getting all excited. They also liked our Sacrament meeting talks yesterday. We got invited over for a bunch of dinners right after. It is nice to see some member excitement. The first month was rough with the members. Don't worry though, we'll get em.  

-E.Rapier

She actually seems quite interested

Elders Nickerson and Rapier with Larry

"I Ended up Smoking Meth"

What another good week from Spokane!

Elder Nickerson and I got some serious work put in. The week started with and all day leadership meeting. I know one thing, God speaks to people today. A huge standout from general conference was personal revelation. I know under each stewardship, there is revelation to be had. (I will get into stories in a minute). We received inspired training from President Dymock.

We also taught the Hassnawi family again!! They are doing so well. They came to church again on Sunday, that was interesting with all of the changes that took place. It was pretty confusing for them, but they got invited by one of our members to come over for dinner on Wednesday. They thought that priesthood keys were literal and physical, that roused quite the discussion during Elders Quorum. Especially when one of our members starting spouting some questionable doctrine about physical symbolism and the distribution of keys. 

Wednesday we taught Caren G again. We were super hopeful for her, then she got pneumonia and couldn't come to church... Bummer. But she is very humble and accepting of the teachings. She will continue to be on the radar. 

Oh boy - here is quite the story about Larry B. So he is supposed to get baptized in 3 weeks and we have been meeting with him 2 times a week and teaching him. We call him almost daily to read the Book of Mormon with him and review the lessons. He lives in probably one of the worst parts of Hilliard and does not have the best friends. He said he is a former drug addict, but he had been clean. 

Anyway, he has been coming to church and he likes it, but he is also a little (a lot) crazy. So we taught him about the word of wisdom this week. He dropped all of his habits immediately (that never happens, by the way) then we taught him about tithing, fasting, and fast offerings. Sunday he showed up with 3 bags of groceries as his fast offerings. One of them was just for him and he didn't have room in his freezer, so he wanted to stash it in the church, haha. 

So we are sitting next to each other in Sacrament meeting. Elder Nickerson is a few rows up with the Hassnawi family and their fellowshipping family. So it is me, Larry B, and this little primary girl investigator to my left. It is also fast Sunday and the testimonies being shared are super off topic, confusing, and not great. I am already stressed out because we have a bunch of investigators there and they are witnessing something between Baptist preaching and Pentecostal speaking in tongues. Also, the little girl investigator to my left is being loud and her parents aren't there, so I am having to be a 1-man entertainment system. 

Can you picture all of this? Then Larry B turns to me and says, "If I pass out, check my heart beat" and I was like, "What?" He tells me that he let this homeless friend stay at his place the night before and ... "long story short I ended up smoking meth with him."  I was like, "Dang it Larry, come on man."  Then he told me his friend had mixed some sort of arsenic or poison into the meth and that the Lord had appeared and told him he was going to die. He then starts motioning to the front of the chapel and said, "Oh, there it is... I can already feel it sparking. There is my grandma's spirit over there."  I'm thinking to myself, "Is this actually happening right now?"  Well, it did, and Larry is still alive. So that happened. I got home from church and collapsed. That was seriously the most stressful 3 hours of my week.

Here is the last experience: We called a potential investigator to set up a return appointment, not sure why but we felt like we should schedule it for Sunday at 5, even though that is usually when we take dinner. So we got there and called the guy and he had forgotten about the appointment and so we rescheduled and we were walking away, and we waved to this guy across the street. Upon realizing who it was, I was floored. It was Eric Sims who came to church and we hadn't been able to contact him for 3 weeks. We struck up a conversation and he invited us into his apartment and we got to teach him and he accepted an invitation to be baptized :)  Definitely inspiration that we were there when we were. 

I know God is real. I know his light is powerful. I thank you all for your support :) Love ya

-E.Rapier

Helping out in the community by leveling a field