Helloooo Family! –week 12

Sorry about last Wednesday’s busted internet line. I’m still in Lawrence and things have really picked up since last Thursday. We had Elder Watson (wrote most of Preach My Gospel) and Brother Allen (head of mission dept) come in to talk about the Truth Restored program and the fact that it’s not working. So we got retrained and we have four months left to really show the members how to use it, not just hand out
pass-a-long cards, or else poor Brother Allen is accountable for a lot of wasted tithing money. We have been trying our hardest to use the questions of the soul and things have been going really great.

I love Sundays! Yesterday was awesome. Church had started, there were no investigators and as soon as I stopped preoccupying myself about who was supposed to come and how we’re going to get them there next week. Fernando and Luis came in with Brother Markham! It was great. Brother Markham translated for them and Brother Wauneka was there to talk to them for a a while afterwards and we got them Spanish Himnos and sung in Spanish with them and then we had Sunday school and Hermana Raber had gotten visual aides (I’d called ahead) for the class and there was another nonmember Spanish-speaking friend of a member there from out of town. He asked awesome questions in the lesson about Prophets and there were about 20 people in the Spanish Sunday School class, even the bishop…so I’m pretty excited. We’d spent four weeks trying to get these brothers to church and it went great, because in those four weeks they had members visit them and had read parts of the Book of Mormon and had prayed with us and seen us every few days, it’s almost like training or practicing for a game. After we took Margloria to church that one time and she stopped talking to us I learned people need prep. There are rarely second chances given in missionary work. When the Gutierrez brothers walked in I felt like yelling “Gooool!” We’d run back and forth across the field at least four times and taken four shots and we finally got one in.:-)

So that was church, then we rushed home to eat, because we were going to the Craigs and they were taking us and a member coworker/friend to the Visitor Center in Independence. (Yes, I took pictures). It was great, because they are such a kind older couple, and Brother Craigs said himself, “I’m old and set in my ways. It takes a long time to change and you girls are very different.” So to have them out of the house and into a place where he could SEE the concepts we’re trying to teach and not
just hear them was so nice. Plus, I had never been there before, so that was really neat. The missionary who gave the tour was Sister Gerber and in that setting he was more willing to listen and tangent off less. He’s a good story-teller, but it makes it hard to explain anything sometimes. The Spirit was there and they really like the Christus and the “God’s Plan for His Family” exhibit and were talking about bringing their kids and grandkids to take pictures. He opened up about how much respect he’d
had for the member we brought with us, before she really even knew him, so that’s really great when people find out they are seen as an “example of the believers,” because you never know who’s watching and rare to ever find out.

We get home and it’s the next big adventure. We missed our dinner appointment (we called) and we were off with the Miles to go teach Mario and Elsira, Fernando’s boss that he had referred us to. They were in Witchita, or so Fernando told us, and so we asked if we could interrupt the tv and teach them instead. It was good. Sister Miles shared the experience of how much faith was required in adopting a son from Eastern Europe. And when I asked Fernando for an example of how he had felt blessed in his life, he said last summer, working on a roof, he fell two stories to the ground and did not get hurt….I agreed that was a blessing. I should have extended better commitments, but it’s hard to talk about baptism when I know he can’t get baptized until he goes to Mexico or gets residency. We can’t baptize anyone breaking the law.

In fact, we had an appointment right after that with the McCoys, but she was still out of town and even though they want to get baptized and are studying and he’s almost quit smoking, he told us the night before he’s on probation til 2009 for bad checks. 3 checks, three felonies. We called President Hacking and he couldn’t get baptized until after he gets off probation. So its good he’ll have plenty of time to prepare, but it’s sad he has to wait and is going to have a lot of trials with his
family still. He could really use the Gift of the Holy Ghost right about now.

I’ve discovered a cancelled/dogged appointment means (1.)We didn’t teach with power the first time and/or (2.) the Lord wants us somewhere else. So after teaching a lesson with mostly Sister Miles in Spanish we went to go recontact a Ukranian family with Brother Miles who served his mission there. The Voroms are a wonderful family. They have 12 kids, 9 at home and we had first contacted their daughter Olga. The mom is only 44 and has lived in the States for 14 yrs and Lawrence for a few months. She was talking about Spiritual promptings and how after this life there will really just be one church, they had a lot of beliefs in common, as well as some kind of quirky things from the old country. The dad was SURE Lenin was a Mormon ?. You know the bad guy in the batman cartoons with dark hair and the stripey beard in the bright blue eyes who’s always after the elixir of life? He looks just like that. They really opened up a bit with Brother Miles there and I’m excited to go back and we need to be oh so so so careful to teach exactly what the Lord wants, because they’re on the fence tipping towards the opposite side. They’ve undergone a lot though. They both have undergone serious post-Chernobyl cancer surgery and I imagine there is a lot of faith involved in raising 12 kids. She reminds me of a general more than a housewife. God has real plans for them.

It was so cool having a Spanish and a Ukrainian lesson in one night. Brother Miles had a Ukrainian Book of Mormon for them, they said they’d give it a shot. Like I said, we’re really focusing on working with the ward members. Teamups is part of that and dinner is not just for dinner anymore. It’s helping the members help their friends to find something in the gospel that will help them with their life. Something to invite them to come unto Christ and His restored gospel, through faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the Gift of the
Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. I’m excited.

Love you lots,
Hermana Deb

ps Sorry I haven't been writing to specific friends or loves-of-my-life
via email, but I've been told email is to the family only, and just
forwarded to others. Just wanted you to know you are still loved, not
snubbed. I will write out snailmail today. Mom are your forwarding
these to Patty as well as Kellen? Dilly whats your address?

The internet went down and Deb had to resort to writing home old school style. Click to enlarge either image.