05/07:
Last night was pretty special. We've been losing ground with Andy recently...not seeing him as much, and he missed his first Sunday of church in 2.5 months this week, and even when he's at church, he skips on the 2nd and 3rd hours (I don't get what's wrong with them there). To boot, he's waiting for a promised answer to his prayers about whether or not he should get baptized, and we're not sure we should have promised it. The lesson last night, however, changed it all. It went more or less like this:
1. Do you believe you need faith to receive answers to your prayers?
2. Faith is believe plus action.
3. Ether 12:6 -- What do you think it means by "trial of your faith"? It means to see whether or not you'd put your faith into action on your own.
4. There are just two obstacles between you and baptism: getting your mother's permission and being interviewed. Though you're praying, you need to also be DOING something to receive an answer. As you start working on these things now, you'll receive a confirmation that what you're doing is right.
5. First, we need to get permission from your mom. What are you going to say when you call her? (We pretty much role-played him asking his mom for permission)
6. Reviewed Nephi getting the brass plates and the fact that he had to do a couple tries, put forth an effort and do it the Lord's way. It might be the same way in asking permission to be baptized.
7. So what will you do if she says no? (not give up)
8. What will you do if she says yes? Will you be baptized May 10th?
It was SO GREAT to do this lesson. I especially loved the last part, because after we asked the first question, he smiled and said, "I'll tell her thank you." And then when we asked the second question, he said yes. WE'RE SO STOKED!!! We fasted today and he'll call her tonight. So...we might have a baptism this weekend!
We also had quite the miracle with Adelino. We finally dropped him because, as sincere an individual as he is, he's dealing with layers of emotional stuff and problems at home that he's letting interfere with his pursuit of the gospel. He and Sister Williams had a cry session where they both kind of shared the fact that their lives stink right now, and we afterwards realized we couldn't keep pushing him because it was getting nowhere. Fortunately, Geovanni is the world's best fellowshipper, and they've been hanging out. Then, out of the blue, Adelino got a job, he found out his parents' health is improving, and all of the other yucky stuff that's been happening disapated for no apparent reason. He called and, from the bottom of his heart, thanked us for being so consistent and dependable and patient and for helping him so much. He also told us that he talked to his mom about getting baptized (he's 26 so he doesn't need permission, but evidently he wants her blessing). She wasn't excited about it, but said he could. Then, and I don't know where this came from, he decided he's going to stay in the US, and seems really excited about it. He expressed his surprise at finding a church where the people are so supportive, and plans on putting down roots in it. YIKES! Is this the same Adelino who's too shy to talk to anyone in public? WHAT HAPPENED?! So, we've had two major miracles.
And I told you about the smackdown is Pompilio last week. From that night, we hardcore committed him to attending the church's addiction recovery program with us on Tuesday. We got to his house about 15 minutes later than planned (because we were teaching an unexpected lesson to a new investigator) and he wasn't home and his phone was off. We were pretty darn unhappy. So we sat beside the house for some 10 minutes more working on the note to leave explaining that we were done teaching him unless he were to straighten up this, that and the other things. Lo and behold, what should happen, but he drove up with the uncle and he had to walk right by us on his way to the apartment. I guess he had just been working and decided not to go, and he looked SO GUILTY when he saw us. He approached us and I cut off his greeting with, "Don't say anything because we don't want to hear it." He did absolutely the right thing by simply asking if it was too late to go. It wasn't, of course, so as we tried to simmer down, he put on a new shirt inside and, to our everlast astonishment, came out WITH THE UNCLE! I don't know how much I've shared about the uncle in the past, but Geovanni hates him because he's pretty rotten to him. Rumor is he came to take care of Andy because Pompilio isn't capable. When we first came over after his arrival, he left the house through the bedroom window. From there, he graduated to walking through the house on his way out without looking at or talking to us. From there, he would say hello, then actually sat in on a lesson, then out of the blue, followed Pompilio impromtu INTO THE CHURCH to attend a DRUG ADDICTION PROGRAM. We shot baskets in the gym during their meeting, and a handful of times I had to stop and be astounded by the fact that the uncle was in the church. Actually in the church. The next night, he fully participated in a lesson for Pompilio about tithing and was a pretty amazing non-member joint teacher. He's got A LOT of knowledge about the scriptures, and put it to good use as he put Pompilio in his place about being selfish with his money. By the end of the lesson, Pompilio seemed a little excited to pay tithing.
Sister Williams is losing steam big time. She's hardly contacted the past two days, although she's participating more in lessons. To her, the gospel has become a giant, judgmental monster damning disobedient souls to eternal misery when everything that we all do could be construed as sin. She wants to stop thinking about right and wrong and what she's supposed to do about it, and just be a person in the midst of other people. She said a while ago that to retain sanity, she just has to tell herself that everyone's going to heaven. Pretty amazingly, that's exactly what the restored gospel teaches, and I pointed that out. I'm going to print off Elder Cook's talk from conference; we were watching it in Spanish and she didn't get most of it. Ours is the ONLY Christian philosophy of which I'm aware that says that everyone goes to heaven and gives us the individuality of creating our own heaven according to what we truly want to become. We've had this conversation a couple dozen times, but it isn't sinking in for her. I don't know how to make it make sense to her head and her heart. I'm afraid she's going to go home soon.
We've had some amazing experiences this week, and I'm including some pictures to prove it. We had a rain/hail storm with thunder and lightening Tuesday afternoon, so we went out and played in it. Sister Williams has a clip on her camera of me belting "Singing in the Rain" with all appropriate footwork and twirling. I have footage of her rocking out in her own way : ) We went to the science museum and took the world's coolest pictures in front of a light display. We also threw a surprise birthday party for Geovanni in the hospital parking lot (they visited Hno Laureano with us again (they're going to be the best home teachers!) where we played Phase 10). And we got a new mission car.
Oh yeah, and we didn't get to do our booth at Cinco de Mayo even though it would have been AWESOME. President Howell didn't feel good about it, so rather than going into the fiesta, we went unto the fiesta and talked to a steady stream of people on their way in to having a good time. We didn't bother talking to anyone on their way out because most of them were at least partially drunk. Anyway, we talked to over 500 people that day, and thoroughly exhausted ourselves. We'll see what comes of it.
Love you all. Mum, we did get the package and Sister Williams uses one of the stuffed animals to sleep with, and the other to hold on her lap as she drives. All of the materials are going to good use, including the glitter gel which was used to decorate Geovanni's birthday hat. Thank you so much for being so sweet and thoughtful!
Love,
Sister Hoffman
1. Do you believe you need faith to receive answers to your prayers?
2. Faith is believe plus action.
3. Ether 12:6 -- What do you think it means by "trial of your faith"? It means to see whether or not you'd put your faith into action on your own.
4. There are just two obstacles between you and baptism: getting your mother's permission and being interviewed. Though you're praying, you need to also be DOING something to receive an answer. As you start working on these things now, you'll receive a confirmation that what you're doing is right.
5. First, we need to get permission from your mom. What are you going to say when you call her? (We pretty much role-played him asking his mom for permission)
6. Reviewed Nephi getting the brass plates and the fact that he had to do a couple tries, put forth an effort and do it the Lord's way. It might be the same way in asking permission to be baptized.
7. So what will you do if she says no? (not give up)
8. What will you do if she says yes? Will you be baptized May 10th?
It was SO GREAT to do this lesson. I especially loved the last part, because after we asked the first question, he smiled and said, "I'll tell her thank you." And then when we asked the second question, he said yes. WE'RE SO STOKED!!! We fasted today and he'll call her tonight. So...we might have a baptism this weekend!
We also had quite the miracle with Adelino. We finally dropped him because, as sincere an individual as he is, he's dealing with layers of emotional stuff and problems at home that he's letting interfere with his pursuit of the gospel. He and Sister Williams had a cry session where they both kind of shared the fact that their lives stink right now, and we afterwards realized we couldn't keep pushing him because it was getting nowhere. Fortunately, Geovanni is the world's best fellowshipper, and they've been hanging out. Then, out of the blue, Adelino got a job, he found out his parents' health is improving, and all of the other yucky stuff that's been happening disapated for no apparent reason. He called and, from the bottom of his heart, thanked us for being so consistent and dependable and patient and for helping him so much. He also told us that he talked to his mom about getting baptized (he's 26 so he doesn't need permission, but evidently he wants her blessing). She wasn't excited about it, but said he could. Then, and I don't know where this came from, he decided he's going to stay in the US, and seems really excited about it. He expressed his surprise at finding a church where the people are so supportive, and plans on putting down roots in it. YIKES! Is this the same Adelino who's too shy to talk to anyone in public? WHAT HAPPENED?! So, we've had two major miracles.
And I told you about the smackdown is Pompilio last week. From that night, we hardcore committed him to attending the church's addiction recovery program with us on Tuesday. We got to his house about 15 minutes later than planned (because we were teaching an unexpected lesson to a new investigator) and he wasn't home and his phone was off. We were pretty darn unhappy. So we sat beside the house for some 10 minutes more working on the note to leave explaining that we were done teaching him unless he were to straighten up this, that and the other things. Lo and behold, what should happen, but he drove up with the uncle and he had to walk right by us on his way to the apartment. I guess he had just been working and decided not to go, and he looked SO GUILTY when he saw us. He approached us and I cut off his greeting with, "Don't say anything because we don't want to hear it." He did absolutely the right thing by simply asking if it was too late to go. It wasn't, of course, so as we tried to simmer down, he put on a new shirt inside and, to our everlast astonishment, came out WITH THE UNCLE! I don't know how much I've shared about the uncle in the past, but Geovanni hates him because he's pretty rotten to him. Rumor is he came to take care of Andy because Pompilio isn't capable. When we first came over after his arrival, he left the house through the bedroom window. From there, he graduated to walking through the house on his way out without looking at or talking to us. From there, he would say hello, then actually sat in on a lesson, then out of the blue, followed Pompilio impromtu INTO THE CHURCH to attend a DRUG ADDICTION PROGRAM. We shot baskets in the gym during their meeting, and a handful of times I had to stop and be astounded by the fact that the uncle was in the church. Actually in the church. The next night, he fully participated in a lesson for Pompilio about tithing and was a pretty amazing non-member joint teacher. He's got A LOT of knowledge about the scriptures, and put it to good use as he put Pompilio in his place about being selfish with his money. By the end of the lesson, Pompilio seemed a little excited to pay tithing.
Sister Williams is losing steam big time. She's hardly contacted the past two days, although she's participating more in lessons. To her, the gospel has become a giant, judgmental monster damning disobedient souls to eternal misery when everything that we all do could be construed as sin. She wants to stop thinking about right and wrong and what she's supposed to do about it, and just be a person in the midst of other people. She said a while ago that to retain sanity, she just has to tell herself that everyone's going to heaven. Pretty amazingly, that's exactly what the restored gospel teaches, and I pointed that out. I'm going to print off Elder Cook's talk from conference; we were watching it in Spanish and she didn't get most of it. Ours is the ONLY Christian philosophy of which I'm aware that says that everyone goes to heaven and gives us the individuality of creating our own heaven according to what we truly want to become. We've had this conversation a couple dozen times, but it isn't sinking in for her. I don't know how to make it make sense to her head and her heart. I'm afraid she's going to go home soon.
We've had some amazing experiences this week, and I'm including some pictures to prove it. We had a rain/hail storm with thunder and lightening Tuesday afternoon, so we went out and played in it. Sister Williams has a clip on her camera of me belting "Singing in the Rain" with all appropriate footwork and twirling. I have footage of her rocking out in her own way : ) We went to the science museum and took the world's coolest pictures in front of a light display. We also threw a surprise birthday party for Geovanni in the hospital parking lot (they visited Hno Laureano with us again (they're going to be the best home teachers!) where we played Phase 10). And we got a new mission car.
Oh yeah, and we didn't get to do our booth at Cinco de Mayo even though it would have been AWESOME. President Howell didn't feel good about it, so rather than going into the fiesta, we went unto the fiesta and talked to a steady stream of people on their way in to having a good time. We didn't bother talking to anyone on their way out because most of them were at least partially drunk. Anyway, we talked to over 500 people that day, and thoroughly exhausted ourselves. We'll see what comes of it.
Love you all. Mum, we did get the package and Sister Williams uses one of the stuffed animals to sleep with, and the other to hold on her lap as she drives. All of the materials are going to good use, including the glitter gel which was used to decorate Geovanni's birthday hat. Thank you so much for being so sweet and thoughtful!
Love,
Sister Hoffman