Hola All Y'all: January 25th - Teach When You Find

Dear Family and Friends,

Yes we got snow (little late. I only like snow around Christmas time). Yes I got pictures. Yes I will send them. ;)

Had a great time applying the "teach when you find" part of the "teach when you find and find when you teach" rule this week (still improving on remembering to ask for referrals), hence we had the opportunity to share our testimonies and teach more than we normally do. Usually our May-We-Teach-Yous are the most impressive number, but this week it was our lessons and “BOMs given” numbers (not that those numbers were higher than may-we-teach-yous); Thanks to Heavenly Father we had many people who were willing to listen to us and discuss the Gospel with them if only briefly. I have made it a goal to continue being just as adamant about sharing the Book of Mormon with others even after Book of Mormon month ends though. :)

Here are some highlights/lessons learned from the week.

C. - cliche story of showing up at just the right time when she needed a boost in her life and had been reading the Bible looking for answers. Magic tricks with gospel principles were shown, testimonies were born, Books of Mormon were given, tears were shed, numbers were exchanged, and our day was made. Looking forward to seeing her soon. :)

A. and Husband- tracted into a man who was plenty kind though not too interested in religion. He invited us in to get warm and offered us some water bottles. He said his wife was very religious. Well, we were just getting to know him and what he believed a bit when she walked in. At first she seemed very wary of us and like she didn't want us there. She stood across from us, behind the other couch where her husband was and started asking oddly worded questions in an attempt to get us to slip up on doctrine and bash with us. I asked her a few times "What do you mean by that (exactly)?" so she would re-word her questions more simply because I just wasn't following what she was getting at initially. The last thing she asked about was true repentance and whether "Mormons" believe that in order for repentance to "count" do we have to commit not to do it again? I LOVE TALKING ABOUT THE ATONEMENT!!! So, we explained, it IS important to commit not to do that same sin again, and though we'll never be perfect and we may slip up again, we do believe that one of the steps of repentance is to do better and work harder to be more like Christ. She was quiet for a minute, nodded her head, and asked her husband if he'd offered us any hot chocolate. The Spirit really does soften hearts.

S. / M. Family- a lesson not to judge referrals and potentials by your first contact with them. The M. family was a referral that sounded golden and elect. When we actually got our schedules to align to go teach them last night, we found out her 'husband' had been deported last November, and she is more interested in talking about her problems than listening to our message about the Gospel. S. is a potential that we had an appointment with the same night as the M. family. We had to cancel, but we stopped by to say hi and find a new time to meet and get his number. Turns out he wants to find a Church to go to, change his attitude and how he thinks, and he wants to come closer to Christ. We thought he wasn't really interested at all when we first met him and that he was going to end up blowing us off or standing us up. Our expectations about these two were totally reversed from what reality ended up being, so it was a learning experience for me that everything that happens is the Lord's will and that everyone has their agency; I need to remember to be hopeful about each of the people we meet and teach, but not let my happiness ride on whether they accept the Gospel or not.

All in all, it's been a great week :)

Looking forward to inviting others to come unto Christ, according to their desire!

The Church is true, the Book is blue, and God loves you!!!

~Sister (Hermana) Laurel Martin