Its so nice to be writing to you this monday morning, the rain has finally receded and allowed for us to go visit a duck sanctuary today. Its kinda incredible to see all the different kinds of duck. And the member we brought showed us how to spot out the different ducks and what kinds would be the best to hunt. its pretty exciting to try spotting the difference in birds and its absolutely beautiful landscape. Im not much for sight seeing, but when you do come across something incredible, you can't help but marvel. Anyhow this week has been very solid and good week.
So this week the mission president and has been sending out many different kinds of letters discussing ways to be more obedient and to receive the most blessings we can get. So we made it a goal to improve 5 things each week. one for me was to start speaking to everyone I can. . . . . . . And I was a chicken! I didn't not completely meet that goal but I did increase dramatically. I started to just chatting with random people, at the store, library, even when getting gas. and guess what?? a man named Brett going to Los Angeles took a card and made a promise to call missionaries(he gave us his information, for if he came through he wanted to meet up maybe). hopefully that turns out good for the missionaries where ever he goes. But this week also has been a busy week. It seems that everyones life has gotten crammed with stuff lately making it hard to meet with people.
But the Fui family this week has ran into issues where the father has disagreed with the family going to our church and wants them to join his. The wife, not wanting to cause contention agreed, so we took this week to meet with him for the first time really. He is a VERY VERY large samoan man. he was very nice to us and the member we brought and we kinda discussed the reason for him wanting them to stop going and why he has not investigated himself. He explained how in his religion (his father was a preacher) he has seen miracles of healing and of casting out devils. And with his belief and in his culture it is very offensive and a sort of betrayal to change religions. And he feels...scared of reading or even touching the book of mormon...he feels something evil might come from it yet he will listen to us read it. and honestly he believes and thinks everything is good except that Joseph smith is a prophet and that the book of mormon is true. he still believes god speaks to us today, and jesus true church is established today. And the only way to help him overcome that is to get him to read the Book of Mormon....so frustrating but we are working on it slowly. I know time and hard work will help him. But for now he is willing to let them come to church like every other week so we take that as a cherry on top of this experience.
also this week we where able to meet with a women who we do a lot of service for. Her name is Mary Turner, I probably talked a little about her before but I will just mention more about it. so she is disabled women, she had polio and cannot walk or do anything that does not allow her chair in or around. So we do quite a lot of service for her, and she refused to really talk about gospel or hear lessons until this last time. When we finished cleaning her yard( 5 hour job) we came in and she tried teo give us a fat roll of money. We repeatedly told her no, then finally i took it......hahaha no I told her we didn't want money, but she could pay us back.....by listening to the lessons. she agreed but told us she wouldn't become a mormon. So we went over and shared probably one of the best lessons we have ever done, we talked about the restoration and the special mission each of us are here for and the trials we face are to strengthen us. We also shared our testimonies promising her blessings and that she could be with her daughter (who died of cancer) again. she listened very intently and took a book of mormon, she already scheduled for us to come back again for a lesson. And during this entire time her husband had been watching tv in the same room, he ended up shutting off the T.v. and turn to us and asked to join in. He also picked up a book of mormon and followed along. The best lesson ever!!! they still suggest they wont be mormon, but they took the book of mormon gladly and promise to do the challenges.
we also had a heck of a lot of tracting!! we where able to get several new people and families to teach this next week. we are very excited. Some of them probably wont show but others seem really promising. Feeling each different kind of spirit has changed how i look on teaching people. you really have to see how the spirit feels in each lesson and let it guide you on how to teach. A very valuable and hard-to-learn lesson. I hope This next week will be just as successful if not more and hey....i promise you learn new things every day, from everyone you meet. see you all next week!!! I hope to hear from you, ill get one out to each of you!!
elder HEckel
Elder SG1
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