Another Day in Paradise

Last night I learned how to make fried chicken. Like legit fried chicken. I'll make you some sometime if you so desire. There is a recent convert family in the ward that takes pretty good care of all the missionaries. Every couple of weeks they have us all over and feed us really delicious food. The grandma isn't a member but has been around the church and had missionaries for like 20 years. All of us are slowly but surely working on her. When we have dinner over there Sister S and I try to go a little bit early to help her or just stand around in the kitchen while she is cooking and talk to her about life and the gospel while she is cooking. Usually they are just little gospel messages thrown in here and there since she is a tough cookie and doesn't always want to hear it, but I think it is helping. Her daughter who was recently baptized with her children (they live with her) says that all the grandma really needs is lots and lots of love from us, so that is what we are trying to do. I think it is working pretty well.

Remember when I told you about W, the media referral who was baptized right before I got here after teaching himself everything about the church on mormon.org? We go over and visit him a few times a week, and mostly he teaches us. He is a bright dude. The other day we were over and invited his little sister who he brought to church a couple weeks ago to come and talk with us. Somehow it turned into a first lesson and somehow and the end we invited her to be baptized. The spirit was SO strong. Like, so dang strong. She committed and said she was ready to change her life and be better. It was really cool. W was beaming! He got so so excited that he would be able to baptize her. Things are going good with her. Unfortunately she didn't want to get up on Sunday morning so she didn't come to church. That means her baptism will be pushed back another week, but I am certain that it will happen. W is such a good example of how the gospel changes lives and he knows what is right and what she needs to do. He will help her get there.

Last week I told you about a part member couple in the ward who came to the Spanish branch, right? We visited with them earlier this week and the husband who isn't a member didn't really want anything to do with talking to us, so we just met with his wife. Yesterday they came to church again and we set up an appointment to go see them last night. As we were getting out of the car I had this feeling to take in the sheet music that I have and play it for them (they are super musical, both teach music) for a little minute I had an internal struggle with it as I didn't want to just go in and plop down on the piano and start playing but I figured if the spirit prompted I should probably do it. We went in and again the husband didn't really want to talk to us but I asked if he would come in and listen to a song we wanted to share with them. I played and Sister S and I sang together. We are def not very good and it sounded kind of terrible but the spirit was there for sure. After wards we sat down and although he tried to change the subject a million times we were able to talk to him about some good stuff. Sister S read a scripture about the doctrine of Christ. That led into a conversation about baptism and the importance of it which somehow turned into a great big awesome lesson about the restoration and the priesthood. It was awesome. Man, the spirit was so strong. I could tell he could feel it. He committed to pray about the priesthood and if baptism is something that needs to happen by the priesthood. He asked at the end how he will know if God is answering his prayers. He sincerely wanted to know. It was awesome. We were able to testify of the spirit, share with him how it might feel/how he would know, and promise that he would receive an answer. He just kind of looked and me and then back at the floor and nodded his head. He felt it. He knows it. I know that he will accept the gospel soon and be baptized. I can’t wait for it. I can't wait until they can go to the temple together. It was so awesome. Man, I love this work.

Another day in paradise