July 1, 2013

Family,

 

Another good week here in Pittsburgh! This week was a little tougher than the last, but I am learning so much!

 

We had zone conference on Wednesday which was really good. A lot of it was focused on how to improve our teaching since our numbers are showing a lot of new investigators with only a small number of them actually getting baptized. With so many new missionaries, we have some training after they've only been out six weeks, which explains why our teaching isn't as effective as it could be. I really hope that doesn't happen to me, but I'm working hard to learn the ropes around here just in case. My musical number went well by the way! It definitely wasn't one of my best performances, but I didn't totally embarrass myself which was the goal. We weren't able to practice it all the way through until the day of because I didn't have a pianist. Luckily Sister Topham is amazing and was able to step in and accompany me last minute.

 

We had lessons with both Barbara (old lady with baptism date) and Chelsea (Pitt student) this week! We taught Chelsea the first lesson, and I think it went really well! I know I felt the Spirit during it. She was very open and liked what we had to say, and she said she was very interested in coming to church. She also randomly brought up infant baptism and how she didn't agree with it, so we were able to read in Moroni with her about that...she was very excited we had similar beliefs about it. Unfortunately she didn't come to church yesterday, but we are definitely going to get her there! We were pumped because we had three investigators planning on coming to church, and then none of them showed up. I guess that's just how it goes sometimes! Anyway, I think right now Chelsea is just curious what our beliefs are, but we can work with that. Our lesson with Barbara also went well! I don't know if I mentioned this in my last email, but it is extremely hard to get through a lesson with her because she talks so much. That's something I've realized about Pennsylvanians in general--they love to talk about random things they think relate to the lesson when they actually don't. Haha, I'm definitely learning patience :) Still, in our last lesson we were able to address the two things we wanted to emphasize with her: Prophets and the Holy Ghost. We had left a Conference Ensign with her the week before, and we found out she read almost all of it. She told us she especially loved President Monson's talk, which we were excited about. Her testimony of a modern day prophet is being strengthened! We also talked about the Holy Ghost because she has made some comments about how she wishes she could receive a sign that would let her know what to do. We talked more about how we can recognize the promptings of the Holy Ghost, and she seemed to understand. She is still planning on getting baptized in September, but hopefully we'll be able to move that up.

 

Last week we had a meeting with Bishop that kind of threw us for a loop. He told us that the majority of the less-active people we've been working with need to be taken care of by the Elder's Quorum and Relief Society now. I agree with him because we weren't really getting anywhere with them, but this means we have to completely start over in finding people to teach. This area just opened to missionaries when my companion got here a couple months ago, so we have a lot of work to do. Most of the active members in our ward live in the Elder's area, which means we have very little access to member referrals. Yesterday we talked to the Elders about possibly expanding our area to make things more even, so Sister Strate and I are going to pray about it this week to know what to do. It's hard because there is a lot of work to be done in the area we have now, but tracting so far has been ineffective. We realize that these things take time, especially in an area that just opened...We're just going to work our hardest this week and Heavenly Father will help us know what to do.

 

I had quite a humbling experience with a woman we met named MaryAnn. She is homeless (I think she's living in some sort of halfway house), and suffers from mental disability. She has had a pretty hard life...abused as a kid, drug addiction, and her only son wants nothing to do with her. We met her through our friend Special K, another homeless man haha, who told us to come talk to her because she was sad. When we met her she was just beside herself with all that was going on in her life. Sister Strate asked her if we could share some lessons that would give her comfort, and she accepted the invitation. In my mind, I felt bad for this poor woman and wanted to give her some comfort, but teaching her the lessons seemed kind of pointless to me, and I wasn't sure why my companion was so set on it. My mission president had told us not to baptize "less-active members", which was what it felt like we were trying to do. While this is an important principle, I was soon humbled during a lesson on Charity in Sunday school. I thought, what would Jesus Christ have done in my situation? Would he have disregarded this woman because she probably wouldn't become an active member of the church? Would he have ignored her because of her circumstances? Of course not! When Christ appeared to the Nephites he said, "Have ye any that are sick among you? Bring them hither. Have ye any that are lame, or blind, or halt, or maimed, or leprous, or that are withered, or that are deaf, or that are afflicted in any manner? Bring them hither and I will heal them, for I have compassion upon you; my bowels are filled with mercy." (3 Nephi 17:7) Christ didn't just acknowledge the afflicted as he passed them, but he called out for them! Everything he did was motivated by love and compassion. In that moment I was motivated by a personal desire to find success, instead of sincere compassion and concern for this woman. We taught her about the Atonement and repentance for which she was appreciative. Will there be another lesson? I don't know. But thanks to my companion, we were able to give MaryAnn a little bit of healing she needed.

 

I'm learning that a mission can be hard, but so rewarding. We just gotta keep the faith and keep on working. I love you guys!