It Has Been a Good One 5/13/2013

     It is a good time to be a missionary in Spokane.  The weather is beautiful, people are out, and it's nice to be able to be out talking with people.  With the split of our area, it has been a little slower of a week as far as lessons are concerned, but we still did pretty well.  

     This last week, we had a lesson with Vern, who is a less active.  We've been working with him for  a while now, and he came to church for the first time since we have been teaching him.  He is a great guy and has a very positive attitude about life.  He really enjoyed church and informed us that he was looking forward  to getting active again in the church.

     We have had some more success with Heather as well.  We were reading 1 nephi 8, and as we were reading, some great concerns of hers came out that have helped us in knowing how we might be able to help her continue to progress.  The family is sooo close to baptism, they are keeping commitments.  We are just afraid that if they wait too long at this stage, it will give satan time to discourage them and change their minds.

     So I may have said before that people are flaky in Spokane.  This week was no exception.  We had two church tours with people scheduled that had no-shows, and at least two other families off the top of my head that we were supposed to meet that just weren't home.  

     We have been praying and working real hard to find a solid new investigator, and we have had some good luck with that this last week.  After calling home yesterday, we went over to a part member families home to invite them to take the missionary discussions.  As it turned out, they had decided to go to church even today for mothers day, so it was perfect timing to go.  The wife (I don't remember her name) is Ukrainian and moved to the states about 10 years ago, so she has a pretty thick accent.  After we got to know them a little bit we were able to talk about the church and invited the family to take the lessons.  They accepted and we are going back on Wednesday.  The husband (I don't remember his name either) who is the member, seemed real excited to have that opportunity, he jumped right at our invitation.  So we pray that they will still be interested.  

     Another finding miracle came earlier in the week as we were tracting an apartment complex.  We knocked into this guy who was real nice and open.  We were able to teach him a brief lesson on the restoration and give him a Book of Mormon.  He is going into surgery this week, but he wants us to come back and talk to him more.

     Thats about it for the week.  It has been a good one.  I love it here in Spokane, I love the people here.  Thanks again for all your support.  Love you all and have a great week=)

Prepared People Find Us 4/29/2013

Hey everyone how are things for you all?  We had a wonderful week full of great miracles.  After having some slower weeks of teaching, things are really picking up and we have found some great people who are totally prepared.  Or I guess you could say that they found us.  Let me explain.

     On Saturday, we received a call from a member who was cleaning the church building.  Some guy had just walked in asking for a copy of the Book of Mormon.  We shot right over there to talk to him and give him a Book of Mormon.  He told us his story and past with the church.  When he was 17, he was taking the discussions from the missionaries, and was preparing to be baptized, but his parents didn't approve of that, so he didn't follow through with it.  Now he is 20 and can make his own decisions, and he told us he wants to start learning again so he can be baptized.  We tried taking him on a church tour right then, but he had to go, so we are going to meet with him this week.

     Our other finding miracle this week came yesterday.  Yesterday was stake conference.  It was over at noon, but elder Cisternas and I had to talk with President Mullen, and some sister missionaries were taking one of their investigators on a church tour, so we were there still after most people had left.  This woman came walking through the door and told us she was looking for a different church to go to and wanted to check out the LDS church.  She looked up the church's website and looked for the closest meeting house and meeting time.  She came for the 1 o'clock sacrament time, but, since it was stake conference, there was not sacrament.  We invited her to tag along the sisters church tour and she accepted.  They taught her the Restoration and she was totally interested, had good questions, and committed to read the Book of Mormon.  We are also going to meet with her this week.  Just so you know, I LOVE YSA work.  Serving in a YSA ward is a pretty unique, but awesome experience. (they are bothYSA’s)

     Heather seems to be softening as far as commitments are concerned, so we are going to be bringing up baptism again when we meet with her this week, so keep her in your prayers=)

     Oh, one other miracle we had.  Michael Rucker is a guy missionaries have been working with for a long time, but he is super busy with baseball, he is a pitcher for Gonzaga.  He had been so busy we dropped him because we couldn't meet with him.  Last Sunday, he showed up randomly at church and informed us he wasn't playing for Gonzaga any more.  He really wants to be baptized, but has family issues with making that commitment.  He is planning on going to BYU next semester and playing baseball for them.  We want to get him baptized before he goes home between semesters so he can have the blessings now, but he is sincere enough that I'm pretty confidant that he will eventually join either way. 

     So that's about it from this week.  We have seen so many great things happen and I love being here.  I love you all and pray for you.  Hope you have a great day and a great week=) 

Elder Stacey