A Week of Finding!

Thumbs up to this great member!

What’s up everyone!? How was this past week for you all?? To be honest mine was extremely long!! Ha-ha.was it long for you guys as well?? A special shout out to my amazing sister, Lindsay who is going to have her beautiful baby girl tomorrow!! Good luck Linds… you’re going to do great and I know and have faith that God will watch over and protect you all :)

Okay well as for my new companion this week. Elder B** is from Oregon and has been out on his mission for about 10 months now.   Yes, like I said last week he was "born" here in this area, ward, and same apartment. Ha-ha so he had mixed emotions about returning back to this area. However a lot has changed since he last left so we have a lot of work to do here. To be honest this has been my hardest area yet for working with investigators, LAs etc. We really don’t have a teaching pool anymore. The majority of the people we have been teaching have just disappeared off from the face of the earth.  The family C** we found out some very shocking news which makes our job 10 times harder as missionaries to help them progress to baptism. We found out that the mom and dad aren’t married and have just been living together for the past 13 years and they feel they will keep it that way. This is very hard because the only way they can ever progress to baptism is by getting married. I haven't really had to deal with this issue a whole lot on my mission so this is going to be new for me. But I am ready to attempt the climb and challenge that the work of the Lord brings each day. We have been teaching their daughters and they have been progressing decently. They have great questions and love it when we come over to teach them.  We are still trying to determine if they really have interest in progressing.   R** has been reading and praying which is great! But says she hasn't received any confirmations so we will just be patient with her.

Great member in our ward

With our investigator G**, we have been fighting tooth and nail to try to set up and keep appointments with him, but he has been cancelling all this past week. There is some good news though, he texted us last night saying, "I have read the first 12 chapters of the first book of Nephi and it’s very interesting and I like reading it."  So that was great to hear so at least he has the desire to read! We told him to keep up the good work and to always pray before and after so that he can feel the promptings and confirmations from the spirit about the truthfulness of the book.

With the “sermon on the mount” kids we only had one sermon this past week and it wasn’t a very big one nor effective. We were able to talk to C**’s grandma about allowing her to come to church with us on Sundays which she very hesitantly said was okay.  She is very concerned how C** keeps going to so many different churches. I guess she has been going to her dad’s, some friend’s church, ours and one other church.  Her grandma has just told her to pick one and stay with her choice... PICK OURS!! Ha-ha. She is doing great though, I can promise you that she will be baptized within the next year if she continues to try to listen and come to church.  It’s just a really complex situation with her right now.

Stick Bug!

Okay so something new that happened to us was when Elder B** and I were out knocking doors on Friday night. We hadn't been having the best of success and we just decided to knock this super random house all the way on the bottom of the street. So we did and this 14 year old punk rock looking kid opens the door with his two friends. We shared our quick little message and asked if we could come in to talk for a little more. To my surprise, he said, “yes!”   We ended up teaching them from the “He Lives” video and it was the most awkward lesson of my life.  They just sat there staring at us as we stood in their living room talking since there weren't any seats for us. They weren't really responsive either which made things hard, but they said they would like to learn more next week about the Plan of Salvation which we explained. Hopefully, they are serious.  It would be amazing to have three more people to teach!

Our newest member R and her Aunt!

Wednesday night we had a Noche de Hogar at the Church and President Tew was the guest speaker for the night. To simplify the night in small words, I would just say, "success".  President Tew really is the best speaker I have ever listened to and learned from (even in Spanish).  He just destroyed it! The spirit there was undeniable as he taught on El Valor del Alma or the worth of the soul. It really did strengthen my testimony on how much God really does love each of us.

Well that’s it for me this week. I am praying for some success and tender mercies this week from the Lord.  Just remember that anything hard in life has to come with a price!  I love you all and wish the best of wishes to everyone!! Mis oraciones estan con todos!

Con amor,
Elder Woffinden