Week 7

This was a rough week. Also a really great week. But our faith has been tested a lot. We had a really good lesson with Michael last Tuesday that I didn't mention in my last email, but the lesson was on priesthood, so Brother Sears from our ward came and he was awesome because Michael always has a bajillion questions. So it was good that Brother Sears was able to answer them because I don't know if I could have. But because we know how important it is for Michael to feel the SPIRIT instead of hearing all this information that makes him have more and more questions (and his questions are deep) we each bore our testimonies to him and the spirit was definitely strong. We left the lesson feeling really good.

Then Friday happened.

That was an unfortunate day. We went to see a less active member and she asked for her records to be removed because she is atheist now and doesn't want anyone to waste their time coming around all the time. She was raised in the church and was very nice, but she didn't want anything to do with it. So there's that. Then we we went to see a media referral who wasn't home and we ended up having to tract her neighborhood. But after we did the first house Michael texted us (we had texted him to ask how he was doing). He said he was good and that he wanted to talk to us both. It was raining so we jumped in the car and called him asap. He said he woke up the last two mornings and his "intuition" was telling him that joining the Mormon church was not the right thing for him at this time... But he was our most solid investigator! He was reading and keeping all his commitments and everything! He just didn't know yet. So that was a huge thing we had been working on. We told him that he broke our hearts and he said "yeah that's why I didn't tell you yesterday..." So again we bore testimony and said he was still welcome to come to our stake conference (Oh! Elder Ballard is speaking! I forgot to mention that). He said we could give him the information in case he had a change of heart. Blah. I felt like I got punched in the stomach. 

Then the day didn't get much better. We went to see another media referral who had requested a Bible from mormon.org and so we taught him the restoration but he wasn't that interested. In fact, we ended up going back to our car to eat our lunches and we're 90% sure we saw the mom preparing to burn the pamphlets in the BBQ grill. That was actually kind of funny. But we also stopped by a potential investigator's house and he was NOT interested AT ALL. He was rude. So we walked away feeling awesome. Then because that didn't work out we had to tract. Except we were in the middle of Nowhere, Ohio. So we tracted for an hour and only went to like 4 houses because they were all spread out so far. We found one family though who we talked to for a little while. It was a father and son who were both older (it was the son's family's house). But we walked up this way long driveway and they offered us some water because I'm pretty sure it was close to a 90 degree incline. I almost had to start climbing with my hands. But they said we could come back and clean their house, so that was promising. Of course, he then called the next day and said his wife said we didn't need to come over. Which makes sense. 

We thought we could end the day on a happy note and go see Lisa and Jim, since their lessons are always great. We had a member drive us and it was a 45 minute drive from her house to theirs, so I felt bad enough already. But what made it worse is that we weren't even able to have a lesson because Jim had been drinking again and we spent the whole time re-setting goals and talking about why it was important to keep their commitments. Blah again. So then we drove the whole 45 minutes back and we were late getting home. So all around it was a GREAT day. 

The good news is the week got much better after that. The Stamms texted us and want us over for dinner again. We haven't heard from them in awhile. And we also got appointments with lots of people we have not been able to get in touch with in forever. AND Michael texted us yesterday. We hadn't sent him the address yet because we just barely got it that morning. But he asked us if we could send it to him, in case he had a "change of heart". But why would he ask us for that unless he was already beginning to have a change of heart? Hmm.

Anyways I don't want to focus too much on our bad day because those are going to happen now and then. It's expected. But we get to focus now on the future! It's going to be a great couple weeks. I'm speaking in sacrament this Sunday, which is a good thing. It's a chance to gain the trust of the ward and a sign that the bishop already has high hopes for us. Then the following weekend Elder Ballard is coming for stake conference. We have a LOT going on with him because it's part of the 10 year anniversary of the dedication of the sites at Kirtland. So there's going to be a VIP program for politicians and community people with Elder Ballard that we should get to go to because they want us to host. It's invite-only so that's pretty cool. It will be a much smaller crowd than stake conference.  Then that evening there is a fireside that everyone is invited to. Then the next morning there's a pancake breakfast and a walk around the sites and up to the temple with Elder Ballard, who will be passing out commemorative coins. THEN there's the adult session of conference in the evening, and then the general session in the morning. So we are typically at sites on Thursdays and Mondays, which means stake conference weekend we will probably stay there Thursday through Monday. Then the following weekend after that is general conference! Which I am stoked about. So things are looking up, regardless of how crummy Friday was :)

Love,

Sister Coontz