Anyways, on to the events of this week. I very much enjoyed talking to my family last week! Many of the members have asked us about our thoughts on it, and shared their opinions. Most of them are agreed that it will be a really good thing.
As for the rest of the week...I'll need to look at my journal, I have no idea what happened. I'll actually probably do it by event and person, not by day.
So we had a very disappointing occurrence this week. J__ was the most solid person we've taught, was really on fire about the gospel. Unfortunately, when he tried to come to church on Sunday he arrived during the Sacrament, was turned away by the usher, became offended, and no longer wants to join the church. This was obviously a pretty big morale hit for us. We tried to drive down there and see him to explain and encourage him, but he wasn't home, so we will try by again this week.
But there were happier occurrences! One of the people we "started teaching" (taught a principle during a door contact and set a return appointment with) last week (his name is D__), is actually looking like he will progress! We came by for our return appointment...wasn't home. We came by with a member just to try by...was home but didn't have time. But he said he was off work on Saturday, so we decided to come by once more. Came by, and we had a really good discussion. He agreed to come to church (starting next week) and to be baptized on March 30th! He may not fully understand what is different about our church, but he has felt the spirit of our message.
That is one of two new people who agreed to work towards the covenant of baptism. C__ is a very nice woman who we met out tracting two or three weeks ago now. Elder Gunderson and Elder Carroll taught her the first lesson while on splits, so I wasn't present for that. We came back on Sunday for a return appointment, and it was really amazing. She has been going through a hard time with health challenges and loss, and as I testified both of the gospel and of the Savior's enabling and comforting power, the Spirit was there very strongly. After reciting the First Vision I could feel it there, so I asked her how she felt and she said she got goosebumps. She too, accepted a baptismal goal of March 30th, and is excited to attend church with us this week.
Thursday morning, when I was planning for our day, I put for our evening plans to tract Truman St. Well, then I remembered that we did Hour of Power on Thursday nights, so I nixed that plan, but still left it in area book in case we had extra time. Well, Thursday night we went over to Brother K__'s house to pray for Hour of Power. After talking about it and saying a prayer, he told us that the street that was just weighing on his mind for some reason was Truman St! I showed him that it was already in the calendar, and it was a strong testimony that that was received by revelation! That really helped me feel like our planning could be led by the Spirit. And even if that was the whole purpose of that street being selected, we did have much success there, with some wonderful contacts and seeds planted, and one person who agreed to have us come back. Really cool!
On Friday after district council we went on exchanges, so Elder Harward from Livingston came down to spend the day with me in Cleveland. It was a lot of fun, and we ended up with some good success. We saw M__ that night, and had a good short visit-Brother Call really brought the Spirit as he testified and invited M__ to church. And M__ was there Sunday, and really enjoyed it! On Saturday, as Elder Harward and I were going out, I noticed this rather large, muscular, tattooed, rather shaggy looking man cleaning out his car. Rather intimidating looking, and I was ready to just walk on by. But the Spirit reprimanded me, so I called out to him more to prove that I was willing to open my mouth than with any hope he would listen. The Spirit seems to like teaching me lessons when I do that, though, and we had a really good conversation with him. He talked about how he had a strong desire to know God but that church had never really worked out for him, and I shared Moroni 10:4-5 with him. He really connected with it and was rather surprised that I could pull out a scripture just from what he said. Course, it is a regular missionary scripture, but still, it was really good for him. We invited him to church, but he said that he lived in Livingston...well, we had Elder Harward with us! So we testified that we met him on that day for a reason, and got him the address and time of the Livingston ward. So that was really cool.
All in all, a pretty good week! I hope everything is going well for all y'alls reading this. And for all y'alls not reading this too, I suppose. But I'm fixin' to get some breakfast, so I'll conclude this email.
Love,
Elder DeFord
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