December 4, 2009 A great week!!

This week was indeed a great week. We were able to keep busy and get into most of the homes of people we are working with. However, we need to find new people to teach so that the missionary work can go forth. We will do whatever the Lord has for us to do.

Alyssa - we met with her finally on Wednesday. We had an appointment on Monday, but she cancelled it and so we were left high and dry wondering what was going on with her. On Wednesday we found out!!! ALyssa had stopped doing the things that provided the spirit in her life and was doubting it all. Susan, her friend, had also given up on her and she was just struggling big time.

We had Alyssa meet us at the church so we could be sure of the spirit that would be there for us. In the beginning, she was cold and doubtful. As she began to feel the spirit again, she embraced it with all her heart. As we prayed and read, she began understanding again. It is such a lesson that Satan works with the spirit of confusion!! She was so confused, she could not even ask a clear question!! But as soon as she began to recognize the truth thru the spirit that was there, it was fun.

Alyssa said the closing prayer and thanked Heavenly Father profusely for giving back to her, the spirit!! We made a scripture read schedule for her for December and took it to her home yesterday. She grabbed me and hugged so tight and thanked me so much. She was really happy to have it and to continue the feelings of the Gospel she has had. Alyssa is being baptized on the same day as Bill, again, Dec. 13. These two have both expressed their appreciation over and over again for our time and being taught. They have both loved being taught by Senior Missionaries!!

We also met with Bill and taught him about the Priesthood this week. He will be fine with it. We hope to see some changes in his life as he embraces the LDS way of life. We also taught his wife, Michelle. She has had such a rough childhood. Her parents were very abusive with her and their children. They all could not wait to get away from home.

Consequently Michelle, has not learned how to treat people, even her own children!! She seems to have a personality disorder in that way. She talks at people instead of speaking with them. She does not know how to just raise her hand and make a comment in the classes she attends. We will continue to work with both Bill and Michelle and family after he is baptized because they do need help.

Bill and Michelle are attending our family relations class and we are trying to help them to feel the LDS lifestyle there too. If we can just help them to work out their relationship, they can then help their children. Michelle has such a great heart, she is constantly serving others and inviting us to dinner or dessert. She is amazing that way. It's just that she has learned to yell at home all of the time. She just not know how to speak with respect to her family. We challenged Michelle yesterday to go for a week without raising her voice. She argued that Bill yelled too and we told her that she was the member and that if she could changed, it would allow him to change also. We will pray for that one!!

Erick!!! We finally got to get back with him. He seems to be doing well. He really opened up to us yesterday and shared a lot of things with us. He told us that if there was a chance that we were going to be transferred, he would be baptized cause he didn't want to be taught by the young missionaries!!! Eric is about the same age they are, so that is funny. But we promised him if we were transferred that we would call him immediately and set things up. He just wants to learn more about the scriptures, etc. before he is baptized. We are probably looking at January for him.

It has been a fun week watching our investigators come to the point they are ready to be baptized. It has taken a long while. We would love to teach others, but so far we don't have anyone.

The Branch President introduced our program to read the scriptures, to the whole branch last Sunday. We helped them goals throughout the year to finish various books. We just pro-rated it all and put activities here and there to celebrate. The Branch President and his wife also came up with some excellent ideas to continue the momentum throughout the year. We loved that they were so enthusiastic about it!

We are having a Christmas dinner and celebration with another church. They are also displaying manger scenes. We hope everything goes well with it all.

In January we are planning a talent show for the branch. We are excited about that because we are trying to get them to involve part member families and non-members in their talents!!! We are excited for that!!!

Our Spanish class had a huge test this week. It was hard!! But we pulled through with B's. We had to learn vocabulary, tell time, the days of the week, months, ordinal numbers, etc. That's not bad for two old people!!! We felt good about it, even though we can't really say a lot in Spanish!!

We feel that our Family relations class is going well. We had everyone there last time, and there was some excellent discussion!!! The topic was communication and a lot was said. Good points and so far it has stayed very posative and fun!!! Each couple brings a different dimension to the class. All but one couple is on their second marriage, so that is interesting!!

Today is friday, I am making bread and we will plan to go out later this afternoon and make at least one visit. I have a cold and am not feeling totally up to par. But the Lord has blessed us so much with being well, we will not complain. I am so grateful.

I must say how grateful I feel for the support of our family. We are so grateful for how they help each other and serve each other. We love them so very much. That has especially become apparent out here as we have looked at other families and the many struggles they have because of their choices.