Monday, Sept 29

This is the second time I have tried to post today. It erased it after I had already written things up, so I will try again.

Today has been a wonderful Monday with lots of good things happening. But let me digress and go back to last week. We spent a lot of time last week trying to visit less actives and people we didn't know. On Thursday night we had two families to visit and so the Zimmermans came and we split up. Sister Z and I went to give Hollie a lesson and Elder Whiting and Brother Z went to the Bottom home. Hollie was just home from work and had not fed the baby yet. We gave her a lesson on the Articles of Faith. I found some scriptures to go with each article and we went through the first half. When we were finished I told Holly that Bro. and Sister Z would be meeting with her from now on. I also told her that she wasn't rid of us though, that we would be stopping by the see her. She seemed pleased that we wouldn't forget her.

Elder Whiting and Bro Z also presented the Bottom Family a lesson on the articles of Faith. That was our subject for the week. They also talked to them about getting their 9 yr old baptized. She has been waiting for her Step Father to baptize her. He was baptized in March and is a Priest so he could baptize her now. They set her baptism for the 19th of October. She is excited. They are such a nice family. They have five children; one of their own and four that were hers from a first marriage.

On Saturday morning we went to a fantastic zone conference. We absolutely love to be at conferences with the young missionaries. They are fun. Elder Fluckinger was there, the area president, I believe. He talked and trained as well as Pres. and Sister Smith. We had role plays as well as testimonies. My personal fav is the testimony from the young missionaries, especially those that are returning to their homes. It is always so difficult for them to leave their missions that they have loved so very much. Their testimonies are so full of the spirit and love for the Savior. It is wonderful.

After the conference we rode over to another building and went to the Women's Broadcast. It is quite a contrast to the zone. I loved the Woman's Broadcast, but it cannot compare to the spirit that was at the zone meeting. The spirit is so strong from these missionaries who are teaching the truth to all of these investigators every day. They are definitely our latter day Stripling Warrors. Elder Whiting and I had dinner with the Relief Society and then watched the Broadcast. It was late when we pulled back into Corsicana.

Sunday was a way busy day with meetings starting at 9 a.m. and me teaching a baptism lesson to Taylor at 10:00 and then Sacrament and all the other meetings. After church we also went to ward Correlation and then I went visiting teaching with one of the gals who does not have a partner. That was good because I got to see the ward from a member's point of view instead of a missionary.

At 4 p.m. Elder Whiting and I had an appointment with Brother Ward a less active member of the Branch, who was not at home. When I called him back later, he said there was no reason for us to come and visit him. He said he was sure we were not going to change his mind and he felt pretty certain he was not going to change ours. I asked him if he had been on a mission, (I knew he had,) and he said yes, he knew the scriptures very well. So I asked him what happened and he said basically that his intellect was what happened. I guess he thought he learned more than the Lord. It is such an example of him looking beyond the mark. I was sad for him that he could so easily let go of such a wonderful thing.

Now, today is Monday and we have had a wonderful day. We started off with visiting Nina. She was sitting on her porch waiting for us. We went in and sat at her table, had prayer and began. Last week we really talked to her about the truth of the Book of Mormon and that it was not part of her Baptist doctrine. Today we read from 1st Nephi and 2nd Nephi about the coming forth of the Bible as well as the Book of Mormon. We then read in 3rd Nephi about Jesus Christ appearing on this continent and what happened then. We also asked her to read the Book of 3rd Nephi this week and pray to know if it is true. She then wanted to know what would happen if she knew it was true .... because . . . she admitted that she already knew it was true. We said, "well, would you like to go to church with us this Sunday?" he said, emphatically, "NO!" She also
said that it was not an option to join our church.

It was almost funny because she did not know what to do!!! We finally got her to agree to read and pray about it some more this week. We will pray that Heavenly Father will show her the way and help her to know what she should do. She will have to be shown the way by him. We actually considered not going back last week because she has been quite negative about the Gospel. The problem is that she loves the Book of Mormon because it clarifies the Bible and she realizes that. We will also be praying hard for her.

Today I came home and baked Rolls and made Brownies for our group FHE tonight. We decided to sponsor it as the Missionaries in the ward. It was for the singles and couples who do not have a spouse to come and share an evening. We asked Sister Wooley from the Mission Office to come and speak to us. We had twenty people there which is really good for our branch. The Zimmermans and us put it together and had salads and rolls and dessert. We also had Ice Cream. The Cornells came along with many others.

Sister Wooley is in a wheelchair and she talked about what led up to her being in the state and how it has affected her life. It seems she had cancer and had a double mastectomy back in the 90's and then a couple of years after chemotherapy she had gone to Lake Powell with her family and while riding in a boat, got thrown around and broke her back. In the process she also became paralyzed from the waist down. So she has been in a wheel chair since then. They have served four missions since that accident!! She was amazing and talked a lot about the trials we have in our lives and the things she has learned from hers. There was a very sweet spirit there and everyone seemed to enjoy it a lot.

So we have had a very busy and fulfilling P day. We didn't get a lot of work done, but we will catch it up later in the week. Tomorrow we have district meetings in Dallas again. It is a good "tired" that we are feeling tonight.