To finish up from last week, I'll start with Deedee and
Margaret. Sunday morning (the 4th) Sister Wankier and I had about 2 hours
in the area before church started. We had met our goals for the week, but
could still use some new investigators, so we decided to do some finding.
Since we had already visited everyone in the former investigator book, and had
checked/called all of our potentials, we were left with tracting.
(Members would be getting ready for church since it was Sunday). The
street we chose was in a well-to-do neighborhood, with beautiful brick
mansions, and little families that were all getting ready for church.
None were too interested, or very kind. We were getting a little
discouraged, when we knocked on a door, heard a dog barking as usual, and were
surprised to see a woman opening the door and stepping outside to talk to
us. Her name was Deedee and she told us that lately her coworkers had
been sharing the book of Mormon with her! She's been looking for a church, and
would love to learn more as soon as she finishes the last 5 weeks of her
nursing degree, quits one of her 2 full-time jobs, and has a little time.
And she meant it. She really listened to the message and counted it as
a sign from God that we were at her home. It was such a little
tender mercy to have her buried in between these homes of disinterested
people.
But, that was just the beginning. I think Heavenly
Father was preparing us to expect miracles that day, because we needed to have
smiles on our faces and we continued to search for those who were
prepared. The next place we went was a little subdivision of
town homes. Everyone we met was either Asian, or from the Middle
East. We were turned away at every door, until we came to one house where
a huge golden retriever watched us through the glass storm door, and started to
bark. His owner, a blonde woman in her late 40's, came to the door, saw
us, and said, "Wait here! Wait here! I have to put the dog
away!" She dragged the dog over to his kennel, came back to the front door
and said, "Come in!" We were shocked, but didn't question, and walked
right in. Now, this is not normal behavior for a blonde, caucasian woman
who sees two girls in dresses on her doorstep. The next thing she said
was, "Did Alex send you?" Sister Wankier and I looked at each other,
told her, "No..." And I was thinking, "But please don't kick us
out," when she said, "Oh. Really? That's so strange. Alex
is my 18 year old son who joined your church 2 years ago. This weekend he
came home for college to visit, and just last night he said that he was going
to send some missionaries over to meet me." Ahh!!!!! Things
like this don't just happen. We told her that Alex definitely
did not send us, but Heavenly Father had. We were at her home because he
knows her and she needs us. To make this story even better, Alex is now
thinking about serving a mission, and as a single mother who's son had just
joined this church 2 years ago, she had a lot of questions. They were
mostly about the logistics of a missionary's life, but we were able to answer
all of the questions she had, and bear our testimonies of this great
work. In the meantime, Alex came home after finishing church at the
Chinese Branch. (The boy is 18, fluent in Spanish and English, and is
learning Chinese so he went to church there. Crazy.) Anyway, he comes
home and is ecstatic that the missionaries are in his house talking to his
mom. He told her outright that she needs to let us teach her, and that is
absolutely our plan as well. Such a miracle.
This week has been wonderful as well. Tevin is making
progress (pray for him), and he even told Sister Wankier and I that
we're "actually pretty cool." Coming from a 16 year old black
kid, that has to be worth something. But aside from that, he's reading
the Book of Mormon, praying about it, and really searching. He's finally
taking this into his own hands. He even stayed for all three hours of
church. And the ward was great with him. I LOVE this
ward. The members are wonderful at missionary work, know their duty when
it comes to serving others, and they are excited about the gospel. I love
it! It's such a blessing.
So pray for him, and for Claudia, and Wachen, and
Brittany. They're all so close.
That's all I have time for today. I love you
all! Stay true to what's eternal.
-Sister Welch
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