Aug 15, 2011

Hiya everyone! I sure hope you've had a great week. Ours was not bad, as they go. :) We had a mini missionary with us for most of the week. It was lots of fun to take her with us on all of our appointments and to show her every phase of missionary work. She's going to be a great missionary someday (if she doesn't get married first... hahahaha).

We met a new investigator this week named leslie. She's investigated the church before, and really liked it, but couldn't join because of her disapproving husband. They're divorced now, and when we knocked on her door this week, she invited us right in. We taught her about the book of mormon and how doing things to grow her faith, like reading, praying and coming to church, will help her get a closer relationship with God. She ate it up. We set a tentative baptismal date for the 18th of Sept. She didn't fully accept it because she wanted to know for sure that it's true. She came to church yesterday for the first time. After Relief Society, she asked to speak with us privately. I was worried that the lesson (which was the law of chastity) had turned her off of the church. But instead, she said that this church is her church. She feels like she belongs here. She said she didn't want to wait till September, so, since we already have a baptism scheduled on the 28th, we said, sure! She's super excited and she wants to meet with us twice a week now, which is different from the once-every-other-week schedule she had originally asked for. It's cool to see her change so quickly! I don't think I've ever seen it happen this fast before. :)

Our other baptism that we have scheduled for the same night is actually a couple of investigators from Colusa. It's funny that the work and the investigators really started progressing after we left there. Weird. So we've been teaching this couple, Jan and Leonard, since April. And about 8 weeks ago, after teaching them the final lessons, for the 3rd time, I handed Leonard (who'se been the one holding them back) a calendar and said, "you choose the date. When do you believe that you'll be ready?" And he chose August 28th. Even then, we haven't been sure that they'll be ready. Except that when we taught them this week, they were excited and making plans and getting ready. It was so cool. So we scheduled the building. We'll have Jan and Leonard and the Colusa branch come for their baptism at 5:30. We'll have dinner in between (a nice little potluck, I hope... ) and then Leslie and the Feather River ward at 7:30. It will be pretty cool. :)

We also have a baptism this sunday. It's for Jack, our 89 year old investigator. He's pretty excited (from what I can tell.. hahaha) and so is his whole family, and basically all of the mormon community in Yuba, who've known the family since they got married. It's going to be pretty packed. I'm glad I was able to be a part of this. :)

In non-baptism related news, we were asked to speak in the Spanish Branch here. We did it yesterday, and it's the first time I've ever had someone translate for me. It was pretty interesting. My talk was 6 minutes long if I read it myself, but when I actually gave it, it was 25 minutes. It took forever to get translated. I hope I don't have to do that again for awhile. :)

That's pretty much it for me for this week. It's going to be a busy couple of weeks for us, while we prepare for these baptisms and gear up for transfers... which is coming on the 30th. So not next week, but the week after. :) I'm hoping for a bit of a change. I've been in this stake for 5 transfers now. No other missionaries have been here as long as me... Oh well... what happens happens. :)

I love you all, and I can't wait to hear from you!

Love, Sister Reid