Week 45

This. Week. Has. Been. Awesome. Don't get me wrong, we had days when it rained and all of our appointments cancelled, but we have seen miracles like crazy and the Spirit has been so strong. We are trying so hard to work with members in our ward and we got a couple of member referrals this week... the first was a sister-in-law named Julie and she had just been talking to her husband a few days before we knocked on her door about how they needed to find a church again. She has 3 kids and they LOVE us (the oldest is 8), and we are going back! The second was just an acquaintance from school who was interested in how her cohort had visiting teachers, and she said she'd love to  have two women sent to her to talk with her about Jesus. :) She is really searching to love and forgive and to learn more about Christ's gospel. Her English name is Stella (she's Korean). We found a FOURTH investigator yesterday at church... we literally had 5 people in 3 different groups walk into church who we didn't expect yesterday. We had only met one of them before. All but one have good connections with a member so we will hopefully be able to teach them soon. It was the other we set up an appointment with... his name is Scott and he is just searching to make some things right that he has done. It was cool to be able to testify of the Atonement to him and to see the hope in his eyes. We are teaching him at a member's home this week. :)

Also, Bill's baptism was on Saturday! It was amazing. We sung I Stand All Amazed for the opening hymn and he just started crying. Me too. The Spirit was very powerful. After the ordinance, he changed into dry clothes and the first thing he said was "I did it!" He was glowing :) It has been amazing to see how the Spirit has changed this 82-year-old man. The Primary children provided the musical number which was so cute, and the prayers were offered by an investigator and a less-active member who is recently returning to church. It was so relieving to see everything fall into place; the night before the baptism Bill had lost his phone and his car was in the shop... we had felt like we should drop by and we're REALLY glad we did because I don't know how he would have gotten to the church if we hadn't known to call a member for a ride. He was confirmed in church yesterday which was also really special. I'm excited to see him progress in the priesthood, and he is already excited to hold a calling. :)

THEN, there was the relief society broadcast. The Stake RS put on a huge activity and dinner from 5-8 before the broadcast, in true RS form. It was incredible how many hours must have gone into this thing. Pretty much no one we invited ended up showing, but there were a couple of less-actives who came and they were fellow-shipped and clearly touched. I am really going to like this new general RS presidency; they talked about families, covenants, and the power of the atonement and really brought the Spirit. All of my favorite things :)

Let's see, other miracles... oh, remember Paul? He's the one who is halfway done with the Book of Mormon already... we set a baptismal date with him! He's shooting for Oct 27. :) We haven't taught the Word of Wisdom yet, so we may have to push it back if that's a big problem, but having a goal to work toward does wonders in helping investigators to progress. We also knocked on a former investigator named Jack's door for the umpteenth time and he not only opened the door but invited us right in! We didn't have another female with us and he's a single guy so we had to make another appointment rather than teach him on the spot, but it sounds like missionaries just had a hard time getting in touch with him for awhile and he slipped through the cracks. He is excited to be taught. :)

That is going to have to be it for this week. Give Kenny lots of hugs for me! Love you, Elder! <3 The rest of you, too ;)

I love you a million bucks!
Sister Schank