This week
was good. We taught some powerful
lessons, had amazing exchanges, and a phenomenal no more strangers meeting.
Bryndee's planner...of course she has to decorate it...one can not work with a boring planner!
Coolest
lesson of the week: Brad &
Jerome. Brad is someone we’ve been
teaching a while, who was on date for baptism.
He was really excited, and started inviting Jerome to come and take the
lessons with him. Unfortunately it turns
out the Brad is on probation, so it’s going to take him a little bit longer
than expected to get baptized, and he is pretty upset about it. So, we had this lesson set up, and we felt inspired to invite the Bishop of the Summerville 3rd ward, who is
friends with Jerome. We watched a Mormon
message (men’s hearts shall fail them on Mormonmessages.org…look it up) and
talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Christ’s message of repentance, forgiveness, and peace was exactly what
those two needed. It was so cool to feel
the Spirit rush in the room as an acting Bishop was able to explain the
repentance process to Brad…way cool!
Member work is the best!!!
No more
strangers/interviews with President were on Wednesday. Interviews’ were amazing. We went through the normal interview process
(“How’s your family doing? How’s your
health?” Etc…) and then he gave me a priesthood
blessing. It was very special and
tender, and I bawled. Then, President
showed us all a clip from Elder Holland @ the MTC in 2011ish. I don’t know if it’s on the Internet, but if
it is look it up! It’s amazing. Elder Holland highlights the story of Peter
in John 21. Basically the Apostles are
gathered together trying to figure out what to do with themselves after the
amazing 3 years they just spent walking the footsteps of the Savior. After some discussion Peter says in effect “well,
it’s been a good run. We’ve seen amazing
things; we’ve touched some people…now I’m going fishing.” And so he goes. It says in Vs. 3 that “they went forth, and entered
into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing.” The Apostles, and especially Peter, had gone
back to their boats as if nothing had changed, as if they were the same people
that had occupied them before…and they got the same results. So, that morning, a figure appears on the
shore. He calls out to them “children
have ye any meat?” Probably pretty tire
and dejected from a night of hard work with little profit, they call back “no.” The man tells them to try fishing on the
other side of the boat, and a miracle is preformed. John, who knew the Savior best, whispers to
Peter “it is the Lord!” and sweet, excitable Peter, literally jumps without a
seconds hesitation, and starts to swim to the Lord. He then has a life changing experience. If we remember Peter’s history, he seems to
be a little unsure of himself. He denied
Jesus Christ three times. He fell asleep
as he suffered in Gethsemane. He was
rebuked for hastily cutting off a man’s ear.
But as Peter sat with the Savior, the Savior stops and asks him “Lovest
thou me?” Peter, thinking it obvious “yea Lord, thou knowest that I love thee…”
the Savior repeats his question two more times, admonishing Peter to feed his
sheep. He basically asks “do you love me
more than your nets? More than your
boat? More than it all? Do you love me enough to leave it all behind
and do what you can to help in my work?
Because that is what I am asking you to do. I’m asking you to change, permanently, and to
not go back!”
This experience
changes Peter. He goes from being afraid
and insecure, to being so faithful that people would lay out their sick and
afflicted on the streets, in hopes that the mere shadow of Peter would pass
over them and they’d be healed. He
changed!
If you think
about it, isn’t that what the Lord requires of us? He wants us to leave ourselves behind and
follow him? He wants us to give up
something good for something amazing and worthwhile?
Anyways…cool
talk! Elena spoke and bore her testimony
(did I tell you that she originally got interested in the church from South
Park?) and did an AMAZING job! We were
supposed to have a ton of investigators there, but nobody we had committed to
come actually came…bummer! Until half
way though in wheels Chris and Dave!
Dave is n a wheelchair (results of a nasty fight a few years back) and
we had knocked into him a few weeks ago.
His cousin Chris got the flier we left on the door, and they both
showed! Crazy! They both liked it and we’re excited to keep
teaching them.
One last
story: I went on exchanges with Sister
Roundy and Broadbent in Georgetown. We
met a lady named Belinda, who they’ve been teaching forever!!!! Anyways, we get
towards the end of the lesson, and I was being pretty bold with her and she
stopped me and said... “You know I’m
pretty sure we were friends in the pre-mortal life…there’s just something wonderful
and familiar about you…like we were kindred spirits. I’m going to have to read that chapter in the
Book of Mormon you suggested…” Whoa! So cool!
Sister Broadbent, Sister Roundy, and Bryndee on exchanges.
Welp…that’s
about it for this week…next week is gonna be insane (4 exchanges and transfer
calls…whaat!?) but what else is new?
Bryndee lost her glasses and I had to send her new ones. Just her (and mine) luck the frames were discontinued. So I got to choose her new frames and hope they work...I think I did a pretty good job. Bryndee doing some selfies showing off her new look!
Y’all have a
blessed week!!!!
Love,
Sister
Derrick
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