It's been a great week here in the mission. I can't beleive its below 0 out there in Utah, we've started to complain when it reaches 30 degrees. I guess we don't have much to complain about anymore. My companion and I are blessed with a car so we don't have much room to complain anyways.
We had some interesting experiences this week. One of our investigators invited us to what they call a Rosario. It's a tradition in Catholicism especially with hispanics, that is actually quite similar to Family Home Evening in our chuch. They recited memorized prayers and sang a few songs. The more interesting part was where they passed around a baby Jesus and took turns kissing it on the forehead (my companion and I respectively declined not to offend anyone but simply because it seemed to violate the 2nd commandment) It was different; the Spirit wasn't quite as strong since the prayers were memorized and repeated over and over, but you could definately a sense of unity in faith. After they finished praying, they had refreshments and everyone had a great time socializing and talking with each other. We were kind of hoping they'd let us share a passage from the Book of Mormon, but it didn't really work out that way.
If anything, we got to see our investigators and help solidify relationships with them. One of the men we are visiting didn't seem too interested in the Rosario and in fact asked me what I was reading when I brought out my Book of Mormon. We have an appointment with him and his family tonight. This is the Galvin Family that I think I mentioned a few weeks back. We're going to try and have church tour with them tonight with a member family. I pray it works out, we still need to master the art of making effective plans and then following through with them. Planning and communication are incredibly important here on the mission. God plans and communicates with us thorugh the Spirit. If we aren't listening or if we ignore spiritual promptings, he can't carry out his plans that he has for us. I'm still working on not ignoring spiritual promptings, especially when it seems like the prompting might be inconvenient or awkward. It's a skill that takes developing and I've seen many results from following impressions. Even when I don't see results I still feel good when I act on a thought that I receive.
For example, remember that family that dropped us last week that I was feeling kind of down about? My companion and I felt prompted to go visit her again even though she mentioned that she wanted to stop the lessons. We never talked to her directly, and so we felt like some confrontation was necessary. So we stopped by, she wasn't angry to see us or anything. We greeted eachother and we sincerely expressed that we felt a little sad that she didn't want the lessons anymore for her family. We talked a little, she opened up about a host of concerns from her childhood how she and her friends used to flirt with the LDS missionaries and how she didn't want her daughters following the same path as she did. We testifed that this gospel would bless her family. She beleives us. Ultimately the problem is that the Jehova's Witnesses got jealous that were visiting them. She didn't wanted to upset them because they were the ones to talk to her first and a bunch of other excuses. WE kindly asked her to pray about this decision. WE're following up tonight and hopefully she prayed with a sincere heart.
Other than that, we haven't had too much else happen. Our numbers weren't so good this week, we still havent set any baptismal dates for a few weeks. It's not that we aren't inviting, people just don't seem comfortable to make commitments with us quite yet. WE hope tonight will change with this church tour we are planning on doing.
This weekend I went on exchanges with Elder Fales. It was a good experiences, he's helping me replace doubt with faith and I'm really grateful for his example as a District Leader. We had a great lesson where we had a young man from the branch who is preparing to go on a mission accompany us. He had such a pure testimony that connected with the people we visitited, it made me glad to see the youth headed in the right direction.
Anyways, those are a few experiences we've had this week. Life is good out here in Oklahoma. Just got a haircut today from Elder Dalia.
Remember to keep reading the Book of Mormon! As missionaries we get soooo excited when we hear people are reading the Book of Mormon. When they don't we feel very sad. You cannot progress in the Gospel without reading the Book of Mormon. I reccomend reading it and highlighting every where it mentions the Atonement, it will really help you connect with Jesus Christ and how central his role is to each and every one of us.
Con Amor,
Elder Powley
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