Tuesday we had a lesson with a less active family. The
Spanish sisters were tracting in their apartment complex and they
knocked on this family's door and let them in and even fed the Sisters
food. So the Sisters told us to contact them. We tried and no one
answered their door, so we figured we'd try again. Well, the next day we
get a call from a lady in Primary asking about that very same
family...! Weird. And she said she had spoken with the wife and gave us
her address, which was different than the one in our area book. Finally,
we make it over to their house and talk with the mom for a good while,
just to know a little bit about her background and such. She and her
husband are converts of about 2-3 years. The missionaries knocked on
their door and that was that. They became really close to Isiah, the guy
who introduced us to Dayjah.
Well, so finally it's Tuesday and we have an
official lesson with them. We brought Isiah's brother with us because we
figured he'd be a good team up and went with that... The husband has
quite a few things he needs to work on in order to get to church hahaha.
He's holding a LOT of grudges and can't get past the fact that people
within the church are in fact imperfect... who knew?! So we taught him,
and I feel like we actually made some headway.
They told us they would possibly come to church,
which it was stake conference weekend so we made sure they knew time and
everything. THEY CAME! WHOOOO HOOOO! Honestly, I was nervous, I didn't
think they would come. So that was awesome.
We taught Shahrad, he's our Persian, and we got
through an entire lesson! Most of the time we end up answering his
questions, because he has a lot. He wanted to tell us more about himself
this week and that was way cool. Turns out, he went to a university
that's basically equal to MIT in Iran, and by his junior year when the
Islamic government took over after the Shah (so this was back in like
'79 or 80 or something) they began forcing the students to have
religious classes. Shahrad refused to take the classes and by his senior
year he could not graduate with a degree because he didn't take those
religion classes. He really sticks to what he believes in. That's why he
has so many questions, he wants to ensure that it's nothing like the
Islam he experienced in Iran. (That's not to say I'm dissing on it, I
really like the Muslim religion and what I have learned from it, but he
just didn't like what he saw back at home, which makes a lot sense). So
he's cool.
We met this girl this week that is really awesome.
She struggles with a lot and we taught her on Thursday. She cried during
our lesson because she felt like some of the answers she's been
looking for for years were answered. It was really spiritual and really
cool. We have a lot to work on with her on a many levels, but she's a
gem. (Also, fun fact: her boyfriend is the zombie that bites off
Hershel's leg in the Walking Dead).
The stake conference broadcast was awesome. Very
inspiring and lots of notes. I seriously love Elder Russell M. Nelson!
He spoke last, of course, and he was hilarious! He made so many jokes,
pretty sure I was the only one laughing most of the time, but it was
great. But he focused on the nine doctrine that members need to
concentrate on and it was such a sound talk. Nothing too crazy, just
right. He said that for fun he wanted to count the number of times
doctrine and doctrines is used in the scriptures. During this search he
discovered that the non plural "doctrine" in the scriptures applies to
the Doctrine of God, or the Doctrine of Jesus Christ, etc. And that the
plural "doctrines" was negatively associated with the doctrines of man,
the doctrines of the devil and so forth. Though he said he didn't want
us to freak out over one letter or the plurality or singularity of
either, he just wanted to point that out. Then he discussed the facets
of the Doctrine of God. Super good. Overall, I received a lot of
inspiration and have a little bit stronger of a testimony.
Well, can't think of more.
Love y'all
Jocelyn
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