This week had a lot of ups and downs, but overall it was good.
On Tuesday we had a lesson with Bonnie, our second to last one before her baptism, and it went really well.
On Wednesday we met with a lot of people and some
less actives and thta was good. Then we went to Helen, which was totally
on a whim. We were driving to this neighborhood that's on the Highway
to Helen and we just decided to go to Helen instead and check it out and
contact. It went really well. Needless to say, we did meet a lot of
tourists, so we won't be going there too often; however, we met a lady
that owns a horse and carriage ride thing and she lives there locally
and she's totally elect. She isn't available to meet with us until this
week, but she kept saying, "God's timing is perfect. You ladies might
now know why, and you will in a week, but you came into my life at the
perfect time." She was SO excited to read the Book of Mormon and look on
mormon.org, it was really cool. So that
was inspired. Oh and we also met someone who was a convert when he was
12 but doesn't practice anymore and we asked him to crack open his Book
of Mormon and start reading it again, he said he would so that was
successful.
Thursday we had our last before baptism lesson with
Bonnie and we taught her about the temple. We even had pamphlets for the
Atlanta Temple from when it was rededicated a few years ago. Made me
hungry for the temple, but really, when am I not? I wish we could go
more often.
Friday was great. Weekly planning, service, then
dinner and tracting. We ended up tracting for longer than normal because
our appointments fell through; however, we met a lot of people got a
new investigator out of it. That was cool. The best part of that night
was that we had forgotten our phone in the car and we had TEN missed
phone calls/texts/voicemails... Two being from the Assistants. YIKES!
Well, one was from Bonnie and she left a voicemail after her interview
and said, "Hey, it's me. Looks like I'm gettin' baptized tomorra!"
(She's got a real Southern accent by the way). So happy. Oh, and the
Assistants just wanted to know when and where our baptism was, so no
issues there.
Saturday. Great day. We met with a less active
couple that I love. They're hilarious and sarcastic and I just know dad
would love the husband so he makes me laugh more. But we asked them if
they would be interested in having us re teach them the missionary
lessons. So this was the visit where they would tell us their answer...
They said yes! They first asked why we wanted to do it, and we just said
that learning doctrine helps people change and that we're not there to
be visiting teachers but to be full time teachers of the Gospel. Brother
Baker really liked our response, so they said yes. Then we had lunch
with this awesome family in the ward, they're one of my favorite
families, and they took us to a delicious Thai restaurant, who knew
Cornelia could have good restaurants? Then we tracted. Talk about
sweating! It was SO hot! And a lot of people were surprisingly rude to
us. But we did meet this really awesome man that wasn't interested in
taking the lessons, but he was going to read the Book of Mormon and look
at the website because he's looking for a church. We had a really good
discussion with him and he asked why this was the faith that we felt
like was true. That's always fun to talk about.
Well, after tracting we needed to prepare for the
baptism. Oh and I've been playing the piano a lot for random things
because no one here knows how, and it's horrifying because I'm so bad,
and I was supposed to play for Bonnie's baptism, so we went a little
extra early so I could practice.
Turns out, President and Sister Bennion decided to come to the baptism, so she played the piano-- THANK GOODNESS!
The
baptism was postponed about forty minutes because everything was ready,
but Bonnie's daughter and grand kids weren't there yet.... They left
the house on the hour that the baptism was supposed to start, and they
live about 40 minutes away. I discussed different things with the ward
mission leader and we decided to start the program, so song and hymn,
but then have everyone bear their testimonies and begin the rest of the
program when her family arrived. It worked perfectly. I wasn't sure if
it would work, but the Spirit was so strong during the testimony meeting
that it really set the tone for the rest of the baptism. It all went so
well and it was just exactly how it should have gone. It's so nice
when after all that planning, stress, phone calls, and scheduling, it
all comes together just for that one person to make a covenant with the
Lord.
It was a wonderful week. And I loved it.
Love y'all,
Sister Smith
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