Thursday, December 31, 2009

Week 27

Hey Y'all!! I have had another great week here in Texas! I was able to talk to my family on Christmas and had a great time with some of the members here. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season as well. Something really cool happened here too: we had a WHITE CHRISTMAS! It was snowing like mad on Christmas Eve (well, snowing like mad for Texas, which is a light mist compared to most places that get snow) and it got cold enough overnight to stick and stay!! It was so cool. Apparently (I'm not sure if this is true) it's Dallas' first white Christmas since 1926. If that's the case, lucky me! I sure did not expect that.
This week definitely went better than last and was actually pretty good despite the fact that it was Christmas! Usually holidays will throw lots of people off and will screw up our plans, and although there were a few things that fell through, the week went pretty much as planned! We taught some lessons and picked up some more people to teach.
On Monday, we had a really good lesson with Imeh again and we were able to teach her at her friend Karen's house. We reviewed the Restoration with her (which is what we shared last time) and watched the Restoration DVD, which is Joseph Smith's story. It was a really good lesson and after we watched the movie, we asked Imeh how she felt and she said she felt really warm and happy inside. I was so excited I almost jumped out of my chair! (Which would have been really hard considering it was probably built for a 6 year old. I was kinda stuck =P ) Both Elder Hardy and I testified that was the Spirit speaking to her heart and that she would likely get the same feeling when she reads and prays about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. She is excited to learn more and we are excited to teach her.
Later that same evening, we went over to Travis' house (I think I last talked about him in "Week 22"). It had been a really long time since we had seen him and he had done some "research"...that's always fun to hear...and found a bunch of things online that did not put us in a good light ('cause they were false) but anyways, we took Brother Farmer (our Ward Mission Leader in the 6th ward) over to the appointment and it was really good for him. We were able to answer a lot of his questions without turning it into an argument or even a heated discussion and he said that he would take the time to pray about Joseph Smith. We are hoping he did so (we have another appointment with him tonight) and we will see what happens.
We also picked up a kid named Lawson that Elder Van Cleve and me tracted into about 2 months ago. We (Elder Hardy and I) were in the area a couple weeks ago and I felt impressed to go by him. We did and he said we could come back and we set up an appointment! He had to cancel it (family reasons) but we were finally able to meet with him. We had an awesome lesson with him and we taught about the Restoration and he was pretty open and interested. We have an appointment set with him for tomorrow and hopefully that will go well. He's 21 and has gone to a couple different churches in his life but hasn't really found one he likes. Hopefully he'll like ours!
The rest of the week was great. We saw a lot of the members and wished them a Merry Christmas and then had a great time on Christmas Eve and Christmas. We slept over at another companionship's home (they live with members) and had a way fun time...there was ten Elders there that night and we had a way fun morning opening presents, eating breakfast, and playing games. It was pretty sweet.
The most exciting thing that happened this week (besides talking to my family) happened Saturday. We were knocking doors in an apartment complex and an Indian man (Like from India, not American Indian) answered the door. His name is Akshay and he is Hindu. We asked him if he would be interested in learning a bit about Christianity and he said yes because he really knows very little about it and invited us in. One of his roommates, Ashutosh (Ashu for short), also sat in on the lesson with us. It was WAY cool. We started by asking them their basic beliefs and then shared ours and how they related. It was really interesting and the Spirit definitely guided us 'cause we really had no idea what we were doing at first. We basically taught them the way Ammon teaches Lamoni in Alma 18. We started with the beginning and talked about the Creation and Adam and Eve and how because man is fallen, there must be a Savior and Redeemer, and Christ is that Savior. After that it was pretty easy because we were able to teach them the basic message of the Restoration. It was such a cool experience for me though because I've only taught people that at least believe in Jesus Christ. This was a completely new thing. We were able to use the Book of Mormon in a different way as well, testifying that the Book of Mormon is evidence that not only Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the Truth was restored, but that Jesus Christ really is the Savior of the world. It will be exciting to see how that one goes. We are going to see them again on Saturday. I'm so stoked!
Well that's all for this week! I hope y'all have a happy New Year! Set some goals!
Love,Elder Grondel

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