To start off, Luis and Tiffany are still good for marriage, but they bumped it up a week because of birthdays and other conflicts. We are fine with that, and Luis has committed to be baptized on the same day. We will figure it out but it should be really good and very powerful.
Sarah hit a bit of a road bump. A coworker told her some anti-Mormon junk and she got upset for a while and was ready to keep Lara from going to church or anything, but have no fear, the Bishop is here! Bishop and one of his counselors went over and talked about it with Sarah and Gary (her husband) and everything was fine. We prayed so hard for them it was crazy. She ended up coming to church yesterday and wants to have us over again, so we are looking forward to the time we can start teaching her again. We'll just have to be careful about being pushy (after being a missionary for a while, it just starts to happen naturally).
We saw Jason and Donielle a couple times again this week and it was great for Jason. We talked about a lot of things and he really wants to change his life. He came to church last week and really enjoyed it, and we talked to him this week about baptism. He feels like October is too soon, especially if he has to quit smoking and drinking coffee (smoking he can understand, but he said he may have a problem with coffee). However, we dropped by last night (we didn't have an appointment) and just wanted to see him for about 15 minutes tops. Well, next thing you know, 15 turned into 50, and we were running a little late to get numbers in. It was excellent, however, because we talked about the purpose of life and what we need to do to return to live with our Heavenly Father. it was incredible and really drew out his desires. He wants to quit smoking and recognizes the fact that he needs to be baptized by the priesthood (he was baptized when he was 10). The bummer is that they live in the 2nd ward, not the 3rd, so we will have to get the other Elders involved and get him taught and baptized over there; we're pretty sure he'll get baptized, though.
Mikey's situation is tough. He came to church last week but not yesterday. He is trying to quit smoking, but he still has his girlfriend living there. They won't kick her out because she's basically paying rent, and so Mikey would have to go if he wants to get baptized 'cause we don't want to push them to get married if they are not ready for it. Samantha is slipping and she won't be getting baptized anytime soon. Hopefully she will eventually, but not by next month. We are working hard with Mikey to help him progress because he is the one showing the most interest, and the rest of the household may benefit from him.
We have a pretty cool miracle too. We had a little time between dinner and our first appointment, and so we went to tract some apartments we had been to before. We had knocked two floors of one side of a building before but not the third because we didn't have time. We were about to skip it and move on to another building when Elder Mosca asked, "Did we hit the Third floor?" and I knew that we needed to do it; not necessarily because I knew there was going to be someone there, but because I know the Lord looks on diligence and smiles and will bless us, whether immediately or later. In this case, it was immediate. We headed up to the third floor and the second door we knocked on a man named Allen came to the door and let us right in. We taught about the Book of Mormon and came over the next night and taught the Restoration. We committed him to baptism and he wants to be baptized. He is here all alone (his family is in Michigan) and he is in his 50's. He's African-American and is way humble. He was supposed to be at church yesterday, but the member who went to pick him up said he knocked on his door and Allen said he was not feeling good but promised to come next week. Either way, it was still a miracle to find someone because Elder Mosca asked a simple question and I listened to the promptings of the Spirit.
Tuesday we had Zone Leader Council, where all the Zone Leaders, the Assistants, and the Mission President got together and talked about the needs of the mission. We have set a goal to baptize 950 people before the end of the year and we are a little behind. It will be hard, but we talked about a lot of things that will help us get there and talk to as many people as possible.
That's really it for this week. I love y'all and hope y'all have a great week!!
Love,
Elder Grondel
This is a picture of us and the Assistants, Elder Hubbard and Elder Brown.
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