This week we got some great news! One of our investigators, Karen, who is Emilias sister and also Leo and Maris sister, hasn't been able to progress because she works on Sundays, but she is reading and we teach her once a week on her break day. Her daughter Naydalyn is 8 years old and always comes to church with the rest of the family and wants to be baptized but we wanted to wait till her mom could be baptized too. Karen always said it was impossible to be able to have Sundays off and that there is only one position in the whole store that can have Sundays off and its already filled. Well yesterday morning before stake conference we passed by their house to go to conference and Mari told us that they changed Karen into the position that has Sundays off and she was going to go to conference! I was so excited! Later that night we went by to visit Karen and she told us the whole story of what happened and how Naydalyn and her always say their prayers before going to bed and usually she helps Naydalyn but she started doing it without help and a few nights ago she prayed that her mom could have Sundays off so they could both be baptized and two days later her schedule changed! She was crying and told us that she wants to be a better mom and a better daughter and a better person and that now she is sure that this is true and will help her accomplish that! It was awesome! So now we just have to wait a month or so to teach her more and so she can go to church a bit but she is going to be baptized soon!
We also have another investigator named Ada. I don't remember if I have told you about her but she is a former investigator that we visited and started teaching again. She is as Seventh Day Adventist and has a really strong testimony. A lot of times when we go it turns into a bible bash about sabbath day worship or something but the last few times we have actually been able to teach and we had a few really good lessons and she committed to read the Book of Mormon and pray if it was true. We came back for the next visit and she had read the introduction and the testimonies of the 11 witnesses and she said she was confused but was willing to keep reading. We answered her questions and talked a bit about the apostasy and Restoration and how the Book of Mormon came to be and she said she would keep praying and read more. When we came back we asked if she had read and if she had any questions and she had read the beginning of the testimony of Joseph Smith and had all kinds of questions about the plates and angel Moroni and why he wasn't in the bible and all kinds of things and the spirit was kinda lost and we started getting into bible bash again and I just kinda sat there quiet because I don't like bible bashing and I am not confident enough with the bible to do it, but eventually we just realized that she wasn't going to progress and we both bore our testimonies and told her that if she reads the Book of Mormon with faith and sincerely prays to know if it is true than God will answer her and told her that we don't come to visit her to argue about the Bible and told her we wouldn't be coming by as often but invited her to read the Book of Mormon (the actual scripture) starting in 1 Nephi and to pray about it and that she was always invited to come to church. She said she understands and that she just can't accept our doctrine and that she knows what she believes is true and that she isn't looking to change from that right now. After that lesson I just felt really bad and was thinking a lot about what we could have done better. I don't know how to explain why the sabbath is Sunday and not Saturday or anything like that and I just tried to bear my testimony about the Book of Mormon as much as possible but I guess she still has her agency. I think the only thing we didn't do was teach the doctrine using the Book of Mormon instead of the Bible and actually reading with her. I feel bad but I think eventually she will join the church its just not her time yet.
Stake conference yesterday was great! President Jordan always speaks in the conferences and he spoke about obedience, sacrifice, and consecration and it was great and an area seventy Lester Johnson came and spoke about the work of salvation. After the general session there was a meeting just for recent converts, bishops, ward mission leaders, and missionaries. Elder Johnson called each wards bishop, WML, and missionaries up and read their list of recent converts and asked if they were active, if they had a calling, and what plans they had to retain them. It was awesome because everybody realized that a lot of their converts had fallen away and that the ones who hadn't didn't have callings and then he bore his testimony about the importance of retaining our converts and the three things they need to stay active. I was glad that all 6 of my converts were there haha. none of them have callings still but our bishop now knows he needs to get on that! The ward has the greatest responsibility for the converts, not the missionaries. A little bit of public humiliation is good every once in a while for the bishops and WML
Well that's all I can think to tel you and I don't have much time. Love you and talk to you next week!
Elder Skalla
Ryan bought Leo this cute scripture cover
Day of the Dead celebration in Mexico
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