So strange story time: We had a dinner with these awesome members who told
us this strange (true) story: Once upon a time there was a family in the ward
named the Cooks (I think it was) who had a little too much fun naming their
children. The first child was a girl so the wife got to name her. "Her name
will be Mary," she said. "How dull," said her husband. The second child was a
boy. "He needs to be named something bold and dramatic," said the husband.
"His name will be... Ares! Now, for such an epic name, he needs an equally
epic middle name. His middle name shall be... Crimefighter!" "No," said the
wife, "His middle name should start with a 'b' so his initials can be A. B. C."
The couple argued back and forth for a bit. "Fine," the husband finally said.
"His initials can be A. B. C. So his name will be... Ares Bcrimefighter Cook!"
And so it was. The End.
Haha anyways. So this week we were blessed with a new investigator named
Fiona. She's 16, and she doesn't actually live in our ward boundaries, but her
friend--the one who invited her to come to church, girl's camp, and to meet with
missionaries--Alma's family is moving into our ward so of course she'll be
attending church with them. We met her and taught her on Wednesday. We talked
about the Restoration, and asked her about baptism. She said that she'd been
praying to know, but she had some doubts, and she read a scripture in the Book
of Mormon that started off, "Put all these things aside(or something)" and she
knew that was God telling her to put her doubts aside. So now she's praying for
a specific date!
I went to the best Sacrament Meeting I've ever been in yesterday. So
there's a young less-active couple we've been working with who've been having
some marriage troubles. We've been trying really hard to get them to church,
and on Saturday they said they would come so I said a prayer that they would be
well fellowshipped and the speakers and teachers would be good. Sunday morning
came, but only the wife showed up. She came up to us and started crying and
talking about how angry she was at her husband and how she didn't know what more
she could do, "I don't even know why I'm here," she said. But we sat down and
the service started. She was in such a state she didn't even take the sacrament
(probably a good idea), and she didn't sing any of the hymns. The youth speaker
was good, but the first adult speaker, Sister Cochran, spoke about how we need
to let the atonement change our hearts and our lives, that we all have
weaknesses, but Jesus Christ can heal them. I thought that talk was really good
for her, but then Brother Burgess got up to speak. "There were a lot of things
I wanted to talk about today,' he said, "But I felt very strongly that instead
of any of those things, I should talk about discouragement." I, and the
most-discouraged-person-I-know who I was sitting next to, glanced at each other.
"Don't you look at me like that," she said. Brother Burgess's talk was so
powerful ans so extremely well suited to meet her needs. By the end of the
talk, our friend had dissolved into uncontrollable sobbing again, with the sweet
sister seated on her other side holding her around the shoulders. After
sacrament, many people who knew the less-active woman came up to talk to her,
and many who didn't know her introduced themselves. She went in to talk to the
bishop for most of the rest of church, then she went home afterwards, but the
whole time a spirit of cleansing, and of the Savior's love and grace was with
us.
I love you guys muchas tons!
