The weeks are just cruising by it's so crazy!... This week we had about 4 days in a row of classic rainy Oregon weather. I guess the rainy season is almost upon us:(
This week was pretty good and I received the best news ever Saturday!! It comes from a pretty awesome story that maybe you remember me talking about 4 months ago, but I will tell it again cause there is more to it now....
So back in my last area out in Mount Hood, it was about my third week in the area (mid-April) and Elder Wheeler and I had dinner and shared a message with the Graves Family. They are an older couple in the Ward. We asked them at the end of the lesson, "who do you know who feels like God has abandoned them?" And they said they didn't know anyone at the moment, but just as we were about to head out the door Sister Graves says, "wait someone just popped into my mind, there is an older lady named Margaret Walton that I visit teach and she hasn't been to church in a really long time. Go see her, she could use a boost in faith."
So we go see Margaret the next day and it was a good lesson but nothing really came out of it, and she wasn't interested in coming to church. A couple days later we are by Margaret's house again and we feel prompted to stop by. So we drop in to say hi and we end up meeting her non-member daughter, Trina! We have a great conversation with her and she said she was interested in learning more and we setup a return appointment to come back to teach her! So we are all pumped and excited cause we thought that this must be the reason we were supposed to stop by! We go back a couple days later and she say,s "guys I'm actually not that interested."... We were super bummed, but we told her that if she ever needed help with any service or anything then she could call us. She said she might need help in a week with something.
So a week later Trina calls us and she says that she needs help doing service at one of her friends homes in Damascus. We said "absolutely!" We go over to her friends, Craig and Barbara, and we did yard-work with Trina at their house. We were able to have small gospel conversations with Craig and Barbara here and there but they weren't too interested.
Well this service at Craig and Barbara's house became a weekly thing. Each week for about 7 weeks Elder Kirk (my new comp at the time) and I would cut down blackberry bushes for them and each week we started sharing more and more with Craig and Barbara until they both had their own Books of Mormon and said that they wanted to come to church! It was so awesome!! So we call the Damascus Sister Missionaries that covered the area and they started trying to teach them.
Well I then got transferred a week later to my current area and never really heard anything about them until this past Saturday (4 months since I last saw them). I got a call from the Damascus Sister Missionaries saying that Barbara is getting baptized this coming Friday and she wants me to baptize her!!!!! WHAT!? I almost cried I was so happy hearing all this. I couldn't believe it!! I immediately went into the other room and dropped on my knees and started thanking Heavenly Father for this incredible miracle, and allowing me to be an instrument in His hands to help find Barbara.
It's so insane to think that it all started with our little dinner message in April with the Graves' and how Sister Graves was prompted at the last second to tell us to visit an inactive lady, which eventually led to Barbara being baptized this Friday. Every single prompting that was received to go see different people was so we would be lead to Barbara. I know without a doubt that God knows His children..... every single one. He knows where they are and how to find them. He knows each one of us individually and has a specific plan designed for each of us. I know He lives and is our loving Father. Miracles continue to happen!
Elder Craft had an interview with President Ballard at the mission home and I was telling Sister Ballard that story and she thought it was so cool haha. It was kind of funny just chilling with Sister Ballard during Elder Crafts interview. Sister Ballard had to leave though and I asked her if she needed me to do any dishes or anything and she said yeah that would be great. So I did the Ballard's dishes haha and I took a selfie.
Everything else is going great! We are just trying to find people to teach! Our investigators are doing really good! Trying to get 'em baptized!
Have a great week! Love and miss you all!!
So back in my last area out in Mount Hood, it was about my third week in the area (mid-April) and Elder Wheeler and I had dinner and shared a message with the Graves Family. They are an older couple in the Ward. We asked them at the end of the lesson, "who do you know who feels like God has abandoned them?" And they said they didn't know anyone at the moment, but just as we were about to head out the door Sister Graves says, "wait someone just popped into my mind, there is an older lady named Margaret Walton that I visit teach and she hasn't been to church in a really long time. Go see her, she could use a boost in faith."
So we go see Margaret the next day and it was a good lesson but nothing really came out of it, and she wasn't interested in coming to church. A couple days later we are by Margaret's house again and we feel prompted to stop by. So we drop in to say hi and we end up meeting her non-member daughter, Trina! We have a great conversation with her and she said she was interested in learning more and we setup a return appointment to come back to teach her! So we are all pumped and excited cause we thought that this must be the reason we were supposed to stop by! We go back a couple days later and she say,s "guys I'm actually not that interested."... We were super bummed, but we told her that if she ever needed help with any service or anything then she could call us. She said she might need help in a week with something.
So a week later Trina calls us and she says that she needs help doing service at one of her friends homes in Damascus. We said "absolutely!" We go over to her friends, Craig and Barbara, and we did yard-work with Trina at their house. We were able to have small gospel conversations with Craig and Barbara here and there but they weren't too interested.
Well this service at Craig and Barbara's house became a weekly thing. Each week for about 7 weeks Elder Kirk (my new comp at the time) and I would cut down blackberry bushes for them and each week we started sharing more and more with Craig and Barbara until they both had their own Books of Mormon and said that they wanted to come to church! It was so awesome!! So we call the Damascus Sister Missionaries that covered the area and they started trying to teach them.
Well I then got transferred a week later to my current area and never really heard anything about them until this past Saturday (4 months since I last saw them). I got a call from the Damascus Sister Missionaries saying that Barbara is getting baptized this coming Friday and she wants me to baptize her!!!!! WHAT!? I almost cried I was so happy hearing all this. I couldn't believe it!! I immediately went into the other room and dropped on my knees and started thanking Heavenly Father for this incredible miracle, and allowing me to be an instrument in His hands to help find Barbara.
It's so insane to think that it all started with our little dinner message in April with the Graves' and how Sister Graves was prompted at the last second to tell us to visit an inactive lady, which eventually led to Barbara being baptized this Friday. Every single prompting that was received to go see different people was so we would be lead to Barbara. I know without a doubt that God knows His children..... every single one. He knows where they are and how to find them. He knows each one of us individually and has a specific plan designed for each of us. I know He lives and is our loving Father. Miracles continue to happen!
Elder Craft had an interview with President Ballard at the mission home and I was telling Sister Ballard that story and she thought it was so cool haha. It was kind of funny just chilling with Sister Ballard during Elder Crafts interview. Sister Ballard had to leave though and I asked her if she needed me to do any dishes or anything and she said yeah that would be great. So I did the Ballard's dishes haha and I took a selfie.
Elder Hill
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