Its the last week in October! Can you believe it! I sure can't!! It's been a very busy week! We did lots of service for Sister Ambuel and we are helping her repaint her house this week!
It was a week of a lot of walking and we talked to a lot of people, although not very many people were open to listening. But thats ok! NEVER GIVE UP! We were about to head to dinner when we saw a man standing outside his truck. I yelled hello to him as we started walking over to talk to him. He looked up at us and said hi. We introduced ourselves and started talking to him to get to know him better. His name was Brandon Williams. By the end of the visit we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and invited him to read in the introduction. We set up an appointment to come back Sunday (yesterday).
What I'm about to tell you next is a miracle!!! We texted him a couple days after we had met him to see if he had read and to make sure it was still ok that we come by on Sunday. He texted us back almost instantly and said he had read it and was so excited to talk to us about it! When we met with him yesterday we talked about what he had learned from reading in the Book of Mormon and he told us everything he loved and that stuck out to him. We sat outside and taught him the restoration! He was so touched by this and we all felt the spirit so strong! We had one of the Young Woman with us and she bore a powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon and about the prophet Joseph Smith. At the end we invited him to prepare to be baptized in November! He said YES!!!! Brandon said the closing prayer and it moved us all to tears! Right before we left he told us the day we met him he was standing by his truck wondering if there really was a God, and if there was he wanted to change and become a better person, and then he saw us (miracle miracle miracle)!! We are meeting with him again this week and can't wait to continue helping him learn more!
We had a great District meeting this week and I learned a lot about the importance of loving the people whom we teach and not just teaching them a bunch of stuff for our benefit, but it truly is important to love them and care about what there needs are. After District meeting my companion and I had the wonderful opportunity to have lunch with one of my Young Woman leaders from back home! She was out here visiting her brother who lives in Texas!!! It was wonderful to see her and her family and I'm grateful we were able to get to do that.
We had a wonderful Primary Program at church yesterday and it was very special and I felt the spirit so strong. A lot of non-members came with family and hopefully really enjoyed it. I sure do love to hear those wonderful songs from amazing young spirits.
Something I would like to share with y'all this week was a story I read in an Ensign from last year about making choices.
Pumpkins or Melons?
By Rachel Cox
The Author lives in Utah, USA.
October 2015 Ensign
My father was quite surprised to discover that the pumpkin seeds he planted last year decided to sprout in the middle of the melon patch this summer. The melons were coming along quite well--but so were the pumpkins. So well, in fact, that my father was tempted to let the pumpkin plants continue to grow. Yet he knew if he did, the pumpkins would stifle the growth of the melons. So he had a choice to make. He could either pull up the pumpkins so the melons would have a better chance of flourishing or let the pumpkin plants grow and watch them possibly crowd out the melon plants, which would likely produce a lesser product from both. Pumpkins or melons? This choice was between two good options. In weighing the two, my father decided to pull up the prosperous pumpkin plants. Not only were they late to sprout, but he decided that he wanted the planned melons more than he wanted the surprise pumpkins. This experience prompted me to think about the choices we make, particularly in our relationships with others. Whether with our family, our friends, our employer, or those we date or marry, when a choice is between two good things, recognizing the right or best option is sometimes difficult, especially when we want to avoid making wrong choices. Fear of making the wrong choice sometimes paralyzes us, and that fear can inhibit us from moving forward in faith. But the truth is, sometimes there isn’t a wrong choice. There’s just a choice. In my father’s case, he based his decision on what he valued more. He hated to see the pumpkins die, but he knew he would regret the damage they would do to the melons later. In life, some choices we face often don’t matter, such as, what food should I eat for breakfast? What color of dress should I wear today? When faced with a choice between two good things, we might do as my father did and simply ask, “What do I value more?” Then make a decision and move forward in faith, trusting the Lord to correct us if we are somehow wrong. But some choices do matter a lot. President Thomas S. Monson once said: “Decisions are constantly before us. To make them wisely, courage is needed--the courage to say no, the courage to say yes. Decisions do determine destiny” (“The Three Rs of Choice,” Ensign, Nov. 2010, 68). When faced with these kinds of choices, a better question to ask is, “What does the Lord value more?” If we know the answer to that question, all we need do is align our values with His and then follow through with that choice. It will always be the right one.
I love you all and I know the Lord loves you as well! Be safe!
Con Amor,
Hermana Mann
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