Holy cow. This week was incredible. It's like the Lord divided portions of blessings to everyone and then he realized he had an excessive amount of them left so he dumped them out on Pittsford. This past week we tried to be as obedient as possible in inviting everyone to baptism in every lesson. We set a baptismal date with Alicia - a cute young mom with a 5 year old boy. She took the discussions about 2 years ago, but stopped taking them when Elders were in our area instead. So this was kind of our first lesson with her. This is the first baptismal date that I've seen set and it was such a cool experience. We were teaching the first lesson and we had prayed really hard for help on knowing when to invite. When the time came it was just like the spirit said, 'insert baptismal invite here.' The member that came with us was perfect. Her testimony brought the spirit so strong. Wow, that was maybe the best night I've ever had. It was so so good.
We also found 3 new investigators! Two are a couple with a 7-year-old boy who has severe autism. We have been trying to teach them since I got to the mission field, but it just hasn't worked. I feel like the Lord was postponing us, because Sister Gonzalez is so good for teaching them. She also has a younger sister who is autistic and could share how reading the Book of Mormon helped keep her family together in the times that were so stressful in helping her little sister. When we talked to the ward about it this past sunday I also was amazed again at how mindful the Lord is of all his children. The bishopric said if any New York ward knows how to help children with Autism it's the Pittsford ward, because there are multiple families with autistic children that have turned to the gospel for strength.
Our other investigator is Hindu. And she is also brilliant, as many people in Pittsford are. It's a whole new experience teaching her, because I've never taught anyone yet with a non-christian background.
I am amazed at how the Lord blesses us with the time that we are allotted in our area. It is incredible that we were led to these people when we have been so busy at the sites. He is so mindful of these people.
Then, I guess to equal out the amazingness of this week, I had to do the most stupid thing I've done yet on the mission. Haha oh dear.
We went over to weed our new investigators house and when we got there, there was a situation with a car behind us. So I got out of the car to go talk to them and see what we could do for them. I didn't think anything of that for the next hour as we weeded the yard {by the way, pulling really big weeds out and shaking the dirt around everywhere is extremely satisfying}. It wasn't until we were walking back to our car, with our investigator walking behind us that I noticed something strange.
"Sister... is our car still on?"
yep. In my distraction I hadn't thought to turn the car off and bring the keys with me. So yes, I did leave the car running for an hour. Yes, that probably ate a lot of gas. Yes, I know tithing pays for it and I feel pretty awful about it. Yes, about 15 people walked by who could have taken the car but didn't. Yes, our investigator laughed so hard he was probably purple. But I didn't check because I was too busy hiding my face when I got in the car.
We also had an exciting moment when a couple {not in the church} wanted to take Sister Gonzalez and I and the Gardners - a senior couple we were working with that day - out for our dinner break. We were ordering food when Sister Gardner said she needed to go sit down. Sister Gonzalez and I went with her and were talking with her when all of a sudden she turned completely white, stopped talking and starred off at nothing. It took us a second to realize she had passed out. Sister Gonzalez put her arm around her to support her and I took her hand. For some reason I thought this would wake her up, but she didn't. She started making really strange noises that we realized was the air being forced out of her lungs. After a minute we called over Elder Gardner and by this time he realized she wasn't breathing at all so he started giving her mouth to mouth while we called 911. She woke up about 30 seconds later. The ambulance came and checked her out, even though she insisted she was fine. Her pulse was 80/60, so they took her to the hospital because she didn't have any reason to have a low pulse.
I was so impressed at how calm and sweet they both were though the whole time. Elder Gardner was so calm and could joke with her - told her he just couldn't resist giving her a little kiss, and had done well to help her feel okay when she woke up. Sister Gardner was still holding my hand {hers was drenched in sweat and freezing cold} and she was trying to make me feel good- like I was the one who had just stopped breathing. She kept looking at me and saying, "don't worry, I'm fine. I love you." I had the strangest desire the whole time to laugh and cry. I think strong emotions often trigger the wrong response in me. Fortunately Sister Gonzalez and I did neither. I feel like we were blessed to stay calm and I also feel like it was a miracle we were with them, along with the other couple at the time. Otherwise Elder Gardner would have been driving when she passed out, and he doesn't think he would have called the ambulance to have her checked out. She is doing well now though - just taking the past few days easy.
Well I love you all! Thanks for the pictures, letters and prayers. You are great!
love,
Sister A
p.s. 188 years ago yesterday was the night that Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith in the upstairs of the Log home. It was so neat - such a little tender mercy - that Sister Gonzalez and I got to serve at the farm yesterday for it. I loved being able to bear testimony to my tours about the Book of Mormon and how miraculous it is that we have it.
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