This week was mostly incredible! We felt like we were dreaming most of it. Unfortunately as with most dreams, we had a big disappointment that woke us up :( But Here are the ups:
- IRENE was baptized!! She was so excited! And Sister Sennett - her sister, was so excited as well. There was also awesome ward support, which was a huge blessing and President and Sister Christianson came. She was happy. And we were happy, and felt so blessed to have been able to teach her. It was neat that even though this was the first person I taught that was baptized, I was just as excited to see her baptized as anyone else I had seen. It doesn't matter how the person comes to accept the gospel so long as they accept it! Her confirmation was Sunday. I love watching confirmations, and it was so good. :)
- Hector is doing well! Our ward member that is teaching him with us showed him the app that you can listen to the Book of Mormon on your phone with. He was so excited about it! He kept following up by himself to us! He would text us his comments like 'Wow! I can't believe the Lord asked Nephi to chop off that man's head! That must have been a really strong prompting to do that. I imagined myself in that situation. He must have had a lot of faith." So cool to see him teaching himself from the scriptures and applying it to himself without us even asking him too.
- Set a baptismal date with Jackie!! It was the mot incredible lesson I think I've had. She has read EVERYTHING. and so we discussed a lot of that and invited her to be baptized. We got a reaction we never have had before: She cried she was so happy! She kept saying thank you! And hugging! And telling her little girls, 'I'm being baptized.' She couldn't believe she was 'worthy' enough or prepared enough to become a member. So we set a date for September 22! Her friend {sister Lyndsey} cried in happiness. We cried in happiness. It was SO amazing! We couldn't stop talking about it! When we left the little girls had made us posters and gave us flower plants. She also came to Irene's baptism on Saturday, and was very excited to be there. ah! She was the most prepared person ever! She was in Moroni in her reading too!
Then there came some downs.
On Sunday Hector didn't come to church even though he was certain he would be there, and Jackie didn't come. I didn't think much about it at first, but then Sister Lyndsey and her husband said they were really worried about her. I guess someone at the baptism was surprised when Jackie told them she was being baptized. We were there for the conversation and it was just that they were surprised that someone so awesome and normal was so prepared and ready and excited to get baptized. But Jackie is very sensitive about people judging her or her children for being divorced, and she took it as they were surprised because they didn't think she was good enough to be baptized. We didn't find out about this until Sister Lyndsey told us at church. We called her after church, and she didn't answer or return the call all day long, so we thought we would just talk about it monday night at our next lesson. Monday morning she called to cancel our appointment for that night, and I asked her if everything was okay, but she was totally closed off and just said everything was fine. Later Sister Lyndsey called and said Jackie had texted her to tell her she was bringing her stuff back to her after work today. {we think maybe the Ensign, Book of Mormon, etc.} and also that she cancelled having her babysit her girls for the whole week. Then later at the Hill Jackie called us and left a message saying she would not be joining the church, there was no need for any further contact with her or her girls, she wanted to be removed from all records, and they appreciated our time.
It was pretty devastating. We were frustrated that we had warned her when we set the baptismal date that Satan would work hard on her to change her mind, and she just shook her head and said there was no way, but she anticipated it to come in a different way and didn't realize he would work with her thoughts. We were really really sad about it, because we love her. We also feel so sad for Sister Lyndsey who also loves her a lot. But I know that the Lord will work with her and prepare her heart again and in time she will remember and miss the feelings she felt as we taught. It is comforting to know the Lord has a plan and he doesn't give up on people. Missionary work is amazing and also really disappointing sometimes, but the best thing about it is that the message we teach is completely true so we can teach it happily and with confidence. I am so grateful to be a missionary. Even on sad days, it is still the best blessing! I hope you are all doing well. I love you!
love,
SIster L
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