First time I taught the Word of Wisdom on my mission this week and ... it was incredible! Our investigator, Liz, who we set a baptismal date with last week has been so prepared beforehand to prepare for baptism. She loves wine and we suspected she liked coffee too {because what New Yorker doesn't?} so we really emphasized the blessing the body is and what blessings can come when we keep the word of wisdom. When I told her what she should not use she just smiled and said, "Coffee is a hard one." But then she went on to explain that she used to have to have 6 cups of coffee a day and now she is down to one and that recently she and her daughter had been talking about how they want to give up all alcohol and coffee. WOW! So she gladly accepted the invitation to live the word of wisdom.
We also found out that night that she was very into family history and she said, "I've noticed the church is ALL over this stuff - why are you so interested in it?" We could then explain eternal families and her mouth dropped open and her eyes lit up and she told us she must have 'mobs' of work to do. The Lord had also blessed me with this miracle about family history that had happened earlier that day that I could share with her and bring the spirit:
Last fall in my journalism class we had a huge project called awaken the dead which involved picking a random tombstone from the Rexburg cemetery of someone who had been dead for at least 50 years. Then we researched and researched and researched on them to find any information we could. I chose a woman: Marie Graf Zollinger. I really came to love this woman. She had a hard life. We then had to write a big paper on them. It wasn't a biography, but a very detailed excerpt out of their life using as much of the facts that we had learned and then having to fill in the little details we didn't know. Writing the paper was a spiritual experience for me, and when I was done I felt strongly that I should share this paper with her family. I looked up online to see if any of her 7 children were alive. I also called many of the Zollingers in Rexburg to see if they were related to Marie Graf Zollinger, but none of them were sure. Right before I left on my mission I was cleaning out my room, saw the paper and was going to throw it away because I never found them, but I decided to leave it on my shelf and maybe figure something out with it when I got home.
THe point of this story is: the lord knows us and puts us where we need to be when we need to be there. There was a man added to my tour as I walked into the log home. He said he was from Texas and when he found out I was from Rexvurg asked, "Do you know any Zollingers?" I told him I knew some, and then something clicked from a year ago and I asked if he was related to Marie Graf Zollinger.
She is his great grandmother. He saw 2 of her children last month - out of the 7 there are 2 still living. I almost cried. At first he was very confused why I was so joyful about this :) But he was very touched and gave me his information and said he would love to read it and to give it to her children. It's such a little thing really - just a school paper that I wrote about an incredible woman, but the Lord loves us and blesses us.
It was a powerful moment when I was able to share it with Liz as well. It happened at just the right time in a miraculous way.
We did have a sad drop this week. Alicia, one of our investigators dropped us over text saying she wasn't interested anymore. It was kind of like breaking up over text, but even worse because it was salvation...We were very sad, but maybe this is just one step she will have to take to eventually decide to learn and commit more.
But regardless of that It's been a great week. Oh, I also met Mickey Rooney's son - Timmy who is famous for the voices he does for Disney. Here are a few you may know: flounder {little mermaid} Mickey mouse, Pinocchio, the turtles on Finding Nemo, Optimus Prime, goofy, etc. He came on tour at the Joseph Smith farm because his wife is a member from Denmark and her dad actually was the one who got the copyright okay for the Christus to be replicated in Salt Lake. So that was cool. It was like talking to 5 people at once with him.
love you all!
love,
Sister L
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