Week 28

Easter Dinner With The Crocketts

¡Feliz Pascua!🌷

¡Hola amigos! Hope you had just a fantastic Easter! For us, yesterday was outstanding. I'm glad we could end on a high note though because this week was just an absolute roller coaster. Let's just jump into it!

So during our P-day last Monday, we randomly got a text from this former investigator saying she wanted to start meeting with us again. She goes to the Lutheran college here in St. Peter, and studies religion. I guess she had met with the missionaries of our church in the past, attended church for a few months, but never committed to be baptized. We met with her at the library that night! And it was really good, she told us her religious background about growing up Jewish, then being baptized into the Lutheran church a year ago, and then switched to the Baptist church a few weeks ago. Then she tells us she was walking home from school yesterday and a thought popped into her head saying, "the church is true!" And we were like wow, she finally received an answer, this is such a cool miracle! We had a really good talk about growing her testimony and continuing to read, pray, and go to church. It was awesome, and we even set a baptismal date with her! We came home that night and we were both like WHOO that's such a miracle! Then, the very next day we get a text from her saying that she can't go through with the baptism and she called it off. We tried to figure out what happened, then she texted us back and said everything is all good, she just got scared. Then she changed her mind AGAIN and ended up dropping us and saying she is sticking with the Baptist church haha. Just a complete roller coaster of emotions! We were just like, what the heck is going on? haha, weirdest turn of events, but hopefully she will continue to seek out direction from the Holy Ghost and trust in the answers that she receives! We'll see what happens with her in the future, I think she will eventually come back around. 

Another big blow to our week was our recently new investigator that we saw last week, Robert, also dropped us (asked to stop meeting with him). We were really disappointed to hear that because we were SO excited for him! He seemed so willing to learn! Hopefully we can reconnect with him in the future.

On top of all this, our progressing investigator Shun has been in the hospital like all week! AGAIN! I guess he has had problems with seizures in the past, but this time had 3 in one day. Super scary. They had to transfer him up to a hospital in the twin cities. Luckily, we got in contact with the Minneapolis elders and they were able to give him a priesthood healing blessing for him. Please keep him in your prayers as he recovers! We also went over to see his mom, Sister Taylor and she has been stressing out pretty hard because of the whole situation. She said it was hard for her during this time with her family, and she has been struggling with paying tithing. We just listened to her, and tried to help calm her down. We didn't really know what to do, when we felt impressed by the spirit to promise her that if she puts her trust in God and pays her tithing that everything will work out. It was so powerful, and it was amazing to feel the Lord guiding us in what to say to help bring her and her family comfort. That was definitely one of the highlights of the week!

Some other events from this week: On Friday we went to Cleveland!! It was crazy! Haha just kidding.. Cleveland, Minnesota that is, just this dinky little town way out east in our area. We had service project for a family in our ward and took out their entire fence. It took like 4 hours! They really appreciated it though. I've been here almost a month and I'm still finding new tiny towns around our area lol. On Thursday we were able to meet with another one of our progressing investigators Theresa and show her the Easter video and invite her out to church. It's been difficult to meet with her because she has cancer and has to go through chemotherapy and has work on top of that, but she is already almost finished reading the entire Book of Mormon! She's doing really well, and we hope to start seeing her more often. We also had a benefit dinner up in New Ulm, for Sister Hunter to raise money for her brother's funeral. It was a pretty good turnout and we were able to bring a few couples from the ward as well to help out. I think it really touched her how many people came out to give her support, especially during this hard time she's going through. 

During the Easter weekend, we focused a lot more on finding new people to teach. And we had some pretty good success sharing easter messages and the Prince of Peace video! One really cool experience happened on Friday when we ran into a couple just chilling on their porch. Their names were Joey and Dalia. We walked up and said hi, and showed them the Prince of Peace video! It was really cool because after the video Joey had a cool realization, he said "So you guys are Christians? I never knew that." And we were like Yeah! We are! We testified of the gift of our Savior Jesus Christ, His atonement, and resurrection. We set up a time to come by again next week, so that makes two new investigators!! It was a good feeling to have some good success towards the end of the week, considering how hectic the rest of the week was lol. Something really powerful we talked about in Elder's Quorum during church was the reason why our church doesn't use any symbols, in particular, the Cross. And just like with Joey, it can create some confusion with people not thinking that we are a Christian church. But our previous president of the church, Gordon B. Hinckley had two profound explanations. The first, is that we focus on the crowning event of the atonement - the resurrection. And that the cross focuses on the death of Christ, while our message is focused on the living Christ (His true and living church on the earth today). President Hinckley was then asked, "If you do not use the cross, what is the symbol of your religion?". His reply was "The lives of our people must become the only meaningful expression of our faith and, in fact, therefore, the symbol of our worship." How powerful is that answer!! As His followers, we take upon ourselves the name of Christ, and strive every day to emulate his character and example! Really puts new meaning to the scripture in Matthew, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

The end of our week was a little less rocky then the beginning, which is good lol. We had an amazing Easter dinner with a family in the Mankato Ward the Crocketts! Really nice family. The day was just filled with peace! I am so grateful that we've had this time yesterday and last week to celebrate the life and resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ! I love him so much, and I know that He lives and loves us!

¡Tengas una semana maravillosa! (:

-Elder Bolinder