Some Mondays are busier than others and today was a busy one. It started with a mission staff meeting where all the senior couples meet with President and Sister Anderson and discuss the coming events, report on our different duties and usually get some words of wisdom from the President.

 

After the staff meeting we took the APs out for their traditional lunch before transfer week. They are always too busy to come to one of our Last Lunches at our apartment so this is our way of making up for it. We use to go to Flanigans but since we discovered Scruffy’s Monday lunch special of a full rack of baby back ribs, potato, coleslaw and baked beans we have started to go there. It is amazing how fast the elders can pack away all that food. We find it enough for at least two meals and sometime three! But they are growing young men who really keep busy.

  

After lunch we were sitting in the office when the four local sisters came by. Now it is their P-day but we thought sister Stegelmeier was going a little far with this great looking whatever that is she is wearing. I told her that looking at that outfit made it obvious who her trainer was – sister Dye. So after taking a picture of her and sister Herrera, I asked all the sisters who were in the office to gather for a picture. Of course there are always two – one looking ever so lady like – well except for wearing the animal in the back. Sisters Bare, Colins, Stegelmeier, Holyan, Herrea and Mary are in the back line with sister Johnson in front.  What a beautiful bunch of sister missionaries. Then it was time for the funny one – it looks like sister Johnson was trying to knock out sister Herrera. It is good to see Mary got in the spirit!

This week’s letter contained some wonderful missionary experiences that I would like to share with those who read this blog…

“You are bold and confident in declaring your purpose. You have the power and authority to invoke the Spirit:

 

“An experience harvesting was when we were walking on the streets once again and this lady was walking towards us. So we contacted her and she took us inside her home to bless her entire family. The Spirit was undeniably strong after the blessing and they all accepted baptism. Then we invited them to church and the mom explained how they have their own church. Then we said,

‘We know this is an invitation from Christ himself to come to Church with us. You must come and listen to the Saviors voice!’ After much testifying we left and they were still set on going to their own church on Sunday. But that Spirit from our testimony stayed with them and they all came to church on Sunday! This is God’s work, I know it!!”

 

We become resolved to utilize all of our tools and “set the table” completely:

 

“At the door, before we said the blessing, he flat out asked us in humble sincerity, ‘What is different about your church then say, the catholic church?’ My first thought as I looked down at the Book of Mormon in my hands, was to teach and testify of it really quickly. He asked what he could learn about Christ in The Book of Mormon that’s not in the Bible, so I told him of the Savior’s visit to the America’s and we asked him to  read 2 Nephi 31:9 where Nephi talks about what it means that the Savior fulfilled all righteousness by being baptized. I got good chills as I watched him hold and read the Book of Mormon for the first time in his life, knowing that this was really important and seeing that he could feel it too even though he didn’t know with a sure knowledge at that point. Edwin told us he really wants to read the Book of Mormon, and when we invited him to be baptized (even before the harvest blessing was said, and even though he’s Catholic) the Spirit was so strong that he said, ‘Yes, that seems like what I would need to do.’ And THEN we added to the Spirit by leaving the blessing. He told us that we had no idea about his life, but that he’d been thinking about all the things we prayed for and talked about before we came over. He knew God had sent us. He said he was ‘so happy’ and he couldn’t stop smiling. It was one of the best harvesting experiences of my mission. Incredible!!”

 

We take advantage of all opportunities to bless the lives of all:

 

“We had stopped by a members home to drop off some things and then we decided to knock her street. We go and meet her neighbor, Carola, who just moved here 3 days earlier. She had a sick baby and wanted to know where a hospital is, we told her a member of our church lived next door and we asked after the blessing. So when we returned, Carola opens up and tells us that she was incredibly sick on Christmas, and she was worried, so she prayed and told God if He would heal her so she could take care of her kids, she would receive whoever He would send to her and go to church. She said she almost couldn’t believe it when we showed up at her door, she knows God sent us. I love finding prepared people.”