**Sister Hall won't be writing again until Wednesday due to Thanksgiving!**
First Doubt Your Thoughts, Then Doubt Your Fears
Can I just say I love being a missionary?! Like really can life get any better? I think NOT!
Before I get into my weeks adventures I just wanted to send a quick update about Oakville :)
Jorden is currently getting ready to be baptized on October 13th (he moved his date up a week!)
Fiona has come to church the past 3 weeks and absolutely LOVES it! She has noticed the change it has made in her week and wants to feel the way she does at church all week. In response to the invitation to be baptized she said "OF COURSE!" Since she has been coming to church she has been facing some anti Mormon material from her neighbours and even her husband, but every time someone brings it up she gets mad at them and defends the church :) She is SO special and I love her so much!
I'm sure I am not just speaking for myself when I say that I have been spiritually stuffed this weekend but have room for SO much more *exclamation point*! (hahahahahahha! that guy cracked me up!)
Conference weekend was no disappointment and came at the perfect time. We had 4 of our investigators attend conference and I sure cant think of a better way to help resolve their concerns than to have them listen to the prophet and apostles of God :) I am eternally grateful for these inspired men and for the power of the spirit in teaching eternal truths.
As for this week we have once again been blessed greatly... I hope I have time enough to write about all of them!
I will start off by telling you a little more about my dear Winnie. Winnie is a member referral and is one of the investigators who was in the big class we taught last sunday. Since that class we have taught Winnie twice. She is INCREDIBLE! I honestly do not know what we do as missionaries to be blessed with such wonderful people to teach! First off let me tell you how she came to be a member referral. Scott, one of the YSA, was sitting in class when Winnie approached him. She sat down and told him that she had heard he was Mormon. She proceeded to inform him that she wanted to be Mormon as well.... Scott literally said, "Great we are always recruiting!" hahaha! Since then she has been coming to FHE and institute. Teaching her is such a joy because she is truly humble.
Right now we are facing a slight dilemma please bear with me as I explain.
SO we set Winnie's baptismal date for October 27th and everything was great until we realized Scott, her fellowshipper, would be away that weekend.... After careful consideration we approached both of them and asked Winnie what she would like to do about that. We suggested to moving her date up a week or possibly back a week or keeping it the same. She decided to move it back to November 3rd, we advised her to pray about it and council with God and then to get back to us.
Fast forward to Sunday right before general conference starts.
Winnie approaches us in the hallway and says she needs to talk with us about her baptismal date. She explains to us that she has been thinking a lot and told us that she wants to tell her parents about getting baptized and that based on their response she will be baptized on October 20th or November 17th.
*Sister Hall's Insight* what incredible faith she has to want to be baptized earlier after only meeting with us 3 times! The power of the Holy Ghost is truly amazing and missionary work would be impossible without it. It is such a humbling experience to witness the power and love God has for His children and what He is willing to do to bring us back home.
She is going to talk with her parents when she goes home this weekend for Thanksgiving. She comes from a Dow(?) (no idea how to spell it) religious background (I believe its like the Buddhist religion.) We are praying ERNESTLY that her parents will be accepting and supportive. Please keep her and her parents in your prayers as well :)
Next I would like to introduce everyone to Jake :)
So Jake is the other investigator we gained last week from that Sunday class. So here is the story behind Jake; he is the friend of a recent convert named Taylor. When he found out that Taylor had joined a church he thought she was crazy so he decided to go to church with her to prove that she was brain washed..... He has now been to church 4 times HAHAHAHAHA! The first time we had our one on one lesson with him we asked him a few questions to get to know him and one of them was his thoughts thus far on the church. He told us that he has never met so many nice and genuine people at church and that he LOVES coming. He told us one of the biggest differences he has found with our church and with others is that with Mormons going to church is not a chore, but something to look forward to and he really likes that.
->Little does he know that really its the spirit he feels that makes him keep wanting to come back ;) mwahahaha
He told us that his weakness lies with his lack of faith and his pride, but that he has been praying that God will not let his skepticism get in the way. He has the sincere desire to know the truth and he feels the spirit, even if he doesn't recognize it as the spirit, when he comes to church. I am so excited for him and his journey through the gospel!
So I am being exposed to a lot of new and different situations out here in Kingston. One of them is teaching people with absolutely no background in Christianity. We have found that on campus most of the people willing to stop and listen to us are exchange students from China. Them being from China, they of course do not have much of a foundation for Christianity or any other religion for that matter. The phrase "a whole nother ball game" fits well into this type of situation. Their concerns, questions, attitude, etc... are totally different from people who have gown up around religion and I am finding that I need to take a different approach when teaching them.
Justin and James, now is the time to give me all your sage advice! I know that Japan and China are completely different countries, but I'm wondering if you guys faced similar situations as these ones. If you have I'd appreciate all the advice I can get :)
Line Of The Week: This is a conversation with our zone leaders over the phone.
Me: "perfect so is that everything?"
Elder Dewie: "Oh wait actually we have one more referral for you! This lady is awesome! She is from Russia and said she wants to be baptized!"
Me: "Get OUT! That's Awesome!"
Elder Dewie: "Ya, let me just get her information!... Ok so her name is hard to pronounce so Im going to spell it for you.'
- sister Laing gets out a pen and paper.
Elder Dewie: "ok its Yourmom."
Me: "Yourmom? that's supper weird... ok whats her number."
-Elder Dewie and Rogers just start laughing and then I clue in
Me: "yourmom.... your mom.... Elder Dewie I am going to make it my mission this week to go out and find your mom and baptize her."
At this point the Elders are in near hysterics. They think they are SO funny... -_-
Sister Hall
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