FIRST BAPTISM!!

Ahoj! 

Jak se máte? Tento tyden byl moc skvěly! Justina byl poktřen!!! 

Monday was so much fun! We went on a hike at Jump Creek with our zone to a waterfall. Please don't kill me mom, but we low key scaled some cliffs. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, but it was so much fun! That was probably one of the funnest, craziest hikes I have ever been on! Plus it was beautiful! I also got to see Sestra Hodgson  and speak to her in Czech. 

Tuesday was wet and rainy. It was a pretty gloomy day all around. We visited a sweet old lady whose husband had passed away from liver cancer. She misses him a lot. She isn't a member and family is something that is really important to her. We taught her about the plan of salvation and that she could see her husband again. She said she has been reading the book of Mormon and it has brought her a lot if comfort. Then we visited another women, she answered the door with tears streaming down her face and said that her brother had just passed away. She asked how funeral services worked in our church. We prayed with her to help provide a little comfort. It was just such a sad day and my heart was torn! Then we had a lesson with the Sander boys. They are progressing and growing in the gospel so much! It is really fun to watch. We also had a really promising referral from the area book so we knocked on their door and then the mom wanted nothing to do with us.... So that was interesting. 

Wednesday we contacted some people in the area book. A man answered the door and his little dog jumped out and bit my companion right below her knee. It broke skin and was pretty gross. I felt really bad for her. We had dinner with a part member family. They are an older couple and the dad is not a member. He is a smoker and has lung cancer. He's a really nice guy though. Then we went and visited a couple who loves missionaries. The man was a native American. They are super kind people. They have another part to their house that they are trying to rent out and they said they would rent it out to missionaries. They are not interested in the gospel at all though, that's what he flat out told us. He believes in the great spirit. They are awesome people though! 

Thursday we did our weekly planning at the plaza and it was really cold. We taught the Sanders the plan of salvation which was really fun because we drew it out on the chalk board and talked about each point then we erased it and had them draw It! Then we had Justina's baptismal interview. Her mom brought her which was awesome! We had never met her mom before, we had always taught them the lessons with their grandma. Her mom is inactive in the church but her daughter's decision to be baptized has helped bring her back. That little 10 year old girl is such a good example! 

Also I don't know why but all of this week we have been trying to track down flan... which is a Mexican desert. I've wanted to try it because it is like straight sweetened condensed milk which I love... We tried a little Mexican bakery but they didn't have it. 

Friday we had district council which was good. Then we taught the new convert lessons to a little boy named Andrew. Andrew has two little brothers too. They are a handful and can't sit still, so teaching them is super hard. We are also teaching their parents. The mom is a member and in the middle of a divorce...it was an abusive situation. She is living with her boyfriend who isn't a member, so we are teaching him too. Lastly we had a lesson with a grumpy old man named Don. He is really struggling with is health and went of the map all of last week. We finally got a hold of him and went over to teach him. We started reading Ether 12 with Him and he stopped us and told us he couldn't concentrate. We asked why and he said he was mad with the Mormon church. He said they don't care about people's feelings. He was upset that the sister before me been transferred and said he didn't know if he wanted to take lessons anymore. My companion talked him down and we continued on with the lessons. You can imagine how I was feeling... I felt awful inside. He wouldn't even look at me or talk to me the entire lesson. He only responded to my companion. It was so rough! I had no idea what to do to break the ice so that he could get to know me better. Then I remembered that I had my photo book in my bag with pictures of my family and friends. I asked Don if he liked pictures and let him look through them. I found out that he likes horses and he told me some crazy stories... so I told him about Nike (my steer that got lose and ran around Heber city) Those pictures really opened Don up to me and he said he wanted to continue with the lessons. He is difficult because we don't want him to be converted to the missionaries. We know he has a testimony and has felt the spirit, it just isn't quite that strong yet. 

Saturday we found a place that had Flan and pupusa's. They pupusa's were pretty good, the flan tasted like pudding and wasn't as good as my companion had talked it up to be. We went on a district blitz which we went and tracted with our district in one of the Elder's area. The very first door we knocked the lady let us in. We talked with her and she told us so many stories. We could barely get a word in. She talked a lot about her family. She didn't know anything about the gospel so we shared what we could with her whenever we could get a word in. My companion pulled up a talk from the General Women's conference and shared a little bit with her. She got teared up and I know the spirit touched her heart... then she went on talking about something completely unrelated to what we just shared. We seriously could not get out of there. When we finally got out of the door, she continued to talk to us on the driveway. We told her she had left her door open, hoping she would go inside, but she said it's ok. She asked where our bikes were and we said they were about two blocks over. She the mentioned that she liked walking... in our heads we were thinking "oh no." Then she asked if she could walk us to our bikes... she did... two blocks away. Then we got to our bikes and she asked if we had been to her house... we told her we had just been there. I'm pretty sure she had short term memory loss or all-timers or something. Once we got out of there, we knocked on a few more doors without much luck. 

 

Justina's baptism took place at 7:00 PM. We jumped on our bikes to leave... and my tire was flat!!! NOOOOOO!!!! The Elder's had borrowed our bike pump, so I couldn't pump it up... so we literally like ran/sped walked to the stake center! Don't worry, we made it on time. Her baptism was beautiful. There were a lot of people there... including all the missionaries in our district. Her grandma and aunt gave a talk and her siblings gave prayers. Her cousin baptized her.The spirit was so strong!!!!  While she was changing, Sister Brooks and I taught everyone the restoration, which was a little scary because there were so many people. It was a great day. 

Sunday we were up super early and at the church from 7 AM to 4 PM. We cover three wards in Caldwell, so we were at three ward councils. We went to the first ward council, caught the first 1/2 hour of their sacrament meeting, went to the second ward council, caught the half hour of their sacrament meeting, then went to the final ward council. After we went to the entire sacrament meeting, gospel principles class, and relief society. It was a long day. We had dinner with a sweet family. The mom has cancer and had surgery 11 days ago, yet she still prepared a meal for us and they had referrals for us. Talk about an amazing family.

I love you all! 

Sestra Guymon