Hello family,
All
of our investigators are doing pretty well. Although it seems like all the
people we find end up being taught by the sister missionaries in our
ward. We found a part member family that scheduled to have us teach
their daughter, but then we got a call from them saying that it would
work better for their schedule if the sisters taught her. That way the
dad didn't have to be home. Also, last week we were tracting and found
this lady named Tiana that was super enthusiastic about the church. She
has a Muslim husband, but doesn't really participate. We found her and talked to her and gave her a BoM.
Then we had the sisters go over there to do service for her, because
they could go inside the house. They ended up teaching a lesson. Also,
she came to a performance that the stake did about Christ's life. We'll
see if we end up teaching her again or not.
We have been focusing a lot more on getting our investigators to church,
because then they can feel the spirit and receive answers. One of our
investigators we found out has an easier time reading in Hindi than in
English so we got a translated BoM. Hopefully it will be easier for them
to read, now that they don't have to force themselves to do it.
Another investigator moved out this week to
Hillsboro. She told us that we were some of her best friends and that
she felt super comfortable talking to us and wasn't sure why. We talked
about the holy ghost and how she can receive it in her life as well. She
felt like it was true. We are going to send the missionaries in her new
area over to her house. She will get baptized, I know it!
Other investigators aren't progressing as well, but
slowly and surely. We started teaching two new less actives this week
though and are planning on inviting another one tonight to take the lessons. Hopefully that will work out well. We are going to ask for referrals from them as well.
This week was interesting. My bike broke! Don't worry though.
Also,
the ward had a high priest Christmas dinner party. We got recruited as the
entertainment to sing for everyone. Also, we got recruited by Sister
Morby (mission presidents wife) to sing at zone conference and we are singing in the missionary
talent show. Lots of singing for our little quartet. We are getting
better and better I think. Maybe we should start charging. Just kidding.
For the dinner we sang some Christmas songs that we added a little
harmony to as well as some solo verses. For our zone conference Thursday we plan on singing 'Joseph Smith's First Prayer'. For the talent show we are singing "I'll be home for Christmas"
with some words that we changed. I might have told you about that
already. Hopefully they all go well. We kind of had a mutual agreement
that we aren't going to spend a ton of our time doing rehearsals and
stuff. We are just going to learn it on our own, then put it together
right before. That way we can spend more time proselyting.
I really liked what you said about the "Intimate"
atonement. I think about Mary when she saw Christ right after the
resurrection and it's true that she did know exactly who he was and what
he did for her. She recognized him as her savior and redeemer in her
own personal life. It makes me think, if all the pictures that we have
that depict Christ aren't correct, will we be able to know enough and
recognize our personal savior when he comes? If you think about the
common children's song "If the Savior Stood Beside Me", would we
recognize him as our personal savior if he was standing next to
us? Would we know him well enough and have a testimony strong enough to
know who he is and what he did for us? That makes me want to live
the gospel and be true to my covenants so that I can know and be able to
feel when he is standing next to me.
Anyway, I am tired of typing. Love you all.
Elder Udy
