Boy was it good to talk to everyone yesterday, even Romney was able to slip in before she leaves on her mission! This week we have been blessed so much but it has been really really hot! We cover a whole county in this branch and don't have a lot of miles so we don't get to some of the surrounding towns all that much, however, on Tuesday on our way back from district meeting we decided to stop and see the less actives in Brundidge. The first 3 houses we went to were very interesting. The first house had a shattered screen door...all of the glass still on the ground, the second one had a shattered window, and the third one was burnt down completely. Im not sure what happened because we weren't able to talk to any of them but the signs don't look very good for members in that area. On Wednesday we had a fantastic day! We taught two twins we are meeting with before they left for a graduation weekend with their mom and it went great, the only thing their struggling with right now is the language of the Book of Mormon but they will be use to that as they continue to read it.
About 5 weeks ago we were given a member referral from the Whitings(greatest family in the FTM) and have been trying to get a lesson with them since that point and finally got in! With us being in a trio we can go into a home without any other male there so with Natalia Spivey who is 17 we didn't think twice about walking right in when she invited us in. We had gotten through all of the first lesson up to the point of me literally about to quote the first vision and then we hear the door open...at that point is when we realize we are in a house with a teenage girl without a parent and knew there was about to be something that made this lesson eventful . In comes momma bear and the first words she says to us is that she was a little upset we are there without a parent. I completely understand where she is coming from, i can only imagine 3 young men in the house with Sabrina sitting there listening to them. However! We invited her to sit down and then retaught the restoration, she calmed right down and the spirit was so strong! We are trying to set up another appointment now, please pray for them! I have learned over the months of my mission that 2 things happen regularly....1) satan is really good at interrupting at good points of the lesson(Restoration/Book of Mormon) and 2) Heavenly Father works in mysterious ways and lets it all work out in the end.
Thursday we got to read the bible for 15 minutes. In Troy they have a marathon of it were they read it nonstop for 4 days before the national day of prayer, I think it was good for us to get up and for people to see we believe in it too, you'd be surprised at how many people think we don't. We had a lesson that day with Rob Evers, we had been teaching him family history and this week we taught him the Family history to gospel message and then taught him the restoration on another day. He is so prepared! He loved the lesson and then asked for all of the scriptures we used. That night we sent them to him and he said that he and his fraternity brothers had lengthy conversation about it, a whole fraternity of investigators hopefully is coming from this! Rob is home for 2 weeks and then will be back so hopefully he continues to progress! That night we taught a less active member that returned from his mission 7 months before. We taught him 3 Nephi 11 referring to the sacrament(Ill teach it to people later, that chapter and subject may not seem to go together in your minds. The lesson went great and we will be going back next week.
All in all the week has been great, family history is BOOMing here! I am sad to say it ha taken me 23 months to jump on board but it works so well, roots run deep in the south. I was able to teach gospel doctrine class this past Sunday which is a little bit of a difference from what most missionaries are use to, the topic of the lesson was sacrifice. As I thought of the great sacrifices in the scriptures I thought of the story of Abraham. We look at what the Lord asks Abraham to do and can only imagine how hard that could have been. As my thoughts turned to the weekend I had ahead of me I drew a parallel I never had before. I think this story applies in our day to parents, specifically mothers who for a short 2 years have to sacrifice their children to serve and honor the Lord. I believe the blessings of Abraham are some of the greatest this world has ever seen and likewise have been a witness of the blessings of my parents letting me serve a full-time mission, I will forever be grateful for the opportunity. Love and miss yall! all is well
Elder Welch
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