Transfer 5 Week 6

First things first.

Guess how I got to the library? Well, this morning my comp and I left
our house at 6:45am to bike to a restaurant some folks in one of our
ward owns to volunteer. I prep the veggies (I’ve gotten quite good at
chopping them and not my finger) and my comp pours salad dressings.
Well, it’s a 5 mile bike ride (at least—I think it’s 5.5 miles), and
when the most you’ve ridden a bike was for 30 seconds in a circle on
the driveway, you can only imagine the pain I felt for the first 2
miles. I was riding an Elder’s bike, and apparently boy bikes have
AWFUL seats (because he certainly has a terrible one). And it’s like a
29 speed bike or something, aka too complicated for me to understand
how to operate, so I was riding the absolute hardest way. So until we
made it to the first stop sign, my comp was 30 feet ahead of me. We
then switched bikes (because she’s an ol’ pro or something) and SHE
was going slow. It was lovely, though. Cold, with SNOW COVERING HALF
THE MOUNTAINS, riding down highway 88. It’s not so bad now that I’m
sitting down, but I am REALLY not looking forward to biking back 5
miles from the library. But I can say we did it, and we’ll continue to
do it until there is snow on the ground. I thought we could still bike
in the snow, but apparently it’s dangerous.

Anyway, this week has been incredible. We got a new investigator,
Cindy, who has been attending church for the past 2 years, since her
son (a convert) was called to be a bishop. She hadn’t really clicked
with any of the missionaries over the past two years, but we were
persistent with getting a meeting time with her and it went FABULOUS.
She was telling us how she’s recognized the promptings of the Spirit a
lot more in her life than before, and she feels baptism is soon. She
asked us how far in advance she had to book the date, when she had to
start paying tithing, what fast offerings were, etc etc. The ONLY
issue is she’s in 1st ward, our other ward, and she’s attending 3rd
ward. We’re going to have to try to get her to come to first ward. I’m
feeling like the Lord is trying my faith, because several of our
investigators are pushing me to my knees in prayer for longer periods
of time than ever before on my mission. But I know that she knows the
church is true, and she wants this. She’s an amazing woman and
extremely supportive. The Relief Society teacher asked me to share
things I’ve learned on my mission so far in Relief Society and I began
talking about Christ and his infinite love He has for us and the
healing powers of the atonement, and I began tearing up a bit because
of how much it means to me. Cindy was sitting next to me and was
patting my leg all supportive-like. I think she’s adopted me as a
daughter. She sees me now and is like, “There’s my beautiful girl!”
And gives me a huge hug and pats my cheek and asks me questions about
how I’m doing and such. It’s very sweet.

Jessica, Jessica, Jessica. She’s a 16-year-old that we’re teaching
(along with her 2 younger sisters—their mom was less-active and is now
coming back to church). She is such an amazing young lady—participates
and listens intently in lessons, prays with us, comes to church, came
to a baptism with us. Last week I challenged her to read the Book of
Mormon and pray every day to see if she should be baptized. That was
on…Friday. She texted us last Monday saying, “I don’t know how I feel
about this whole religion and baptism thing. I’m giving it all my
intent and I’m not getting anywhere.” I used to feel really
discouraged when someone would deny baptism, because I KNOW of the
necessity to be baptized. Christ says it in John 3:5, and it talks
about it over and over again in both the Bible and Book of Mormon.
There is no other way to lead to eternal life than through the waters
of baptism—and when you ARE baptized, it has to be by someone holding
the Priesthood authority of God. Anyway, I was a bit discouraged and
we weren’t quite sure what to say to her when we met for a lesson this
past Friday. But alas, Heavenly Father will fill our mouths. I was
talking to her while Sister K was talking to Austin and Ashley and I
asked her how many days she tried. She said four days. I have NO idea
where this came from, but out of my mouth the words “Did it take Noah
4 days to build the ark? Or Joseph Smith 4 days to restore the church?
Heck, did it take God 4 days to create the earth? No.” She saw my
point, smile, and agreed to give it a week. So I have been praying
like a mad woman for her. I am praying as though everything depends on
God and working as though everything depends on me. It’s exhausting
because it’s on my mind ALL day EVERY day. And then she sends us a
text on Sunday (she had attended another church) and said “I loved
this church I went to. It was so amazing and I have never before felt
closer to the Lord. I am so happy.” I was not happy. I talked with the
WML about what we should do about her and he gave some good guidance.
I know she’ll be baptized. This month or the next, maybe not. But I’m
going to keep working like she’s going to be baptized tomorrow.

And then there are the Seamons. They are SO amazing, really, VERY
amazing. And I called them Saturday night to make sure they knew the
location and the time at which church started. And they were excited
about going (at least Tyler was). And so we wait. And wait. And wait.
And call. And they don’t show. I know it’s only the second time
they’ve committed to coming since I’ve been here, but it is so
disheartening when they don’t keep commitments. But that is SATAN
trying to bring me down. Ain’t gunna happen.

I love this area. I am learning so much about recognizing when my
feelings change or when I’m down that it’s Satan working on me, trying
to make me less motivated to work. Because if I’m feeling down, then I
feel like I don’t want to work as hard. But I’m learning, and I’m
getting better. I love this work.

AND I LOVE ALL YOU GUYS!!!

love love love,
Sister Mack