Transfer 7 Week 2

What is the best thing a missionary could get on a new day in a new year?

A BAPTISM!!! YAY!!! That's right, Mike Faley of Walker Branch was baptized on New Years Day. It was super awesome--we got 6 inches of snow that day too!! And Mike is just super chill and so awesome. It was a very spiritual service, and hilarious too because the font didn't hardly fill past Elder Williams' (who baptized him) knees, and Mike had to tuck is braids (that were quite a bit past his collar bones) into his jumpsuit. Sooo Elder Williams and Mike decided that he would literally dunk Mike and help him back up. So it was a bit splashy, the water was freezing, but it was spiritual none-the-less. And we cleaned the church in the morning, played games throughout the day (I was SPANKED in Life and Monopoly BIG TIME), and spent the evening with the Miller family. They are in my top 3 fave families in Gardnerville. They are so willing to give. They also drove us out to Walker Branch--well, specifically TRE in Nevada, but it was still super bomb and nice of them.

So our journey to Walker Branch on Friday. It was awesome. We met the Depuis and taught Mike a lesson. When we got out of the car we were greeted by 10 junk yard cars, a big ol' bulldozer type thing that was digging a huge hole in the ground, 4 crazy dogs, and Larry Depuis. Inside we got to meet Irene (Larry's daughter), Joe (Irene's son), Walt (Larry's son), Mike (...no relation, just lives up the hill on Larry's property), and 8 cats (legit...8. And it wasn't a big place either). To keep myself from dying from my allergies, I kept my hands soley to themselves. I had to blow in the cats faces as they tried to make me pet them, but I think they liked it, so two were swarming my personal bubble. Sister Kartchner saved me and ended up wearing a sweater of cat fur. So when we left and I gave Irene a hug, Sis K tried to and Irene looked at her like she was crazy with all the cat hair on her. She was like, "I aint huggin you, you're wearing a cat!" So we left after teaching Mike and got bombarded by the cute dogs again, and this one, Duke, would bite my arm to get me to pet him. So I would, until he scampered off, picking something off the ground and waving it in the air, then dropping it again. Oh, no big deal, but the object dangling from his mouth was a DEAD SNAKE. So gross, his mouth had been all over my arm, chomping on it for a bite. No skin was broken, he was merely trying to get my attention. But I knew I was going to L-O-V-E Walker branch.

The rest of the week we did stuff...had a really good lesson with Edith, a less-active, where we told her what she wanted wasn't going to happen if she didn't start attending church. Her greatest desire is to be with her Tom for eternity. But blessings are always conditioned upon our obedience. We can't expect to be the world's greatest football player (the blessing) if we don't practice (the obedience). So we must go to church. One hour in the beginning maybe, but build upon it until you go every week for all 3 hours. Really, what is 3 hours in a time span of a week? Nothing at all!! Church is a blessing. Really, it is. And I'm thankful for it.

We also got to meet with Lisa Welch, a mom of a convert who served his mission and jazz who wants to join the church but has to wait until her folks die or something because they're strict Catholics and would be appauled. But she was talking about her church service and how the Father quoted scripture that wasn't in the bible. She said that he said that some books were taken out of the bible because they portrayed Christ in a light that Christians wouldn't approve of or something. She told us how he told them a story of how Jesus was playing and a little boy came up to play with him and Christ said, "be gone!" and the child dropped down and died. And I said, "well, that doesn't make sense, because of the commandment 'thou shalt not kill.' If Christ killed that child, he would no longer be perfect, thereby annulling the Atonement. He had to be perfect in order for it to work. And the other books depicting him in a different light is implying that Christ wasn't perfect. There is only one light that is shown on him, and that is the perfect light. If he wasn't perfect, we'd have no hope." That got her thinking. I also gave her an EXTRA LARGE copy of the Book of Mormon that she needed because she couldn't read the smaller print. She said she was excited to ask her son questions again about what she's read. She's already read through it twice. She's way cool.

And after MONTHS of trying to follow up with this man we tracted into, we FINALLY got in the door and taught a lesson!! It is in our old area, so we had to introduce the Elders to them to make the transition. We went ~4:00, our scheduled time, and Lynette (the mom) wasn't so keen on us being there--a total difference from last time we saw her. We told her we'd be back when Robert was home, and left. We went back ~7:00, and Robert was in the shower, but this time Lynette let us in the house. We made more small talk, and I asked her if she'd read any of the Book of Mormon, or if she was interested in learning more of what we had to teach. She was still kinda wishy washy, but we had established a relationship. So I hugged her and told her we'd be back after the Elders arrived. ~7:45 we knocked again, Robert answered, said he was sick, but invited us in anyway. We sat down with Lynette and Tristan (their son), and we were able to teach them part of the first lesson together. It was weird, teaching with 4 missionaries, because we all have different teaching styles and stuff, but as long as we have the spirit guiding us, we're golden. We were takling about knowing it in your heart if what we're teaching is true, and she said, (pointing to me), "I can tell with you. You smile, you're friendly, you talk to me and listen and you're yourself. I can tell you love what you're doing because I can tell you love me. You even gave me a hug and you don't even know me. So I can tell what you're doing it right and true." And I was like, dumbfounded almost. I didn't realize that a simple hug and opening myself to others could really show what this gospel is all about. So I'm better at this than I had originally thought.

Wow this email is long, but I ahve one more story about Walker Branch on Sunday. Literally, the most spiritual Sacrament meeting I've ever attended. The spirit was so strong with the 20 people in the room. Even when ol' Larry stood up and talked about kissing Mike's grandma (and mike's gma is not his wife), and then some of the other comments. The people are so kind and genuine. AH I'm in love with them so much already. I bore my testimony about my love for them and how I know God loves them because I do and He allows me a portion of the love He feels for them.

I love this work more than my own life--because when one looses their life for the work, they find it again (that's in Doctrine and Covenants...somewhere).

out of time!! LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

SIster Mack