Dear Family and Friends,
This week was AWESOME! It was probably one of the harder weeks I've had - Sister De Rurange and I had to drop one of our investigators, Jacob, this week. He's been out of town but he said he wanted to have us call him and do "phone lessons," so we've been calling him a couple times every week for about a month. Two days ago (Saturday), we called him and were talking to him and he said he's been reading the Book of Mormon and praying, but doesn't feel anything. Then later that day on Facebook, I saw he was online as we were doing our online work so I started chatting with him. He said some pretty mean things and basically told us that he's been lying about reading and praying and just doesn't care. He says he doesn't believe in God, even though he told us he has. So we asked him if he wanted to keep meeting with us and start keeping commitments, and he said no. It was really sad, but we told him that our time is precious because it is the Lord's time, and we are out here to find those who are ready to come unto Christ, so we won't be teaching him anymore. We also told him, though, that he is welcome to come to activities and come to Church, and if he wants us to teach him again to let us know.
But even though that was heartbreaking to have happen to us, I know that I was just a stepping stone - he's one step closer to coming unto Christ and receiving the restored Gospel. Aside from that, I had a very up-and-down week, but a wonderful one, at that.
Sis. De Rurange and I have been trying to come up with good ways to reactivate the less-active members in our ward, and also with good ways to find the people ready to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So with our ward, we came up with a plan that we put into action on Monday - a ward talent show/chili cook-off! We reached out to a lot of people and it was so cool to see all the new faces who showed up to the FHE activity! There were 7 nonmembers there, and a handful of less-active members there as well. It was also a missionary-based talent show, so the songs and talents and such were based around missionary work. It was very successful:)
Here's two more cool finding activities we did this week: tabling at SSU (Sonoma State University) and chalk-drawing in downtown Santa Rosa.
The tabling worked so great! We had a professor come up to our table and at first we thought he was going to Bible bash with us, but he came up and started asking very sincere questions about what we believe and gave us his number and address! We only teach 18-30 year olds, so we referred him to elders in a family ward, but apparently he came to church yesterday!!! Something else that drew people in to our booth: we wrote statistics on a big whiteboard. Some of them were: "Did you know that the Church is one of the fastest growing churches in the world? Did you know that our humanitarian services are always the first, second, or third responders when natural disasters occur? Did you know that our Church has the largest women's organization in the world? Did you know that because of modern revelation from prophets, our Church knew that tobacco was bad for the body before it was proved to be bad by scientists?" It brought up so many people to ask us more about those things, and we found a lot of potentials that way.
As for the chalk-drawing, we also found a young college guy named Matthew to teach! On a sidewalk in downtown Santa Rosa, Sis. De Rurange and I and a few other companionships in our zone drew a HUGE tree with big leaves on the branches. Next to the tree we wrote, "What are you thankful for?" When people would walk by, one of us would ask, "What are you thankful for in this Thanksgiving season?" And people would say "family" or "my home" or "faith" or "Jesus Christ" and we would write it in chalk in one of the leaves. It brought so many people over to see what was going on, and we met a young college guy named Matthew who asked what church we were from. When we told him, his eyes lit up and he said that some missionaries had said hi to him a few days ago and he was wondering what we were all about. He wants to learn more about Jesus Christ. Because of our chalk drawing, we're meeting with him in the Institute building on the Junior College campus at 2 on Wednesday. :):):) Our creative "finding" and "reactivating" ideas are working!
We also found another guy last night - Sis De Rurange and I recommitted ourselves this transfer to contacting at least 20 people every day, and we only had 13 at 8pm last night. We drove downtown to a bus stop and got out and started talking to people, but here's the cool part: we met this boy named Cheveis who has been wanting to learn more about Jesus Christ! He said, "Yeah, I'd totally love to learn more." And he gave us his number. So we're going to set up an appointment with him this week, as well.
We finally got ahold of the Foley family, as well (my friend Jenee's family) and Natalie, the mom, said we can meet with her and her family again next Sunday at 7pm. We're going to teach her the Plan of Salvation, because she lost her husband 7-10 years ago. Every time we go over to see their family, I continually feel that THIS is the reason why I'm out here - if not to baptize their family, at least be a stepping stone in helping them come to receive the restored Gospel and eventually be baptized and sealed to their husband/dad for time and all eternity. This church is true - after all the scrutiny it is under, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints still stands stronger than ever, and continues to grow every day. I have a testimony of this Gospel, and I know that as we strive to live it, we WILL see our families again and we WILL live with God and Jesus Christ again.
I wanted to end this week's letter with some funny puns. Background: a member of the bishopric in the ward I serve in (Redwood Young Single Adult (ages 18-30) Ward) is a pun master! In ward council he (his name is Brother Stockton) was cracking some PUNNY puns, and soon everyone started cracking them too:
Relief Society President: "We talked to Madeleine Stockman this week."
Bro. StockTON: "She's almost got it...but she missed it by a TON."
Elders Quorum President: "But she's more MAN than you."
Later in the meeting as we're talking about our FHE for Monday night to welcome the 10 new members in the ward...
Bishop Pierce: "What should we call it? It has to be something catchy so people want to come."
Executive Secretary: "How about 'Convert Barbecue?'"
Brother Stockton: "Yeah, that sounds good. And tell them to make sure they're TENDER."
Sunday School President: "WOW...I think you all need to be PUNished."
Haha it's SO hilarious! I always have a good laugh in ward council...so many puns...:)
I love you all! Remember how much God loves you, but that He also knows you have the divine potential to become like Him, so he expects much of you as well: 1 Nephi 3:7.
Also, LOOK FORWARD! I just read an amazing talk from the January 2010 Ensign called "The Best Is Yet to Be" by Jeffrey R. Holland. In it, he says, "Faith always moves forward." Be filled with faith, and when you feel like you aren't receiving a witness, remember that "no witness comes until after a trial of your faith" (Ether 12:6).
Have a good week, make good choices, and be happy! Life is for us to have joy (2 Nephi 2:25)!!
Lots of love,
Sister Nikole Decker
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