Where to start....

Hi!

     Where to start? We'll start with Lamont.

     Last week after Lamont was interviewed we told him he would be

able to baptize Shekera, he was so excited. Never seen him happier

(til his baptism day.) His comment- "So what do I do, just push her

under the water?" Hahaha. Because the district leader was there, who

happened to be in a trio, we had them share their experience as

missionaries and why they decided to serve. When Elder Klima asked if

he was planning on serving, he said yes, and both Shana and Tiara said

they are thinking about serving. Shana said she "wants to change lives

too." Moral of the story, the Hoys are awesome

     Lamont was baptized on Saturday! It was such an awesome day. And

not everyday you get to see your investigators football game and get

baptized the same day. He had a game that morning, and we went and

watched for a bit while the font was filling at the church which

happened to be close to the school. Funny story with the font... So

little did I know the font takes four hours to fill.. Rookie mistake.

So we got there two hours til he baptism and the font was only half

working. So the bishop had to run over mid haircut to get it working.

By some miracle it filled in less than an hour! The church is true.

#latterdaymiracle

     Anyway Lamont showed up to the church five til in full football

gear. Granted his uniform was all white. Haha. He was baptized by a

member his age in the ward- Anthony Hook. After, two of his sisters

Shana and Tiara were supposed to speak but backed out so I ended up

speaking on the spot. They also didn't want to sing anymore, so sister

welch and I did a duet to when I am baptized. Lamont's parents did not

show up, that was kind of disappointing. And the service could have

been smoother, but all that matters is Lamont was baptized, and he was

so happy, he was just beaming all day! The very same day he was

interviewed to receive a temple recommend and the aaronic

priesthood... Which leads to our exciting news...

     Last week President Johnson called after reading my weekly email

to him.. Of course whenever PJ- President Johnson pops up on the phone

you know it's serious haha. He called to thank me for my email and

hear more about our week and..... To approve us to go to the Columbus

Ohio temple with the Hoys on Saturday! The rule is you have to be

within three hours to go. We are almost four hours away, but he is

allowing us to go because of the situation with the Hoys! Many

missionaries here never make it to the temple on their missions, so we

are so lucky!

     Saturday night after Lamont's baptism the Freeport ward mission

leader threw a "party" for us at his house. This guy is nuts. His

house is like a museum. I won't try to describe it, just look at the

pictures. Haha.

     After that our district did insanity together. (The workout) So I

was dead all week after so much service and crazy stuff.

      Anyway, yesterday he was confirmed as a member of the church of

Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in sacrament meeting. Guess who

showed up to surprise us at church?? President Johnson and Sister

Johnson! President Johnson even got to stand in Lamont's circle.Yeah

that was a surprise. So it couldn't have been on a more perfect day

for him to show up. Two of the stake presidents in the area were also

there by coincidence, and each of them directed their talks to Lamont.

My favorite was one which he explained to Lamont that joining the

church is like learning to dance- sometimes you have to watch others

to learn the steps first. Our little bench was quite crowded this week

with all the Hoys- even Shekera, us, and four other investigators. Not

a bad day to have five investigators show up for church, haha.

       So then Sister Welch ended up teaching gospel principles class

on the spot because the teacher didn't show up for the third week in a

row. WITH Pres and Sister Johnson in the class AND Nefdali, the

Guatamalan, so I was teaching half Spanish half English. No pressure

huh? There's this recent convert guy- the one I mentioned last week

that tries to cause a ruckus in class every week. He asks sneaky

questions and tries to slip up the teacher. It was handled well this

week though.

     Nefdali is solid. I sat by him through church and translated for

him. Whenever Sister Welch and I teach him I translate for her.

Interesting lessons. He knows a little bit because he knew about the

church back home. He liked the idea that the church is the same

anywhere in the world- because he said he's always been confused why

even within the same "religions," they all have different names and

teach different things.

     Ivan fed us again this week, he feeds us more than any of the

members in the ward do. Haha, he's seriously the best. I have gotten

to use my Spanish so much this week and I'm loving it!

      This week a member in the ward preparing for a mission came out

on splits with us- the one who baptized Lamont. We were teaching

Jonathon, and mid lesson- Tim interrupted us and told us he wanted to

come back to church, the guy I told you about last week that used to

be a member. Anyway, that was cool.

     After Jonathons lesson we had some more time so we hit the

pavement- and met a couple- April and Jonathan. When we told them we

were missionaries she was like "so are we," and I was like "great."

They don't belong to any church- and they really wanted to argue. An

hour passed by and they were still trying to argue. But by the end she

decided she did want to read the Book of Mormon after we talked about

our beliefs on families. As we were leaving they tried to give us

money to buy drinks, but we told the, we are not allowed to accept

money. They started getting super upset and angry, and literally

commanded us in the name of Jesus Christ to buy ourselves drinks.. So

Anthony took the money and we did. Hahah

     We ended up going back to help them clear a rental property they

own the next day. That was an experience. Every square inch of the

floor was covered in feces, cigarettes, garbage, and drug

paraphernalia. We found stashes of heroine and all sorts of goodies.

We didn't touch anything, we scooped it all up in shovelfuls into the

garbage. Pretty cool- sister welch found a bullet shell that got

turned into the police that may have been from the suspect that was

responsible for the shooting a few weeks ago! I think the person who

lived there- who up and left that house was the suspect. Anyway, we

got to throw furniture off the third floor, so that was fun. Just

another day as a missionary in Butler.

     April and Jonathan were super frustrating. They would subtly but

obviously ask us questions, then roundaboutly tell us we had been

brainwashed and deceived our whole lives and everything we were

teaching wasn't true. I'm like uhhhh a "thank you" would suffice. They

just wanted to argue. They believe in weird healing stuff. April

noticed my hands were shaking and rushed over and said made sure I

knew I didn't have to live this way and that I could heal myself.

Interesting people. But they said they would read the Book of Mormon

and possibly come to our movie night Friday.

     Our movie night should have a really good turn out. We've been

inviting everyone. Every Tuesday night we play ward volleyball, and

the Butler high school team comes. (Sister Welch and I whooped them

this week.) we earned their respect, so we invited the team to the

movie night, all nonmembers. We're really hoping for a good turnout.

     We got to help Sister Wolfe paint a room for her granddaughter

Jasmine. She's so excited to finally have visitation rights. If you

remember, her daughter is currently in prison, so her three year old

granddaughter lives with the father. Anyway, we got it all pretty and

painted and ready for her.(: A less active member in the ward, Sister

Blakely was there to help as well. We've been spending time with her

as well- she recently relapsed and has been in a pretty bad place, but

she's got an amazing story of how she became clean and joined the

church years ago. Her boyfriend is investigating the church currently.

     Joshua, our minister, is almost done with the Book of Mormon! He

doesn't have much to say about it yet.

     We met the craziest guy on Friday night. He seemed somewhat

"normal" (for Butler) at first, then it went downhill real fast. He

started talking about how aliens are taking over America, and they're

going to start with Christian churches. He pulled up all these

pictures of "aliens," and told us about them and their names. He keeps

texting and calling we need to come see the evidence (he got

permission from the government to show us) so we can tell the bishop

immediately. Apparently "all of Christianity is depending on us." ️Oh

Butler...

     We got the greatest referral from the bishop this week. He called

and told us this guy had been trying to contact the church for months

now, he just moved here from California. He finally got ahold of the

bishop, who called us. We went to see him yesterday- his name is

Perry. He was so cool- been studying for two years- he knew

everything, basically he said he knows he has to give up coffee and

that will be hard but asked when he could be baptized. Sorry, gotta

wait three weeks. Haha.

      Talk about "prepared," he has the gospel library app and has been

studying the Book of Mormon and conferences, he knew all about the

prophet. It's almost too good to be true... Haha.

     Ross is doing great, coming to church every week still. The only

problem is he downs know if he wants to quit smoking yet. He says it's

all he has. I guess we just assumed that everyone would at least want

to quit. He told us this week he will try, that he knows the church is

true, and that we were sent to him from God and what a blessings we

are in his life. So hopefully he decides to give it a shot. We always

drive by him in different places around town, and many times he has

happened to be sitting there reading the Book of Mormon.

     So yes, we are very busy here. Those are but a few of the people

we are teaching. Some days we are literally running from one appt to

another. Everyone in our district hates us for it, in many areas here

they struggle to teach a single lesson a week.

     I really feel so lucky to be trusted with the work here. We are

clearly being entrusted with many people and many opportunities. The

harder we work the more the blessings seem to keep coming. This week I

was reading in 2 Nephi and I came across a scripture that reminded me

of the responsibility I feel over all the people here.

     2 Nephi 33:3 "But I, Nephi, have written what I have written, and

I esteem it as of great worth, and especially unto my people. For I

pray continually for them by day, and mine eyes water my pillow by

night, because of them; and I cry unto my God in faith, and I know

that he will hear my cry."

     "The responsibility I carry frightens me… I pray each day for

strength and wisdom and inspiration… Sometimes I could weep with

concern. But there comes the assurance that the Lord put me here for

his purpose, and if I will be humble and seek the direction of the

Holy Spirit, he will use me according to his will to accomplish his

purposes. " -Gordon B Hinkley

That's all.

Hermana Sears