I hope you are all doing well, and have made a smooth transition into the wonderful month of December, which I have been informed Florida will be skipping this year, and continuing August for another month. Because who needs the joys of snow and a White Christmas when you have sunburns and sweat stains to look forward too! in all seriousness though, it is december, and it is 80 degrees out, why. Why would anyone choose to live like this?! So other than the weather (which I will likely continue to be perplexed and annoyed by every week), this week was AWESOME! I have a good chunk of stuff to talk about, so Imma go ahead and start.
Alright, let's talk current investigators! First, we have got Ivan and Jose. They are doing solid, and their parents are finally starting to interact with us in lessons and stuff, we did have to move their baptismal date though, because they were not able to attend church yesterday(which they warned us about on tuesday). They still cool though, and teaching us all of the slang from the Dominican Republic (like Chapiadora, which means gold-digger and is really fun to say). We also have Lisa who has been doing amazing recently! She has a baptismal date again, and her health has been improving immensley. She is still a super sweet old lady that is just the best anti-depressant ever, and she aslo gives us a ton of food everytime (only about 50% of which is expired), so thats a big plus too.
Now, new investigators! We met a girl named Nadia, her boyfriend is actually a mormon, but is in the military, so has not seen her for a while. We haven't had our first teaching appointment with her yet, but she looks like she really wants to learn! We met a guy named Adrian, he was pretty es cited to talk to us, said he has always wanted to meet "that missionary religion". He is a super cool guy. Was eager to get the Book of Mormon and hear how it can answer every religious question, he even set up a return appointment without us even asking! Then we met Oscar, he was getting his mail and we started talking to him. His dad recently passed away, so he was very interested in how we know that families will be together again. He seemed relatively interested, so we gave him a Book and planned to meet with him yesterday afternoon. We showed up, AND HE WAS CHILLING ON THE PORCH, WAITING! Just to clarify, we usually have about 25% of people actually be home for their first appontment, about 10% actually remember that we were coming, and about 5% do the work we asked them too (which is usually read about 2 pages out of the Book of Mormon). So to have someone do the work (and then some), and be ready and excited for our return is crazy! We talked with him for a while and answered a good amount of questions, and set a baptismal date! We also met a small family (mom: Romina, dad: Frank, and two young kids) that just moved from Venezuela like 2 months ago. They got here with basically nothing (like $12), got to live with Romina's brother for a bit, then moved into this tiny apartment (like bedroom barely big enough for parents' bed and kids' floor mattress, bathroom, living room the size of a normal bathroom, and a kitchen the size of 2 squares of sidewalk). They are really interested though, and are both very willing to read! They do acknowledge that the fact Heavenly Father had a huge part to play in how they managed to get here safely, were able to find a job quickly, and got a lot of stuff from a local charity.
Now to explain the subject line. Every 6 weeks we have what's called a "zone conference" where we (the missionaries in the northern zones, which is about 70 of us) go and get to hear from President Clark and usually a few other senior missionaries. They are usually super awesome, and we learn a lot. This time, though, Elder Klebingat came to train and lead! Elder Klebingat is a member of the Quorum of the 70 (for any confused, just look it up, it basically means he helps the leaders of all of the LDS churches in a pretty big area). I haven't met a General Authority up to this point, so I was kind of expecting him to be a very smart and spiritual guy, but without like a personality and stuff, haha. I was very wrong, he is AWESOME. He is hand down one of the funniest guys I have ever met, and don't get me wrong, he is very smart and spiritual, but he is a real dude that's honestly just really cool and down to earth, like I want to just be his friend. He is from Germany, and his conversion story is pretty neat (long story short, met a guy that was cool but "good different" at an ACDC concert, asked why he was different, learned about the church, read the Book of Mormon, wanted to get baptized the next week). He gave us some really awesome trainings on "Talking to Everyone" and "Always Asking for Referrals". The talking to everyone training is the reason we managed to find Oscar, so super helpful.
Other than the fact that he could be one of the most successful stand-up comedians, east, one of his coolest feats was that he has around (not an exaggeration) 10,000 Scriptures memorized... It was insane, he could quote hundreds out of every book. We played a game where we asked him a question about life or the Gospel or anything, and he spat off 10 to 20 Scriptures immediately for all of them. It was insane! He then told us how he did it, and gave us a document he has been creating that explains his method in detail, and it has been so much fun! His method is one of the weirdest things I have ever heard of, but it works. I (as most of you are painfully aware of) have a horrible memory, but I have already gotten like 10 down and it has been two days. He explained that as you get better, you can memorize around 50 a day with some effort. I could not explain it if I tried (it involves assigning a mental image and a person to numbers 1-100 and creating your own really weird stories for each scripture and having them take place in a location you have a solid memory of like my house...its as weird as it sounds), but it is pure magic.
Elder Klebingat is an awesome guy, and he really helped me gain a good chunk of confidence. I am not exactly what anyone would call a "social butterfly" and meeting all of these people, not knowing what their reaction might be to me, is still one of the scariest things I have done. Not necessarily because I am afraid that they will pull a gun on me or something (I am in the south though, and there have been some close calls, haha), or that they will just start insulting me (which doesn't even phase me anymore), but I don't want to do or say something wrong and mess up their chance at the immense and blessing-filled gift of the gospel. But something that Elder Klebingat really confirmed to me, and what I feel like can be used for all aspects of life, is to just trust Him. Trust Heavenly Father, trust Christ. They are only there to make us happy, so don't feel like you need to do it alone. I feel like I have always known that, but I have learned, through His work, that I never really wanted to let go of the reins in my life. I like to be in control, and I don't want to feel like I am burdening someone else by relying on them. But to Them, it's not a burden, it's a gift! They want to help, They want to guide, They know everything, and want to lead us down the path that will give us the most joy! I have really come to see the truth of that as I have finally started letting them carry some baggage, and I couldn't be happier. If any of y'all feel like you need the guidance, or the help to carry your load, please just ask Christ! He is ready, willing, and excited to receive it! I thank you all again for all of your constant love and support! You guys don't know how much your kind words and prayers are doing for me. Sorry that a "thank you", is all I can give back for now, but I can not think of a gift sufficient enough to pay yall back. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I LOVE YOU ALL! HAVE ANOTHER AWESOME WEEK!
