To start off our week splendidly, we discovered a wonderful surprise in the backseat of our new car, Monday evening. To preface, we dropped by to see a less-active family last week, and the kid, Jeff, answered and said they weren't available but he offered us a drink of water so we gratefully accepted. He comes back out with two cans of coke and apologizes that they are actually out of bottled water and we felt guilty for refusing the coke so we told the cans of soda and left hem in the back of the car. I eventually took mine inside our apartment but Sister Kronmiller left her's in the car. Come Monday, I look back from the driver's seat, trying to retrieve my bag, and I realize that the Coke's top lid is almost completely ripped off and all of the soda has spilled or splattered all over the car. How delightful. Exploding coke. RIP Sisters Ririe and Kronmiller.
We spent that evening buying carpet shampoo, scrubbing out the coke, and vacuuming it up. All throughout the week however, we keep discovering more previously unseen coke splatters so...the adventure has been on going! But we think most of it is out so that's a relief.
Hello everyone, how goes life!?
We were finally able to see Jeff on Tuesday! We talked about the Restoration and discussed the priesthood, General Conference and opposition. It's been 3 weeks since we've been able to successfully meet with him, even though we keep in touch by sending him texts of suggestions to read from the Book of Mormon. We talked about the adversary and how Satan does not want him to come closer to Christ so he will experience opposition as he continues to investigate and learn more about the gospel. One example of opposition is our not being able to meet for those three weeks because different things kept coming up. Jeff said that he'd thought about that before we came to see him and mentioned that it was actually sort of "validating" to see that this gospel is good because there is opposition in seeking and living it. That is such a great example of how we can either let our trials and opposition we face deter and frustrate us or challenge and strengthen us. The Spirit was present and Jeff is so interested in learning more. We invited him to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized and asked him to pray this week about whether he should be baptized. He said he would and we're planning to see him again tomorrow!
District meeting on Wednesday was awesome. Everyone is new to the area except us and Elder Berryhill, who is the ZL. There are 5 greenies in our district! Crazy.
On Thursday, we contacted a referral from a recent convert named Amanda. We weren't able to teach her a lesson but we asked her if she'd like to learn more about our church and take the discussions and she said yes! She is so sweet. We set an appointment for later this coming week and we're so excited to begin teaching her.
Also on Thursday, we tried to see a potential investigator naked Patrick but he wasn't available and his Dad answered instead. His dad is so nice and he told us more about their children. Guess what! They adopted four kids from Asian countries! Two from Korea, one from the Phillipeans, and one from China. Soooo cool!
Come Friday, we had dinner at Allison and Mike's and followed up on our invitation to them to read the Bible with a question. They both had such good experiences with doing that challenge. Mike had a question about how to know where to read, when he's got a question. There are several different answers that I could have given and more that I could have added, upon reflection, but I testified that while I don't know where to find those answers, God does. I've seen while on my mission, a steady routine of reading from the scriptures and talks every day has helped me find answers to my questions. Sometimes I find answers to questions I've wondered for years, sometimes I find answers to questions that I haven't even fully formed yet, and sometimes I find that the answer is scattered across the scriptures and its discovery must be found in patience and line upon line. That reminds me of a quote from Elder Holland: "Some blessings come soon. Some come late. And some don't come till heaven. But for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come." As another commitment, we invited them to begin reading the Bible diligently every day, even if it were for only five minutes. They happily agreed.
We actually went back to their home the next day to help them relocate some tadpoles which were living in a kiddy pool in their backyard. There were so many baby tadpoles! But they didn't want to kill them, so we offered to do some service and help them move the tadpoles to a nearby stream. Operation: Tadpole Relo 2016 was a success!
Much love,
Sister Ririe
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