Well we have been meeting with the less active member for the past week. His name is Eric Newcomb. We met with him twice this past week. It truly was wonderful. His mother, Sister Newcomb, is a very active member of the Church. She is such a great example to him. Well he has had a really crazy life. He hasn't been to Church since he was 17. He married a non member and his wife said that she would never go to his Church. Well he started getting involved in Bethal Baptist Church and thought everything was fine. He had his own business and was doing very well. He was always busy though. He would never see his family. He then one night when he got home for work he prayed to Heavenly Father and just said "Lord I don't want this anymore" Well Heavenly Father answered his prayers. He started losing clients and eventually closed down his business. He has down sized his home and has a 8-4:30 job. Its so wonderful. He also started becoming very religious and understands the bible very well. He realizes that the truth is within our Church and he prayed one night to know the truth and the next night we knocked on his door. It was wonderful. The Lord truly answers prayers. He wants his family to come to his church. His boys aren't baptized yet and his wife is having another child this week. So we let the Relief Society know and they are going to handle everything. I am so grateful for this ward. They are always willing to help out the members and non members of the area. We have been meeting with him twice a week and teaching him from the beginning. He is very intelligent and asks really great questions that most of the time we have to go home and study about. We are hopefully going to start teaching his family and getting his wife involved. He has come to the point in his life where he knows our Church is the only true Church and he told us he is going to have to start coming again in time and that his wife is just going to have to join him or not. So we are excited about him.
Elder Scott and Elder Haws met with Ian this week and said they had a really great lesson with him. I am so excited for him. He is progressing really well. He is reading the scriptures daily and praying daily, personally and as a couple. It will just be a matter of time before he gets his answer or he recognizes that he has his answer already. Elder Scott and I will be teaching him about pondering this next week since we have both felt impressed to talk to him about that before we move on to the commandments. He still hasn't accepted a baptismal date yet. He says he will when he receives his answer. He said that he would be baptized if he found out that it's all true. So we are really excited for him.
Elder Tibbitts and I had the wonderful opportunity to go on exchange this week. He is a wonderful missionary who always has his purpose in his mind. He talks to everyone and just loves everyone. I am grateful to have the opportunity to serve around him and to have been able to have had the chance to go on so many exchanges with him. He is a wonderful missionary. He is a great District Leader as well. He leads by the spirit and by example.
We had the opportunity of teaching Sister Shock and Sister Birkmire this week. I had been praying all week very hard to know what to teach them. Well when we got in there we were going to teach about the Law of Chastity but it didn't feel right. Sister Shock has some concerns about Church and about what she was learning about. We also found the concern that she was doing this for Sister Birkmire and not for herself. Elder Scott was really worried about what to say but I had a peace come over me and let the spirit do the teaching. I put my trust in the Savior knowing that he would be able to help them out and be able to teach them what they needed to know through the spirit. The lesson went great. We taught them about the Sabbath day and what the importance of it is and about the Sacrament. We also taught them about why it is important to do this for ourselves and not for others. We invited Sister Shock to pray and find out if this is something that she needed to do for herself. I am so grateful for the strength the Savior gave me. I know that as I continue to lean on Him and use Him instead of my own understanding of situations, our investigators will learn to love us more and how they can come closer to the Savior. They know that being homo-sexual is a sin but they need to find out that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith is a prophet so that the spirit will be able to testify to them that they need to change their lifestyle. I am really excited for them. I know that the Lord will help them.
This past week we have done a lot of lessons with members. I love the members of Goldsboro. They really trust us with the work here in Goldsboro. Elder Scott and I have been really trying to help the members realize that we are servents of our Heavenly Father. As we have shown them that we are purpose driven missionaries they have really opened up to us. This past week we received a referral from a member. We also had a dinner with a non member who is the next door neighbor of a member. He has a lot of potential. Last night after the Mission Tour we had we received 1 referral from dinner and 3 more from a family that we participated in family home evening with. We taught them the doctrine of Christ and asked them who do they know they know that we can teach. They gave us 2 names and we said who else could use a message. Jokingly they said, isn't two enough and Elder Scott and I turned to each other and then looked back at them and said "this is the salvation of God's children!" They looked at us and thought for another moment and gave us another one. They also told us that they would continue to look for people that we can teach and do the best they could to get us referrals. They also told us that they were going to have these referrals that they gave us over for dinner and have us be there. It was truly wonderful. When the members realized that we are purpose driven missionaries they get excited for the work!! I love missionary work!!
Well Mission Tour with Allen F. Packer was amazing. I learned so much from just the spirit that was present. I learned how casual I really am and how I always need to be representing my Savior in everything I do. I have realized that I can work harder in listening and teaching what the spirit wants me to teach. I had such a great experience there. The spirit was so strong that my heart just wanted to burst. I have never felt as strong of a desire to change as I did yesterday. I am truly learning and understanding my call. My Savior makes this all possible. I am so grateful for the power of the Atonement and how we can repent and receive that gift of forgiveness from our Savior and from the ones we hurt. I am truly grateful to see the change in myself and know that with the Lords help, obedience to the commandments and a sincere desire to change I can do anything.
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