Hello my dearest family and friends!!
It's been a fantastic week. SO MUCH AWESOMENESS HAPPENING. This email might be a long one because I'm severely behind on my journal and when that happens, it all gets word-vomited out in the family email. :)
So the biggest news is our new investigator, George. Where do I begin?! We met and chatted with him at the library the day before my birthday and gave him a Book of Mormon and exchanged "business" cards. He said he had been to an LDS church before, but he's Episcopalian, so I didn't really think he would be interested. But, he called us a few days later and said he wanted to meet, but we'd have to wait for the weather to clear up. :) So funny. He was planning on coming to church in a couple of weeks anyway. The weather did clear up (did I mention this has been the mildest winter? New England winter is wussy!) and he called us before we even had a chance to call him. He once again said he'd like to meet, but we'd have to wait for the weather to clear up because it was supposed to snow again. :)
At that point, I wasn't feeling like anything was going to happen, but lo and behold, we met with him last Monday night and it went pretty well! He's 78, grew up in Upper East Side NYC, went to Harvard and then Columbia, gave his entire inheritance to his daughter who was about to go homeless, and now he's in Rhode Island living a simple life and living off stocks (he says he's pretty good at picking them.) Our first meeting was mostly spent with him talking our ears off about his opinions about the government (he's VERY conservative) and other odds and ends, but he talked about how he wants a reason to leave the Episcopal church because he feels like it's a sinking ship and he's interested in the Mormon church because he likes that it has no ties to Italy. He also mentioned his interest in archaeological evidence of the Book of Mormon. We gave him Alma 32 to read and scheduled a return appt for the next day.
Tuesday with George went pretty well... (Mom and Dad, we took Chun with us!) He did his reading, but didn't really get what we were hoping out of it. We taught the first lesson and both felt pretty good about it. George is definitely 78 and says whatever he wants- at one point I had just taught a great point and bore powerful testimony that even surprised me and the first thing he said in response was, "I really want to cut your bangs. They're lopsided." For reals, George?!? But, he agreed to do more reading, to pray about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon (although he called our invitations to do so "cliche"), and to meet again.
We took Sister Fairbank with us on Thursday and it was rough. George didn't do his reading of 2 Nephi 2, so we read it with him. Sister Fairbank totally intimidates us (she's really smart and her husband is at Brown), so Sister Bud and I both felt totally scatterbrained and by the end of the lesson, we felt like idiots, mostly because Sister Fairbank totally schooled us at teaching and George likes/respects her way more than us. He said, "Thanks for bringing someone on my level." We had to do some self-esteem building afterwards. :)
But I really do love George! The first two lessons I was so excited to teach him! And I felt so much love for him and desire for him to have the peace of the gospel. And he was eating rice and ketchup for dinner on Tuesday night and I was like, "This poor man needs some TLC!!! I can't wait for the Branch to take him in and take care of him!" I think we've just realized that he's going to be a little tough to teach because he's so well-educated and prideful (SO PRIDEFUL!). Sister Fairbank pointed out that we just need to be patient with him and help him see that our beliefs are different enough that he would need to be baptized. (She was so nice to pick him up for church yesterday!) Anyway... George is going to be a great lesson for me to be confident in myself and confident that my message is the best thing he'll ever learn and it's going to change his life. He's exactly the investigator I was terrified to teach before I came out on the mission, but I feel prepared now to teach him!
Yesterday was probably the funniest Sunday of my life. I stinking love this Branch. (I warned Sister Budvarson that I might start yelling it in my sleep.) Fast and testimony meeting was fantastic! We had the whole range of testimonies from completely ridiculous/uncomfortable and perfectly heartfelt and full of the Spirit. And someone may or may not have pulled out garments and displayed them in Elder's Quorum to prove a point. Of course it happens when your investigator comes... :)
Also, Brother Tavares had a VERY positive experience talking to his friend Mike about the gospel! Yay for member-missionary work!!!
Also, we've met quite a range of less-actives on the list we've been working on. But, we met this lady named Cindy who seemed very happy to make a return appt with us. And the return appt went SO well! She is totally ready to come back. And when she told us about all the terrible things she's done in her life, I learned how our Heavenly Father feels about the things we've repented of. I couldn't even imagine her doing those things and I felt so much love for her- I imagine that's how God feels about "remembering our sins no more." AMAZING. We're SO excited to meet with her weekly and so is she! :)
Phew!! Sorry this email is so long and full of George. We're out of time, so I must run! There's totally more that happened this week, but I'll just have to repent and write in my journal. :) The short version is: we had a meeting with one of our investigators, Maya, who we've been worried about and haven't seen in a while, and it went really well! Also, Sherri is still praying about her baptismal date, Chantel thinks all religion is good, and Julie Dexter is magic.
I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! This gospel is so true! And I love the Book of Mormon!!! It is the word of God. Our Heavenly Father LOVES us and our Savior lives and loves us, too.
Love,
Sister Wheeler Jr.
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