Happy Brithday Hannah! Also Happy Thanksgiving! I am grateful for my lovely sister and family whom I miss so very much.
However, this week was so exciting! We had a lot of weird and awesome experiences. During one of my training sessions we had to watch video clips from the missionary web site about how to find and teach using family history. I was pretty excited to try this new approach, as was Hermana Vera. She mentioned to me that family history is what got her mom to start coming back to church. So, we talked about what we could do to incorporate family history in our teaching and finding.
We talked to the bishop and asked if we could plan an activity for the ward and whomever else would like to participate. He agreed, so we've started planning for Friday the 6th to have a family history exhibition where every one will bring their completed tree, photographs, family heirlooms, recipes, food, whatever defines their family.
We started talking to people about family history. The success we received was HUGE! We first mentioned it to Jorge, a recent convert, and his grandmother who we have been trying to teach for awhile. When we mentioned the activity and brought out the pamphlet with the tree, pages to fill about your family, and information, she was so excited. She started to fill out her pamphlet and promised to finish it and bring to to the exhibition. This happened with many different families. Nico and Maty's Stepmom who always leaves the room during lessons let us give her a lesson because we said it would be on family history. She excitedly took the pamphlet and said she would fill it that day and bring it to the activity. Every family and person we have taken this to has readily agreed to fill it out and come. We even got stopped in the grocery store when we had been talking about it with a less active.
It also helped us with Luis, our newly recent convert. We had a lesson where we explained that his journey is not over. His baptism was the gateway to the path. Now, he has new goals, such as the temple. We intertwined temple work and family history to explain that he has so much to do and look forward to. Sadly, he moves back to Santiago tomorrow, but we're going to contact the missionaries and bishop there to make sure they take good care of him.
So many wonderful things came from that one training session we had. We are so excited that this has opened up new doors for us and we can't wait for our activity.
We had to postpone Maty's baptism as he didn't come to church this week. He didn't tell us why, so we're going to work with him more this week to try to keep him on the right track. His father isn't too happy with him so I think he's a little aprehensive.
We don't have a whole lot of people we are teaching, so we've been trying to find more through contacts, but most haven't worked. As well as a good week, it was also very difficult and sad, as we lost a few people. It's so hard knowing you can help others, but they don't want to accept your help. I just hope and pray one day they will come back to the fold realizing that this is God's way and the only way we can ever receive a fullness of happiness and joy.
Every week is hard, but it is filled with moments of immense joy that make it all worth it. I this gospel so very much and I love sharing it with others. I am so grateful for everything Heavenly Father has given me. And because he has given me so much, the least I could do is share my happiness with others full time for a year and a half. I have never been more appreciative of all that I have been given ever before in my life. We have so much to be grateful for! How wonderful is our God!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Hermana Richardson
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