This week was pretty busy! We were honored to see Lupe make her first covenant this weekend! She was so thrilled, and her family came to her baptism as well. When I was talking to her husband afterwards, he explained that he would now sit in during the discussions! It's been great to see Lupe being a missionary herself and preparing her family through small things, such as reading the scriptures aloud to them. Again, it was just so amazing to her how ready she was.
Thursday I went on an exchange to the Henry's Fork Stake with Sister Chandler! It's extremely rural there, which was almost refreshing, and made me think a lot of my last area. One of the lessons we taught was to this young family, and both the husband and wife grew up in in-active homes, so they didn't really ever learn much about the gospel. They feel that they are at this point in their lives where something is missing, and they both were so receptive. I seriously love each time I'm able to see people who are just ready to have a change in their lives!
We are of course still teaching Anthony, who's baptismal date is this Saturday! On exchanges, Anthony opened up and explained that he doesn't really believe in latter-day prophets, or that Joseph Smith was a prophet. That added to our stress just a bit! Yesterday we had another lesson with him and we really discussed it. I have such a testimony to how much personal study can help you in your teaching, because you really do find answers to investigator's concerns from things you came across in your studies. He mentioned how he believes that Joseph Smith had the first vision, but it's hard to compare him to prophets such as Moses, who parted the Red Sea. Just a couple of days ago I was reading in Mosiah chapter 8, and so we read with him these few verses..
16 And Ammon said that a seer is a revelator and a prophet also; and a gift which is greater can no man have, except he should possess the power of God, which no man can; yet a man may have great power given him from God.
17 But a seer can know of things which are past, and also of things which are to come, and by them shall all things be revealed, or, rather, shall secret things be made manifest, and hidden things shall come to light, and things which are not known shall be made known by them, and also things shall be made known by them which otherwise could not be known.
18 Thus God has provided a means that man, through faith, might work mighty miracles; therefore he becometh a great benefit to his fellow beings.
We explained that translating is a miracle in itself and is a gift given to prophets. Right after reading these few verses, it was neat because Anthony started talking about it, and now he thinks of Joseph Smith as better than a prophet (which is definitely an improvement to believing that he wasn't one before!)
Okay, so here's one interesting story I thought I would add! We were trying to find this woman who we knew wasn't active, but at the address that was listed as hers, we discovered this mid-20s guy, who was pretty nice and explained that he's a Jew, even though he doesn't really practice it at all. At first he said he wasn't really interested, but after we started talking to him a bit and shared a scripture, he opened up about some of his beliefs. He doesn't believe in organized religion, but he loves the people here, and we had a really good, long conversation about God. We were able to set up a time we could come back, so we shall see what happens!
I love you all!
-Sister Cottrell
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