Sorry no video this week. I kept on forgetting to make a video and the all the Elders in the apartment really wanted to come and e-mail this morning so I didn't have time to make one. I know that you are all crushed, but don't worry hopefully I will get a few made this week! Well I did have one video but that was a bunch of Native Americans that were all dressed up and dancing in a parking lot that we saw yesterday as we were walking around and talking to people. It was pretty intense but that was about it;)
This week was amazing, but there wasn't a whole lot done. We are still trying to get the work going here, but there hasn't been too much success...yet! We have been going through all of the former investigators, potentials, media referrals, and just about any list that we can extract from the Ward Council. The ward here is great and is so willing to help with anything we ask, but we just haven't found the people to work with yet. BUT there are still many, many things that are going on. We called just about every number that we had in the phone and then some (and Mom you know how much I hate talking on the phone) and we had quite a bit of success. We were able to talk to many of the people we called just to find out that they have moved out of the area. The good news is that many of them were still interested in learning about the gospel so we sent off four or five referrals. At least the work is going somewhere!
We were able to see an investigator that we inherited from the previous Elders. She is very interested in learning and already shares many of the beliefs that we have. She also was offended by the pastor of her previous church so that kinda helps! She invited the four of us Elders to her birthday party that she had for herself, so we decided to go and meet the rest of her family. When we got there we realized that she had invited a few people from her previous church including her pastor. He is a Southern Baptist African-American pastor so right when he walked in we could feel the burn of his stare on us. I thought that he was an interesting guy once we got to know him, but apparently he didn't think the same of us. Well, I think she got the point across to him that she wasn't going back to that church any more!
One last story! This week I just knew there was going to be a miracle, I didn't know how or when but I knew there was going to be one. Thursday night we went to the church to sync our I-pads, and I got a message on Facebook from a Sister in our mission saying that they were teaching a woman named Elizabeth who had asked if I could baptize her. I had no idea what in the world she was talking about, but then I noticed I got a friend request from this said Elizabeth. I looked at her profile and recognized her immediately! I had taught this woman a year ago, almost to the day, in Woodland! After I had left Woodland she moved and told the missionaries that she just wasn't interested anymore. I couldn't believe that when those missionaries told me that because she was purely golden. I thought that Elizabeth was lost forever. I wrote her real quick to see if it really was her and she said it was! She said that she thought a lot about what Elder Babbitt and I had taught her and realized this was for her. She realized she needed to get back in contact with the missionaries to have the happiness back in her life. I couldn't believe that she had even remembered us from a year ago. Miracles happen daily!
Love,
Elder Hamblin
