Home Cookin'‏

September 5, 2011

Okay, dear folks, before I forget...
Stop talking to me about your home food! I miss it!!! Haha no, just kidding, but the last email I got from Mom may have been a LITTLE too detailed about all the food you all ate for fast Sunday dinner. It's all good though, the food here continues to be quite satisfying, and my companion and I experiment at home with many ingredients at nights, so it's all good.
Anyway, another thing I have to mention before I get into this that I forgot from last week... We played soccer, white people vs. mexicans. Haha because our district is split pretty perfectly for that, and we actually won, AND I made a goal! I still stink at soccer, but that was pretty cool, I must say. We played again this week and I wasn't able to help much, except for a lot of miracle blocks as goalee for the last bit.
But yeah, what more...
No sé, entonces empezamos, verdad?
Alright, so this last week was pretty cool, but my very coolest spiritual experiences were yesterday. We had invited about 10 or more people to church, and dropped by two of them. The ones we dropped by didn't come, and only one of the others that we invited showed up, of many almost sure people. So that was kind of sad for us, and we called people in between meetings, because in this area sacrament meeting is the last and most important hour, and finally an investagator showed up. She is one of our very golden investigators, so we were very happy to see her there. She loves everything about the church so far, and she's excited to be progressing. So yeah, she sat next to us near the front, and it was testimony sunday, as we all know, right?
Well, we were pretty surprised when our generally shy but way awesome convert who had JUST been confirmed about 10 minutes before as a member of the church, Ivonne, got up and bore a way powerful testimony of the gospel. The bishop looked surprised, and everyone just quieted down. My companion and I were pure smiles, and we felt absolutely awesome. So that was way cool, and after that we took the investigator on a tour through the building, and ended in the baptismal font room. We looked at the font with her and talked about baptism, and she got emotional.
We've talked about it before, but the problem is that she has two kids and is living with her boyfriend, but they aren't married. She hasn't wanted to get married, but she'd never tell us why. There in the font room, she told us she couldn't marry him with tears in her eyes. We followed the spirit, sat her down, asked her what impeded her from marrying him, and she bore it all.
Her life has been a very sad mess, she explained to us. Her dad left when she was young, so she started drinking young. She got pregnant when she was 15 and her boyfriend left her. She got pregnant again when she was 18 and that boyfriend also abandoned her. She didn't finish highschool and had to work every single day. As in sunday to sunday, from 8 am to 10 pm, and she still couldn't pay for school for her kids. She could never see them, and she was miserable. She was living with her mom, and her mom told her when she turned 19 that she couldn't help anymore, and she'd have to find somewhere to go. Then along came her current boyfriend, who took care of them, and helped her out. She didn't love him, but she had to do something for her kids. Now she feels trapped, because her kids love him, and he loves them, but she doesn't love him. He is also telling her to stop listening to us, that she never had schooling so she can't understand what we teach, her friends all say the same and make fun of her, at this point in her story she was absolutely bawling and told us she didn't know what to do, but that there was no way out.
I have to admit my companion and I got emotional as we testified of God's help, and we told her of all her options. We can't tell her to seperate, but if she's this miserable, she has to figure out something. Seperating would be the best option in our mind, but she feels so alone and has nowhere to go, no money, and no way to take care of her kids. Whenever we mentioned baptism though she smiled through her tears and said she wanted it so bad.
We continued with a spiritual lesson and at the end comitted her to pray to be guided to do what would make HER happy. She agreed, more happy than when we started out, and we left. The whole day though we were thinking about and praying for her, I felt something I've never felt before. I thought about the change in the lives of the other people I've helped to baptism so far, and about just how bad I wanted that for this investigator. I don't mention a name because her story is very personal, but maybe I'll mention it someday. Her story has motivated me to try so much harder again, I know there are people out there that need so badly the gospel. Maybe there are some that are getting along just fine for now, but even they need it. Happiness that isn't prioritized doesn't last.
So after that lesson on Sunday, my companion and I were very motivated to find more people that needed us. We searched out many contacts that day and knocked some doors. We were in the rain the whole time, I had no sweater for half the day until we dropped by the house for my jacket, so we were cold, wet, and everyone was rejecting us. It felt especially sad after having been motivated so much, but I'd received a letter from Annalee Strong recently that included a talk from Pres. Eyring, where he said something about days like that where nobody accepts you until the last door. I mentioned it to my companion, and we remotivated. We worked and walked from 4 pm until 8:15 pm without anyone letting us in, with pretty cold rain the whole time. As we approached the last door with the sun having gone down and being close to our own house, I think my companion and I both said a little prayer in our hearts and we knocked.
After a second, an old man answered with a smile and invited us in, my companion and I gave each other a look and stepped in. He was really nice and receptive, and asked us to come back before we could ask him if we could, on our way out, his son walked in (the one we'd originally contacted in the street) and we talked to him for a bit too. They were both happy and excited to see us, and we'll be seeing them again today, so I'm excited. We got out and talked about how we now both had a strong testimony of the Lord blessing us after all we can do.
Well then today, we went by the investigator with the family situation again, in the morning because she didn't have another time we could come by today, and we knew she needs us. So we went to her house at 11 today and taught another lesson. She is on the right track, but still feels slightly lost. She cried some in this lesson too and explained things even further, and all I can ask is that everyone reading this pray for her. Even if you aren't accustomed to praying, some of you reading this, please pray for her. I've never met a person more in need and more deserving of help than this investigator. It doesn't have to be anything big, maybe 30 seconds, but please mention her.
It's amazing how much we grow to love the people we serve. I can only imagine Christ's love for us, His happiness when we're doing well, and sadness when we're not. I've felt greater joy and love, and greater sadness for people in this short time than I ever had in my life.
I hope you all know I pray for you too every day, and I do feel your prayers as well, they help me, really.
Well, before I add pictures, I'll just mention a couple other things...
I have a source that tells me that Kim Danzie is getting married!? Somebody congratulate her or something for me, will you? Sounds cool I guess. Weird that people are getting married and stuff though. Couldn't life just pause while I'm gone? Haha
And, I think that's it.
I'll send pictures seperate!
Love you all a ton.
Elder DeFreese

1. It's really cold in our house in the mornings. Haha

2. Suuuuch good food.

3. My companion and I with that investigator we need to pray for! She's great, there's her little girl too.

Well, that's all for this week, I do love you all!

p.s. While it's loading, yes I got Braden's dearelder. It's sweet he's got a truck now! Woah! I'll definitely be writing you all when I have more time later, specific stuff, but today, we're... Yeah, behind again. Oh well!

Also, when I send letters from this area, for those expecting letters, you probably won't get them for a while. I'm pretty far from the offices, and even when they get there, the Elders sometimes take a while to send mail from there.

BUT I'M WRITING!

No worries, so keep writing me. ;)

p.p.s. I had a couple more pictures, including Ivonne's baptism, but I'll have to send that next week, because this computer is going slow, and we're late. ARGH! Heh.