23 January 2012

The good, The Bad, and the Bowling

Its was a loooong week this week! we taught a lot of people. i did a lot of thinking and we had a lot of fun! Here's an intro to some of the people we teach:

Roland (40's): His wife died about 6 weeks ago. he's heartbroken. its heartbreaking to hear him talk :/ but he realizes that God is there for him and is in his life everyday. and he is always worried about everyone else. He's got such a great Spirit. He had a couple really good talks with him this week!

Aegis Center: We teach here every friday afternoon. its a home for people with Alzheimer's and/or Dementia. The people is here are so awesome, but sometimes its pretty sad to see how sick they are :/

AND heres another sad one :/
The Witham's: Willard and Angie Witham and their daughter Karisma were baptized about a year and a half ago, but have since stopped coming to church and have fallen back into some of their bad habits. Karisma is 13, they also have a very cute 2 year old daughter and another one on the way.  When we stopped by on tuesday to visit, only Willard and the 2 year old were there. Willard told us about how him and Angie had had another huge fight and that we was pretty sure this was the "last straw". We knew they had been having trouble, but this was not what we expected when we went to visit. He told us that he was seriously thinking about packing a few of his things, taking his truck and just leaving :/ The saddest part of the whole thing was that he kept trying to act tough, he kept saying things like, "dont worry about me. im tough. i'll be alright." But then he would look at his little daughter playing or he would say something about the baby and you could just feel his heart breaking :/

And that was my week! Kinda really depressing. These are people that are going through some of the most awful things i can imagine :/ and really there is nothing i can do to help them except to pray for them and listen to them.

But we are also teaching some people i happier situations :) kinda gives us strength to help these other people.

Joe and Valentina: We've taught them twice. Valentina was baptized when she was young, but doesnt remember much. Joe grew up in Utah but isnt a member. They have a 3 year old son and another on the way. And the just eat it up when we teach them!!!!!!! :) Sooo fun! They both work on sundays so that makes it hard for them to come to church but they'll get there :) They were actually looking to move. they want to rent a house with a yard for there kids. A member in the ward was helping them look for places and joe and valentina told him that they wanted to stay in the ward because they "love the missionaries here" :P :) haha, they are awesome.

AND
Nelson: he's a hispanic guy. in his late 40's. and we asked him this week if he wanted to get baptized. he said "of course!" he's going to be baptized on his birthday, march 3rd1

so there's good and bad here. overall the area is great! im pretty much used to biking up the hill now. This past saturday there were 60mph gusts of wind, so we didn't bike very far lol. but it was exciting! and today its raining. which is also really exciting! i think this is my 3rd rainy day since ive been here.

Elder Lasen and I spoke in church for the second week in a row. Last week the topic was Missionary work, and i kinda accidentally spoke for 25 mins and left elder larsen like 5 mins. whoops! this week was better. our topic was the Sabbath day and i didnt prepair anything until sunday morning, so talked for about 15 mins and Larsen talked for about 10 and sang a song. it was good. Prez and sis Black came to watch us.

Today we were supposed to go hiking but that was postponed because everyone one was afraid of rain. so instead we went bowling. that was a lot of fun. (i won :) )

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

here's a quote i found:
"The Lord works from the inside out... The world would shape human behavior ,but Christ can change human nature."
-Ezra Taft Benson


Love you all! keep praying :)

Elder Donovan :)