29 June 2015 - 3 Investigators

We had 3 investigators at our sacrament meeting this week. It was great! DJ came to church. He is certainly feeling at home there. We are still teaching him, however his older Sister is still a big concern. She has not come to church for a month and everyone in the Branch is worried for her. We did visit this week with our branch president and she seemed to be doing just fine. She seems to really tied up with life right now and relationships. 

Raylene is 9 or 10 years old and her Grand Mother and Great Grand Mother are very active in the church. She has always been around them and has come to church. Just recently though she started getting serious though with investigating and also baptism. We taught the first lesson this week and it wen t well. We left with her a commitment to read the introduction of the Book of Mormon with her Great Grand Mother. She should be ready for baptism soon! We don't want to rush her, and make sure that it is her making the decision and not her Extended family. Her family is also concerned about that as well.

The 3rd person that came to church was a bit of a miracle. Her name is Lauren., I don't think that I mentioned her last time. She was taught by missionaries a long time ago. They never made a teaching record it seems. They INvited her to be baptized and she said no because she did not feel prepared. She was also going through a lot at that time as well. The waters have settled for her and she seems to be interested and ready to progress. After she said no to baptism the missionaries seemed to have stopped going by. The missionaries where transferred and she was forgotten about. We met Lauren just by talking with people on the street. She mentioned her past experiences with the missionaries and I was a bit blown away. I wen t back to the area book looked for a teaching record and could not find one. However though I did go through a weekly progress report and found her name there from years ago, so what she said was most certainly true. We have been visiting her for the past few weeks at her door step and we have been sharing meaningful thoughts with her. We invited her to Church, and also mentioned that we where going to be having a linger longer as well. She came to church though much to our surprise. She missed sacrament, only because she did not know exactly where the church was. She went to the local Morai  ( Moari meeting house) actually thinking that we where meeting there but she was still able to find the house we where at. She brought her 2 sons, one was autistic, he loved the place and was running around everywhere which was great! The sisters where so kind though to her and encouraged her to stay despite her considering to leave because the kids where hungry. She enjoyed , but I could also see that it was a lot for her to take in as well. We have an official appointment this week and we are certainly looking forwards to it.

Overall though it was a pretty great week.We had a lot of success. Reuben is doing well. He enjoys coming back over to teach him the New Member Lessons. He has missed church a few times due to various inconvenient commitments, however he is still doing well.
Love you all and thanks so much for all that you do for me.

Love Elder Ward

Some beautiful Landscape.

 I went on a trade off with our District Leaders companion. We tried to visit some members that live in this house boat it was so cool! They live in it and they travel sometimes in it. Really cool!