Ether!! 6-30-14

Hola!

It is July! How on earth did that happen? It seems crazy to me.

I am just going to try and get lots of stories and people down today. Bear with me.

C is a recent convert of about two years. He was found and taught by elders. The first lesson he was taught they talked about aliens and how the plan of salvation proves their existence. Yes, that is what they taught him. Needless to say, the ward now has sisters and we have very special lessons with C.  He is very deep thinker and brilliant. He tells us what he wants to learn about. This week it is the book of Luke. Last week it was Zion. He is awesome though and it is always an enjoyable time.

We had a miracle story. We were heading to dinner and had an extra 30 mins or so. We decided to go walking and talk to people along the way. One of my old investigators was us and called out to us. We walked up a path to get to her and talked for a few moments. As we were walking back down I saw a man sitting on a park bench. He had not been there just a few minutes before when we first walked by. I walked over to him and started talking. He told me how he had just got out of the hospital after being beaten up protecting a teenage girl. We talked about God and shared the Book of Mormon with him. He started crying as he read the passage we shared. He felt the spirit so strongly just from reading one verse. He kept saying how we were angles and it was a miracle we found him. We left him with the Book of Mormon and set up a time for the elders to go teach him. It was amazing to see how we were right where we needed to be. It was also touching to see how the spirit affected him so strongly just from holding/reading a portion of the Book of Mormon.

Robert is doing well. He is getting pressure from a lot of people and doesn’t like that. It is kind of a hard situation because he was so close to being baptized and then a conversation he had with someone deterred and frightened him. We are working on helping him get back on track. He is praying about a date again. He got really sick this week when he was supposed to go to his family reunion. He was really worried about this because there was lots of drinking going on there.   Because he was sick he didn’t drink at all, I don’t think he would have either way but this helped him out. He got a priesthood blessing from some people in the ward and that was really cool to see. He really enjoyed the singles ward this week and hopefully will start progressing towards being confident in his decision to join the church.

I went on exchanges and went biking!!!! Yes mom, I biked in a skirt on my mission. I always said I would hate doing that. It wasn’t even that bad just hard to balance all my stuff and bike up the hills. I enjoyed it though.

We picked up the most amazing investigator! He is from China! He was raised atheist in China and moved here a few years ago. He started reading the bible and wants to know if there is a God. He is so respectful and kind. We taught him about God and invited him to pray to find out if He was real. He was happy to do so. I can’t wait to keep teaching him. I believe that the way we will get to China is through people like this. Seth-on your mission I am sure you will run into a lot of Chinese people who want to learn. It is amazing!

I had the funniest lesson of my entire life this week. I can’t even describe how hard I was laughing about this situation. His name is Felix and I actually found him back when I was serving in Encinitas. We taught him the first lesson on the restoration of the gospel and then passed him off to the YSA sisters. Well fancy that, I got transferred to the YSA ward so now I teach him again. We show up and he tells us he has been studying Ether…..apparently he googled short synopsis of each book in the Book of Mormon and decided that Ether looked good to him because it talked about boats. He is a painter and wants to have a greater understanding and appreciation of baroque art. He decided that because many of the painters used the bible to help with their painting, a study of the Book of Mormon would help him gain this. Can you see how this is already super funny? He grew up in Argentina and is not like anyone else you would ever meet. He also thinks we live in a convent and are nuns. So funny. He will text us and say-  to the Mormon sisters, can two of you please be available to meet with me this coming Thursday to discuss the book of Ether. And I would also like more information on the book of Noah which I can’t seem to find in the book.   Hahahahaha. We just about die every time. So we go and meet him and he starts asking about kings and who killed who and what not. The book of Ether is genealogy and overthrowing’s… not really something we would EVER assign to be read. I don’t even know what the heck is happening in that book. Well we got talking and next thing I know we have paper out and are diagraming and creating a family chart for the book of Ether. We chronologically wrote out what king was in power and who killed who. We then would circle the names of the righteous verse the unrighteous. I was trying not to laugh the entire time! He was so serious about it.  I think that Felix has a deeper and more complex knowledge of the book of Ether then any Mormon I know. It was a testimony to me though because at the end he said, “This has already helped me so much. Knowing that kings can be righteous and unrighteous helps me see the emotion and point of view in the art. It is so much more real and alive to me since I have studied the Book of Mormon” People, the spirit is in the Book of Mormon. It literally is in every page and verse……don’t ever doubt that! You can gain something from all of it. I have seen it happen this week.  Since we are missionaries though, we had to tell him that we must start learning the lessons for our meetings to continue. So the plan of salvation next week! That will be a hoot. Stay tuned folks. Also please enjoy the pictures that I took of our charts and findings on the book of Ether.

Ok I saved the best for last!!!! AMY!!!!! We got a call that someone in the stake had a girl that was ready to meet with us and be baptized. Their son has been friends with her for a long time and just got home from his mission. We went over Monday night and started teaching her. We have now taught her the first three lessons and she is getting baptized on July 12^th. It is truly a miracle. Members have so much influence and power in conversion. She is also very prepared and has been living the church standards her whole life. She is very earnest in her searching and gets so much out of her reading. That really makes me want to be better. I am grateful to be serving YSA because the people are now going to be my friends forever. I will always be Amy’s friend. The first time I saw her she looked so familiar to me. I just knew that I knew her from before. The member that we took said it was because I was her missionary. I like to think that is true. I know that I needed to meet and know Amy. I also know that I already knew her, or at least my spirit did.

Well I best be going. Happy 4^th people. Go light something on fire in my name.

Sister Huber