January 27, 2014

Great News! This man has been coming to church the past couple weeks who knows Clay Christensen. We were trying to figure out who this man was - then we get a phone call from a great member in our ward Bro. Johnson (he's a convert from THE book): "sisters! this guy named Ali has been researching the church for a very long time. He has had a long progression and came to me expressing his desire to be baptized and my advice for him on what he should do! So I told him I would have him over with you sisters this week!" We then connected that it was this man who had come to church last week. This week when we saw him at church I introduced myself, saying that we would be meeting with him on Wednesday at the Johnsons. [He is a literal professional. when i talked to him i felt like i was talking the president of the united states. ive never had to be so careful with my grammer :)] I told him that we usually share a similar message of what we believe with people on the first visit but in a way that answers questions they have about life or what we believe. I asked him if  he had any specific questions he would like us to address for wednesday. he smiled and said "I've read all of that book Preach My Gospel...so I know what's coming for me".
Woa, is this a challenge? Bring it on Ali.  Another member said that after talking to him he told them he was looking into getting baptized and becoming a member. I was like Brother Johnson what do you want us to do? He already knows EVERYTHING! He laughed and said "Yeah thank goodness you guys are set apart - i have no idea...im turning this one over to you."
We are flipping our entire teaching style - we are prayerfully considering questions we can ask him so that he can guide the teaching and teach US.

The Lopez family are similar. they know EVERYTHING and want to get baptized but they want to do it as a family and are waiting for their 14 year old. Again, reverse teaching. Its HARD.

The funny part is, a couple weeks ago I was praying and thought "i cant ask others to set goals or encourage them in their efforts to set a date if i dont." So i set a date for January 31st that we would find a new investigator who is ready to accept the restored gospel. We had no one on our plate that we knew of that people were working with but i knew that didnt matter. Now we have the Lopez family, Ali, and another woman Maria who is so excited about the Book of Mormon - she said shes read it before when she lived in Bolivia! she is hoping her family will want to join in the lessons. Heavenly Father, I didnt ask for a million people...I just asked for 1. But hey, I wont complain.
 In the mean time we've been doing lots of exchanges. I want to send pictures - ill have to get another cord because i think my camera cord is official lost...not just misplaced. :/

Another fun moment was dinner with the Romneys this week. We love their family because theyre house is always normal...as in crazy with a million kids. As soon as we all sit down for dinner bro Romney slices his finger so deep. We hear yelling from the other room "oh my gosh...oh my gosh..oh my gosh. i think i might need stiches." We look at their kids and are like "is he going to be ok?" They shrug and say "yeah - this happens all the time. he burnt his finger this morning and has cut himself like 3 other times before. we're used to this." He came in and sat with us  - it was hilarious. The kids were like dad you really need to learn your lesson. I told him to stop being a baby and to just superglue it back together. Their daughter wants her boyfriend taught the lessons but we connected her with the elders so that he would feel more comfortable. He showed off his finger to us on sunday. Needless to say, we have a great relationship with the romneys :)

Pray for me as there is a lot to do this week and a lot of important decisions to make. Happy as can be - but very busy. Heavenly Father is blessing this area so much - I feel so so lucky that I get to be a small piece in the puzzle and get to watch it all happen.

Every night i feel like i have an empty bucket of requests and not enough time to give thanks for everything i've been given.

Thank you for the wonderful birthday surprises as well. Ive never been so happy!

Love,

Sister Bell

Keepin it real...because it is real.