Wednesday, October 16, 2013

October 16, 2013 - Gilroy

Hi family! How is everyone doing? How's the weather? Is it snowing in Utah yet? It's still pretty warm here in Gilroy. There have been a few cold days but for the most part it still feels like summer.
 
This week we had an awesome lesson with Amber! Remember how I was sad because we weren't going to be able to teach Amber anymore? Well there is a less active 13 year old (ivory) that we have been teaching and we realized that she is going through exactly what Amber went through when she was that age. We decided to invite Amber to our lesson on Sunday and it was a huge success. Amber really bore a powerful testimony about the gospel and how she wished so badly that someone would have shared the gospel with her when she was 13. It was so neat to see an investigator be the teacher to a member. I was so proud of Amber! She's progressing so quickly and has even been talking to the bishop about going to a singles ward. No matter where I am when she decides to get baptized, I'll be there. Long story short, I can't believe what some 13 year olds experience and go through at such a young age. It makes me so so so grateful to have been raised on such a strong gospel foundation. Thank you mom and dad!
 
Another neat experience this week was with Fatima. She's the one who has a little boy with cancer who wants to see the Oakland temple. At our lesson last week we asked her if she had been reading the Book of Mormon and she said that she had so we asked her to go get it so that we could use it for our lesson. She looked so sad and said that she didn't have it anymore. I asked her what happened and she said that she had been reading it at her friends house and they got to talking about it and her friend asked if she could read it. So Fatima gave her friend her Book of Mormon. She felt bad that she had given away the book but we were thrilled! We ran out to our car to get another copy and she was so grateful that we had another one for her. I love when investigators do missionary work!
 
We also had a pretty special contact last week. We were about to go into the hospital where we sing to a sister in our ward every week. We stopped a lady on the street and asked her if she'd like to learn more about Christ. She took our Mormon.org but didn't seem too interested. We went inside to sing for the sister in our ward and about 10 minutes later the same lady who we had stopped on the street walked in the room! She said, "excuse me but could you two come and sing about God to my mother as well?" She was so polite and seemed almost embarrassed to ask us. Maybe because she hadn't been very receptive on the street but it turned out that her mother was in the room right next door to where we were. We sang her some songs and even went back on another day to sing to her too. God really works in small and simple means.
 
I don't have much else to report for this week. The best part of the week was our lesson with Amber and Ivory. While we were in that lesson all I could think about was how incredible God's plan is. It's like a puzzle and sometimes you really can just see all of the pieces fit together. I know we were supposed to meet Amber and teach her for a period of time so that we could get to know her and part of her story. I also know that we were supposed to stop Ivory on the street that one day on our bikes so that we could hear her story as well. And I also know that those two were supposed to meet. Now Amber is going to be giving Ivory a ride to church every Sunday. Again, it's the investigator doing the missionary work. The gospel really does change people!
 
A funny-ish story for the week was this last Sunday during sacrament meeting. They asked Elder Olsen and I to translate when usually they just ask one of us. (If there are two of us we can switch off during speakers and help each other find scriptures) but anyway I felt really awkward sitting next to an elder even though my companion was close by. Some part during the meeting I looked at my companion and she was laughing so hard. Afterwards I asked her why she was laughing so hard and she said I looked so ridiculous because I was sitting as far away from Elder Olsen as I could. I was completely on the edge of my seat and if there wasn't a wall on the other side of me I probably would have been sitting even farther away! Hopefully I didn't make Elder Olsen self conscious that he has bad breath or anything!
 
Well that's it for this week. I hope everyone is doing well! And I HOPE TO HEAR FROM YOU SOOOOOON!!!!!! :) I love you all!
 
Love, Sister Billings

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