Dear Family,
Love you!
Things are feeling better and better here in Omaha
Last week, I was looking through a lot of the old records in
our area book (most of the records are from more than 3 years ago). I found one
that had an Elder Young on it. . . It was from 2006, which would be about right
I think. It was kind of fun to see his name on it. I don't know if it was
really the Elder Young, but I am going to assume that it is.
So last week, I probably mentioned that we had had a lesson
with Carol, the friend of a member in the Oakview ward. We were teaching her
for a while, but stopped when her mom put up some resistance. Carol stopped
investigating for a little while to avoid any more conflict with her mom. A
couple of weeks ago, she came to a homecoming in our ward and we starting
talking to her again. The missionary who returned home, who knew Carol a little
before his mission, gave his talk on the necessity of baptism and later talked
to Carol more about it. I guess that jumpstarted her again and on Sunday, she
asked us to come see her. We saw her that night and the next night we went back
with the Singles Ward Elders (because she will be in the Winter Quarters
Singles Ward). They have been teaching her since then, and she is getting
baptized this Friday! Hooray! She is so amazing. She knows the Church is true
and has decided that this is really what she wants. Her prayers are so sincere
and she stopped smoking, etc. practically on her own. She is so awesome and is
a great example for her family, especially her younger sister, Miriam. So,
Carol is not technically a baptism for us, but I am counting it since I have
been with her from the very beginning up until just a bit before her baptism.
Now we just need to find an investigator to go to the baptism so that we can
go.
We also have another investigator named Carla who we have
been teaching for a while now, although we have only seen her 4-5 times. We also
saw her on Monday night. We had not seen her in about a month. It was
completely different than any other lesson we have taught her. She finally just
got it! Everything was making sense and she was finally seeing how this can
help her. We were able to set her for baptism and she was so willing to accept.
She knows that this is what she needs right now. It is amazing to see. The only
problem is that she does work a lot as a nurse, so it is difficult to meet with
her very regularly, but slowly we will get her there. What was really neat to
see was that even though we did not intend to not see her for that large amount
of time, it was exactly what needed to happen. She just needed some time to
come to those realizations on her own so that now she is ready to progress. Things
are starting to move ahead very well in the Oakview Ward and I can just feel
that there are more good things coming.
Also a few weeks ago, we met a man named Patrick in the
parking lot of an apartment building where we have been teaching a few
different people. We taught him a lesson right there while he was sitting in
his car talking to us out the window. He had recently been fired from his job
and was in the process of looking for a new one, but wasn't having too much luck.
We promised him that if he would read a passage of the Book of Mormon that we
left with him, he would find a new job before the end of the week. He wouldn't
give us any of his information, but we left him with our phone number and he
said he would call us if something happened. Later, Sister Askren realized that
she had written down the wrong phone number on the card, so we thought our only
hope to find him again would be to tract the whole building where he lives and
pray that he would be home. Yesterday, about a month later, we were at those
same apartment buildings trying to visit a less active member of our ward, but
no one was home. As we walked out to our car to leave, we saw a car pull into
the same parking stall where we had met Patrick. It was him! We yelled after
him across the parking lot and went to talk to him. He had read the section of
the Book of Mormon we had left with him and had gotten a job the very next day.
It was amazing. Unfortunately, though, he kept trying to blame it on
coincidence and just didn't feel like this was something he wanted to pursue
right now. Even though he could clearly see that this could help him, he just
didn't want to put forth the effort. That is one of the hardest parts of
missionary work. When someone really needs the gospel (well, everyone does) and
have seen the blessings from it in their lives, but just don't want to put
forth the effort. They think it is just too hard. It is hard to see happen, but
God gives people opportunities and it is their choice to accept or reject it.
That doesn't make it easy though.
Well, those are the highlights (or lowlights) of the week.
As usual, I cannot figure out what happened to the rest of the week, but I am
sure that it was good too.
Love You!
Sister Lamb
Sister Melanie had a very special visitor at the Trail Center today and she brought a hug from Sister Lamb's mom. Thanks, Sharon!
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