Just Bullets...

Soooooo. lots of good things happened this week, and I have no desire to write them down, but I can do bullet points. that's easier than writing a huge story. theme of these bullet points: opposition precedes success. last week was a lot of opposition. this week, lots of good things

 

• Judy is getting baptized this week! She's 77. :) lots of spunk. we taught her the word of wisdom on Tuesday and the spirit was so powerful . she commited to live it. when we came back on Friday she said she totally gave up her coffee, cold turkey! so proud of her. she's getting baptized this Thursday. never would have imagined a lesson on word of wisdom would be so powerful.
• Joyce is an investigator and is 75. she's legitimately trying to quit smoking after 65 years of smoking a pack to 2 packs a day. she's doing really well. it's more of a process for her but it is her desire to quit.
• we met a man, Bill, and his wife. they are in love with family history. they're going to help us with ours and eventually we'll teach them the gospel. build up the trust first.
• Elexus is 17, a member, but feels like it was never her choice. she has some really good questions. we're going to teach her the new member lessons and i'm excited about it.
• We met one of the friends of the Babb boys. His name is Javi and wants to be closer to God. He's our new investigator. :)
• The Ghormley's came to church again. they really want this and i'm so so sososososososososo excited for them. I can't tell you how much I love this family.
• We've been teaching the new member lessons to Joe and Elizabeth (their grandma is sister marquardt). they're still learning a lot. their mom won't sit in on the lessons with us. I want her to be there. she needs to listen. but there's some disconnect. we're gonna have to be direct with her... even more than we have been. Sister marquardt is not doing well. she isn't able to come to church anymore because she can't hold anything down... at all. not even for an hour. Joe stays home to take care of her. and Chris goes to work. So Elizabeth gets  a ride with a member of the ward. It's a really hard time for them.
• Charlene was baptized a couple years ago in Hawaii. And then she moved back her to be with her immediate family. she's the only member in her family. she feels rather alone. but we met her and she came to church with us yesterday. she's just 20 years old. she's so sweet and loves the gospel. i'm hoping her family's hearts will soften and we'll be able to teach them.
• One of the young women in the ward graduated so we took her to in-n-out to celebrate. she's been less active and she brought it up. she doesn't have a lot of questions like Elexus does. she hasn't thought it through. but we have some good questions for her. we're going to teach the new member lessons for her too. she was reluctant at first when I brought it up. at the end though I said "do you want to schedule an appointment now or do you want to wait?" she took a few seconds and thought  about it. you could see the internal struggle. eventually she said "let's schedule something". it was pretty cool. :)
• Sister Seward has completely given up coffee and tea. even the decaf kind. :D she came to it on her own conclusion after reading some of our reading assignements. i'm so incredibly proud of her. she has such a desire to follow Christ.
• Our old neighbor across the street. Their names are Leann and Grumpy. We've just been good friends. Saturday I told her that she could always ask us questions. and they just started pouring out. we're going to teach them the lessons when we find a time that our schedules intermix.
• Our zone sang goodbye to President and Sister Black. God be with you til we meet again. i'm gonna miss them. I've learned a lot from them about loving your spouse. they're way cute.
• Finally, that wonderful broadcast on Sunday about missionary work. if you haven't seen it, find it. EVERYONE NEEDS TO WATCH IT! we have a great work to do and there's lots of help to do it.

I love you all! Have fun at the reunion!

 

Love,

Sister Cornelsen