July 9, 2013

Wow things are really going by fast.  This past week we were finally able to meet with one of our investigators.  His name is S.  He has recently started working at a berry cannery around town, so he has been working all sorts of crazy work times.  So unfortunately all of our previous attempts to contact him have fallen through.  But this past week, due to wonderful technology and texting, we were able to get a hold of him and set up a time to meet with him.  We met with him on Wednesday, and it was an awesome pick-me-up spiritually.  We taught him the law of tithing ( a little note:  the pamphlets are awesome, but teaching from them definitely is not the most effective way to bring the spirit in).  It was the first time that I have not used the  tithing  pamphlet to teach the lesson, and the spirit was so much stronger.  It was also a little bit of a touchy subject for him, especially since that was what had driven him away from the 7th day Adventist church that he had previously attended.  We asked him what he felt about the Book of Mormon after we had finished teaching the law of tithing.  He then told us that he had been slacking off on reading the Book of Mormon because of his busy schedule, but he had recently decided to bring it with him to work, so that during his break, he could read it, and then because he was alone most of the time during work, he would think about what he had read.  He told us about an experience that he had, and then he told us that he felt like the Book of Mormon is true.  We asked him what he thought the next step for him would be, and he said that it would be baptism, and we are setting a baptismal date with him tomorrow when we meet with him.

So yeah things are going awesome in the Molalla River ward, but not so much in the Canyon Creek ward.

Recently the Canyon Creek ward has slowly started to die.  Less and less people have been showing up to work, less-actives have been cancelling appointments, and our investigators are slowly disappearing.  So this past Fast Sunday, Elder Barlow and I bore our testimonies in church hoping that it would help to spark a couple referrals.  Then unexpectedly, the ward missionaries got up one at a time, and pretty much chastized the ward for not coming to church and not being supportive of missionary work.  But one thing that really stuck out to me was what one of the people that Elder Barlow and I have recently reactivated.  She got up and bore her testimony on why she came back to church and the joy she felt when she came back.  She then said that it hurt when people would make fun of the lack of attendance in the ward.  She said that she wanted to bring everyone with her to God because she knew it would make them happy and she wanted those people to experience that same joy.  Then Sister A got up and bore her testimony of church attendance.  She talked about an investigator we have been working with who cannot go to church because of her family but wants to desperately.  We are fortunate to only have our beds in that way of going to church, while others cannot because of restricted agency. 

We then got a referral from a member in Canyon Creek after church, which was awesome.  But sacrament meeting was really good in Canyon Creek.

Love 

Elder Peterson

Exercise your agency to your fullest capability.