August 19, 2014

Hey Family,

Sooooo you are probably wondering why I didn't write yesterday haha well the reason is, is because we had a member of the 70 come and visit our mission for a mission tour and we had a conference with him and with his schedule it had to be on Monday, and so our P-day is on Tuesday this week! So all is well!

This week has been really good. We got to meet Brandon in person for the first time and that was great! He was home for a few days from his driving and so we got to have a lesson with him at the church and it went great! Brandon is so cool in person haha it is weird to have a relationship with someone online and then finally meet them, I just feel like Brandon is a real person now! haha But we were able to have a really spiritual lesson with him on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we talked a lot about why we must live the gospel and how living the gospel enables us to use the power of the atonement in our lives. Brandon didn't realize how the two connected before, but after the lesson he said that it all made sense to him, and of course it does it's true! We also invited him to be baptized on September the 6th and he said "of course that's what I want, let me look at my schedule and see when and if I will be home," and then he said "that should be great, I actually have to be home that weekend for a doctors appointment!" Wohoo! Miracles!!! So we are going to work really hard with the ward council so that we can make an activation and fellowship plan for Brandon so that he stays active after his baptism. Which I don't think will be hard because he already does so much without being asked haha

We also went on exchanges again this week and I got to be with Sister Thomson again my MTC companion, so that was really fun! We were able to teach a man that I had talked to the night before and it went great! So let me explain haha we were at dinner with the Clay family and it was their son Aarons 30-something birthday and so there was a lot of family and this and that there and we were in a loud karaoke restaurant and everyone was singing and having a good ol' time. And we had been there for a little bit and after dinner we decided that it was time to go and for some reason we just felt like we should stay, so we ended up sitting there for another 40 minutes almost, and we started to feel really bad and finally we decided that we needed to leave and right as we were leaving a man walked in which happened to be Sister Clays brother and Sister Clay yelled at us "talk to my brother he needs Jesus!" So I went over and introduced myself and it was really loud and I was able to get his number and address and I told him that we would be by tomorrow to see him and he said ok. So then the next day Sister Thomson and I were able to meet him at a McDonalds and teach him a little bit and invite him to learn more about the gospel. He has hesitation about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith, but that he was looking for a way to have the spirit in his life and I was telling him that he could have that from reading the Book of Mormon and living the gospel, and he started to go off about how its not the Bible and blah blah and I pretty much stopped him dead in his tracks and asked him "Well Tony, how do you know that the Bible is true? Have you ever seen the original copy?" And he stops and thinks for a second and says "Well.... Gosh you've really put me on the spot with that one." And so we explained to him that he knows because of the spirit and that he can know if the Book of Mormon is true by that same spirit. He agreed that was true and we invited him to church so that he could feel the spirit and learn more and that we would be there to help him. And he actually came to church the next day; it was a miracle.

We also had a really great Tri-Zone Conference on Monday, Elder Hamula from the 70 came and spoke to us about the faith to find new people to teach. I wish I could have filmed it for you hahaha it was SO good. Really got me pumped about increasing my faith hahaha and just being better.  Then that night we had a lesson on the Plan of Salvation with our investigator Mike and it went really well! He is so ready to receive the gospel its crazy! Mike agrees with everything we have taught, and he always says things like "I would have stopped you along time ago if what you were teaching was false, but you haven't taught me anything that's not true." And of course I get nervous in the Plan of Salvation lesson talking about the Kingdoms of glory because so many people have a problem with that, and before we could even get to that point, Mike says this (and this was after we taught about judgment and resurrection) " You know after you die, it's like being at a wedding banquet. And you want to sit at the very front where the light is and where all the action is happening, but if you get there late you have to sit further back, where it's not as bright, until you are at the very back of the banquet and you are in the dark. And that's only the people that make it to the banquet, some people aren't even going to make it to the banquet and they are going to be in darkness somewhere else." And we said yes that's right! And we showed him a visual of the 3 kingdoms and how Paul compares them to different degrees of light, and Mike of course just agreed with it all, and everything we explained he would say "I know what you are saying is true." And then he said "You know in my mind my brain would be telling me that I need to go back down the street to the Church of God to Pastor John, but you know I just couldn't do that because in my heart I would know that isn't right, and my spirit would know that, that isn't right. It just wouldn't sit ok with my spirit if I did that." It was so amazing! So we invited him to come to church and he said that he would do his best to make arrangements to make it there and that he was really going to read the Book of Mormon and pray about the things we are teaching him. He is so prepared and I am so excited to see him progress in the gospel! Well anyways I have to go now haha, but I love you all and I will see you soon!

Sister Jamison