Week 29

Ethan has been having trouble with his email lately and we ended up only getting a partial letter this week so sorry it just abruptly ends....


Bonjour,

Wow another week has gone by and another beginning of a transfer. I cannot believe that this is already my fourth transfer and that I have been out for six months already! Woah! Time has honestly flown by. It seems like yesterday that I was still in Arizona but also like it has been years at the same time. It is a very odd feeling. This week has been another great one. Depsite kind of a big disappointment that we had but it's really ok and it is all in the Lord's hands.

Last Monday we had a lesson with Walter and we really talked about how important it was to have a personal relationship with God and that pray, scripture study and coming to church were extremely important in creating that. We engaged him to come to church and he said that he would if we could find someone to pick him up before and than drop him off because he doesn't really have any means of transportation and no money for the bus. So we told him that we would find someone.

On Tuesday, we had a very full day with lessons! We started out the morning by passing some people and we contacted this incredible lady who is actually American. She said that she has really been searching lately for a church and really feels like this was God's way of saying, "Ok, it is time to make a decision." And she has a little baby and really wants to raise him with good values in a church. Just after lunch we went to Maria's house and talked about how to really feel peace and calm in this life. With her problems, she is always very up and down emotionally and so we talked about how the gospel can help create a bit of equilibrium. After Maria, we hurried to the church to teach Daniel and we decided that we would go through some of the baptismal questions to see where he had some "holes" in what we have taught and what he remembers from the other missionaries. Well, we ended up talking about the modern prophet but he wasn't really aware of that. Right after Daniel, we taught Brigitte (our two investigators engaged for baptism for the 12th back-to-back) and we watched Finding Faith in Christ with her and talked about the love and power of Christ for each of us. It was really good and it is amazing how truly ready she is for baptism. I have had people engaged for baptism before but I have never felt like they were so completely ready and prepared like she is. It's awesome. That evening we had a lesson with Jorge and his family (the Brazillians). They called us and asked if we could do it another night right as we were in front of their apartment complex but we had Frère Fidalgo with us and this would have been the 3rd time that we tried to have Frère Fidalgo come and they cancelled so we explained and they said it would be ok. We go up to their apartment and there was a random guy there with the family. Come to find out, he is actually a preacher from the Assembly of God evangelist church in Brazil and that he surprised Jorge just the day before and that he would be staying in Marseille to open up a branch there and that he needed Jorge's help! Seriously, our heart's dropped. He told us that we could keep coming by and discussing with him but that he couldn't come to church anymore and that he was going to focus on helping his friend start up this church. So that was definitely a bit of a bummer... especially after he told us that he would have stayed with our church if his friend hadn't showed up.... But either way, it's ok and the Lord has a plan for this family and apparently, right at this second is not the right time.

On Wednesday, We had a lot of rendez-vous fall through all the way until the evening when we had Maria again. We really emphasized with her how when we base our lives on Christ using prayer, scripture study, and coming to church that we can withstand the influences of the world. She really liked the lesson and was very pumped to come to church. We used this demonstration using three cups a