I made charity a priority this week, and I tried really hard to love everyone that I talked to. And the Lord blessed me so much. I feel like I grew so much spiritually this past week as my capacities to love increased. I am coming to love the ward members so much, as well as the nonmembers in the area, and my companion too haha. And consequently, I haven't really been homesick at all this week. I have had such a greater perspective. And the saying "home is where the heart is" has become especially true for me as I have found that as I come to love the people here with all my heart, I've come to see that this is my home and this is where the Lord wants and needs me to be for the next little while. So things are going really well:)
Lyndsey is still progressing right towards baptism, but she decided to push the date back to the 12th. We asked her what her concerns are, and she said none! She is just having a hard time deciding who she wants baptize her, speak at her baptism, what hymns to sing, etc. She is still extremely self motivated and so I know that she can make it to the 12th. It is just a bit worrisome though because that is just another week that the adversary is going to be doing everything he can to keep her from getting baptized, but I have faith in the Lord's will, and I know that everything will work out.
Nothing major happened investigator-wise this week, just small steps in the right direction, so thats good. I did have some pretty cool experiences though and those are recorded in my journal, so they will be there soon. Here is probably my favorite experience throughout the week: I wasn't content with my consistency of acting on promptings I received from the spirit, and after reading an article about President Monson and how much good he has done by acting on promptings from the spirit, I decided to make a change, and that I would act on every prompting I received. So the other night we were visiting a less active member, and as we are walking up to his house I turn and see a woman sitting at a desk through the window of a house across the street and immediately felt that we needed to visit that house. So I told my companion and we went over! She must have heard us coming because by the time we got to her porch she had opened the door and invited us in! It was a lady named Thelma who is at least 80 years old. She sat us down and told us that she was "the most Mormon non-Mormon you'd ever meet!" And that she has a lot of friends in the church and knows that eventually she will get baptized, it's just a matter of when! I was ecstatic to say the least, but my joy was the fullest as she told us that because her husband had passed away several years ago, she is often very lonely, and at that time it had been several days since she had talked to any other person. She told us how much it meant to her that we came and took the time to visit her. That was humbling, and I was just filled with so much love for this woman I'd only known for 10 minutes! I know that even though Thelma often felt forgotten and alone, the Lord hadn't forgotten about her. She is so precious to Him and He loves her so much! We scheduled a return appointment and she gladly accepted a pamphlet about the restoration and said she would read it so we can talk about it next time. She also asked me to go play tennis with her on one of our Pdays haha. As we were leaving I reached out to shake her hand and she just wrapped her little arms around me and said, "thank you so much! Don't tell your president I'm hugging you! We'll just say it's from your mom!" Hahaha I am so grateful that I could run the Lords errand and remind Thelma that she hasn't been forgotten! And who knows, maybe she'll get baptized! So that was really special for me.
The new missionaries came in this week haha. It feels good to have a transfer under my belt now, thats for sure. It brought back memories of my first few days and it was really cool to see how far I've come in just this last transfer haha. I'm so much more confident and outspoken than I was when I first got here. These last 6 weeks have been full of growth and learning. I can't wait to see what the next 96 hold!
-Elder Francis
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