Called to Serve

So I forgot my Journal in my apartment this morning, so I won't be able to type as many stories today I think because honestly, all the days and weeks run together here I can't really remember the things I have already told you all about... So bear with me this week! :)

So this has been a really great week again! And it's honestly FLOWN by! I couldn't believe it was Monday again when I woke up this morning! But I guess that's what happens when you are running around non-stop! You don't have time to think about what day it is, and then all of sudden a whole week has gone by!

This week we spent a lot of time working with Andy. Since he decided to be baptized on April 23rd, we have tried to see, call, or at least text him every day. As a result of that, we actually had 3 lessons with him since I last e-mailed!

The weekend of General Conference Andy moved to a different house. Thankfully, he is still in our area, so it wasn't too dramatic. BUT as it just so happens, Andy moved RIGHT next door to Brother Heninger, our ward mission leader!

So on Tuesday we were over at Brother Heninger's house having our coordination meeting, and when we finished we thought we would stop by Andy's house and just talk to him for a minute and see how his scriptures were going. When we called him and told him we were on his street, we were all surprised to realize we were actually right outside his house! We talked for a minute and explained we were just next door at the Heninger's, and then Andy wanted to go say hi to them! So we all walked over and they invited us back in, and we had a really amazing mini lesson on prayer, and the power of personal prayer. We even read a little bit of the chapter we had assigned to him for the week and talked about the importance of baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Then on Friday, there was a boy in our ward who turned 8 and was having his baptism! So we invited Andy to come with us to the service so he could see what his baptism would be like! We called him the night before and asked him if he had any fun plans for the weekend. When he said no, we told him we had a party he could come to since we wasn't going to any of his own! He was a little disappointed when he realized it was a baptismal service party haha:) But he told us he would come if he wasn't doing anything else. At that point I straight up told him it had better be one epic excuse because he had just told us 4 minutes earlier that he wasn't doing anything all weekend! He laughed and agreed to come! So on Friday we met up with Andy at the train station, and rode it down to the church together and went to the baptism. It was a really great experience because it opened up some questions that Andy had about it. After the baptism was over, we rode the train back up to the station nearest his house. He told us he wasn't doing anything the rest of the night, and wanted to know if we could read some more of the Book of Mormon with him! So we went and grabbed some subway sandwiches and then went over to the Heninger's house again to have our 2nd mini lesson that week! Overall it was a really great night because we were really able to get to know Andy more as a person, and help him see that we are normal people too! (For the most part anyway) We were able to build a lot of trust that I know has helped him open up to us even more as we continue teaching him.

Then on Saturday Sister Allard and I were heading over to drop by a less active member when we got a call from Andy. He told us he had just lost his job, and wanted to know if we could come over. We told him of course and headed over there right away. We met up and talked with him about what happened, and if he was going to be okay. Andy has lived on his own since he was 16 or 17. His mom left his family when he was younger, and then his dad moved back to Korea to teach English, so he's been taking care of himself since then with no support from his parents. We were worried when he lost his job he wouldn't be able to pay his rent or buy groceries! But he told us that last week one of his teachers at school found out he was living on his own, and got him into some program for high school students that funds him $700/month for rent and groceries! So that was a big relief to hear. We talked about his baptism some more, and read a few more versus in 2nd Nephi before we had to head back home.

On Sunday, Andy came to church, and Sister Allard and I retaught the Plan of Salvation in our Sunday school class since that was the first lesson Andy had, and we wanted to make sure he understood it. We went straight from church to the Michelsen's house where we had our "4th lesson" with Andy about the commandment. The lesson went really well! He had lots of questions, that once we answered, helped him to feel really confident in his decision to commit to them, and be baptized. During that lesson Andy told us that he had only prayed 3 times since he met us, and I'll admit I was really surprised, sad, and frustrated by that! But we decided that we would call Andy every morning and every night to help kick start his habit to pray every day!

So we called him last night to remind him to pray right before we went to bed. And when we woke up in the morning we had a text from him. It read:

"Okay, so this might sound really weird but I lied yesterday. I haven't prayed. So I prayed for the first time and I just woke up from a dream that seemed like it was real. I'll tell you about it when you call. It's a bit hard to explain."

So when we called him at 7:30, he told us all about how he had this dream, and honestly I didn't understand 90% of what he was saying, but when he woke up, he knew that Joseph Smith really was a prophet, and this is Christ's church!!!!

Not too shabby for his first prayer eh?

We were so happy to hear him say that! And we will be meeting up with him later today to talk some more about it!

There was so much more that happened this week, but I'm out of time, so I guess I'll tell you all about it someday several years from now...!

But I am looking forward to this week!
I have an interview with the mission president, exchanges with the sister training leaders, and Elder Christofferson is coming to talk to us! So it's going to be a good week!
I love you all, and hope you have an amazing week!
Keep Andy in your prayers! He is doing so great, and we want to make sure he keeps moving forward! :)

I will talk to you next week!

Sister Dobyns

This is Doreen. We visit her every Wednesday at 3:30, she is the sweetest lady in the world! She had a stroke a few months ago and has dementia, but she always remembers "the girls from the church" come to see her every week! We sing hymns to her, and this week she sung along and started crying when we sang Nearer my God to Thee, and I Stand All Amazed. We love her.

There was a super gorgeous sunset the other day! ...The pictures never do them justice though... :P

This week we went to a "Volunteer Appreciation" meeting for one of the foundations we do service for and they gave us these flowers! Yay for Spring! And then we also went to this amazing bakery and bought a loaf of Sourdough Bread, and they gave us free Raspberry Scones since it was our first time there! ...Needless to say their tactics worked, because we will be going there far more often now!!

On Tuesday we had re-trainers meeting, so I got to see Sister Black and Sister Atkinson again! We all went out to lunch together after, so that was really fun! We were really sad that Sister Messick didn't come! Apparently her Zone Leaders never told her about the meeting! So that was a bummer! But I really loved seeing sister Black again, it was like a throwback to good times in Pleasant Grove! :)