I miss Temples so much. But I am also spoiled to live in Utah and have a temple within five minutes from my house. The closest temple here is a four hour drive. Still I really really miss it. When we watched "Mountain of the Lord" they showed video of the inside of the Salt Lake Temple and I was going, "I've been there! I remember that!" Then I was sad that it was so far away. Oh well I'll get to go soon. The end of my mission keeps creeping nearer - in two months I will hit the year mark. Crazy no?
Well after I wrote y'all last week we had a lesson with Erin. We have been meeting with Erin a little over a month - she was raised Roman Catholic and was very devout until about 3 years ago. She has some Mormon friends growing up and noticed how happy they were. Before we started meeting with her she made sure we knew that she didn't like commitment and didn't want to embark on anything that would require much from her. We told her if she decided this wasn't for her she was free to go her way. But for someone who doesn't like commitments she sure can keep them. At this point she has read eight chapters out of the Book of Mormon which is quite a feat for only meeting once a week for five weeks. Anyway at our lesson last Monday we decided to let go of some of our fear and ask her what she thought of the Book of Mormon and invite her to church. She said that she was leaning towards believing that it is true. Which is HUGE progress compared to just a few weeks ago. Yet another testimonial that the Book of Mormon has the power to change lives. Erin is from Pittsburgh making her a die hard Steelers fan - we were very pleased to learn that they won the Super Bowl last night, it will put Erin in a fantastic mood for our lesson tonight! Yippie!
Oh yeah I read your talk mom, it was fantastic. (I gave a talk last week in Sacrament Meeting about how I use this blog as a missionary tool - we checked to see who has looked at it). People are reading about little old me in Ireland? I hope it's my husband. Got to keep the blood line! Just kidding - my relationships can only handle one Irish person and that person is me:)
Tuesday I finally met the preacher that comes to campus and tells everyone that they are going to hell. It was so much fun. Sister Short and I stood around the edges and people would come up to us and talk to us and ask us what we thought of his ravings - we kept repeating that Jesus loves all his children no matter what. We got three new investigators that day and gave out five Books of Mormon. It was fun. Furthermore, many of the people we talked to were my kind of people - I have found Buffy fanatics and Browncoats on FSU campus! One of the people we met is Dan aka Sparkles. He is hilarious. He had a stack of "Hello my name is.." stickers and was writing down the sins that Brother Mike called out passing them out to people who had been "Unfairly labeled". Thursday Brother Mike was out again and I got two stickers one said, "Latter Day Sinner", that's what Brother Mike calls us, and the other I requested it said, "Daughter of God". It was my favorite. Also on Thursday Sparkles was recommending people come talk to Sister Short and I 'cause we're really nice and know what's up. We have someone on campus referring us that isn't a member! Woot.
Wednesday someone had filled one of the fountains with bubbles and we played with 'em.
Friday we had a lesson with Farrah and she said the prayer out loud for the first time it was full of sincerity. She was really talking to her Heavenly Father. The spirit was so strong. She gets it! She is working to make herself better and change. Sunday she asked the Elders for a blessing - based on her blessing I think Heavenly Father likes her - a lot. Yeah that was pretty much my week - thank you all for your letters they make it easy to go on day to day. Love y'all!
Kelli
