Freezing, and feelings

It sounds like your 4th of July was fun!  Ours was good here too.  We attended the ward barbeque, where they grilled all kinds of interesting things (I won't go there) and our district leader made some salsa that made a grown man cry it was so spicy.  Other than that, it was a normal prostelyting day for us.  Then again, we aren't in the nation's capitol, so there wasn't much of an excuse for an all-out preparation day.   I will say that this was the coldest 4th of July I've ever had though!  It was kind of weird for me to be wearing an overcoat in July, but such is the climate here.

So this week was not what I expected it would be last Monday.  We were able to find 8 investigators last week, as I said, but we're now only teaching 1 of those people.  We've been having trouble with setting appointments with investigators because they don't want to make space in their schedules. It's sad to see when people know what to do but they don't do it.  All we can do is invite them to accept the truth, do all we can to meet with them, and then let them make their decisions.  There are people that are prepared and willing to make the gospel a priority!  We just have to find them.

One of our investigators "dropped" us last night. This investigator dropped us because he didn't understand why we couldn't be alone in his kitchen with him without another woman present.  He was also drunk, so that's probably a contributing factor, but he told us not to come back to his house again. I'm always amazed at how much getting "dropped" feels like getting dumped by a boy.  I literally went through the stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance), but in rapid-mode, like all within 10 minutes.  It's kind of exhausting to feel so much all the time!  But it's wonderful and a testament to me that this truly is the work of the Lord.  Nothing else could produce such powerful emotions and spiritual experiences in us or in the people we teach. Feeling such a range of strong emotions is teaching me a lot about the depth and reach of the Atonement, and how profound the suffering of the Savior was for us.  I can't imagine how He feels when one of us (ALL of us) commits a sin or decides to not accept the truth.  Nothing but infinite and perfect love could motivate such a sacrifice.

We were able to teach [Y], one of the investigators from last week, once this week. She was a little defensive as we started the lesson and didn't want to talk to us because she was convinced we were there to drag her out of her church (the Catholic church) and into ours.  She didn't want anything to do with us, and was even trying (unsuccessfully) to be mad at us while we sang "Love at Home." We re-set some expectations and tried our hardest to meet her needs and invite the Spirit. We taught the message of the restoration and testified of the Book of Mormon. She felt the Spirit during the lesson and softened her heart a little, and accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon and a return visit. It's always amazing to see the miracles that the Spirit can work in peoples' lives.  Little by little, the Spirit draws us toward the truth and can change our hearts.