This week was a tough one. Our really solid investigator A who was supposed to be baptized on February 17th stopped responding to us again. So We are going to have to push his baptism back a week and hope that he gets back in contact with us. We had a super good lesson with a new investigator named K. We taught her the restoration and when we taught the first vision the spirit was so strong, she accepted everything we taught her. At the end of the lesson she said she wanted to be baptized so we were super pumped for her. As we left we told her we would find her a ride for church. The next day when we messaged her about a member picking her up for church she responded with, "tell them not to worry about it, I'm going to my church on Sunday and don't come over anymore, I'm going to do bible study with my church." Then she left the group message. It was a bummer going 100 to 0 real quick.
We have had lots of success in finding new investigators and putting them on date for baptism but we have struggled getting people to church. So this week we really focused a lot on getting people to church. We taught everyone we had lessons with about the importance of the sacrament. We promised blessings on blessings to people if they came to church. Then a big snow storm came in this weekend, dropping 15 inches of snow, our YSA branch got canceled and we had 0 people come to the Rockford 1st ward. Pretty big bummer and I was pretty discouraged for a bit but then I had an awesome personal study. I studied in Alma chapter 8. In verses 9-15 it talks about Alma and how he goes to teach the people in Ammonihah. The people there are very hard hearted and don't accept the things he teaches them. Alma gets discouraged and leaves the city. Then an angel appears to him and tells him to get his head up and to rejoice because he has been faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord and tells him to get back out there!
This passage hit me so hard and it was exactly what I was going through. I realized that I, like Alma, have great cause to rejoice! I have the gospel of Jesus Christ and I am being faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord. I know that no matter what happens here on the mission, or in life, I can rejoice and be happy!
Elder Thorpe
The breakfast of champions.
Winter in Rockford
The shoveling crew
After a Skype lesson
Elder Bagley found an icicle
Helped an African family move
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