July 28, 2014 It's Still Hot!

July 28, 2014

It’s Still Hot!

Hello!

So I made it through my first real, full week in Neiva! And this week we had more lessons than I have ever had in the mission! Woo-hoo!

We have been working a lot with the area books from the two areas we are now covering, and we have been having a lot of success. On Tuesday we spent the most of the day just finding a bunch of people, and we made a bunch of appointments for later in the week. And we taught a joven named José, he was walking in the street last week with his dog, and started talking to us when his dog wanted to play with the soccer ball we had. And we found out that his mom is a less active member, and that he wanted to listen! His is a super-cool guy, and we are gonna see what we can do.

Then, Wednesday night, after another lesson with José, we were walking back toward the house with a member; Jeisson, at like 8:30 when a night guard called us over. He was a member from a different ward, and he was with a young woman on her moped who told us that she wanted an exorcism for her nephew! So we went over to her house to find that she lives with her two sisters, and each one has two young children! And no dads! So we gave a priesthood blessing to the little girl who was having trouble sleeping, and when we were saying bye, they put another child on the chair. And we gave him a blessing. And this continued through all of the children, and then the moms wanted blessings too! So that night I gave 4 blessings and my companion 5, and they said that they wanted to listen to our message!

Then Thursday, we met with a less active who's 8 year-old daughter hasn't been baptized. And, as we were talking, we found out that she would love to get baptized! So now we are working hard with her mom to get her to be fully active again.

On Friday we did interchanges with the other elders in the district, and I was in my area with Elder Ayala. We found an uncle of one of our investigators who wanted to talk a little over the bible (He is super Pentecostal), so we went over there and chatted a little. After saying a bunch about how we are all confused, and that Jesus, God, and the Holy Ghost are all one, I read him a scripture and we just started testifying to it. The spirit was there, and he could feel it; he was completely shut-up, without fighting back with his bible or his words. I think that he still might be too stubborn to progress, but we will see!

On Saturday we had 6 lessons to investigators with members present! It was a great day, even though we had to work all morning, all afternoon and all evening. And I also taught a class of English! We have one investigator, Nancy, who likes to listen to us, but is still strong in her Christian religion. However, in our lesson Saturday, she was super interested in how the Fall of Adam and Eve could have been part of the plan of God. She doesn't want to believe it, but we have been using the Bible with the Book of Mormon a lot to show her how helpful and true it really is.

On Sunday the only investigator that came was Alison (and alone, without her mom!). In Neiva, the people are super open to talk, but are super lazy and never want to commit to anything haha. So that is our new challenge here.

And today we went to the synthetic soccer courts and played like 2 hours in the blazing heat! Woohoo!

Have a great week! I am super grateful for the opportunity that I have to be here, and also for the power of the priesthood. I know that this is the true church!

Love,

Elder Toombs