July 2nd
Hey Chelsie,
How have you been doing? I hope all is well and that you have been enjoying the summer. How is your garden going? I can't believe it has been a month already. Time does seem to fly by when I stay busy. How is Keagan doing? He probably is getting so big. Well I just wanted to drop an email about this week. Also I will try to send some pictures tonight.
So this week we have been teaching a family of 4. The mother, Diane is a member and has been baptized, but she hasn't been active in the church for most of her life. She is interested in the church again and wants to change her life. She wants her children to grow up in the church and says it is a good enviroment for them. I agree. The church is a great place for kids to grow up in and it teaches them so many great things that will help them get through life. Her oldest daught is 10 and her name is Maranda. Maranda wants to get baptized and she enjoys coming to chruch. She counts as an investigator and this week we are going to ask her to be baptized and to teach her more about what happens when you get baptized. I am so excited for her and I love going to their house to teach them. They have such a good spirit in their home and it is nice to be able to feel peace and comfort when we teach them. Diane also has a son who is 5 and is a ball of fun and has so much energy. He reminds me a lot like the boys. He loves primary and has met a lot of friends. I have hope for this family and I do believe that we can bring this family closer together. It brings so much happiness to me when I am able to share what makes me most happy and to see them light up with that same happiness. Tonight we are doing a family night activity with them and then hopefully tuesday we will teach them the second lesson on the plan of salvation. It is amazing how quickly I love the families that I teach without knowing them that well. I truely see them as Heavenly Father sees them and I want them to be happy and to return back to out Heavenly Father.
Okay so about the up date on the lady we were teaching named Loretta. Well nothing as been happening and we are not able to get a hold of her and she doesn't return any of our phone calls. We even stopped by her house one day and she said she was taking a nap and told us to call her saturday. We called her saturday and she didn't answer out phone call and she never did call us back. I don't think we will be able to keep teaching her, which is super dissapointing because things were going so well. We haven't given up on her yet and we are still trying to get a hold of her.
This week we have been going through some of the former investigators that past missionaries have dropped and we went to visit some of them. We visited with a guy named Gus Gracia and said that he would be interested in the missionaries again. He has a very big family and has 11 children. He also wants his kids to know of the good things in life and wants to keep them safe. His family seemed really nice and even fed us lunch while we were there visiting. We had a mini lesson and talked about a lot of stuff. He asked us about what we thought about the gay people and we simply just said we love the people, but we don't agree with gay marriage. We believe that a marriage so be between a man and a women so that the can mulitply and replanish the earth. He did agree with us on that. We talked to him a little bit about Christ and the fall of Adam and Eve and if it wasn't for them we would not be here on this earth together and we wouldn't be with the families we are with today. He seemed to really know and understand what we were talking abuot and wants to learn more. I hope he really does and that we can help him and his family get back to Christ.
I am in a tough area and people don't want to hear about Christ. They are pretty set on what they believe right now. It breaks my heart to see people reject our message. Just like Jesus Christ this gospel means so much to me and it has brought me so much joy and happiness in my life. When people don't want to hear it they don't know what they are missing. I have understood a lot lately that people do have their agency to chose and all I can to is try. Sometimes I am only here to plant that seed for them.
I love this gospel so much and I am very greatful to be out here in California and to be a missionary. I am so greatful to be wearing JESUS CHRIST name and to have him with me everyday. Thanks so much for all of the love a support. Talk to you soon. Love you so so much and miss you like CRAZY!!!
Love Sister Ackley
No comments:
Post a Comment