Well this week has been... kinda average I guess. We had a visit with Angela on Tuesday that did not go well. She started going off on about how it was wrong for her children to be baptised when and how they were. Mostly because of the way they are living now, she doesn't feel like they should have been baptised if they weren't going to commit to living the commandments. We tried to explain to her the principle of agency and how it's not the church's fault that they aren't living the way they should be. We actually found out that that's the main reason she doesn't want to be baptised in a font. Because her children were baptised there and they shouldn't have been, according to her. And if you knew Angela, you would know that once she has an opinion on something like this, it's nearly impossible to change that opinion. I've found that getting her to feel the spirit is actually really hard. However, towards the end of our conversation on Tuesday we started talking about conference and how she liked it. She said she loved it. She loved it because it felt like the speakers were talking directly to her and that they answered some of the questions that we haven't been able to fully answer for her. I know that she felt the spirit in that at least. She didn't come to church yesterday because she was feeling a bit sick, which was actually a pretty big bummer because bishop was going to talk to her about her baptism and try to convince her to be baptised in a font. I think bishop is pretty keen on not doing the ocean baptism. We only have 10 more days to plan this baptism too. We're probably going to just have bishop call her tonight and have a chat about it over the phone. That way when we go see her tomorrow hopefully she'll have had a change of heart. But we'll see. I am excited to see her tomorrow though. I'll be with my district leader on an exchange and maybe he'll be able to help her in ways Elder Jack and I can't think of. Mainly it's just trying to plan this baptism that's made this week a bit stressful. Every time I think about it, I'd rather just think about something else... but that won't help it get planned haha. After tomorrow though we should be able to get the planning rolling. After Bishop Chessel and Elder Foster have a chat with her that is.
Our teaching with Evelyn is actually going much better. This week we taught her about the Atonement and how she can pray to know that the things we have been teaching are true. I can't really say if she accepted the invitation to pray or not, but I know that her husband is going to strongly encourage her to do so. We can really see the spirit working on her slowly but surely though. She seems to understand a bit more every time. I don't think it will be as long as I originally though until she decides to get baptised. But we'll just have to see about that.
A new family moved into our ward this week and they are the best. Well, I don't know if they're family because they all have different last names, but they're Maori which pretty much means they're automatically family. They moved over from Brisbane for work and are staying for a year. Apparently there's going to be 9 people living in that house once all of them get here. 5 of them are members and 4 aren't. The 5 that are members (Brother Takairangi, Bro Makai, Bro Brown, Bro Taraungi, and another one I haven't met) are all keen on sharing the gospel with the 4 that aren't members. We haven't bet those 4 yet because they haven't arrived from Brisbane yet, but when they do arrive, they want us over to meet them. We really hope that they are keen on hearing the gospel, and maybe even coming to church with their housemates. I love meeting new people like this that automatically love the missionaries. They just got in past Tuesday. Found out our number somehow and had us come over by Friday. They wanted us to come over to give the the chapel and temple address and to bring some books of Mormon for their friends/brother/cousins/whatevertheyare. They even told us in church yesterday that if they ever need someone to come teaching with us, just give them a ring. I don't think I've ever had someone tell me that in this area. But yeah, we're super excited to have them in our area. We always need more strong members in this area. And the Lord just blessed us with 5 of them which is great.
We got to do some service this week that involved breaking down a wall and tearing up a roof. I felt kinda like we were cleaning up after an earthquake when we were picking up all the pieces. Just roof and wall scattered all over the place. It was pretty fun. I love doing service for people, aye. And we got to help the Terepais move which was fun because the Zone Leaders were on exchanges with the AP's which meant Elder Crawley was there. I hadn't seen him since I left my last area. He actually gave me some really exciting news. Because he's an AP now he knows a lot about what's going on around the mission. If you remember me talking about Trent Dashwood in my last area and how we were teaching him? Well I found out that he's getting baptised and he wants me to be there! Elder Crawley said he would get to me with all the details on when the baptism is, but I'm so excited. He said it's either at the end of October or early November. But I'll definitely be able to go. Woo! That was probably the highlight of my week right there. (That and finding out that OU is #1 in the BCS, woo!)
That's about it for this week. I love you all. Keep up all the amazing things that you do!
Elder Clark Tanner
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