This week has just been a big build up to our Branch Conference this weekend where President and Sister Cahoon and his counsellors came up and spent the weekend with us. The weekend was great, but I'll get to that.
We only taught a total of 8 lessons this week. I wouldn't say that it was a direct reflection of how hard we have been working though. We've been going through all of the investigators, (former, current, and potential), and trying to see where they were at and if we could start teaching some of the former and potential investigators. Unfortunately, that means a lot of going around and either setting up appointments with people (as this is a very busy town and rarely can you just rock up at somebodies house and teach them then and there), or getting told to get lost because they're not interested. So I guess you could say it's been a rebuilding week, or just a building week for that matter. All of our current investigators, well maybe not all, but most, show no sign of progressing or even desiring to progress anytime soon. It kind of pains me to teach them sometimes, because it's hard to know how to teach them without causing contention. A lot of people just have a desire to cause contention it seems like. It's like they ask questions without any real desire to know the answer, they're just trying to prove uswrong. All we do is bear sincere testimony from the heart and ask them to sincerely read and pray to ask God if the Book of Mormon is true. I told this lady last night that if for no other reason to read the Book of Mormon it is to learn more about Jesus Christ (because she does have a love for the Bible and Jesus), then that should be the reason she reads it. And I know of course that if she reads it for that reason, the testimony of it will come, along with the testimony of the prophet, the church, etc. It's just a matter of if she does it. We think she has probably read one too many anti-Mormon literatures, so her heart and mind are very closed, but we still have faith that the spirit can change her. Along with every other investigator that we have in this area. But we're still trying to focus a lot on finding. I actually took a full hour of personal study this week to go through our area book and see what it had to offer for us, and I was actually quite disappointed. Not only because of the blankness of the records that were in there, but because of the number of records that were in there. Usually there's HEAPS of former investigators, but we were able to go through all of ours in 2 or 3 days this week. I don't know why this one has less, maybe it's because we're still teaching people that were being taught 3 years ago, so they're not former yet, but they soon will be if they don't decide that this is the path they want to take and then stick with it. Working hard also includes working smart, and we can't work smart if we're wasting time visiting people like that.
We had two really amazing experiences with giving service this week that I want to share with you. The Lord really directed us this week, it's been amazing. On Wednesday we were just following up with potential investigators and we had 2 on this one street so we decided to just park the car at the end of the street and walk to both of them (inspired). We knocked on the first door, not home, so then started walking to the second one a few houses down, but before we got to them we came across a lady that was pulling weeds in her front yard and there were heaps of weeds. We offered to help and she gave us the same answer people always give us when we're wearing our white shirts and ties, and that's a no. But we were determined to not let the way we were dressed stop us from giving service to someone, especially since we knew that the day could end up being a dud without that service opportunity. We recognised that that service opportunity came from the Lord. We spent nearly 2 and a half hours pulling weeds with Monique and she was so grateful. She told us that she had just moved to Karratha last week and they had been given this house like this, just weeds everywhere. It was great to get to know her over the 2 hours that we were there, pulling weeds in our white shirts. She was so nice to us, which was probably a direct result of us giving service to her. It's good to have that image of Latter-Day Saints in her head now. We haven't been able to teach her yet, but we've seen her twice since then and met her husband. They're going to have us over for a barbi soon and we're hoping to get them to church with us as well. We're really praying that we can start to teach them soon. The other awesome service opportunity we had, also given to us by divine intervention, was for this elderly lady named Lynn. She had been an investigator before, but on Wednesday when we went to go see her, she came out and handed us the Book of Mormon we left with her along with pamphlets she had been given in the past and just told us that she was going to stay with her church and that the Mormon thing just wasn't for her. So we were pretty disappointed about that, she wouldn't even let us leave her with the Book of Mormon at least. But we told her that if she ever needed a hand with anything or she ever saw us around town to just give us a holler and we're happy to help with anything. So the very next day, while doing service for a different elderly lady, the phone rings and it's Lynn. She says, "I remembered what you said that if I ever needed a hand with anything that I could just call you up, well I was wondering if you could come help me take out this stump, it's too big for me to do by myself." So of course, we jumped straight on that and told her we would be over soon. But then she said "That's not the only reason I called, I talked to my friend last night who is a Mormon over in Sydney and I think I might have been too hasty in getting rid of you guys, I want to set up a time for you guys to come back over and have another talk, is that ok?" "That's more than ok! We'd love too!" So we're seeing her this week, but she was another one that was in awe of the service we gave her, and hopefully we can really be guided by the spirit to know what to say to her when we teach her, as the spirit as already intervened in having us come back. What a blessing.
So Branch Conference. I'm going to make this brief, because it's 12:30 and I'm hungry and feeling a bit sick so I think I'm just going to go home and sleep today. Branch Conference was amazing. The whole weekend. It started with the branch activity on Saturday. The activity started at 11, which was just a fishing competition and a barbi, and President and Sister Cahoon showed up at about 2:30. It was really good to see them again. Being in the city you take for granted getting to see the mission president on a regular basis. There were only 4 fish caught for the whole competition, and President Cahoon caught 2 of those. It was fun being with them in a kind of more relaxed setting. President even climbed a tree, which was just hilarious. Sunday was by far the best part of the conference. He spent Saturday night doing interviews for people in the branch, so we didn't see them after the activity until church on Sunday. Church was a 2 hour meeting and President Cahoon spoke right at the end. I was kind of disappointed that he didn't get to speak for longer, but he still spoke short and powerfully. We had a lunch/birthday party for Sister Cahoon after the meeting and then Branch Council with President Cahoon presiding. It's amazing the power of a presiding authority like that. He brought a very large amount of the spirit with him. During the lunch I got a chance to talk to President and Sister Cahoon about a lot of stuff that's been happening in the mission. I also talked to them about things that had been happening at home, about the tornadoes and things like that. I really love President and Sister Cahoon. I got to have a personal interview with him as well because my temple recommend expires this month. It was sad to see them leave, because chances are that I won't be seeing them again for a couple of months at the least. And they didn't get any time to go teaching with us either, but oh well, maybe next time haha.
Anyways, that's me for the day. I love you all. I hope you all are staying safe. I pray for you!
Much Love,
Elder Tanner
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