Called to Serve

Called to Serve

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Malayalam?

Hey yall!  Yep! I'm still here!  Not much has changed!  I got your package grandma!  It was awesome!  We've had a pretty good week this week with finding new investigators and what not.  The 4th of July was pretty good.  It was fun riding around at night with all the fireworks going off.  It was like riding in the middle of gun fight!  We got invited to our ward mission leaders house for dinner on that night so that was fun.
I've been here in this area forever!  It's awesome though!  So we taught Mellissa twice this week.  Our lesson on Monday, we just kind of gauged what her expectations are for meeting with us and what more she wants to know.  I've been praying and studying about what to do with her and I keep getting the feeling to keep teaching her so we keep teaching.  It's weird.  If I didn't have the spirit, I would drop her, but the spirit told us otherwise.  Our lesson on Thursday was amazing and frustrating.  We talked a lot about prophets and wy we need prophets today, and she really understood.  We also talked about the importance of prayer with reading the Book of Mormon.  She told us that she had prayed and asked specifically if it was true and she got no answer.  We had her pray and ask again right there and wait and listen for 15 seconds.  She did and the spirit was so strong!  It was ridiculous!  We all felt it!  We asked how she felt and she said she felt peace.  We told her that was the spirit testifying to her that this was true and that it is up to her to either accept it or reject it.  She than justified that statement by saying she feels peace everytime she prays.  So frustrating.  She just keeps denying the answers she gets.  We don't really know what to do, but we know we need to keep teaching her.  We also started teaching a couple named Estella and Francisco!  They're awesome and super prepared for the gospel.  Elder Smith and I met them knocking 2 transfers ago and we just started teaching them both this week.  Both were raised catholic, and Estella really feels like she could come closer to God and could use more faith.  She wants more purpose in life.  Francisco isn't as into it as Estella but he's willing to listen and read.  He has work on Sundays so that'll be a toughy getting him to church, but Estella really wants to come.  They are super cool and we're meeting with them again this week.  We had another crazy miracle this week.  On Thursday we went to an appointment with a potential we found street contacting last week.  Her name is Josie and she and her family met with missionaries last summer.  She told us that she had come to church 2 times and that she really liked the sunday school classes.  She also told us that she was Catholic though and goes there every Sunday.  She and her family are from India and she speaks a language called Malayalam.  there is a bit of a language barrier, but her kids, Jane (10 year old boy) and Jennifer (6-7 year old girl) speak perfect English and malayalom.  Anyways, we taught her and her kids and her kids love the gospel and love missionaries.  They just ate everything up and understood everything.  When we started to teach them about the Book of Mormon, Jane pulled out an old, tattered Book of Mormon.  The pages were almost brown and it was very well used.  As he pulled it out, Josie told us that he'd been reading everyday since the missionaries came by last year.  jane told us that he read the whole thing and that he believes it is true! When he said that, I thought, where did this kid come from!?  This is amazing!  Just leave it to the smart little indian boy to read the whole Book of Mormon.  We asked Josie why the missionaries stopped coming by and she said that it was because she wouldn't agree to get baptized, because she had already been baptized a catholic.  We couldn't pursue the concern much, because of the language barrier, but man those kids are prepared!  They are so ready to be baptized and come to church.  We need to help the parents understand more though.  We only taught Josie, although she is married and both are willing to learn.  She didn't understand much though because of the language barrier.  We don't know anyone who speaks malayalom though.  I guess we'll just have to pray for the gift of tongues and everything will work out.  Anyways, that was a huge testimony builder for me that the Lord is preparing people for us to teach.  This family is awesome!  They don't have a malayalom Book of Mormon though and the church doesn't have it in that language yet.  It will all work out though!  I love teaching families. 
That was about it for our week!  No one came to church, but we'll get em there next week.  The ASL sisters in our ward had a baptism yesterday which was awesome.  We helped out with that and everything went well.  Sounds like things are going good at home!  You guys are awesome! love ya!
Elder Nelson     

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