Hey Everyone!
I've got to make this one really quick!
Well first of all a miracle happened! We went to the ghetto (not that that's saying much) to find an inactive member of our ward. We were pretty scared cause it was dark outside, but we felt ok about it. Turns out he wasn't there, but his girlfriend, Markevia, was! We had another man with us, so we went it and talked with her. She had seen the missionaries before, and she said she had some questions that she wondered if we could answer. We said YES! We started with a prayer and then asked what her questions were. She asked if there were more commandments than just the 10 commandments that we needed to keep in order to be saved. We began to explain that yes, there are many other things. When we mentioned baptism, she said "Wait... so baptism is a commandment?" We showed her that the Bible and Book of Mormon both taught that was. Then we began to teach her that it needed to be done by the priesthood authority of God. It made a lot of sense to her. She told us that she had been baptized Baptist, but that she knew it wasn't done by authority. I invited her to be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority, and she said she would!
I was so excited! I hope she stays with that committment. In our closing prayer, she revealed that she had been wondering about the things we were taught her for many years, and she expressed gratitude for that newfound knowledge. Wow! And we weren't even looking for her originally! What a miracle.
We went by later in the week to teach her again. It was dark (I really don't like the fact that the sun is setting early in the day these days) and it was really scary again. We forgot the exact apartment she lived in, so we called her, and she told us she was gone for the next week! No!!!!! We just reminded her to read from the Book of Mormon every day and pray to know if it's true (because if she learns that the Book of Mormon is true then she knows that everything else we say is also true). Dang it! It seems like whenever we come close to being able to teach someone, the opposition kicks in and it makes it so much harder to teach them! Our investigator Grant is in Arkansas for a month just as he was almost done breaking his addiction to coffee; our recent investigator Betty can't come to church because of some other obligation; and another investigator... well... we had to drop him (see next paragraph). As I was talking with Markevia on the phone in her neighborhood, some domestic violence broke out about 30 feet away and a huge group of people started fighting so we left poste haste.
We had another investigator named Matt. We went to see him and things were great. He was really willing to learn. We saw him come to church yesterday! We were in the hall after sacrament meeting, and we watched him come in and go to the young single adults branch sacrament meeting. We were really happy! Three minutes later we saw the branch president escort him back outside and kindly but firmly tell him that he was no longer welcome and that he shouldn't come back. As Matt left, the branch president explained to us that he was dangerous, particularly for the sisters, and that he was no longer welcome on the church property. We also found out that he has a history of kidnapping. Yikes. So there goes one of our investigators. Dang opposition.
Well I gotta go, but I want to leave you with my testimony that I know that the church is true and that miracles still exist! The world says, "Show me a sign, and then I'll believe." But God says "Show me your faith, first, and then I'll show you a miracle!" (see Ether 12:6-12.) We have to do things the Lord's way. I know that if we have faith first, we can see miracles after.
I love you all and hope to hear from you soon!
With love,
Elder Schank
