We are doing very well here in Sharon Springs. We're trying to get our feet underneath us since we've both been battling illnesses for about a month now. As soon as I get over something Elder Mortenson gets it and as soon as he gets over something, I get it. Kinda the tricky part of companionships. But amidst all of this, we're still able to get the work to progress.
This week we were able to start teaching T*** outside of church. T*** has been coming to church for about 2 months straight now. We've been teaching the lessons to the Priests quorum mainly so that we have been able to teach him too. He's 18, he comes from a very rough background, he's never really had a solid father and his mother, from what I gather, has not been too helpful and may have some problem of her own. Well, T*** is really great, he really wants to learn and I've met few people who are as interested as him. We taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ on Monday and committed him to pray and think about baptism. On Friday we went out to breakfast with him and while were on our way home he said "So, I think I want to be baptized." We told him we know he's ready and asked him to pick a date. Usually we'll pick the date right there but, we felt like we should just let him choose and get back to us. Sunday, I was sitting by him and Brother B***, his main fellow-shipper, and we decided on January 23rd, so that Sister B*** can be home in time for it. Well, afterwards Bro. B*** was teasing T*** about going up and bearing his testimony and towards the end T*** leaned over to him and was dead serious and asked: "What do I say?" Well, he got up and bore his testimony and thanked the ward for helping him. The coolest part is that in the last two months T*** has gone from wondering if God even existed to saying on Sunday "I know this Church is true" It was one of those "this is all worth it" moments on my mission.
We had a Zone Conference on Thursday and it was good, as they always are. We talked about how the youth in this stake are going to be key, something that our Bishop emphasized and something that we were already aware of. It's amazing how the Lord will confirm his message through the different vehicles to verify its truthfulness. I'm glad to because I love working with the young men in the ward so I'm excited to let that be more of a focus.
The coolest thing that we're doing this Christmas is called: Holiday-Grams! We've allowed the people in the ward to sign up their friends, neighbors, etc. and we will deliver a present ('Joy to the World' or 'Mr. Krugers Christmas' with either a Family Proclomation or a '3 Simple Ways to a Happier Family' booklet) a short 1-2 min. message about Christ all with a carol and a smile. We're not going to ask if we can teach more or anything, we're going to let the members follow up on that for us. That's their part of the deal. We're hoping that we can find some families that we can teach this way. We should be getting started on Tuesday so wish us luck!
The other fun thing we did this week was help S** and M** and H****** M******* put up their lights. S** and M** are hilarious, they are both from Long Island and are classic New Yorkers. They moved here to Georgia about 15 years ago. Anyway, S** wants to be baptized and H****** (who's 24) wants to learn more. But M**, for some reason that is unknown to us (well not really I think he's holding on to his Coffee and Tea and doesn't want to find out the church is true because he doesn't want to give it up... he used to be a 4-Pack a day smoker till he quit for health reasons) is holding back. He was pushed really hard back in New York. The Elders there told them they had felt very strongly that he will someday be a Bishop. I think that that scared him a lot. We're trying to gain trust with him, because things can't really progress too much until he'll listen.
Love,
Elder Davies
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