Week 49 - July 13 - Ada goes to the temple

This week was.... a week. It was hard. We had a lot of time sucked up by transfers, preparing for President Pack´s visit, and so we couldn´t teach or contact as much as we wanted. However, we did have our very best contacting week in terms of how many numbers we recieved.... and the worst in terms of how many of those numbers were real (3. 3 out of 11). And then, Angel didn´t show up to his own baptism and we sat there for two hours waiting for him, me Elder Weiss and Mateo - all the other members gave up after 20m and we had a little more faith, cause with just us three we had enough men and authority to correctly perform the ordinance. Add that to the fact that Ada nearly backed out of going to the temple. 

But, in times like these the Lord answers prayers, probably because they´re a little more heartfelt and have more faith than when times are good. We found out that Angel DID want to get baptized, but he got delayed and couldn´t make contact with us, so we´ll do it this week. We had a SUPER spiritual lesson with an African girl named Mirey and a member named Jessica. And Mirey went back and forth on what she thought and believed, until we started asking Jessica for her testimony. And it was almost visible to see that every time Jessica testified, Mirey believed a little more and had a stronger idea of the truth. I know that the work with church members is so important because I have SEEN it - if Jessica hadn´t been there, we would have made no progress whatsoever. That was a cool experience. 

Another thing that made up for a bum week was what happened on Sunday. Ada, after getting back from the temple, fell asleep in church and started snoring (not the highlight, though pretty darn hilarious - good news is she was wide awake when I started speaking :) We set up a meeting for after church, and we started to ask her about the temple. It´s hard to convey how she felt, but here are some of her comments.

"IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL!! Look at all these pictures I took."

"I can´t wait to go back."

"I love how everyone wears white"

"I feel like that´s what heaven will be like"

"It felt like God´s house"

"I wish I could stay there all the time."

I decided that was one of my most joyful moments as a missionary. I knew Ada before she even decided to get baptized! We´ve been through her trials, her blessings, her good days, the bad ones, given blessings, talks, commitments... And all our work and the work of the spirit came to a head when she told us about the temple. In another 8 months the missionaries can teach her the temple prep class and she can go get endowed! The rule is to always see your investigators in white.. TWICE. Elder Emmet and I had goals for Ada that she would go to the temple after her baptism, and that forward thinking helped. Now Elder Weiss and I are planning for the future, the day when she gets endowed! That was the highlight of the week, and it completely overshadowed the failed baptism. 

Love, Elder Stew