Happy Birthday, AmeriCanada!!!
Well folks, this week started out like a dream with an answer to prayer: the Tongan Rugby team visited the square. I was stuck in the box so I texted Sister Jardine to captalize on the opportunity. I'm such a good friend. They didn't stay for very long but while they were waiting to leave, they were passing a rugby ball outside my gate, just dangling the bait right in front of me. I'm kicking myself now that I didn't join in on the fun.
I got to go to a baptism on Saturday. We met the baptisee, seventeen year old Natalie earlier that week in an investigator lesson on the square. She rocks. Her baptism was joint with her best friend's Samoan cousin therefore it was a Poly party. It was probably the weirdest baptism I've ever been to for so many reasons. They flooded the room by accident before we got there and the musical number featuring a ukelele and voices that couldn't quite get high enough. It was amazing to me because there were so many times that I quietly burst out laughing from the random awkwardness yet the Spirit was still so strong. Who knew?
For Canada Day we had a good chunk of the sisters support their fellow maple leafs by wearing red and white. See picture. Sister Sanchez from Calgary and I lead a spontaneous singing of "Oh Canada" while in the kitchen, to feed our patiotic needs.
Summer is the most wonderful time of the year!!! There are so many people that come, so we are always busy. We had a lot of amazing experiences as well as some tough crowds. Leading the tough crowded way was an angry couple from Holland. I still don't understand why they requested a tour. The woman's scary eyeliner frightened me as they rejected the opportunity to hear a short verse from the Book of Mormon. They told me that it wasn't necessary. Oh c'mon! The trick in our tours is to balance 50% history with 50% teachings of the Church. We mostly gave them history but they were clear to let us know that they did not believe in God and didn't care to try. Boooo. After those favourites, we had a solid methomormon family. It took us a while to figure out what in the heck they believe because the man served a full time misison for this Church but his inlaws were super methodist and him and his wife clearly hadn't been to the lds Church in many years. Finally toward the end of the tour we figured out that the man had a lot of hard things happen in his life including his divorce years ago. That got him going to rail on home teaching. He told us that the LDS Church requires so much from everyone that it is impossible to do it all. I told him that I disagreed. Of course we'll all fall short sometimes but everything about the Church is inspired to bless our lives. His response: "Good luck with that." He went on about how it's not important to get your home teaching done when you've got a neglected family at home. Riiiight, hence you should probably not neglect your family. Sooooo that was a frustrating tour. He was really open which was good but I feel like we could have helped him better than we did. Right after that, sister Mitchell and I were talking about the things that we should have done better and we got stopped by a late 20's ish girl. Her burning question was, "Why is it so easy to fall away from the Church yet so hard to come back?" As Elder Holland says it, salvation isn't a cheap experience. We talked to her a little bit about the reality of satan but the power of the atonement. She told us that she stopped going to Church because of the members. She felt so hated and dis-owned by the members in her ward because she struggles with same gender attraction. I felt so honoured to be stopped by her to help her with such a sensitive subject. I can't imagine how hard her sturggles must be but we were able to help her remember that no matter what other people say, God loves her the same and can be right with her through the hard times. She promised to go to Church on Sunday, just not the YSA ward. Deal. It's so terrible that her faith has been shook and the members of the Church are making it even harder. LAME!
Annnnd last but not least, we spent a good long time with precious Mike yesterday. With tears already in his eyes, Sixteen year old Mike stopped us to play the movie God's Plan for him. We could tell that he was so filled with the Spirit after the movie and we found out that he had spent all day on Temple square, reading and watching all the movies to find out if he has a testimony of Jospeh Smith or not. He told us over and over that everything about the Church makes sense to him but so do other Church's teachings. Everything we tried to teach him, he already knew. I asked him if he reads the Book of Mormon and he told us that he has read it everyday for the past two years. Nothing seemed to add up. We couldn't figure out what precious Mike was literally crying about. He told us so many stories about how his prayers have been answered and about different times that he has felt the Spirit in his life. He told us that his family sturggles to go to Church but he loves going and even invites his friends to read the Book of Mormon. MmmmHmmm so why the tears? It all boiled down to his fear of being worng. He knew the Church was true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet yet he still wondered what would happen if he was wrong. We told him that it's good to have questions. Questions help develop your faith. Just don't ever stop living close to the Spirit and never deny what you know to be true.
Can I get an Amen?
Welp, they're taking our leashes off and freeing us to watch some fireworks tonight! GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!
LOVE, SISTER KYYYYYYOLE
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