There's a big group of beautiful people celebrating memorial day outback (we're at the Isaksen's lake house again!) so I'm going to skip the clever introductions and just give y'all a quick copy and paste from my journal. enjoy!
Oh jolly roger! Alisha prayed! outloud! for the first time finally! We had another fab lesson with her and Sis Campbell about how the gospel blesses families. We talked a lot about the "For the Strength of Youth pamphlet" because Alisha has quite a few teenagers that’s she’s worried about. It was perfect to have Sis Campbell there since her son Ellis is 14 and everyday faces a school where all the girls want to date or “go with him”, and all the guys make fun of him for not doing so-but he sticks with his standards. Alisha was able to relate perfectly and told us she'd make at time for at least an hour of scripture study tonight:)
Sis Hendrix and I were a little worried about Mike the past little while, he hasn’t been to church the past 2 weeks for various excuses/reasons, he said he was coming to the fireside but never showed up, and every time we ask him about smoking he tells us it’s hard, but it’s coming along. He’s been resistant to set a specific date to quit, and still hasn’t listened to the talks or BofM on CD for a while. We just want the old Mike back. We went over why he wants to be baptized, and helped him to see the bigger picture. We shared with him scriptures about what the Savior went through, so we could have a chance at salvation. He asked a really great question, “why would he do it?” He understood why we needed it, and what it’s purpose was, but he wanted to know “why would he go through all of that for us? Especially for those rotten people out there doing all sorts of horrible things”. Instead of answering him, we invited him to ponder that question this week and look for the answer in his studies and through prayer.
He brought up how he wished he could’ve seen what he used to be like, like back in the premortal world. We then went into his divine potential. I shared the quote “if you could envision the type of person God intends for you to be, you would rise up and never be the same again”. I turned for a minute to speak with Mark (mike’s down-syndrome brother, he told me all about how he’s going to get his GED), and when I turned back to the conversation Mike was beaming and replied to Sis Hendrix, “wow-you really see all of that??” I asked for them to fill me in on the details, and Sis Hendrix said that she told Mike she could see him as a bishop one day. This lesson seemed like such a turning point, we were able to not just tell him about the future blessings, but give him a real vision of what God sees in him. We wrote a sticky note that said, “who does God want me to be?”. Near the end of the lesson we made a plan with him to finalize him quitting smoking (did I mention at this point Mike informed us he hadn’t smoked at all for the past 2 days!!!) and his first plan of action if he had a craving was to look at the sticky note. The old Mike’s back, and while I most likely won’t be around for his baptism, his progress, and the light in his eyes brings me greater joy than anything elseJ
Other news, Mike was interviewed for his baptism!
The ENTIRE Roten family came to church, and I just about bursted into tears of joy when I peeked in the door and saw them all.
We had dinner with the Tates again and were finally able to sit down with Bro Tate!
We’ve decided to invited all youth 12 and up to the MTC experience activity and a beehive after church came up and personally thanked us for letting her come now. They’re so excited!
HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY Y'ALL!!
love....sis smith...who else?
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