February 3, 2014

Spiritual: This week we were going to see a lot of the less actives that I did not know. We decided to go see Leon Easton, residing in a rest home on Neal St. We went over and asked for a Mr. Easton. No resident by that name was there. We felt really awkward and asked if he had, ya know, passed on. The reply was no. We then asked if there was a Mrs. Easton. There was! We went in to visit her and it was an amazing feeling. We walked into a dark room with a lady sitting there staring at a dark wall. It took us back for a second. We then asked if she was Sister Easton and if she was a member of our church. She replied with a rousing “Oh Yes!” We then proceeded to have a fairly long conversation on the church. It was one of the hardest conversations to have because she had memory problems and had trouble speaking so there was really not much to talk about. The one thing she said she knew a lot about though and really remembered was genealogy. She even asked us to quiz her on it! We proceeded to ask her about her father’s grandmother and she was able to reply! It was amazing. The only solid thing that she could remember was genealogy! It was incredible. We felt inspired to ask her if she wanted a blessing and she said yes. As we proceeded to place our hands on her head we felt so many people in the room. It was amazing. We basically gave her a blessing that told her there were people waiting on the other side who love her so so so much and couldn't wait to talk to her. It was amazing to know that God loves us and by performing the saving ordinances for the dead we make friends on the other side. The Spirit was so strong! If you aren't doing family history, do it! We need friends who will be with us when no one else can be. 

 Funny: We were in another rest home (Wow. We visit a lot of older people) and we met these two old codgers, one man and one woman. We asked them what their names were and the gentleman replied Donald. "Donald? That’s a cool name! Where does it come from?" He replied "A duck. My mom named me Donald because she saw him on the TV!!” The rest of the conversation spiraled down from there. We were laughing so hard at this 80 year-old man named after a duck. Oh it was funny. haha

 Where I am at: Things in Pleasanton are fantastic. It’s so cool to see what the blessings are of following the council of your leaders. Missionary work has taken a dramatic increase with all of the return and report system of doing missionary work. We are still teaching Max, Anthony and Angelina and they are all progressing very well. We love them so much! We have decided to push this week and start asking the questions that will get some of these less actives back to progression. Asking hard questions is hard, but the rewards are awesome.