Old Dogs, Same Gospel

Wow. What a crazy week this week. We have been overwhelmed by seeing the Lords hand in this work. It’s been really fun. We have seen a bunch of miracles this week. We are also dead tired. :) Funny how those two seem to go together well.

Spiritual: We had an appointment fall through with a man this past week and so we decided to try and get ahold of him another day. We went over to his house, knocked on the door and his Pilipino sister-in-law answered and started to talk to us. We talked for a few minutes and she mentioned about how she stayed home and took care of her husband. We asked if we could come in and meet him. She said yes and then proceeded to tell us how she cared for her 91 year-old husband. She is only 52 and takes good care of him. It was a little strange. We came in and started to talk to him. He said that his name was Van and that he was mostly deaf and mostly blind. We were wondering how we were going to teach him. We had a pad of paper and communicated by yelling really loudly and writing one sentence statements of truth. We communicated that we were representives for Jesus Christ and when he finally understood, he stopped dead and turned to us and told us that his only desire was to know Jesus Christ.  We were stunned. He told us how he went to church for 40 years and they kept talking and talking about what Jesus did for other people but never what Jesus did for him. When we told him that we would absolutely love to come back and teach him about what Jesus has done for him he got so excited. He told us to stop or else he would just jump up on our laps. It was a touching experience to teach this man literally line by line and precept by precept. He is in a recliner and has some serious health issues. It’s hard for him to move or even to communicate. Somehow though, every time we leave, he tells us that he loves us and he is so grateful that we came. It brings me to tears to think that this 91 year-old man has enough faith and humility to be taught by someone who is 19 years-old. It’s a tough teaching job because on top of all of his old age problems, he has a 6th grade education. I love this man. Jesus Christ might be all that we have to cling to when we are old. It is so important to learn while we are young. Do not procrastinate the day of your repentance. The Gospel is powerful enough to bless the lives of all people old and young. It’s just a lot easier when you are young. 

Funny: We have been taking Dhani our 16 year old Stud investigator to dinners with us recently. We were really excited to take him to a military family this week. We forget sometimes that these men have been trained by the military to be aggressive and rather intense. Long story short our dear member who is training to be a linguist but really should be an interrogator was grilling our poor investigator about faith. His scriptures were open and he was doing a good drill sergeant impression. We were mortified. We were scared that he would never talk to us again. We got out and we asked Dhani what he thought of that. He replied that it was intense but it helped and he liked it. Whew. That was close. The struggles of living in a military community are fun. :) 

Where I am at: This new mission president looks awesome. He sounds really enthusiastic and very professional. We are having so many miracles come our way. Sister Page our 89 year-old black lady is doing great! We figured out that she wasn’t reading because she couldn’t see! We fixed that right quick. Dhani is so close! Ah! Dylan is getting recruited by colleges and is still having girl troubles. We love talking to him about that. His family is getting really close as well. I love you all even if I tend not to think about you much. Just know that my emotions are still there. I love you all! 

Ammon had a fun surprise at church yesterday when his third grade teacher was on vacation in California and happened to be in Monterrey for church and go to Ammon's ward. He said it freaked him out a little (especially when she called him Ammon) but that it was fun.