OK, now we are on part 2: These technical difficulties are NOT going to ruin MY mission!!!
I have to tell you a funny story about Elder Kahmann.
In one of WSR trainings with Riki, (his last name is too hard to spell or say) he brought up the concern of losing so many returned missionaries because they leave the church or becoming inactive after their mission.
Ricky told us that they are finding that when returned missionaries come back home, if they marry in the temple (like within a year) and pay a full tithing for 3 years, we’ve got them for life. He said that the main reason people let their recommends lapse is because of not paying tithing.
We shared this quote at our pre-transfer meeting (that we have with the president and his wife, the other couple missionaries, and the assistants once a month) a few hours later. I shared that quote with the group and Tony said, “Yea, since hearing that, we are going to change the focus of our departing missionary seminar and speak to dating and temple marriage for 90% of the time and spend the other 10% talking about tithing. We all busted up laughing our heads off. It took a minute for Tony to know what he said that was so funny.
Part 2 of Love, Share, and Invite:
So back to Cindy: She came in and had brought us a big box of chocolates. She wanted to apologize for her behavior earlier in the day. I asked her if she wanted to sit down. She agreed. For the next hour she told us her story. She knew nothing about religion, let alone God in her entire upbringing. She has worked in her current job for 15 + years. She completed a college degree in education, but does not teach school. She loves children and children's books. Before she got baptized, a friend invited her to help teach her primary class. Most of her gospel learning came from helping in primary. That continued until covid hit. She felt like she got baptized because everyone expected her to. She quit coming to church for several years after covid. But in the last year, her anxiety and depression has taken a toll on her. In the past year, she has been increasingly struggling with panic attacks, where she becomes paralyzed and suddenly cannot function. This happened to her today, as she explained, when she was introduced to us. She was in a state of fear about being set apart to her new stake calling, that she didn't even understand. Her story was quite incredible. In July she decided to give church a go again. And that's where we came into the picture just a month later. Almost simultaneously, Tony and I both felt impressed to ask her is she would like to retake or maybe a better word is "take" the lessons from preach my gospel. We invited her to do the lessons on Monday evenings with us. So on the 12th of September we began teaching her weekly every Monday night for 2 hours. We learned that she had not prayed or taken the sacrament since she was baptized. We have since learned that she has never paid tithing, nor was she taught about it. In close to 2 months, we have developed an incredible friendship with this beautiful sister. She is so talented, capable and observant. She is bright and willing to learn. She has a wonderful sense of humor. She loves to help other people. She also struggles with fears and feelings of deep insecurity. She has also built walls to keep people out and protect herself. She told us when we first started with her that she has never felt the spirit. She had a patriarchal blessing, but has never really taken an stock in it. She doesn't think she will ever marry, she feels she has no reason to go to the temple. (yet) We have never met anyone quite like her. She is teaching us a lot. We love her so much. And, she is making phenomenal progress. Today, November 1, she turned 33. She is my youngest daughter's age. She said that she has never had friends, other than older people, but so many people love her!
Good Food
This missionaries taught us to make vegemite cheese toast! YUMMY!
The Expo: We are on an expo committee and have been asked to be in charge of a booth for Welfare Self-reliance. Elder Kahmann worked very hard with one of the tech elders to create this beautiful flyer that we are using for our booth on November 5th, this next Saturday.
Guess what our big project is for the next few days on top of everything else?
WE are moving! One of the senior couples rental home has opened up, but they cannot put young elders or sisters there because it has a swimming pool. So, they are moving us there. OK! We’ll take it!
The Zoo!
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