howdy. hi. hello. hola.
i just got back from the temple. :) we're allowed to do a session every 90 days, but i hadn't gone in much longer than that. so it was very much needed! i love the temple. it was also my companion's very first time going through! so that was super exciting for her. i love watching people's faces the first time they come through the san diego temple... they're always struck with awe. ;)
events of the week:
we did our very first booth at grossmont college across the street from the institute this week. they'd like us to do one weekly. it was kind of a cool experience, watching people's different expressions/reactions when they saw us there with our huge poster of jesus christ... you can definitely tell those students who are completely opposed to us--they take one glance and then walk as far on the opposite side of the walkway as possible. then there's those that approach willingly and ask us questions out of curiosity. but i think the most fascinating are the students who kind of watch from a distance... and sometimes they start to approach, but then they hesitate. so they walk away, and then a few minutes later we see them again over on the other side of the courtyard, trying to not make it look like they're interested. it's so obvious that the spirit is trying to work on them!! :) haha. hopefully those students will work up the courage to approach us one day. we're not allowed to approach people ourselves, unfortuantely. just be there to ask questions and offer to teach them more if they're interested. we had a total of four people talk to us, and only 3 of the 4 engaged in substantial conversation. hopefully it'll become a useful tool for finding... we'll see.
we had a fireside just for missionaries on sunday! it was cool. a member of the 70, robert c. gay, came to speak to us. he told us so many crazy stories about missionary work... he's served in like 5 different missions around the world. did you know missionary work got started in spain because the missionaries there did something illegal and then won the court case? they were called street boards. haha. :) he basically was explaining how this work is a revelatory work, and that there's no "silver bullet." boy is that true! sometimes i wish there was, but then other times i realize how fulfilling it is to receive specific revelation for someone, and then watch it work! revelation is the coolest thing ever.
i think the best news of the week, though, came from sister miller who informed me about a member of my last area who i worked with for a while... he was baptized last year, but never really gained his own testimony. (there were other people involved that had a big influence on his decision to be baptized.) so he didn't come around for a long time after his baptism. well... we started working with him again in like, october, i think. but we still had a lot of difficulty helping him grasp true conversion. WELL, sister miller told me on sunday that he passed the sacrament for the first time and then he got up in sacrament and actually bore his testimony! he explained how he had had such a hard heart... he'd always viewed god as someone just "above" him that he had to pay tribute to... and he even got a little teary-eyed as he explained that for the first time, as he passed the sacrament, he felt that god was not just above him, but WITH him. :) :) :) it was SO COOL! i cannot even explain to you... i wish you knew him like i do, cause that would make the story mean so much more. suffice it to say that NOTHING could ruin my day after that. :) it was wonderful.
santee is still coming along, slowly but surely. we have a lot of investigators who are just on the brink of progression... we're just trying to figure ways to push them over the edge. ;) it's kinda funny though, i feel like my teaching is getting in the way lately... i think i've gotten too confident in my ability to explain and teach, because i go too far to that extreme. it doesn't matter AT ALL if someone can repeat the restoration backwards and forwards if they don't have a clue why it matters for THEM, personally. so i've got to do a little less teaching and a little more loving.
that's all for this week! happy march! i love you!
sister madsen
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