So let's get started. I know you are all excited to hear about Thursday (; me too!!
Tuesday we volunteered at the senior center and the ladies there were as crazy as ever. haha! We tried to visit some less actives in Donora and we found the Humbert's. They are pretty interesting. They (a son and his mom) are pretty old converts and kind of contradict themselves. Like when we left, Brother Humbert said he had these blasted cigarettes and he didn't need them but every so often he would get a craving that he couldn't deny. That sounds like you need them and an addiction, but don't worry. We've got a plan for that (: Then we saw Sister Latkanich which turned out to be a huge blessing because her nurse left to get her groceries and her doctor called. He told her she needed to go to the ER because of her UTI and she wouldn't have gone if we hadn't been there. We called the ambulance and got her all comfy while we waited. Once they showed up we went to dinner at the Johnson's. They are AWESOME. Love them so much.
Wednesday was CRAZY. We got SO much work done in one day. It felt awesome! We saw Sue but we got interrupted by her mom's "cremains" coming home. So we tried to see Dena and Marcus but they had a family emergency so we took lunch. Then we saw Vi and she was resting from coming home from the hospital. We talked about repentance and she gave us a HUGE cake that we decided to take to the Book of Mormon class later that night. We taught Marissa about Agency and Accountability. Since she is done with her recent convert lessons we are going through the For Strength of Youth pamphlet with her to help her understand the standards of the church. We also saw Tim and Tanja. We talked about following the prophet and they are such rock stars. They are SO cool. We also saw Brittany. Her mom is more involved in our lessons than she is. Her mom also isn't a member...opportunity? (: We had Book of Mormon class and the Elders did an awesome job talking about King Benjamin's address. After that we had an impromptu lesson with Tanner, our most recent investigator. He is soaking it up like a sponge!! Couldn't be more golden that's for sure!!
So Thursday....BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can I just say, I was star struck. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland is the MAN! That was the BEST conference. I can't even begin to describe it. I was so exhausted by the end, but it was so worth it.
We got to our choir practice 20 minutes late because of Pittsburgh traffic. But we made it. We practiced and then we sat on the stand restlessly for 30 minutes. Every missionary was silent and completely absorbed in the Spirit. Finally 2 pm rolled around and Elder Holland entered the room with Elder Hallstrom from the the presidency of the 70. We all stood and he started waving and blowing kisses at the choir (us). He turned and did the same to the congregation. He wanted to meet us all before the meeting so we shook his hand before. When it was my turn, he asked how I was, but I had a look of complete shock on my face (I guess) because he laughed and mimicked my expression haha! It was amazing! He was SO real and so hilarious! What else could you expect from him??? He rarely stood still. When it was his turn to speak, he clipped a mike on and said "So I can be right here!!!" And he shook and elder by the shoulders! He grabbed Sister Aston's face. He looked me right in the eyes as he was speaking. I could feel the Spirit SO strongly as he pleaded with us to never, ever go less active. "We can't afford to lose the shepherds. We are already losing too many sheep." Okay, some jokes. He said he hopes to die in a high priest group meeting that way no one will know, not even him. He recounted a "story" of a few weeks ago a high priest went into cardiac arrest and the paramedics gave mouth to mouth to 5 other men before finding the right man. Elder Holland was describing King Noah and said he was a slob. He hesitated then said, "Well, 'slob' isn't a very apostolic word. But then again, Noah wasn't a very apostolic man." Elder Holland said if we ever went less active, he would hunt us down and ring our necks...but that isn't very Christlike and we shouldn't tell our mothers that. oops. Instead, he said he would come haunt us. We would hear scratching on our windows, look outside and see his face pressed against the glass. haha! Overall, it was a pretty legit experience. He talked about how Christ had to pay everything for our salvation so why shouldn't we have to pay a little? The destination of salvation passes through the Garden of Gethsemane and the Road to Calvary. He talked about how we need to make changes in our lives so we can be the kind of missionaries that God needs us to be. It was so amazing. I can't even write a tenth part of what happened. But I am God's investigator.
I am just gonna skip to Sunday because everything else was pretty average for the week. Weekly planning (which led to me getting sunburned) and some visits with people. I do want to tell you about this miracle that happened yesterday.
So Friday though, during weekly planning, I looked at a sticky note from last weeks' planning. It had a question mark with a baptismal date of June 14th. That following Sunday, last week, we picked up Tanner as a new investigator. So noting that the date was set in faith, we began to plan for our next lesson with Tanner. It ended up being yesterday and we were both pretty nervous about it. We really wanted to set Tanner with a date. So we went to the Aders' home for dinner and Haley and Tanner came over later. We started to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ (being cleansed from sin, faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end). We got to the Holy Ghost and the Spirit kept coming. It was so powerful there. Tanner even bore his testimony and it was awesome. Sister Rock then asked him to be baptized on June 14th. He said "Yes. That should work!" Everyone was in tears. He said he knew that the church was true and we bore testimony to him that he was making Heavenly Father very proud (sorry Dad!) of the choices that he was making at this time.
I am seriously so mind blown as to how this happened. Heavenly Father is definitely in control. I want to share the lyrics of a song that we recently got from another missionary and it describes how I feel very accurately after this week.
What Do I Know Of Holy?
I made you promises a thousand times. I tried to hear from Heaven, but I talked the whole time. I think I made you too small. I never feared you at all. If you touched my face, would I know you? Looked into my eyes, could I behold you?
What do I know of you who spoke me into motion? Where have I even stood but the shore along your ocean? Are you fire, are you fury? Are you sacred, are you beautiful? So what do I know, what do I know of holy?
I guess I thought that I had figured you out. I knew all the stories and I learned to talk about, how you were 'mighty to save'. But those were only empty words on a page. Then I caught a glimpse of who you might be. The slightest glimpse of you brought me down to my knees.
What do I know of you who spoke me into motion? Where have I even stood but the shore along your ocean? Are you fire, are you fury? Are you sacred, are you beautiful? So what do I know, what do I know of holy?
What do I know of holy? What do I know of wounds that will heal my shame? And a God who gave life it's name? What I know of holy and the One who the angels praise? All creation knows your name. Higher than heaven above, what do I know of this love?
So what do I know of you, who spoke me into motion? Where have I even stood but the shore along your ocean? Are you fire, are you fury? Are you sacred, are you beautiful? Lord, what do I know? What do I know of holy?
Have a wonderful week! I love you!!
Love,
Sister Kaitlyn Crockett
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