This week has been really great. I have seen so many great miracles and tender mercies from my Heavenly Father as I have labored this week with Elder Zolman here in Newark.
This week was awesome, the weather has been warming up and it was really nice the last few days. Today is cold again and it is going to get really cold and snow this week. Also, transfers are next week and we get calls on Friday. Pretty sure I am leaving but crazier things have happened, so who knows!
For a while we have not be able to find solid investigators here in Newark. It has been a struggle and we have trying different things to try to find. On Tuesday of this week we got a media referral from Mormon.org. It was such a spirit booster to get a good referral. It was on an exchange so Elder Zolman went with Elder Dopp to contact her. Her name is Karen and she is in a retirement type home. She has had 4 strokes and can no longer speak. She asked that we explain the difference between the Book of Mormon and the Bible. We were able to set up a return appointment. Later that day we also found 2 other investigators by stopping by potentials and less actives.
So we have new investigators. That's good, now we needed their return appointments to hold. On Thursday we had a really really great weekly planning session. Elder Barker sat in on it and it was really great. We went through every step and went over every individual we have been blessed to work with. After that weekly planning I felt a sense of peace and calm that all of the individuals we were going to be working with would be alright and that they would keep their commitments. It was powerful. Many tender mercies and miracles have followed.
On Friday we were able to meet with a long time investigator. He is progressing, but slowly, which is alright. Our previous lesson he had forgotten to read. This time he had kept all of his commitments, infact he had stayed up until midnight the night before so that he could read his previous reading commitment. It was such a tender mercy to have him keep his commitments.
Saturday was a great day. We were able to meet with 2 of our new investigators. Karen, the one who cannot speak, was a special lesson. It was hard to teach, until that time I do not think I fully realized how much we rely on response to teach. Its hard to sit and have quiet while she types. Its really really hard, and it has taught me patience. It also taught me that I need to teach simply, in such a way that there are no questions.
We were able to go and see Dave and his son and new born baby. It was a great lesson and he agreed to be baptized. We haven't set him with a date yet, but we have another lesson on Saturday in which we will follow up with a date.
On Sunday we were able to teach our other new investigator from Tuesday. He also invited his two sons to sit in. They all participated and I think his sons in particular really liked the lesson. We weren't able to get thought the entire restoration because of time, but they also agreed to let us come back again.
We were blessed to be able to have great people to teach this week, and I know it is because of the time and effort and care that went into our weekly planning.
On Sunday evening we needed to teach one more less active member to reach our goal for the week. We only had about 20 minutes and didn't have any appointments. We stopped by a member, Brother Stewart, who I hadn't met yet. He welcomed us in and we were able to share a Mormon message with him "mountains to climb" he told us that was what he needed to hear and asked us to come back another day and told us he would be at church the next week.
Heavenly Father has blessed us as we have been diligent in our efforts. Not only when we are out and about, but when we are planning nightly and on Thursday.
Love, Elder Parker
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