Service

This week we had a lot of service! Lots of people moving! We went to one investigators house, thinking that we were going to be washing windows, but we found out that we were going to rearrange her whole kitchen and then paint pots for her. It was really fun, but also not quite what we expected.. I had a blouse on and everyone else had tshirts on, so she called me rich girl the whole time.. yeah. She's fun. ;) Anyways, we had another lesson with another one of our investigators on Thursday. He has some interesting ideas about organized religion. He is having a hard time believing in the Book of Mormon. He is very interested in how the Book of Mormon and the Bible are connected. Sister Soriao and I are trying to be very careful though about how we answer his questions. We don't want to ignore his questions, but we also don't want to allow our lesson time to be filled with questions that, even if answered, just lead to more questions. We have just been trying to focus on helping him to keep an open mind and heart while reading the Book of Mormon, and then praying about it. During our lesson, Sister Soriao bore this beautiful testimony about the Book of Mormon and her conversion (She was converted from Catholicism 5 years ago, and is the only member of her family). When she finished, I had tears in my eyes, because of how strongly I felt the spirit. When I looked at our investigator, he said: "Sister Soriao, I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but listening to you just now was like listening to a recording or a pre-programmed robot." My hear sank when he said that. I don't know where to go with him, yet. It will be interesting to see what happens. 

We were also able to go visit the Racoma family on Saturday. Brother Racoma is determined to read the whole Book of Mormon before he will discuss baptism, but he is very slow at reading. He doesn't really prioritize it throughout his day. We talked with him about the Plan of Salvation though, and we answered a lot of questions that he has had, apparently, for a really long time. He told us at the end of the lesson that he really appreciated what we had said, and that he feels very motivated to speed up his reading. To us, that was very encouraging. I really hope that he sticks to that desire to prioritize his Book of Mormon reading higher up. 

That's all I have time for this week! I hope that you are all doing well, and that you continue to keep the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the center of your lives!!

Love, Sister Sydney Barber