Week 6

This week has been up and down.

 

We have been meeting with D~ a lot and really cranking down on helping him see the difference between worldly happiness and spiritual happiness. We taught D~ to repent and the lesson was pretty solid. Alcohol is no doubt his demon, and we can see the effects that it has on him while we visit. He is in a really tough spot, and we are doing what we can to help him and we are making sure he has the desire to quit for himself. He has improved a ton since we first started meeting with him. We had a lesson with him on Friday and we made a commitment that he would not drink alcohol between then and Sunday, we also helped him find ways to be productive with his time so he doesn't have time to think about drinking. We taught him how important it is that we read, pray and go to church. We've taught him these so many times but I think it's finally setting in.

 

This Sunday D~ came to all 3 hours of church! There are a lot of semi-recent converts in our ward and they got along great with him. Most of the converts have very similar backgrounds and stories on alcohol addiction. During our last session of church, (Elders Quorum) a recent concert gave the lesson on keeping the commandments. It was crazy, the lesson applied perfectly to D~ in every aspect. One of the members shared that when we don't keep the commandments not only does it do harm to use, but it also harms those we love and are close to like our friends and our grandma (which was really weird because, that was D~'s exact living situation, all he has left is his grandma and one friend). After the lesson, D~ told us how much he enjoyed church and that he wants to come back again! We are going to meet with him later today.

 

On the down side of the week, we found out that one of our Investigators that we'd set a baptismal date with has a few problems, and might not be getting baptised anytime soon...

I'm not going to mention their name for confidentiality purposes. Our investigator was staying with one of the members in our ward because of their previous family condition, and is currently struggling to get their kid back because of it. Until this Thursday we didn't know there was anything holding them from baptism. It turns out this person has been stealing money from the member who sheltered them and was caught selling drugs behind the house. It's really sad and we don't know much more than that. We are hoping that everything gets resolved peacefully.

 

Besides that and me getting sick, this week has been awesome, and life is good. We entered our names into the ward chili cook off this Wednesday, and our recipe is unbeatable (3 cans of chili from Walmart and 3 mild sauce packets from Taco Bell... don't tell anyone it's secret).

 

Sincerely, Elder Watkins