Monday, June 8, 2015

19th Street (Week 90)

Summer is here, and the temperature is rising.

We have been doing more work in Marlow with our car which has been a blessing. Last week we found a less active family who have a 12 and a 13 year old who haven't been baptized. The parents have really strong testimonies but struggle with coming to church. The father served 6 years in Iraq and suffers with really bad PTSD so he struggles with crowds. During our visit they explained to us that they want their children to make the decision on their own to be baptized. The mother told us that lately her daughter (12) has been asking about baptism and wants to be baptized. By the end of the conversation the Dad confessed there were Sundays that they could make it to church. We didn't say to much during the visit but whatever was said the spirit spoke and was present to touch their hearts. We are teaching their family this week. We are excited to start working with them!

We set a baptism date with C~ this week! It's the wonderful date of July 4th. We are excited. A bitter sweet thing happened in their family. C~ lost his job but the cool thing about it was that now he is able to come to church and came yesterday! He was talking about it with us and he started pointing out all of the positive things about losing his job. He gets to catch up with his family, he can come to church, and he can be here to help his sister after she has her baby
(any day now). He knows that God has a plan for everything.

We have been doing quite a bit of finding this week. For the first half of the week it seemed as though no one in Duncan was receptive, but on Friday everyone and their cat wanted to listen to us. We knocked almost all of 19th street and everyone at least listened to us and accepted our offer to say a prayer with them. With 10 minutes before 9:00 pm we had to head back home on our bikes before we could finish the street. As we were biking away the spirit told me that tomorrow was when we should to knock the rest of the doors on the street. Huh strange prompting. Well the next day around 7:00 pm we came back and knocked on the rest of the houses, and the one house that appeared to be vacant was the one that opened. When the homeowner answered the door she had this big grin on her face. We introduced ourselves, afterwards I felt to ask if she had met with missionaries before. She said yes! In fact, she had studied with them for along time and had read a lot of the Book of Mormon. She has African-American children and told us she stopped when she found information on blacks and the priesthood and it gave her doubts. We had a HUGE conversation with her on the porch and helped answer her questions about it. We explained the purpose for the priesthood and explained to her that God gives all of his children callings. We  pointed out how in the old testament only the Levites held the priesthood. We quickly resolved her concern on the that topic and she began to ask us questions pertaining to the plan of salvation. We basically covered every part of the plan of salvation lesson from our conversation and her questions. She explained to us the trials that she was going through and that our visit was an answer to her questions. One of the huge questions she had been struggling with was why does God allow his innocent children to suffer here on earth. The spirit prompted me to share the story of my brother Tyler who has cerebral palsy. Turns our her youngest son has a lighter form of cerebral palsy. The connection we made with her was really cool. We gave her a plan of salvation pamphlet with our number on it. Right after she pointed to the Book of Mormon in my hand and asked if she could have a copy because she couldn't find hers. I gave her a copy and asked if we could come back for a visit. she told us that she would call us when her life settled down a little. We are still going to swing by next week. :)

Today for p-day we are going with a member from Waurika to Comanche's Music (instrument store). Brother Chesley plays a lot of blue grass instruments and is going to teach us a few tricks. He's really really good on the Dobro which is an instrument I've been waiting and dying to learn. Next week I'll send a recording of our music. Come Come ye Saints.

I love you all! Have a wonderful week.

Sincerely, Elder Watkins


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