Well let me tell you. This has been an eventful week to say the least....
.... funny how right after I typed that sentence my mind totally went blank on what actually happened this week.... ugh... I'll do my best....
New years! New years eve was really awesome! We went to dinner at a members house and let me tell you, this member is the best member missionary ever!!! As we were leaving we saw the cooks walking in. Chelsea Cook is a fantastic potential investigator. She Prays, she's been to church, she just struggles because her husband is a member, but he doesn't go to church at all. He has a bunch of tattoos and the whole intimidating look going on... But he is one of the coolest guys I know for sure... Anyway, They had been invited to the members house for dinner and to spend new years eve with them! Apparently they've been over to the members house a few times. She has been totally friend-shipping all of our potential investigators!!! It's really awesome :)
Then after we stayed and talked to them for a minute, we went home, packed up our stuff and drove to Uniontown to spend the night with those Elders down there. They're in a trio right now so it was fun to have 5 of us in one apartment for a night. We drank some sparkling cider before we went to bed haha it was kinda lame but funny at the same time :) then we stayed in their area to work with them for the better part of the next day.
Okay this is one of the sweetest experiences on my mission so far... There's this family we've been working with since I got to this area about 6 1/2 weeks ago. They are less active, but they don't act like they are. They are totally a gospel oriented family! they just never come to church.... Why would anyone do this?.... ugh.... anyway, We made a really good friendship with them and actually ended up spending a p-day with them a week or two ago. We brought almost the whole district to their house, they fed us lunch, we played games and laughed a ton. It was so much fun... Then out of the blue, the came to church the week I was sick! It was really cool but we didn't think too much of it, since less actives tend to come to church every once in a while, we didn't think anything had really changed. But then they came yesterday as well! the bishop pulled him into his office to talk to them after sacrament. We taught the young men about the Godhead during the third hour, and after church the bishop pulled Elder Martin and I into his office to talk. He told us that the family explained to him that they have changed, that they want to come back to church, that they want to take callings, and that they want to raise their kids in the gospel!!!!!!!!! Holy cow!!! can it get better than that?!..... yes it can... Bishop then told us that when he asked them what changed, they told him it was us. That our visits had truly helped them to realize what they needed to do. That they had been touched just by having us in their home.... Okay now that is definitely the sweetest thing of my mission so far. I have never had such
a confirming experience that actually says that what I'm doing is making a difference. wow..
So remember the Cooks I talked about earlier? So since that member was doing an awesome job of fellowshipping them, we decided to capitalize on the situation and go visit them again. We stopped by just to talk one night and we hit it off with them really well too! They invited us to have dinner at their house! SWEET! So we did it! we had dinner at their house on Saturday and it was awesome! Chelsea's husband said a prayer over the food, and she said a prayer for us as well! it was super good.
Now, some back story on the Less Active family I just talked about earlier. Every time we went there, we had a lot of fun talking, but we felt like we wasted our opportunity to teach. We never had a legitimate lesson with them. We never invited them to church, we never had a really powerful spiritual moment.... So how did their situation change? It was very simple. We were their friends. They knew we loved them. They felt the spirit with us. They felt it. They changed.
This is exactly what's going to happen with the cooks. That member family is inviting them over for fun things, being their friends, never being pushy. We had dinner with them and shot his blowdart gun at a zombie face and talked about motorcycles that day. We were not being pushy, we were being their friends. The spirit does the rest. Ultimately it is their decision to change. What we can do, is be their friends and be ready for them when they're ready for us.
Does this sound like something we can all do? I think we all know we can. Be someones friend. Invite them to your house for dinner. Be genuine. Be ready. The spirit will do the rest. And you'll be blessed for simply being who you are. Don't try to change yourself to fit into some imaginary missionary mold. It's more simple than that. Be yourself.
Thanks to everyone for all your prayers... They really payed off this week :) haha
love,
-Elder DeFreese
1. Dad used to point out stupid signs to me. This one reminded me of that.
2. Talkin to everyone...
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