Okay, so this week our zone has really been pushing member present lessons. Meaning, we bring a member of the ward with us to teach. So our mission president made us a promise that when we have a member present "everything else will fall into place." That is huge. EVERYTHING? It's been legit. So our zone made the goal to get 100 member present lessons on the week of Nov. 18th, 100 being over double what we got two weeks ago. We had a zone conference where they got us super pumped to be getting members out with us. We really took the challenge to heart and have barely had any lessons last week that didn't have members present. Our goal for last week (to work up to our goal for next week) was 65 member presents, and guess what happened? We got over 100. We weren't even planning on getting that many as a zone until next week, but it happened. Crazy.
That being said, I could write a novel about "Trailside Miracles". We've seen so many this week in Trailside ward. (Some of these are where the not-as-good news comes in)
First Miracle:
So we have weekly planning once a week to plan for…the week (go figure). And at weekly planning they encouraged us to have a "meaningful activity planned for every hour of the week". Whether or not that makes sense, I don't know. Essentially they want us to plan a person an hour for the whole week to go visit. Make sense? So We planned to see this guy named Jeff Itoh, who was a potential investigator that neither of us had ever met. We scheduled to teach him on Wednesday at 6:00. So, we figured before we assume that we can teach him on Wednesday, we should go meet him. So we did. We went over on Tuesday night (with a member present--hence the miracle) and we met with him. He was super nice and open to everything and we were even able to teach him. We asked him if there was a day this week that we could come back and talk more about it. He said "how about tomorrow?" (Wednesday). We said, "does 6:00 work?". "Yes." It was so satisfying to open my planner, look at Wednesday at 6:00, see that his name was already scheduled for that time, and put my planner away without writing anything. Revelation at its finest. Long story short, he came to church, and absolutely LOVED it! Then he sent us a text that night and dropped us saying he can't be a member 'cause his wife doesn't support him.
And that's the bad news. We'll still get him though.
Oh yeah, other bad news is that Julio didn't come to church so he can't be baptized on the date that we set for him. So… that sucks.
Second Member-present miracle!:
We had dinner with this member family that neither of us knew, the Guerenas. Long story short, brother Guerena ended up coming out with us after dinner. Off topic, his mannerisms are SO much like Matt it's uncanny. Guess what his name is? Matthew Guerena. He's like… the same person. Except that he hunts bears…
Anyway, so we went out and visited these people Ronnie and Cassy, who have always been dodging us. When we pull up the house was completely black. I could tell that we were about to just leave, but Elder Francis looked at me and I said… "faith knock."
So we knocked, and lo and behold, they were home. And they let us in. Say what? The lesson really just consisted of us resolving his concerns. Then… I had a vision.
Literally. I imagined Ronnie, this 6 foot 5 black guy dressed in baptismal clothing. In my mind I just got the feeling like… "yeah… we need to invite him to be baptized". (talking later with Elder Francis, he had the same experience… spooooooky!) Of course I had some huge doubts about inviting him to be baptized when we haven't really taught him anything. Good thing Elder Francis was on the same page, because he did it anyway. He said yes. They came to church. Loved it. Game time!
Oh yeah, and the member we had with us that just happened to be there was PERFECT with his testimony and past experiences. Ronnie (investigator) literally was saying that everything he said to him answered a question he had.
Also, Angel and Taylor, some people I was teaching back in Maryvale (old area) got baptized on Saturday! It was super sweet. They are the people that we taught every Sunday at the Hinkle's house. I don't remember if I told you about Sister Hinkle's mom but I'm pretty sure I did. She was pretty much anti-mormon aaaand now she's getting baptized this weekend. Boo ya.
Next miracle… I went to KFC for lunch one day. WEIRD! Even more of a miracle? It was delicious.
That's pretty much it! I've had some crazy experiences with faith this week. Faith is so powerful. Way legit.
Welp, see ya!
-Elder Cox
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