February 17, 2017

"Happy Late Valentines Day"

Hey Y'all!

Sorry for not emailing yesterday. The Library was closed due to Presidents day. It worked out great for me and Elder Smith because we were able to get everything done by 11 o'clock and we had the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted. We ended up having a lot of time to play basketball! We did a combined activity with the missionaries in the other wards and we probably played 15 games of basketball. Our team that we had had the longest winning streak until we got too tired to keep going and lost. But it was a blast! We were also able to go to a Polynesian store (Shop Aloha) and get some stuff to make Spam Musubi. So we are going to be able to eat that a lot more! 

We were also able to teach a couple of our investigators last night as well. We had our first lesson last Monday evening with them and they were one of the referrals that we received and taught. They are really nice, but a unique couple. We were talking to them and trying to figure out what their background was in general and also their religious back ground. Come to find out that they have their own Faith and it's very scattered. When we were talking about them, there were some things that they were talking about and believe in are pretty far out there. But it is for sure has been interesting going over there these past couple times. we tried talking about the Restoration with them, but they didn't have too much of an interest in that. So we gave them the Plan of Salvation pamphlet to read and we were going to follow up last night. So we go over there and they didn't read, but they are both very interested about where we get our testimonies and where our Faith in the Gospel came from. So we decided to talk about the Book of Mormon and share why it's important and how it's the keystone of or religion. For the most part, we were able to keep the lesson focused on the Book of Mormon. She has read the Book before and is willing to read it again and he seemed like he would skim through it. But we have really high hopes for her. So next week we will be following up with them.

We were also able to come in contact with this lady that missionaries have talked to in the past. She is really cool and has a testimony of the church and loves our church. Her hold up right now is whether or not Joseph Smith is a prophet of God or not. She finds in hard to believe that God talks to us still in these days. Something cool that I didn't mention earlier, before we went over to teach her, we decided that we needed to talk about the Book of Mormon with her and help her understand the importance of it. So the lesson that we prepared for her was inspired for sure! We ended up having a really good discussion about the Book of Mormon and she said that she read it, but doesn't remember anything. So we committed her to really read and understand and also to start praying about whether the book is true. Because if the Book is true, then Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. She committed to read and we are going to be following up with her this week. We are planning on talking about the Plan of Salvation, but we will see what happens.

This week I was also able to go on an exchange with our Zone Leaders who are the Spanish elder who cover Euless. So as we were biking around, I was able to find a few people from the Tongan wards and talk with them for a little bit. It was a nice mini reunion with them! I couldn't find everyone I taught because there were appointments with Spanish people we had to go to. But it was nice to be back in Euless for a little bit. Hopefully I can make it back there before I go home! We also were able to have a non-eventful Valentines day this past week. Our evening was completely dead because everyone was our doing something. However a family invited us over to come have some ice cream with them so we happily took up that offer.  

Today we are going to be doing service at an Animal shelter and helping them out. We did service there last week as well and it was pretty sad to see some of the condition of the animals that had been abused. But the people really do need our help with some of the chores around the place so we are happy to help them out! We also have a lesson with a Part-Member family tomorrow and we are really looking forward to meeting them hopefully planting a seed with them. I hope all yall have a great week and thanks for all the emails! Love yall!

Love,
Elder O'Brien