Hello Family and Friends
This week was intense. It was just filled with work and
teaching, doesnt get any better than that I guess. We literally had a day that
was filled with only teaching, all of our appointments held through and we just
went from house to house.
We taught J whom we contacted the week
before. When she was a kid her mom was investigating the church and when we
stopped by to see her she was curious as to what we do and preach.
Then we went to an
awesome fmaily we contacted last week. E and S have 7 kids! One of their sons was recently sent to prison and they are
clearly affected by it. We sat there for 2 hours just listening about their
lives and their struggles. We didnt have enough time to teach them any of the
lessons, but we left them with some thoughts and scriptures. They seemed to
really like it and trust in us, so the next time were there, I hope we can
begin teaching them. They are a HUGE family!
Afterwards we went to visit MJ, a member, and her husband M, nonmember. She's a convert of 5 years
and since then not one pair of missionaries have been there to teach her
husband.(we were looking for a contact asking people on the street and stumbled
upon him) We had an intense lesson, one of the most intense I've ever
participated in. We watched the Restoration movie and then asked him a TON of
questions. We invited him to be baptized and he said he knows that this is the
right church and the right path for him, but he said he's not ready yet. We
tried digging deeper to find out what would be holding him back but came out
with nothing.
I was REALLY excited for this Sunday
because we had a ton of our investigators say that they were going to come to Church.... when Sunday came around.... no one. I'm not gonna lie I was pretty depressed. But I'm over it now and we just gotta work harder and better with the members to
help them to come to church.
We have SO many investigators right now with sooo
many needs. Everyone one of them is so unique and sometimes its hard to think
about all of them :D
I want to ask you guys to pray for these names this week
if you can. It would really help with the work. I gained a strong testimony of prayer this week. The second
day we were here we were eating with a member and when that time came around to
ask "is there anything we can do to help?" she said the common
answer "to pray for them". Tons of the members ask us to do so, and I'll
be honest, I hadn't been doing what they asked. I learned a few months ago, that
praying for members and investigators every day really can make the difference.
To return to the story, this member said that her son has been inactive for
quite some time now and shes really worried about him. She said something
interesting afterwards, she explained how she thinks that when she asks the
missionaries to pray they often forget (we do have a lot of things to do). She
asked if we really could pray for him. We accepted and my companion and I have
been praying ever since. Low and behold he went to Church this week with his
mom. God does answer our prayers. It was such a small thing, but I truly
believe it made the difference for him.
Now to the list, its long :D
[So this is the point where I, the mom, and editor of Cooper's blog, have to decide what to do here. He has clearly asked his friends and family to pray by name for each of their investigators that they are teaching. However, I believe in protecting people's privacy, especially in times when they are making important decisions about their future, or when they are going through tough personal things. Therefore, I am choosing to not put up a list of names. If you would like to honor his request and have this list of names to pray for, please email me at paula.siebers@comcast.net and I will happily send it to you.]
We also had an awesome FHE last night. We brought a less
active that the Relief Society has been working with. She went to church twice
and then has missed these past two Sundays. We had a super emotional FHE with
an awesome member family here and she loved it. She said she hasn't cried in
years! She is way excited for the next FHE.
Thats all I got for now. I love you guys so much. This week
we will meet President Cabral.
And if your wondering what we do during the Brazil games... we've been playing Settlers of Catan, thanks again Mom! [Setters of Catan: evidence that his birthday box made it to Itaborai!]
[Since we STILL don't have any photos since Cooper moved to his new location, I will have to resort to this photo of him spotted on Sister Colvin's blog. Thanks Sister Colvin!]
Elder Siebers
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