84th week in Spokane

We definitely had our ups and downs here this week. On Monday we were teaching a less active family whose daughter is not a member, and that went really well, we are going to start teaching her and the family is going to start coming back to church! While we were there, her mom told us about an accident that happened that day. A car hit a deer and the deer flew up and hit right in the windshield of the car behind them causing the back car to run off the road into a telephone pole. She died just a couple days later. It turns out that the lady who got hit by the deer and died is a recent convert in the Sunnyside ward that was baptized on Christmas Day. She and her husband were both baptized then. It has been really tragic. But its amazing what that has done for the extended family who are not part of the faith. There was a memorial service held at the church on Saturday and all their family of course came and they were able to see the support of the ward towards Roy, the husband, and they were also able to feel of the special spirit that is in the church. They were taught that day the plan of salvation perfectly. It was a really special service. Judy (who passed away) has a sister that came up from Nevada and by the end of the weekend she decided that she wants to be baptized when she gets back home. We went to the Clark Fork branch for church this week so we weren't able to go to the Sunnyside one. But we heard all about it, and the testimony meeting there, we were told, was just out of this world spiritual. Just being a day after the funeral, there were many who were eager to share their testimony. Again we were told that there were a whole lot of non members and less actives that decided to come to church that day and they all felt the spirit. And of course we missed it and weren't able to meet these people! Oh well. Its amazing to me how a tragedy can turn into such a blessing.. if we allow it to. We aren't too disappointed however about missing that meeting in Sunnyside because in Clark Fork we too had an amazing day. We had three investigators come out to Clark Fork, which is huge for them! But, before I get to them, I gotta tell ya about a little boy who wanted to share his testimony. His name is Samuel and he's right about three years old, maybe four. His mom brought him up and she was holding him and whispering in his ear what to say, but he wouldn't say anything, he just froze. So she went ahead and bore her testimony and then started to walk away and he started yelling, "no no mommy I wanna do it I wanna do it" so she walked back and whispered in his ear and he leaned forward and just froze again, then he turned and said to his mom "tell them to stop looking at me" so she turned so that he couldn't see anyone, but he looked to his right and pointed his finger and said "they're looking at me" so she started to walk away again and he just started yelling again "no mommy I wanna do it, let me do it, I'll do it this time". So she, being really embarrassed at this point, walked back to the microphone and again he froze and pointed at some people "they're looking at me!" So she said "I love you son" and gave him a kiss on the forehead and walked away. He screamed and cried the whole way out to the foyer "no mommy, I'll be good, I'll be good!" It was so funny! But so sweet at the same time, here you have this little boy who so badly wanted to do whats right, but just couldn't muster up the strength to do it. Well, two of the investigators who came were Carla and Jack. They actually live in a little town called Hope, Idaho. and they absolutely loved church! So hopefully they will start coming out regularly so they can get baptized. The other lady that came, we actually had never met before. But her name is Cathy. Her friends, the Trunnells, invited her to church and she came out and stayed for all three hours and loved it! So we were able to meet her a little bit and then after church we were driving around and we saw her sitting outside of her trailer and so we stopped and talked with her and she had some questions so we taught her about the restoration and invited her to be baptized May 28th! So this week was especially an emotional roller coaster! I love being a missionary!