August 15, 2011

Elder Herschi and scary a bird

We decided to tract the towns of Egburt and Hillsdale this week and it was weird. Egburt's 10 or so houses upon closer inspection are mostly vacant. We only found 4 houses that actually had people in them and one of them is a member that we visit all the time. It was actually pretty freaky to walk around an all dirt road town full of mostly battered looking empty houses in the middle of no where. Hillsdale only has about 17 houses but at least most of them are occupied. We found a lady that has been inactive for approximately forever and while she isn't interested in anything gospel related, she did tell us about the one large building in town. She lives across the street from the old elementary school. After it was condemned a man bought it and used it for his residence and a junkyard. After he died, the fire department investigated the contents of of the "house" and found the upstairs was filled with old propane tanks and tires, the gym was filled with cars and the rest of the place had all kinds of flammable things. Instead of making it safe, they boarded it up and told everyone in the town that if they see any signs the building is on fire that they should evacuate. That's right, the whole town! I have some pictures of it and it is pretty creepy to begin, but the fact that the town has a bomb in the middle of it is priceless!

Now on to the good things that happened. We got a referral from one of the members in the ward to teach a girl named Miston Compton that has been friends with their son forever. At the lesson she expressed that she has never really had religion in her life and that at 27 she wants to find out why the Hollings are so happy and try to come to know who God is. So we shared  the first lesson focusing on the nature of God. We asked her  about how she felt about the things we had told her after relating the first vision and she said that she felt that what we had said was true. We explained that she felt that by the power of the Holy Spirit and she began to well up. The spirit was so strong there and it was clear that she was feeling it. After briefly explaining the

Book of Mormon to her she committed to read it every day and then prayed for us. As she offered her simple and heartfelt prayer the Spirit redoubled it's efforts ans she almost could not finish. It was amazing to see and I am thankful that I was allowed to be a part of that lesson.

Thanks for all of the prayers and support you give me. I feel your love and it holds me up.