Great week!

June 2, 2008

Hey you all, haha--yeah, the y'all thing just hasn't come naturally yet, though I do use it when I think sometimes because it really is faster and I hear it ALL the time here. I just can't let go of the Utah "you guys", though it sounds weird to me now here cuz no one says that. Oh well!
So this past week was awesome! No baptismal dates set yet, but it was still a great week! We had planned on setting a baptismal date with the Campbells, that great family that just loves everything about the church so far and they are moving, but that day 2 of their children were throwing up and we had to cancel. But the new tentative plan is to set the date this wed for June 21. That's after the end of the Transfer of Perfection, which is when the goal of 2 baptisms per companionship was for, but we've been given an extension til the end of June because of baptism numbers reporting deadlines, etc. (that goes by month I guess...) Anyway, this is good news for us, because though we know anything can happen, it's definitely more possible for us to make our goal by the end of June. I know we will, and we are excited. But keep praying for it, they haven't gotten baptized yet.
But this past week we had lots more appointments and lessons and new investigators, and though it was kind of a crazy week too, it was great! Highlights:
Ashley's mom (Ashley=11 yr. old that got baptized, comes from a broken home, crazy environment, etc.), Heather moved out yesterday!!! Yay! So now she is not living with someone, she even came to church yesterday, partly to talk to the bishop after sac. mtg. about getting help, but this is great. Cuz remember how when Ashley got baptized we had hope that someday Heather would move out or something would happen so that we could eventually start teaching her? Well, there is a God, and He has a plan for her. Long story short: her "other half's" (that's what she calls him) wife in Mexico found out about Heather, which caused a little riff in the relationship (to say the least), he wanted to move back to mexico; but then his son came to live with them (remember there were already like 10 people living in this house, all mexican but heather), he didn't treat Heather very well, then all the other people in the house started treating Heather and her 2 kids badly apparently; so she decided to move out within a month, but then there was a fight on last saturday, and it's kindof sickening what they tried to do to each other physically (Heather vs. like 3 other people in the house, including the other woman), so she decided to move asap. With the help of us and the RS pres and bishop, her mom (in texas) and her other half, and Heavenly Father, she miraculously was able to find a place in a couple days, after much stress on her side and on us, as we were trying to help her, and we helped her move out yesterday morning before church. It was a crazy week with that situation, but we are SO glad she was able to move out and now be in a much better environment, and we are hoping to start teaching her the lessons more soon. She knows she needs God in her life, and she is very teachable. She is in the perfect place to change her lifestyle, she already has by moving out. She has told us she is going to start reading the BOM too. Things are looking up for her and her kids.
We met randomly (which never is actually randomly, always in God's perfect little scheme) a woman outside her apartment, on our way through the apartment complex to check on a potential, and mostly because she had dogs, we stopped to talk to her (dogs are great excuses for contacts, and so many people have dogs out here). We talked for like an hour and a half with her, right there on the grass, about religion and God, and the scriptures, and the BOM, and she totally loved the idea of more scripture of the same teachings, from this side of the world, which is what the BOM is. We gave her one and she said she would love to read the part we marked. Then we went back on saturday night to teach her, and she came out on her porch and said her and her husband were in the middle of talking about getting a divorce. We were like, "Oh..." (what do you say to that?!) But she is the greatest woman in the world. And this wasn't a typical about-to-get-a-divorce situation. She told us all about it and what has been going on, and basically here's the nutshell: She got pregnant with him over 10 years ago, so they got married, and apparently he was the one to push that (great guy, I think!), so she has lived all this time with this bit of resentment for him cuz she feels like she was forced to marry him and never got to fall in love with anyone and marry because she loved someone so much. The first miracle is that they are even still together, because she said this is not the first time they've talked about divorce, and their relationship has been much worse in the past. She said he doesn't want to get divorced, that he loves her, etc., and she doesn't feel like God wants them to get divorced, but she just can't think of a reason to stay together (our new goal: give her a reason!) She also said she feels so dead inside, like she's an empty shell, with nothing to be passionate about, nothing to really live for right now. She wants so bad something to grasp, something to hold onto. It was amazingly perfect how she described what she feels like and needs, and amazingly perfect how we have to offer her the perfect prescription for happiness. We told her that we have to offer her something that she needs very badly, and it was a really neat experience. We were all teary-eyed as we I said that. So we stood/sat there on the porch for like an hour and a half again, talking with her about the scriptures, reading from the Bible and the BOM, and what she can do to improve the relationship. It sounds like they both do some finger-pointing, and find flaws and blame sometimes or a lot, which is a big part of their problem. She is so so humble and teachable, and was so willing to let us help her set some goals to help her help her relationship. We committed her to pray with her husband every day, for "companionship unity." (ha! hard trials do come in handy to be able to help others, if you know what I mean, family) She and her husband are not going to get divorced, if we can help it. I know they will be okay.
I am almost out of time, but one more of the many great experiences we had this week was teaching a former investigator we found in our area book. It went really well, he is very intellectual and had lots of questions, which we love, and he's totally going to read the BOM; but he just recently retired from being like the chief operator (something like that) of Barnum and Bailey Circus!! Can you believe it?! He showed us his office, which has really cool things in it like an original old circus cart wheel, some original costume drawings for the clowns and stuff, some original, real clown shoes (they are custom fitted to the clowns, apparently), and lots of just really neat (some old stuff, from way back when) circus memorabilia. It was so cool!
Anyway, I love you all! Thank you for your prayers! (Especially that neat experience you described by nashville, Dad--thank you!!That meant a lot to me! And I can't believe you guys drove through Nashville--good thing I didn't know..:))
Love, Sister Gurr
PS--Camilley, Sally and Joe, and Rosanna, thank you so much for your emails! Thanks Rosanna for the letter and drawings! I loved them! Camille, I haven't gotten your letter yet, hopefully today!
Mom, I got the package, thank you! It was just what I needed and more (yours and Dad's letters were very appreciated!)! I haven't gotten the Allegra yet, but my allergies have calmed down, thankfully. We'll probably go get it tomorrow. We tried saturday, but the pharmacy had closed--but we were able to meet a kid who is looking for a chuch because of it. :) I love you!