Week 65

Best Sacrament Meeting EVER!!!

Mon, Sep 16, 2013 at 9:53 AM

Hola family,

Nice to hear from you again.  To start off...yes, mom, I've been receiving your letters.  Sorry I fail and always forget to mention that in the email.  I think we're at something like 63.  And the last one only took 2 days to get here thanks to the lack of forwarding :)

I'm glad that your leg is healing up to.  That's good.  So, the temple was amazing.  So funny story about the temple though.  We went in, 6 of us Elders, and there was this lady in the waiting room.  She came up to us and welcomed us, asking where we were all serving.  When it got to me, I told her I was serving in Wake Forest 1st ward.  She promptly straightened my name tag and then proceeded to say that she had just had lunch with my brother and sister-in-law on their honeymoon.  What?!  Where did that come from?  Apparently, they were on the same cruise and they saw DJ and Karolyn and thought they looked mighty LDS, so they went over and started talking with them. A week later we happen to meet at the temple.  She doesn't even live in my stake!  Anyways, she told me to tell you I met Sister Henderson .  

Way to have lots of food.  

For padre, we have about 200 or so in attendance at sacrament meeting every week.  We go into the overflow every week too, but we're not a stake center.  I love this ward though.  Absolutely love it.  The people are amazing.  There are 3 individuals who are leaving or have left on missions soon/recently, and for 2 of them, I feel like I'm losing brothers even though I've only been here 4 months.  It's crazy.  

We have been going on exchange with them and some of the other 18 year old young men, but not as much with the rising priest quorum.  We're working on it, but they are all back in school now, so it makes it slightly more difficult than in the summer.  Crazy story...our ward is getting sister missionaries in 3 weeks.  And about 20 minutes ago, I learned that I have to draw the lines (with assistance) for the split on proselyting areas.  Ummmm...dang.  I have no idea how to do that because we have like 1 monster pod of members and then everyone else is spread out.  I don't know.  We'll see what happens.  

Lots of good things are happening though in our area and in our district.  Shoot, for that matter in our zone.  We've seen a ton of growth these past few weeks, which is really good because we were in a lull for several weeks there as a zone.  (are you waiting with bated breath for when I explain the subject line?!?! keep waiting :) )

We're starting to see our members trust us more than ever.  We are definitely building that super trust relationship.  It's amazing to see because lots of members talk about the church with friends and such and some even invite (which is a million times better), but what we're seeing now is that members have a desire to involve us in their missionary work instead of letting it be 2 disjoint things.  Part of what made yesterday so incredibly amazing was that we had a family invite 2 friends to church, and that family and other members made it a point to inform us of that fact and also, the one daughter who invited her friend made it a point to introduce her to us.  That's what I'm talking about :)  When members and missionaries work in harmony and unity, that's when the work of the Lord will become part of our natures, that's when we'll see miracles occur.  

Okay, I guess I'll tell you about the subject line.  Here it goes.  Okay, so yesterday, I'm not even joking, was the absolute best Sacrament meeting I've ever been to...my entire life.  That's the kind of sacrament meetings we should have every week.  I think Elder Holland talked about how our sacrament meetings should be of the spiritual caliber that people are "clambering" to come back next week.  First off, we started the service with the hymn "I believe in Christ" and ended with "I know that my Redeemer lives." Need I say more?? No, but I will.  We had an incredible duet sung by 2 sisters in the ward "I need thee every hour."  But there's more.  We had a short, yet powerful talk given by a 14 year old young man who recently started coming back to church and just received the Aaronic priesthood.  He testified that it was because of how he felt at church that he kept wanting to come back as well as the good example of his friends at church.  Then we had a phenomenal talk about what it truly means to be a Christian.  So good.  No joke.  And then to seal the deal, we had Brennan, a young man about 9 days younger than Christopher, who leaves on Tuesday for the Sao Paulo MTC, give his farewell address.  So good.  He GETS it.  Truly gets it.  He is going to be such a magnificent missionary...I'm thinking Ammon status perhaps.  He explained what a mission is without confusing the heck out of every nonmember there (of which there were a lot) with the Mormon culture and lingo.  Then he based his remarks around 2 Nephi 31:20-21 and broke those down.  He bore such a remarkably powerful testimony at the end, it was liked he punched the congregation with the spirit.  2 Nephi 33:1-2 status for sure.  His final words were, as he paused because he was getting choked up, something like this "The Gospel is back on the earth today. in the name of Jesus Christ amen"  That quote there doesn't do it justice, but it was so powerful.  You know he's not faking it.  Now, you thought that was it?, but there's even more! We had 2 of our investigators come to church as well for the first time and this was the perfect Sacrament for them to be in.  Both have Christian backgrounds, and the entire sacrament meeting was all about what it really means to be a Christian with the underlying theme of the Restored Gospel making true Christianity available and possible once more.  So good!!!!  One of the couples we had on exchange with us for 1 of the lessons that are also ward missionaries invited them to sit with them.  And the wife of the member couple totally friend-shipped the fiance so well and helped explain things when she had questions during Sacrament meeting.  So good times 2. AND they live in the same neighborhood!!! Can this get better???  You'd better believe it.  The scriptures that Brennan centered his talk around were from the same chapter we had read with our investigators just 3 days prior!!!  And they totally brought the paperback Book of Mormon and his King James Bible with them, looking up references when they were used in the talks and they double totally looked like Mormons!! They were like naturals :)  I think there may be even more! but I can't remember it right now, but overall, there is no way that they didn't feel the spirit.  Guaranteed.  We're really excited, to say the least :)  

Now if you aren't spiritually lifted after that story... :)

y'all are the best :)

Love,

Elder Patty