This week Midland was an adventure and a half! We have been so blessed to see so many miracles especially with our investigator Jo. We met her through one of the recent converts in the area who lives with her and helps her with her kids. Jo has had a rough life but through determination has managed to pull herself and her family significantly up, The problem in the past couple of months has been that Jo still smoked and so Anna, being in that environment practically 24/7 had picked up the habit again. When we taught her early this week we challenged her to stop smoking but she said that would be too hard to do cold turkey so we committed her to cut down from a pack to 2 cigarettes a day while reading and praying to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet and if she should get baptized on Feb 1. We returned a couple of days later to find that not only had she cut down her smoking, she went down to only 1 1/2 a day. She also banned smoking from in her house and as a result Anna has dropped the habit all together. The both of them also kicked drinking and coffee this week. It was a whole bunch of miracles wrapped up in one little home.
That's not even the best part! We sat down to start teaching and she pulls out a little index card from her Book of Mormon. She tells us that she had written it after she had prayed and wanted to share it with us. She then continued to say that as she asked her Heavenly Father if Feb 1 was a good day, she was filled with a tingling warmth and knew that she was supposed to do it. Then she said when she asked the second question, if Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and if the Book of Mormon was true she felt a light fill the room and her whole body felt full of love and she felt so good about both that she knew that it must be true! My companions and I just stared at her beaming, the spirit was practically tangible. It was such an amazing experience. We then explained to her that if since she had felt so strongly about such a near date, there wouldn't be time for her to ween herself off the cigarettes, she would have to quit right that minute. She looked up at us and told us that she knew she could do it because she had faith that the Lord would help her. I can not even express the joy that comes from seeing her faith growing so strong so fast. She calls us Sunday morning to make sure that her ride will be on time so that she can be at church and she comes prepped with everything you could possibly need to keep here girls reverent. It is amazing to the see the gospel change lives and to see Jo's example have such a positive effect on all of those around her. She is just wonderful!
Time seems to just fly by and I can never remember what is this week and what is the next. On Tuesday's we have what we like to call our chain smoker days. Basically we now have 4 set appointments with chain smokers every Tuesday which means we come out of the end of the day reeking something fierce. It is also one of the best days of the week though because of the people that we get to see. Brandon is a fun story; we met him door knocking and from minute one he just caught us off guard. We had tried to invite him to learn at his door but he was pretty adamant about us needing to leave because he had company coming. We asked if we could come back and he gave us the usual, non committal answer but then as we were saying goodbye he set his own return appointment and we walked away like "What just happened." So Tuesday we return at the time that he set and as we are driving down the street to his house we see him leaving, literally running away from the house toward us. We get his attention through the window and he looks so surprised to see us. He then apologizes to us and says, "I know this is a terrible reason to leave you hanging but I have to run to the corner store, I just need a drink." After a little convincing we decide that we will just wait for him while he goes and then teach him after. While he is gone, we are just sitting there thinking cool, this lesson will be sure filled with the spirit as he sips on a beer .. but first lesson learned, don't judge or jump to conclusions.
Luckily for us, he comes back around the corner about 15 minutes later with a monster in his hand. We were so relieved, high energy is much easier to teach then alcoholic. So anyways, we all headed up the ice rink that is his driveway, into the house. We taught him a lesson about the Restoration of the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; during which he shows us some of his sweet kung fu moves and speaks in tongues for us. Then we introduced the Book of Mormon and with that we finally had his full attention. He told us that the book has an aura of goodness and that he has been waiting a long time for a chance to read it. Despite all of the random weird things during his lesson, we can tell he is serious about learning and really wants to be closer to God. We are pretty excited to continue teaching him, especially once we get him to kick the smoking and we can breath again.
Here is a comical, completely non spiritual story about the life of the Midland 2 sisters. We teach a less accountable couple whose names I won't share. They are some of the kindest people you will ever meet. On Tuesday while we were teaching the wife would interrupt us randomly to tell us things like 'I have no teeth' (which we knew) or 'I have lived in Michigan my whole life.' She also told us, 'I wear depends,' which we later found out was a lie. Thursday we went back to teach them and the wife offered us all pop and then got up to get some. While we are talking to her husband, she makes her way back to the living room area. Sister Empey and I hear her say "whoops." and thinking maybe she spilled or something we turn around to see her standing there, glass in each hand, pants on the floor, and DEFINITELY not wearing depends or anything for that matter. It took everything and I mean everything we had to not DIE laughing from our own embarrassment and the sheer silliness of the situation. She just pulled them right back up and continued to ask questions about the Atonement. Needless to say, there is never a dull moment when serving in Midland.
All is well here in Midland 2. We are surviving the cold and the gospel is being spread abroad like crazy. I wish I had the time (and the memory ability) to tell you all about the missionary experiences that we have been having. I know that as we continue to press on and labor, we are able to see so many lives changed and families blessed for eternity. There is no greater gift. We are currently teaching a recent convert who is the perfect example of patient perseverance. She is a young single mom of three who joined the church in December. Since that time she has had to deal with finalizing her divorce, crazy people threatening her family, job hunting, raising her children, an unsupportive family and that's just to name a few things. Yet through it all she constantly remembers to turn to her Heavenly Father and be grateful for her blessings. It is amazing to me to watch her endure all of this with out even really complaining. The thing that she talked about most with us during our last lesson was her sadness. Not sadness because of the hard times she has been having but sadness because she is reaching out to share the gospel with those that she loves and they won't listen. What a great example to us, of the kind of mindset we should all have. No matter what is happening in life, we are blessed eternally to know this gospel. I invite you to think back to a time when you felt Heavenly Fathers love fill you life and then share that with someone who doesn't know, or maybe has forgotten about the gift that is offered to each and every one of us!
I love you as always! Keep in touch!
Love
Sister Seagraves
PS I forgot to tell you! I taught a lesson in Portuguese this week, and it wasn't terrible! I think she even understood some of the things we taught haha! Brazil, if you ever accept me, you better look out. I'm on fire!
