This week I experienced my first tornado. It was not as scary as it sounds. We went to see an investigator, and he told us we needed to leave because it was going to rain, but we convinced him to let us teach him. During the prayer, the tornado siren went off, and as we finished, the wind was blowing like crazy. We ran to our car and accidentally left Sis G's purse on the porch. We hurried to a member's home, and it was raining like crazy! We definitely have never had that kind of rain in Utah. We said a prayer with the members and hung out in their bathroom and listened to the radio. The tornado went right over where we had been teaching, but it didn't touch down. Sis G was worried about her purse, and called Keith, who is hard of hearing, to get it from his porch. He can't hear anything, he just should give up his phone and get texting :) The storm soon passed, and then we went to get the purse, and it survived! All in all, it wasn't too bad of a storm, but now I know what to do in a tornado!
The highlight of the week: Jessie, Ronika's husband, hasn't been baptized and won't give up coffee. He can't read, and doesn't sign very well, so he has a hard time communicating. He gets frustrated very easily. But, this week an elder who knows ASL went to visit him and they set a baptismal date! We went to see Jessie one night and he was so excited to tell us. He just kept saying "Nov 1. Elder Derrick." Then we asked Ronika if she would say a prayer before we left. Jessie raised his hand and volunteered. He has NEVER prayed with us before. He would always just get frustrated and yell at us. But he said Elder Derrick taught him. Then he said the best prayer ever. He stumbled so much, and just listed off a bunch of things like his wife and his family and his favorite interpreter at church, Jason (aka Thor), and then said amen. It was so cute and he and Sis G were teary-eyed and I was just crying buckets. Then after conference, Jason gave him a blessing to overcome his coffee addiction and everyone was crying! Jessie is so excited and it is so cool to see how his heart has changed! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!
Besides the storm, this week has been amazing! Friday we felt we needed to call this family that we don't know, and when we called them they started crying. They had just finished with court hours before and legally adopted their brother's kid. Now that he is theirs, they can teach him the gospel and want us to do it! So cool! We also ended up at Sister Culwell's, a member who has fed the missionaries every Wednesday for the last 60 years (also Elizabeth Culwell's grandma, a girl in my YSA ward), just as she found out she had cancer. The thing is, she is so positive that I think we gained more from the visit than her. She just has such a trust in the Lord, she is a trooper!
Conference was fabulous, of course! And it was really good for our investigator Jim. I haven't told you about him, but he has been coming to church every week since June and is just a stubborn guy. Let me give you some examples of his comments: "I just get more and more stubborn everyday." "I have the fruit (from Lehi's dream) in my hand but I am just not biting it." "What is the political purpose of the church?" "Why are you tricking me into being baptized?" Anywho, He loved Pres. Uchtdorf's talk and got a blessing after. It was a perfect talk for him! He asked one of the elders why he learns things and then forgets them. They replied, "Like Uchtdorf said, you can't gain more until you act on what you know. Have you acted on what you know?" That made Jim real quiet.
Have a good week y'all, I love you!
Sister Nielsen
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