This last week was awesome! It started out with the district coming up on Monday, along with one of the best lessons on the Plan of Salvation I've been a part of yet. The family whom we taught is name McKanles, and they are super open to the gospel, especially a twelve year old girl named Savannah. On Sunday, she actually stood up and bore her testimony that the Church was true, because she had prayed to know, and that night had felt peace and joy. So, yes. Amazing.
Tuesday went really well, too, with a slightly funny story along with it. we had our typical packed day and night--which is awesome. I am not complaining at all about that. We stopped by several homes during the day, and even though several of them weren't able to be found, we did have a really good day. We taught another girl the Plan of Salvation, and she seemed to accept it, though she still has some doubts to work through. Later, Elder Maynard and i split, and he went and taught Dianna, an investigator who we have been working on the word of wisdom with. They gave her a blessing, and she seemed to be doing well when we ran into her on Thursday.
Now for the interesting story. That same night, i went to visit a lady named Melissa and her family, based on a text we had received on Monday (edited and abridged), "If you have a minute, i have an LDS Bible that you need to get out of this house. You can give it to someone else or whatever, but it needs to get out. And do you have any Holy Water? If not, you can bless some when you get here. I'll explain everything when you get here."
So, we went to see what was going on. It turns out that their daughter--and the majority of her family--is "sensitive" to spirits, and to ghosts. Skyler, the daughter, had been upset about something for some time, and Melissa couldn't figure out what is was, until she had got to talking to her brother online, when they both said "It's the Bible!" at the same time. Melissa had been moving some things from one room to another after her older daughter had moved out, so that she could work on some of her crafts more effectively. One of the items that needed to be moved was a certain bookshelf, where this Bible was sitting. That Bible had been owned by a deceased man's dead wife, and he apparently did not want it to be moved, for any reason. Once it had been, he seemed to be giving little Skyler a hard time, until something was done about it. If you don't already know my stance on ghosts and things like that, i am an utter skeptic, so i bit my tongue and took the Bible. We ended up giving her a blessing for migraines, and talking a bit about her family and how kind she is to children especially. She appreciated the blessing, and graciously took the praise from President Lamm, our Ward Mission Leader. After that, we said good night, and went on our way.
The next few days were pretty standard, with the slight change of exchanges on Friday, and our dinner appointment for Saturday getting electrocuted and ending up in the hospital. They called us and matter of factly told us the situation, then asked for a blessing. Brother Cook had been working on some electrical work (a.k.a. "Sparky") on their main breaker, when the power arched from the house main to the screwdriver he was holding. When we saw him at the hospital, he was on his back in the dark, with a towel covering his eyes. He is a really cool guy, and we talked for a bit after the blessing, until he was needing some help/meds from the nurses, and we excused ourselves to our next appointment.
Sunday was really cool for a few reasons. The first and coolest was the Testimony that i already mentioned. Up nest was the fact that we had 6 investigators at church. Finally, something happened that i thought was just a story people told to boost MTC trainees confidence. Our Bishop walked up to us after church, and said, "I need you to visit this family. They just called me, and said that they want to be baptized."
I seriously thought that only happened in fairy tales.
So, yes. Twas awesome.
Then Monday rolls around again, and we have possibly the best P-Day any missionary has ever had while following the rules. At 9:00 we are out the door and heading over to the 1st counselor in the Bishopric of the 2nd ward. By 9:30 we are dressed, pumped with adrenalin, and pulling into a parking place at Brundage Ski Resort, ten minutes outside of McCall. We had obtain permission to ski with a less active member from President Cannon a while ago, on the conditions that we 1) Don't break a leg, and 2) Don't make it a habit. I'm glad to say we filled both of those requirements.
As it was my first real time skiing, they sent me down the bunny hill first. That apparently went well, so then, we do the things that all guys do when hopped up on adrenalin; we go too fast. We go up the main lift to the top of the mountain, and we go down a run called Main Street, which just happens to be a Blue Square Intermediate ranked hill, at an average of a 65 degree angle of steepness.
I fell 20 times, lost a ski 10 times, ate snow 8 times, and eventually made it down the hill. It was awesome.
After that, we went down a run called the Bear, which was a green circle Beginner run. I didn't fall at all, and it was super fun.
We spent the day going on several different runs, ranging between Green Circle and Blue squares, and by the end of it, i made it down Main Street again, only falling 3 times, and never losing a ski. (Nate Hess and i went down it twice on our own, and the run before that, i had what Brother Leonard, the 1st counselor, called "a Yard Sale;" i fell face first, lost both my skis and poles, and plowed snow for 20 feet.)
The worst thing about the day was what it always is; when it had to end. We headed home about 4:00 pm, and were giggling the rest of the day.
So, that just about covers it. Thank you so much for all of your prayers, and for everything you told me, even when i wouldn't listen.
Love and Insanity, Elder Stuver
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