Last week I had a startling experience with a man that was drunk and his wife. After that experience many neighbors of the couple were moved because of how alcohol changed the husband. Many of the people that lived nearby decided to listen with more intent to our message and many of them came to church this past Sunday, including one man who also drinks a lot. He came to church and really enjoyed his visit. And the members were very enthusiastic and grateful for our work. One blessing that came from last week's experience was that the woman that was abused has decide to be baptized. She really wanted to before the incident, but used her husband and the fact that they weren't married as an excuse to not go to church. But this past week we were very stern/ loving with her and she for sure felt the spirit and said that she would come to church rain or shine. And she stuck to her word and came to church along with five of her neighbors. It was great! We took up the whole sidewalk, haha.
This week our Zone leader asked everyone in our Zone to get together in an area to work together and help the branch that was trying to become a ward. We all got there and were divided in groups, some would visit less-actives and others would do contacts in the street and invite people to get to know the church from the inside. The ZL and I went out to talk to people in the street. We almost had no success until the very end when a 15 year old boy accepted our offer to walk the halls of the church. He had a bunch of questions which was great and really liked his visit. Then when he was leaving I spotted a lady walking towards the entrance of the gate and went to go talk to her. She had two young girls and I started talking to her and invited her in to get to know the church and drink a bit of water. She accepted! She liked it and asked for the missionaries to pass by and visit her in her house. All in all the work went really well that day and we helped the ward out a bunch!
I passed my one year mark! WoooWhooo! To celebrate I drew a bunch of random things on one of my white shirts (one that was stained because my pen exploded on it) and we went to a members house to burn it, haha. It's something that missionaries do, and me being a "pyro" who likes to play with fire, I've adopted the tradition. 6 month in the mission you burn a tie, 1 year a shirt and 1 year and 6 months you burn pants... I already know what pair of pants I'm gunna burn, my Costco pants that were once black but are now brown.
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| Burning of the HumpDay shirt! |
Everything's going great with me. I'm really enjoying my studies, conference talks, the Bible and the Book of Mormon! It's going great.
I'm so thankful for the opportunity that I have to serve! I love my mission
Thank you for all your love and support!
Elder Ralph
