Hey y'all!
This Texas boy sure is seeing a new kind of weather up here! Its been getting pretty chilly this week! Yesterday it was bitter cold, with highs just in the 20's and we even got a mini snow flurry. Not much here in Damariscotta but Boothbay (South of us on one of the Peninsulas in our area) got enough to accumulate on the ground! Brrr! It will be fun though. We are already starting the winter ideas list. Apparently because of the winters up here, it is pretty hard to stay busy, especially being in an area like this and you might not be able to drive some days. :/ So yeah, we are getting our ideas flowing! It will be pretty fun! haha
But hey this week really has been good!
On Monday we got to go to the Goldrups because we still didn't have our car back. And Nick (the 19 yr old) came to pick us up and did our laundry there as well. But we went out to lunch with him and went to Moody's which is like a dinner restaurant, with awesome breakfast food! Nick said their hash-browns and blueberry pancakes were amazing so I had that and it sure was good! haha Then we headed back and our car was ready so we got to pick it up! SO this week we have had the blessed car back. I enjoyed the change of not driving everywhere, but it nice to have the car back, and its super nice now that its pretty cold! haha
Tuesday, like always we went teaching with Brother Duffy! We taught Andie again, and we she is really ADD so I had to spice up the lesson (reviewing the restoration and teaching the priesthood) by getting up and having Elder Dally be Jesus giving me the priesthood and then I hoped up and asked her, " so because I am Peter and Jesus gave me the priesthood, can I give it to someone else now?" And she was now more engaged and said, "yeah of course!" and So I surprised Brother Duffy but told him to be Joesph Smith and put my hands on his head acting like I was giving him the priesthood and explained that that is who Joesph Smith got the priesthood and then had her attention enough to explain the duties of the priesthood! haha I will now come up with better object lessons for her! That is definitely her learning style, HANDS ON!
Then we taught Norm and he still says he hasn't got a clear answer yet but says it really makes sense logically. That is was stuck out to me the whole time he talked to us about how he felt and we addressed that we are so happy that is makes so much sense logically but that he will gain that sure belief and knowledge of its truthfulness once it makes sense to him spiritually. Getting that spiritual witness with the logic is what we focused on. And I felt that challenging him to pray vocally when asking for answers to know if all of this was true. As I wrote in my letter home, President Stoker talked about the power that vocal prayer can have and it made sense to Norm and he recognized that he would put forth more effort in his prayers if he did it vocally! So we are hoping this helps him. He still isn't comfortable saying a prayer in front of us, so I really think that this was where we needed to focus our discussion. We hope that he will accept a new baptismal date of Jan. 11th tomorrow.
Thursday Lisa and James (recent converts) had us over for dinner and a lesson. She made sure to make a dish that was vegetarian! Members are so nice about that here! Its great! And then we got to have a lesson on the priesthood with them and really help James out to know what his duties are with the Aaronic Priesthood that he just received last week. It was great!
They are such an amazing family! They have a Book of Mormon Stories Book that they read with their kids every night, but its their little boy Cale that reminds them to do it every night! Its so awesome!
On Friday we had dinner with the Hovance Family and they made a vegetarian chili! soo good! And then we also got to go do service for a lady that works at spectrum generations. She needed some help carrying in some wood pellets and turns out that she had been praying that morning for someone to help her with it and when talking to Mary-Ann a lady we do service for here at spectrum generations, she told her "why dont you ask the Elder Boys?" And so she did and she was just so grateful for our help and she said she would be more than happy to have us back over for a message from us after we offered that to her! We sure hope that she is interested even more!
Our finding efforts have really been a priority and so we are really having high hopes for this last week of the transfer with all the potentials that we now have!
I have run out of time to share even more of the many great experiences of this week, but I hope those that I have shared have lifted your spirits and make you feel some what caught up with what is going on here! haha
I love this work, and am so glad to be out here in Damariscotta Maine! It's a great time to be a missionary, but also to be a member missionary!
Love y'all! ;D
-Elder Swalberg
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