Hola friends and family,
This week has been one of the best weeks of my entire life! And I'm not just saying that! Lets start with the highlight of the whole week. Bryan's baptism! It was Saturday at 11, so me and Sister Stanford got to the church around 8:30, set up the chairs, filled the font, copied the programs, and got ready for everything! The baptism itself was amazing, and the other Elders in our zone came and brought their investigators, so that was awesome! Bryan is so solid, and he is meeting with Bishop this week to get going on receiving the aaronic priesthood. When we taught him earlier this week about Priesthood he was just saying how great that sounds and how he was excited! What an awesome guy he is! I'm so excited for him! And then on Sunday when he got confirmed was absolutely amazing! We had another investigator named Amber come to church on Sunday, so that was a great time for us to teach her more about confirmation and the gift of the Holy Ghost. She seems really awesome too, but she's going to Law School right now, so she couldn't stay all three hours because she had so much homework and things to do, but still... it was an amazing experience to see him get confirmed and to have her there!
Another girl we are working with is probably one of the sweetest girls ever! She's 26, and just really amazing. She didn't want to pray out loud or in front of us earlier this week, but we met with her on Friday and talked about prayer and she totally said the closing prayer! It was such a great prayer too! Sometimes I still think about her and just smile because of how amazing she is! We are meeting with her tonight and I honestly cannot wait. As much as I love p-days, I just want it to be over so we can meet with her!
We have a few "eternal investigators" that have been meeting with missionaries for years and are still not baptized. Its a little bit frustrating because I feel like everything I want to teach them they've already heard, and I don't know how I can teach it better or different than the last set of missionaries, but we are working hard. One of them is married to a great member, and I think he will eventually get baptized, he just needs to know for himself that it is right, and the other is an older lady who just is more interested in reading the Book of Mormon and asking us random questions than she is actually seeking answers from Heavenly Father about the truthfullness of the book. She has been doing it for a long time, and she is in 3rd Nephi 28. Last time we visited we talked about the 3 Nephites. Theres a lesson I never thought I'd give on the mission. It was hard because she cared so much on the details, and I just had to tell her that we didn't know much about them, other than what is in this chapter. We encourage her to pray about it, which she likes because the other churches would tell her "its confusing because it got lost in translation" and we tell her to ask God about it... but I don't know if she really is.
We have a new investigator this week. She is a member referral and her sister recently passed away, so we are thinking the Plan of Salvation is going to be a great lesson! Also she is native american, and I cannot wait to teach her about the Book of Mormon. She's really into history though, so I'm afraid that she won't accept our opinion on where her ancestors came from, but she is really great and I can't wait to teach her. She also has the best dog in the whole state of Indiana. Its a little chiwawa that just climbed on my lap and just sat there while I petted it. I love that dog! (And dad, I am starting to love the dogs here!)
During our morning studies we always role play how we would teach a certain concept or invite someone to something. This past week I asked Sister Stanford if we could role play us as a companionship talking to someone instead of just Sister Cordner talking to someone, that way we could work together as a companionship. So we pretended to talk to someone whilst just looking at the wall, and then the brilliant Sister Stanford came up with the best idea ever! We made Jackie, our own personal eternal investigator. We stuffed an old BYU shirt and sweatpants with plastic bags, blew up a balloon and drew a face on it, and put a beanie on it. We named her Jackie, and we use her to help us teach lessons together! Basically we are just really cool people who talk to a balloon placed on clothes to help us be better missionaries!!!! lol
One more story before I end! There is a really great baptist women that Sister Stanford and Sister Hill tracted into before I got to Lafayette. She called us a cult and explained that she was not interested, but said they could come back to discuss it a little more. They had one lesson with her and told her she could always contact us, but she wasn't interested. Well last week she texted us and asked us if we would help her fill bags with cotton candy for a carnival she was volunteering at. We went to her house Friday morning and she had breakfast for us, and then as we made cotton candy we had a great discussion on Christ, and then on our prophet, the organization of our church, the plan of salvation, and other questions she had about our church. Even though she isn't interested in joining, she now knows that we believe in Christ the same way she does, and that we are not the same religion that has the show about Sister Wives. She totes thought we were poligimists! Crazyness!!!
Okay, basically I can't wait until elections are over and we do not look like we are inviting people to vote for Mitt Romney. I love the man, but people need to realize that we as missionaries are not out campaigning for him, but are inviting people to Christ. Its crazy how many people want to talk politics with us! We just want to talk about religion!
Also, I know I said I would end earlier but I'm not... if you have not read the book "Our Search For Happiness" I would suggest you read it. I am reading it on my breaks now and it is SO GOOD!!! I just love it!
The weather here is basically amazing, chilly fall days. We were talking to someone on their porch the other day and started to pray with them when it started to downpour on us. Nothing like praying in someones doorway while being rained on! I loved it! It rained pretty crazy yesterday, like I thought we were going to be in a tornado warning because the wind was going cray cray too! But today is a bright sunny day and I love it. Before we came to the library we stopped at the mall and hit up Bath and Body Works. So wonderful!!!
I love you all, thanks for your prayers in my behave. Send me letters, I love hearing from everyone!
Sister Cordner
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