Hello sweet friends of the earth,
First off. Surprise exchange call came on Tuesday night! The Assistants to the President told us that Elder Aguilar would now be transferred to Yucaipa and I would be training again. So, on Wednesday, I picked up my new companion, Elder Bentley, from Colorado Springs. I really love this guy. He's a super fast learner and we just get along really well. :)
This transfer hit the ground running. As soon as E. Bentley got here we took Ross out with us and tried to visit Joe. Sadly, he wasn't home. BUT, we talked to a bunch of people in the complex full of Samoans. They are really warming up to us. We ran into a former investigator (someone who used to meet with missionaries) and her family is fine if we stop by again. AND as we were leaving, Naia came out of his apartment. Remember Naia? (Young guy--met with us once, but we lost contact?) We hadn't seen in him forever, so we sat and chatted with him. He still had the Book of Mormon we gave him, so we read 1 Nephi 3 with him. It was awesome. And he said he'd read 3 Nephi 11.
Friday was great too. We went to teach Poe and his wife, Shearlet, but Shearlet had just woken up and never came out of her room. So we taught Poe. It was awesome because we've never been able to teach him before. We got to discuss the Priesthood and how amazing it would be if he worked to be worthy to baptize his wife. He said he'd do it. So we're excited to see him do the little things, like reading the Book of Mormon and pray everyday.
Later we saw Naia again. We were pumped when we saw him come out of his apartment with pages of colored notes sticking out of his book of mormon. He loved it. And he even called up his Mormon cousin to ask her questions about it all. She told him it was true. Naia is so open now. He felt like the chapter made him want to do better to follow Christ. He was so sincere. It was just a powerful visit.
We also stopped by Sai's place in the evening to find 2 bikes parked on his doorstep...
Missionaries. I could smell the Spirit from a mile away. :) They invited us in right in the middle of a lesson with the English missionaries from that area. We found out the other missionaries were biking and felt impressed to turn onto Sai's street. Sai's family saw them and so they called out, "Elders!" The visit was just tender. Sai and Amy kept on telling me how grateful they were for us, but I knew that really, they were grateful for the Savior. They also knew it wasn't a coincidence that 2 different sets of Elders felt spiritual impressions to come by their place, which I hope helped Amy to consider taking lessons with missionaries again. :)
My favorite part of this week was a visit Saturday afternoon. Like every week, we stopped by Uilisone. Every time we go over there we hear the chihuahuas barking inside and we wait to see if someone will answer the door. We were out with Bro. Moleli and the same thing happened. We knocked a few times, heard the dogs, and Bro. Moleli was like, "Let's go. There's nobody here."
But something just made me really determined to keep knocking. We knocked several more times. Finally I called through the doors, "Willy! Uilisone!" I heard a groan. Then a "What? Who is it?"
"It's the missionaries. We want to talk for a bit."
We spoke through the front door and could barely hear him. He had been sleeping on his couch. Slowly, very slowly, we squeezed more conversation out of him until he came and opened his door (leaving the screen door closed, as usual). Then, we asked him what he thought about faith. He really opened up. He told us he had a testimony and knew it was all true. He said he'd read Alma 32 and come to our ward Christmas party. AND. HE. SAID. THE. CLOSING. PRAYER. :) :) Thru the screen door! It was one of my favorite lessons of my mission. :)
Anywho, gotta go. I love you all. The Savior lives. This is His work. :)
Elder Judd
also, pics:
me and E. Bentley
Me and Cuddles, a python this guy in a park carried around. From my exchange with E. Bolingbroke. :)
