November 14, 2011 E-Mail

Another crazy week is gone. I don't have a ton to write about because I just wrote on Wednesday. I guess I'll start off with transfer information. I'm sure Sister Pedersen already told you. But I'll be staying here again with my same companion. I'm really excited about that. We are able to work really well together.
We've had a couple of good things and a couple of bad things happen this week. I guess I'll start with one of the bad. It was probably the worst lesson I have been in my whole mission. It was with a couple who believes only in the bible. Well we thought we had been making a lot of progress with them helping them understand that if they want to know if we are right then they need to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. Well we went over with the stake president and we had planned to read a talk about the Book of Mormon with them. It would have answered a lot of the questions that they had about it. From the start there was a little bit of a different feeling than our other visits. And he mentioned a few times that all they needed was the bible. Well we began to read the talk and he got really upset. He began to raise his voice and totally reject everything we had been teaching. I think he got into some more anti material about the church. It sucks how much there is of that. But I had the worst feeling I have had my whole mission in that house that day. And it's because the spirit was not there at all. He began to reject truth and the spirit just took off. It was horrible! After he had been talking for a while my companion and I were just speechless. We teach by the spirit, so it was very very hard to say anything when the spirit was not there. The guy recognized that and offered to say a prayer. After the prayer the stake president said a few things then they invited us back next week.... I can't really figure that out but we will go and see what happens. It's sad because they just don't understand the happiness that we have received through living the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I know we can't force anything on them, and I know that they are happy people who have a lot of faith. There is no doubt in my mind about that. But they just can't see that we are offering more and that we are doing that because we love them. So that was discouraging. I don't think I have prayed so much for my investigators.
But on the bright side we did see a miracle this week. There is a lady in our area who has a friend who is a member of the church who lives in a different area. Well he invited her to a bbq and she went and really enjoyed it and met the missionaries there. She invited them down to her place for dinner. They went and explained how we work in different areas and that they would give the information to us. It turns out that this lady lives really close to where we live. Well she called us and asked for a priesthood blessing. Our first lesson started off great and the spirit was felt. Then the second lesson was a tour of the church and she really enjoyed that. She has been to tons of different churches and actually is the reason why the orthodox church is here in Wenatchee. But she is really open to us. She told us that she has recognized that God has been putting mormons in her path for a reason and she wants to know why. I guess over the last 6 months she has had a lot of contact with the church and that has stuck out to her.
Another sad/funny story. We met a new spanish family this past week and taught them a couple of times. Well on Saturday we taught just the guy. He seemed to really enjoy what we were teaching. We told him we would come by on Sunday and that he could follow us to church. We went by and found a note on the door saying thanks for bringing the word of God to there home but they were not interested in any other church than the catholic one. That is like the first written out note that me and my companion have gotten.
I'm so grateful to be a missionary and to have the experiences that I've had. I know that faith precedes the miracle. We have seen that over the last couple of weeks as our investigators have dropped us but we have been led to more. I know this church is true and that Jesus Christ is truly the head of it and that He is our Savior. Thank you so much for all of your love and support. Have a great week!

Love Elder Schvaneveldt