View from the Church of Christ lady's house

September 14, 2015

Good day my fellows! Sorry about no email last week. We were at the
Nashville Zoo the whole day with a member family. Super fun times. The
beginning of this week was really depressing, Tuesday being the worst
day. The whole day we went to door after door and we had nothing!
Almost everyone was not home! And the very very very few people that
were home said that is wasn't a good time. We found this rich house on
top of a hill and there was a super pro church of Christ lady there.
She tried to bash with us but stopped because she kinda didn't know
what she was talking about. She was very strange. She stopped us in
the middle and tried to sell me acne products...?..She did have a nice
view of everything from her house though and was nice afterwards. And
to finish of an already depressing Tuesday, we had to drop two of our
progressing investigators because they are now going to a different
church! Agh! That was the first time I have ever really felt
devastated on my mission! The next day was sad because we spent a lot
of the day in the hospital. We just found out she has several brain
tumors from cancer and they basically are shutting her brain down so
she can't do anything. We went to see her and she is not doing well at
all. She still has a broken rib, she is super dehydrated, her lungs
are fillin up with fluid...she will die soon. We expect today or
tomorrow. She was moved to hospice the other day. After the hospital
we had Book of Mormon study. It was just a few of us. We sat there
talking about Sister Cooper. Most of us just started crying. This
little branch of people is like a giant family in every sense. Every
member is loved especially Sister Cooper. You want to talk about hard
things. Sitting there in a group of people who care so much about a
person with my call to help them, wanting to help so badly but feeling
constrained because there is absolutely nothing I can do... That was
one of the hardest things to me. But then we read in Alma 40.
Especially 11 and 12
11 Now, concerning the state of the soul between death and the
resurrection--Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that
the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal
body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are
taken home to that God who gave them life.
12 And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of those who are
righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called
paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest
from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow.
This touched my heart. I know where she is going is a place of
freedom. No more pain, no more sadness. Peace and freedom will be
hers..
 
We had district meeting the same day. Two of our elders left for home
(Elder Sōffe and Elder Cottom the old district leader) so now elder
Richins is the new DL. We now have elder Ruoho (pronounced rojo) and
elder Draper. They both seem very promising and are already jumping in
and workin hard. Oh yeah transfers happens a little while ago and
nothing has changed with me. Later on the week has been pickin up from
depressing to fantabulous. I met a lady who is nicknamed Jesus Lady.
Oh does she love her Jesus...she was decked out in crosses and shirts
and everything. She even sang to us. I love Jesus, yes I do! I love
Jesus how bout you?We have been catching people home finally! We had
a training about baptismal invitations and we have been trying that in
our first lessons. We asked this one lady if she found out the church
was true if she would be baptized and she said for sure! . If I
could only hear that all the time. Tracking has been great to! We
found these two friends out on their porch and we gave them copies of
the Book of Mormon and they just started reading it right when we
handed it to them! And by listening to the spirit, we met with another
guy we were going to drop but now we are taking him to Cookeville to
the family history center this week! Yay spirit! Even the weather has
been amazing! These past few days have been filled with light rain and
60-70 degree weather! The best kind.
So I guess this week has reminded me of something. One of my favorite
lines from any movie is from Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the
Restoration. It is "Sometimes the Lord brings us low before he can
lift us higher."-J. Smith. That is how this week has been. Personally
I have seen that from a rough beginning we are now seeing success.
Personally I feel the same. Life is full of challenges. But it is from
those challenges we are to learn and eventually have success. Even in
everyday things, there is always something to be learned. Just do your
best, forget the rest.
 
Love Yal.
 
Elder Weight 

hospital view

Elder Weight, Mickey Ledbetter, Elder Richins

Scripture Study

trying to improve my drawing