Hey family!
Things are finally starting to happen in Mar Vista! People are actually talking to us and setting return appointments! They haven't been following through with those appointments, but still, we're seeing progress! Almost every day this week we had a miracle experience with someone who wanted to talk to us that we had the opportunity to teach. Our first miracle was with a man named Deryl. We were fasting for our day in the ward's forty day fast and we felt really strongly that we needed to go to a certain street in Venice, and when we were there we were rejected about five times and were on our way back to the car when we saw a man across the street. We awkwardly crossed the street to go up to talk to him and said something like "Hey, we're just trying to spread the good news about Jesus Christ." To which he responded "Of latter day saints?" We got talking and found out that he had dated a Mormon girl for about a year and knew a lot about the church, so we shared some scriptures with him from the Book of Mormon and he was really interested in talking about it. We got his info and called him and he actually called back and told us that he was pretty busy working on a movie, but maybe we could set up a time for Saturday. We're still trying to get a hold of him again to meet with him, but that was a little miracle.
Yesterday we were fasting again for help finding people that are prepared to receive the gospel and we tracted into a Chinese woman named Stella that let us right in to her apartment. She has been studying the Bible with her Christian friends and was really open to the things that we talked to her about, even though she doesn't consider herself to be Christian. We invited her to be baptized when she finds out that it is true, and she said that is she knew it was true she would be baptized. We also had a kneeling prayer with her and she offered it, which is always a great sign that someone has a willing and humble heart, and you could tell that she felt the spirit. It was really refreshing to have someone be so kind and open to receiving us in their home. So both of those miracles happened as we were fasting, which is another testimony to me that when we are showing our faith that the Lord does bless us.
I've been having a lot of fun with Sister Olsen. She is really pure and innocent and sometimes says some really great blond things, and we just laugh at them together. She is from a two stoplight town in Idaho called Rigby, so everything is just so new and foreign to her. The other day she asked a random man on the street "Are you a member?" We also had some guys that wanted us to talk to them for a little bit and then brought up the question "Do you practice Celibacy?" Which led to a discussion on the Law of Chastity. They were really nice talking to us, although their minds and their motivations abviously weren't very focused on the gospel. Los Angeles is just getting more and more disgustingly sleazy that the concept of the law of chastity is completely shocking to most people, and is actually the number one issue that keeps people from baptism in this mission. i mean, you should see the billboards around here! Those poor elders. Finding a virtuous woman here really is like trying to find a ruby. Anyways, so we got back in the car and sweet Sister Olsen asks "What's celibacy?" and then after a brief explanation she stated "Well, I've never talked about THAT with a complete stranger!"
The best was when we were at a members house the other day. The member is from Guatemala but is now very into american culture as she has been here married to an american for a long time. I was saying something about how I wished I was latina because they age so beautifully. Then Sister Olsen pitched in and said "yeah, I wish I was luh-teen-oh so i could wear the gangsta clothes and look cool." I was terrified for a second but the member just laughed. And asked how are gangster clothes stylish? Apparently Sister Olsen really likes hip hop music, which is where she was coming from in her mind, but I had to explain to her in the car afterwards that gang violence here is a very real thing and so she has to be really careful talking about it like its cool because most people here actually know someone who has been affected by and maybe even killed from gang violence. We were mostly just laughing about it, but i also told her that she has to be careful to not say things that could be taken as racially offensive. Ha Ha, it was just really awkward all around, and we were just lucky it only happened with a sister that understands that she didn't realize what she said had actually meant. So we've been laughing a lot and having a good time.
Oh, and something else cool is that my recent convert Karina came in to the Visitors' Center the other day with a less active and a nonmenber friend, and she was bearing her testimony to them and her non member friend wants a Book of Mormon and the missionaries. It was so cool to actually see how the small part that I had in the conversion of Karina is branching out into a domino affect as she now bears her testimony and shares the gospel with others around her. She is also the Relief Society secretary in her ward and was so excited to tell me about it. It was so amazing!
Well, I love you all! Have a great week!
- Sister Dansie
1. Sister Olsen's mom made these cute headbands
2. Mini Mission
3. Gangsta Sister Olsen
4. Zone Conference
No comments:
Post a Comment