The title of this post says it all! This has been an unbelievable week! Discouraging, amazing, sad, exciting, discouraging again, and then miraculous, all by turns and changing on a dime.
Last Tues I (Lori) had a really rough day. I was discouraged, homesick and just wanted to bag it all and go home. I didn't really see the point of why we are here and what our purpose is. I cried myself to sleep and woke up Wed with puffy, sore eyes. Not a way to go out and greet the world. Even E Hoppe noticed when he came over for the lesson, asking me if I had not slept well.
Wed morning we taught The Plan of Salvation to our sweet neighbor, K. We met her just a day or two after we arrived when we baked cookies and took them around to our close neighbors to introduce ourselves and see who we had around us. K and her daughter, S, were very friendly and we took to them right away. Since then we have had her and S over for a meal, were introduced to her mother's delicious Irish Stew, and we took her my mother's chicken noodle soup. She brought us the makings for bacon, cabbage and potato dinner and brought us a couple of new cookie sheets she thought we could use. She is always doing nice things for us and is a really bubbly personality. I also love her Irish accent!
She came right on time for her lesson, the Plan of Salvation. She was visibly upset, telling us that she had gotten the news that morning that the husband of her mother's best friend had passed away that night from a massive heart attack. Even so, she had promised to meet with us, so she came. It was a good lesson for her with the recent news she had gotten. Also, her father had died when she was little and her partner had died when she was 6 months pregnant with S, so she has known a lot of personal heartache. The lesson obviously touched her heart as she got emotional a couple of times. In the course of the lesson, with the Spirit really strong, E. Hoppe invited her to commit to being baptized, and she said "yes". He looked at his calendar for a date a month from this day and found it to be Christmas Eve. He asked if she would like to be baptized on Christmas Eve and she said "yes" again. We still have a lot to teach her, but so far she has been pretty receptive to what we have told her, so...fingers crossed!
We decided to go to lunch at our favorite lunch spot, Ray's Lunches. (We'll write more about Ray and his place in a future blog) We've become good friends with Ray and wanted to remind him about the invite to our Branch Thanksgiving Dinner on Fri. As we were eating our lunch, one of the girls who works for Ray approached us and told us that she was sorry but would not be able to come to the dinner because of work (we had given her an invitation earlier). But then she asked us if she could come to "Mass" at our church and would it be okay if she brought her 3 yr old son. We told her enthusiastically yes that we would love for her to come to Church and that her son would be very welcome. She went back in the kitchen and came back out with her name and phone number on a scrap of a food box. Her name is M. After we left Ray's, I sent her a text and gave her the info about our Church meetings. She answered back that she was looking for guidance and was excited about coming to church.
Later we were with the Elders when they got a call from their investigator, A, that she had gotten some really bad news. A and her partner, T, had their children removed from their care last spring for alleged physical abuse and neglect. Since then, they have only been able to see their kids on Wednesdays, and 2 weeks ago, they were told that it was too emotionally upsetting for 2 of the kids to see them, so they were only going to allow the oldest and youngest to come to their visitations. This day they got a message from the social workers that they were not going to be able to see the kids that day and would meet with the social workers instead. They were pretty upset about it. They called us after the meeting with the social workers and told us that T was now being accused of sexual abuse and that they would no longer be able to see the children. They were also hinting that A would be accused too, if they found that she knew about the alleged abuse and didn't stop it. This was devastating news! The Elders talked to them for a while and tried to console them, but it was hard news for them.
That evening we went to the Church so the Elder's could meet via Skype with a young man they have been teaching. He lives 50 min away from Tralee and can't drive. The Elders met him on the street one day when he was in town and had Ray drive them out to meet with him for a lesson. But it is too far for them to go out to teach, so unless he can find a way to get to church, they will have to Skype their lessons.
While E Walker was in on the lesson, M called. She wanted to know what a church meeting was like, so E Walker described a Sacrament meeting for her and again assured her that her son would be welcome. She told him that she had lost interest in the big churches of Europe because the Priests were impersonal and had big egos. She had watched us when we came into Ray's and felt like we were good people, so she thought she would take a chance and ask us about Church.
The Elders finished their lesson and we took them home and then went home ourselves. We got into our jammies and were unwinding before going to bed when T called and told us how devastated he and A were and asked if we would come and pray with them.
You need to know a little about T: he is a good ol' boy from North Carolina, who served in the military and is pretty rough around the edges. He likes his drink, and he swears a blue streak, but it was he who pushed A to take the discussions.
The Elders, along with us have tried to teach T on several occasions, but he always talks his way out of actually taking the discussion. It's like it's fine for A, but he is too far past help. We think he would be a fine member, if he would just get out of his own way and accept Christ's atonement for himself.
Anyway, it was 10 pm and we were tired, but T sounded pretty down and desperate, so we put our clothes back on and went over. Before we left, I told E Walker that we should offer to give them both a blessing and he said he already had the oil in his pocket.
T opened the door when we arrived looking like his life was over. We gave him and A a hug. We sat with them and T told us how this latest blow was more than he or A could handle. He was broken. He talked for a while, and then we explained about priesthood blessings. We asked him if he and A would like one and they agreed. T went first and E. Walker gave him a very powerful blessing. I don't remember all he said except that the darkness T was feeling would leave him. After the blessing, T stood and gave E Walker a big bear hug and said that the blessing was amazing and that he was feeling different already- he was feeling hope. A went next and before she sat down she said she felt like a sword was going through her heart. After the blessing, she said that feeling was gone and she felt better too. They thanked us profusely for coming and for the blessings. On the way out, we told him that if he wanted the feeling of the blessing to last he had to not drink. He told us the Elders had already poured out his booze a few days before, so that was not going to be a problem. We told them to come to the Thanksgiving dinner and for T to come to Church and he agreed to come, which was a pretty big deal because he hadn't been to a Sacrament meeting yet. He pushed A out the door, but he refused to come.
The next morning, T and A called us and thanked us again for our visit and the blessings. They said they had awakened that morning feeling hopeful and at peace that it was all going to work out.
I spent Thurs baking for the Thanksgiving dinner. I got a call in the morning from the Elders to talk about the situation with T and A. Because T was now being accused of sexual abuse, they weren't sure whether he could come to church, or if A could be baptized. She was scheduled to be baptized on Dec 9, the day before E Hoppe goes home. We discussed if for awhile, but I finally told E Hoppe that this was above my pay grade, and I didn't know what to tell him and that he probably should call and counsel with the Mission President, Pres Donaldson.
Later, the Elders called and asked E Walker to meet them at the Church to help them teach a woman they had just met on the street. When he got back he said the lesson went well. The woman had left the Catholic church and was looking for something new. She liked and believed everything the elders told her. Unfortunately, she lives an hour out of Tralee and doesn't drive, so she has no way to come to Church. The Elders can't go that far out to teach her, so they gave her a Book of Mormon and told her to try to come to Church.
The next day, Fri we went out to meet an inactive member we found on the Branch rolls. We had been trying for a couple of weeks to meet up with him and we finally got an appointment with him. He met us near the IT college because he said his house was really hard to find. We followed him home and he invited us to meet his wife and kids. He and his wife were delightful! He had been raised in the Church in Tralee, but had drifted away as a youth and had not been back since. He works as a Garda officer (policeman) so his schedule is tricky, but we had a grand time visiting with them and plan to go out again and again.
Later we got a devastating call from the Elders; they had talked to Pres Donaldson who told them that because of the circumstances, T could not come into the Church building and A could not get baptized until the charges were cleared up. We were so disappointed and knew T and A were going to be crushed, especially after the blessings and their subsequent uplift. Then we had to decide who was going to deliver the blow. E Hoppe finally decided to "take one for the team" and they would be the ones to deliver the news. That would leave E Walker and I available to provide counsel and comfort. The Elders decided it would be better to deliver the news in a public place since they weren't sure how T would respond, so they called them up and asked T and A to meet them for hot chocolate. When they delivered the news, T actually took it pretty calmly. A was the one who freaked. She got up, rushed down the street and bought a pack of cigarettes and had one in her mouth ready to light when T caught up with her and took them away. He and the Elders calmed her down and did the best they could to comfort her. They told her to come to the Thanksgiving party so she could be around friends and she agreed. E. Walker called T later and he was fine. He understood the Church's position and was willing to wait to see how things worked out.
That night we had our Thanksgiving dinner and it was well attended. K and S came along with another mom and 2 kids from our neighborhood and most of the Branch membership. Ray dropped in at the end and had some pie before he begged off because he was so tired and left. A got cheered up and seemed to be back to normal. I told her life just "s--ks" sometimes and this was one of those times and that she could be a "dry" Mormon for a while but that she would be able to get baptized eventually.
Sat night we went over to T and A's for dessert and they were still doing well and feeling hopeful. We apologized to T that he had to miss the dinner, but he was ok. I did send a plate of turkey, stuffing and pie home with A, so at least he got a taste.
K didn't make it to Church Sunday because of he funeral for her mother's friend's husband, but M came with her little boy N. She was nervous about how N would be received, but he was like an other 3 yr old at a Sacrament meeting and she calmed down. E Walker and the Elders had put together a Gospel Essentials/Doctrine class specifically targeted to K and M, and then K didn't come and M left 1/2 way through the meeting to change a nappy and didn't come back in. She left after Sunday School so she could feed N lunch. She did agree to meet with us and the Elders on Thurs morning.
Tues night we had Branch Council meeting and T and A's situation came up. Pres Knight didn't think it was right that A could not get baptized. Both he and E Walker wondered what happened to "innocent until proven guilty". They had only been accused, not found guilty and convicted. After some discussion, Pres K said that he had called District Pres Roy and told him the situation. Pres Knight told him to call Pres Donaldson and plead the case with him, so that's where we left it.
The next night we had RS Activity night. We were making Christmas ornaments. Sis Knight's friend M came and A came a little late. She was in good spirits and laughed and joked with us as usual. While we were having a good time, E Hoppe came in and told A she had a phone call and handed her the phone. She went out and we continued on chatting and crafting. A few minutes later, A came back in with the biggest smile on her face. She announced that she could get baptized! That Pres Knight had spoken to Pres Donaldson and Pres D had agreed to let her go ahead. Also, that T could come to Church. BEST. NEWS. EVER!!!! We, A, the Elders and us, decided that we needed to deliver this news to T personally so we drove A home and went in to tell T the great news. A told him and he said, "I already know." WHAT?!? How did he know? He said he'd had a good long talk with Jesus. (he is a lapsed Baptist) Kind of stole our thunder, but it was still great to be able to give him that news. On the way out, he pulled E Walker and I aside and thanked E Walker again for the blessing and said that he was still feeling the power of it and was eternally grateful. We again invited him to Church and he said he would go.
Needless to say, this week definitely had its ups and downs, but we are grateful that it ended on a happy note. We are floating now and will be til A's baptism!
HASTE YE BACK!
