Dear Daddy,
It so great to get emails from you. I really really appreciated your email. Cincinnati is stressful. We have flaky investigators, and just everything here is just in complete disarray and mess!!! We have about 304 inactive members of our ward, and about 100 actives. Among the inactives, there are about 250 of them who want absolutely NOTHING to do with the church anymore, who desire other religions, who have just been lead into such darkness! It's extremely disheartening. Less active members of the church are the meanest people I've ever met. It's almost like they just have the exact opposite of the Holy Ghost. Satan has such a strong grip on them! And so, it can take a very huge emotional toll when we are getting this spirit of hate towards us so much as we are here.
With so many missionaries in the ward (6 of us), it is hard for the members to feed us all. So the ward mission leader had a great idea, he said that he would personally pay for food, if that was the excuse that people were making, because its not about feeding us. It's really about having us in your home, because we have been set apart with this special spirit, that the members of this church have the opportunity and privilege to take a part in. Which it was actually, because we went to go visit this less active the other night, found out that he attends another church now and has no desire to come back to LDS church. So I told him that was fine, and just asked if he would be interested in having the missionaries in his home for a meal, just Christian to Christian. It was almost like his countenance changed from irritated and angry to taken aback. He said of course!! Then we found out that he was actually disabled, and does not get around very well anymore, which opened the opportunity for us to offer to then bring him dinner!!! Boom. Exhibit A. That was the perfect opportunity for that idea. Which then made me think, no one from church even knows him, which means that no one even knows that he is disabled. Which means no one from church has even reached out to him, probably, which means no wonder he has chosen a different church!!!
I think that less actives would be more responsive towards missionaries going to them in person, taking the least over bearing approach, and just asking those who are not interested in the church anymore at all, if they can just share a Christian meal with them in their home, and if needs be, bring the food.
The ward mission leader told us to take members out to their visiting teaching. Which, listen to this awesome experience I had with that. We were out with our favorite member in the whole world. And, our lesson fell through, so we asked who her visiting teaching person was. It was this lady that we had been thinking about visiting early that morning, and then the sister confided in us that she had never visited this lady as long as she has been assigned to her!!!!! Which was the saddest thing I had ever heard!! Even a strong member in the ward, was struggling with visiting teaching!!
So we threw her in our car and drove down there. (This lady lives in a nursing home, which is a big part of the reason why she has never been down there to see her) and it turned out amazing!! She almost cried because she didn't realize how sweet this little old lady really was, and she felt horrible for never even going and visiting her and giving her a chance. Then the next day, the little old lady called us, and left the longest message on our phone about how much she loved us, and how thankful she was that we had all come to visit her. It really touched my heart. The power behind fellowship. I think if there is anyone in the ward who is struggling with home teaching or visiting teaching, I think it would not be too bad of an idea to have the missionaries go with them and just kind of give them that initial push.
Also, the ward just instituted the best idea ever! That if someone who is less active, comes to church and asks for a food order, that they have to schedule a dinner on a set day and time, with the
missionaries. Because then its like paying the service forward, and also, they can't use the excuse that they do not have enough food, or money for food.
Other than that, this week has been pretty okay. Maxine was gone. So it was quiet. There was talk of us moving out of her house and into an apartment. I do not want to. I like Maxine.
We need a lot of prayers..
