Friday, February 8, 2013

Cynthia's Family and Introducing Elder Benkhe


Hey Everyone,

       It's been quite another eventful week again here in North Lomita. Probably one of the most successful weeks I've had in the mission. On church on Sunday, we had about 8 investigators at church which is the most I've had at church before. The members in the ward have been great in befriending everyone and having great lessons at church. We had a break through with Cynthia's family as she and all her 5 kids came again plus Nicole and their mother! Which I was super surprised to see her mom there. We had a lesson at Cynthia's house and her mom was visiting. As we were reading 1 Nephi 10 with Cynthia, she came in and started listening. She's quite an interesting lady who has had, I guess you could say, an "exciting" lifestyle. Cynthia would always say "she needs God more than I do, and that's saying something." She had a lot of questions about the church, so we gave her a summary of what we believe and she seemed very stunned as we said it. She said that she was coming to church, but Cynthia didn't believe her. They ended up coming to Gospel Principles and Nicole and the mom said the prayers. It was very surprising. It was an inspired lesson at church because our ward mission leader Bishop Madrid taught about eternal marriage, because Cynthia, Nicole and their mom need to get married. I finally think it's gotten them to understand. Hopefully we can make wedding plans this week. Maria Garcia also came to church, the referral we received from mormon.org, and we didn't know if she would be able to ask off work, but she did. Hermano Rodriguez got her a ride to sacrament and the relief society president gave her a ride to work afterwards, she's being befriended very well. I had 2 really good lessons this week. One with Jose Morales who is the old man with one leg. This week he was concerned about his health because he went to the doctors to test if he had cancer in his esophagus. While we were reading the Book of Mormon, the doctors called and said he didn't have it. He looked so relieved, and he felts grateful for the chance to talk with us. He feels God is blessing him for listening. He would have come to church if he didn't have an open house because he's selling his house. Lastly, we had a lesson with the Castillo Family. The mom and their 2 kids are members, but not the father Miguel. We had splits and Elder Benhke came in to my area. He has an awesome story as he's a convert as of 2 years ago. He's from Minnesota, but the missionaries taught him when he was in Utah for school. He has the strongest testimony I've ever heard in my life of Christ and the Book of Mormon. Anyway we had a family home evening with them, but at first Miguel didn't come out of the room for the lesson. I was praying at the beginning that he would come out because the goal was to initially teach him. While we were playing a game, Miguel came out of his room and starting listening. Their came a point in the lesson when Elder Benhke taught the atonement super powerfully and Miguel really felt the spirit testify to him that it was true. Elder Benkhe then invited him to be baptized, and he accepted. His wife got a little emotional because she's been working on him to be baptized for a while. It was cool too because he invited him to be baptized on Feb 17 which happened to be his birthday. WHAT! He says he will try because he's got some bad habits he needs to get rid of. It was by far the best lesson I've been a part of. I have a testimony that people can change when we strive to help them and invite them to do so.

Os amo tanto

Elder Marrott

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