Hola hola yall!! This week has been just about as great as the last week. We've been seeing miracle after miracle here in Greer.
Monday we had a great time celebrating new years eve at the stake president's. We played ping pong and pool and darts and some other games. It was a lot of fun and we won the hearts of the McClellans as well so that's a bonus too.
Tuesday we had district council and had a great time there. Everyone is really excited about the baptism and the other successes we are having in the area. After DC we tried some people, the first one we had contact with was the Patrons (some former investigators that love missionaries). Justin Patton was out washing his car so we went up and tried to spark a conversation with him but he never really said a word to us, so we just stood awkwardly watching him wash his car. Finally after like 30 minutes we realize he won't stop to talk with us so we walked away. As we are getting in the car and backing away his wife comes out and asks her husband why he didn't talk to us and gets after him. We were already backing away and were cringing too much to go back so we just drove away. It was super awkward. We also saw some semi active members of the ward and they expressed to us that they want to start new this year and be active members of the church. So we went over a plan to help get them all get back and active. After that we had dinner with the Pipers, who really out did herself. She cooked a 3 course meal with a really good cream of potato soup and then a Japanese pork meal with potato salad, and some good cookie bars/ice cream. Very good and we were stuffed to the brim afterwards. I also made the mistake of telling her that I could kinda not really play the piano so she sat me down at the piano and had me play some hymns. So I played the easiest of the hymns, God be With You till we Meet Again. And the spirit helped me play it and I got through it and it was okay. And that was about all for Tuesday.
Wednesday we found someone in the afternoon, Leonard, a guy from el Salvador and we taught him the gospel of Jesus christ. He didn't seem all that interested at first but later on he warmed up to it and wanted us back. We also went by someone in our area book who has been taught everything and has gone to church and had a baptismal date. We stopped by and he answered the door and I knew the guy. He is an active "member" in GV1 and goes to the book of mormon class on Wednesday nights and all these things. He goes over to the other ward becuase his girlfriend lives over there. The entire time while I was in GV1 I thought he was a member, because he knows more about the doctrine and the church then most members do. He's read the book of mormon like 30 times. He doesn't want to get baptized because he lives in GV2 and doesn't want to come to this ward but wants to go with his girlfriend in GV1. Super weird situation but the whole thing was mind blowing to me. After him we visited a new move in less active and had a nice conversation with her. She works on Sundays so can't come to church and her husband is not a member. Then we had dinner with the Hites and they took us to fudruckers which is a really good hamburger place. Then after the Hites we had our lesson with ruben at the geohagens (the ones that had us over for Christmas dinner.) We taught the restoration and it went wonderful. Both of the Geohagens are converts so they had cool stories to tell ruben. Ruben really enjoyed the story of Joseph Smith and he told us that he believes it. So it was a very cool day.
Thursday we had some good lessons. We found a woman named Onatha and that went well. Taught the gospel of Jesus christ and she expressed interest. We also found a Hispanic woman named Sonia and we taught the gospel of Jesus christ and she really enjoyed it and said that she recognizes she needs more of a relationship to our savior. So we said we will help with that and we'll go back this week. We had a drop lesson with Juber and Surma too. They haven't followed any commitments so we went in and told them why we give commitments, that it is for their salvation, and they said they don't want to change but if you want to come by again you can. Then we had a great lesson with ruben at the hites. We taught the word of wisdom and he said that he has already been following that and we don't have to worry. We were worried about this one but turns out we didn't have to be. Oh the other revelation we had is that ruben is 49, that might not mean much to you but we have been thinking he was 20-25. That's what living the word of wisdom all your life does I suppose. The hites also brought up temples and ruben got really excited about that and wants to be given the priesthood and go to the temple right away which is awesome.
Friday we had weekly planning which took forever because we had the baptism to plan. After weekly planning we went to see a few people and finally had dinner with a member who has had a lot of hard things happen in his life recently and is all alone right now. So we stayed over there the rest of the night and just made him feel loved.
Saturday was a terrible day turned into a great day. We were tracting in a large trailer park and as we were knocking this trailer a car pulls up and rolls its window down and watches us. We were like okay that's weird. Then the woman answers the door and we give our little speech, she says no, and the guy in the car asks her if he needs to take care of us for her and starts getting out of the car. We're all like, NOPE, and we get off that porch and start heading back to our car. The guy calls after us for a while but eventually gets back in. Then as we were walking to our car another lady comes out of her trailer and starts heckling us. Saying that she has a message from God and God told her that He doesn't want us knocking on people's doors and that all our efforts are in vain. (I told her thats a nice message, but ours is better, turned around and walked away leaving my companions just standing there.). So we decided to go to dinner after that and while we were at dinner we decided that something great is going to happen that night and Satan was really trying to discourage us. We decided to go and give Nori, Rusel, and Ivan a try again. We went over and they let us in again, but it was super awkward again with just Nori and Rusel, but then Ivan comes out of his room and saves it. We teach the plan of salvation and he is super into it and at the end he tells us it all makes sense and he believed all of it. He then proceeds to ask us how he can get baptized into our church. So we went through the requirements and he says that it is worth it to have the truth and follow the path of God. So take that Satan, you can't discourage us. We also had a really great lesson with Marisol and Miguel that night and taught them the plan of salvation and they loved it quite a bit too.
Sunday was great as well. We had a great time at church. The members are all really excited for rubens baptism and he is getting equally excited feeding off of their excitement. We saw some members that we've been trying to see for a long while. A really cool young member family just moved like half a mile from us and we saw them and got to know them and they are just really cool and should help us out quite a bit. We also saw some other less Actives and they seemed to appreciate us dropping by.
Oh my gosh this is so long. Monday we had a mission tour hence the email on Tuesday. Elder stanfill of the area presidency came up and taught us how to call down the powers of heaven using faith, prayer and our own efforts. It was very good, one of the best conferences. After that we went by Sara, someone we contacted a couple of weeks ago and have been stopping by just about every day to see again and she was finally home. She was very nice and chatty and we shared a video with her and talked about it and she has been to the temple in Washington DC and loved it so we are going back tomorrow and talking more about temples then.
That is all I can manage today.
Love,
Elder Bertoch
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