Week #72, Its weeks like this...

We got 5 new investigators within the last week! Awesome! Bona is a doorman we met 3 months ago! We had seen him once and tried to set up an appt via phone ever since. No luck, despite him being so nice to us. We decided to drop in on him again while at work. We shared a scripture with him out of the Book of a or on and explained what the book was to him. He seemed very intrigued suddenly, and allowed us to set up a time to meet with him this past week! He had some great questions and appears to be golden, but he is super busy. So, we will see where at goes.

After 3 months we were also able to meet our referral, Allison! She
was a sweetheart who also had a lot of great questions about the
gospel. As we testified of prophets, apostles, and the Book of Mormon
to her, she said it made sense! We are so excited for her eagerness to
learn! We will see her again tonight and invite her to be baptized! :)

Earlier this week we went outside the temple doors and did some family
history contacting. A man named Maron saw me talking to people and
approached me from the opposite side of the sidewalk. He seemed
interested in learning more. To my surprise, he showed up at church on
Sunday. I recognized him, but did not remember how I knew him. When I
made the connection I was stunned! We had invited him to come to
church, but had not anticipated he would come! He stayed for our
gospel principles class on charity and even participated! It was
awesome! We have a return appt with him for later his week! Awesome!


Jose was a doorman sitting in for so one on their dinner break. I asked him a few questions and we got to talking about the restoration of the gospel. He is open to learning more about our faith! Awesome!

We had a Skype lesson with our pass-off eternigator, Joe. He isChinese and seems to come to church because there are people there. Our Skype video kept cutting out, so we just did the audio option.Haha...I realized I am a lot more bold over the phone than in person or via Skype. Trust me, I am pretty bold in general, but I laid down the law with him this week. I asked him why he met with missionaries. He said to learn more about the Book of Mormon. I asked him why he thought missionaries met with him. He said to lead him to baptism. I asked if that was his goal. He said not yet, but that he needs to know more people and create good relationships with them before he was baptized because if he gets baptized he thinks his current church will disown him. I informed him that as missionaries we are to help people progress towards baptism, so if that was not his goal, we could not meet up with him. We told him he was welcome to come and worship any time, but that he needed to act to gain a testimony. So, we gave him a homework assignment that requires his action. We will see if this new approach will help him to gain a testimony more of the gospel and not the social benefits it brings. Eternigators.... They are tricky.

Earlier this week we were interviewed and recorded for some cool video
being made about the Book of Mormon...just some local guy making it.
Awesome to have real nice pictures
of us as missionaries! We never have picture of us doing what we do
all day long...it's nice to have an actual representation of what my
life has been like for the last year and a half! We are in Columbus
Circle in the first one, with Central Park in the background of the
bottom one. Actually, that wall the man is sitting on is the same one
we were sitting on when the bottom picture was taken! I saw a man
(Rafael) pull out his Bible as we were here, so we started talking
with him. Then his friend, Christopher, saw us walking away and asked
us to tell him more about the Book of Mormon. He is the one in the
picture. I'm positive he was just trying to hit in us, but maybe
something will come of it...

Scott Taylor came to church this week for the first time since we met
him! He is super less active and wanted to have us stop hounding him!
Lol. After Sacrament Meeting ended, we welcomed all those who were
visiting by letting them stand up and introduce themselves. He stood
up from his spot right next to me and said "I ran into the sisters in
the train awhile ago and they have not stopped harassing me to come to
church ever since, so I came!" Lol! It worked! :) We love Scott! The
spirit was so strong at church this fast Sunday! I loved it!

Lastly, this week I have realized more and more how short my time here
is left. I have spent several hours already typing up my "mission
experience." This is a paper culminates our experience here on our
mission! I have loved thinking back on the experiences, the people,
and the knowledge I have gained in the last 17 months! What a
wonderful thing to have for my journal too years down the road! Maybe
I will even send it out to you all before I come home...it's a novel,
so be prepared!

I got two extremely special letters this week! I have not gotten more
than 4 or 5 handwritten letters in the past 6 months, so these were
already special. But what made them even more special was how
heartfelt they were. One was from a woman I adore named Kim Clifton!
She told me how my mission experiences has helped inspire her to share
the gospel with others. I was so surprised to see how she applied the
things from my mission to her own life! It touched me and helped me
realize my mission experience has far reaching affects that I never
imagined. Then my best friend Teddy wrote me a tear jerker letter!
Gosh, God has blessed me with some gems in my life!

It's weeks like this that I love! We saw the fruit of our labors all
at once, and it was a beautiful thing! The weather was great... I had
a smile on my face and a silly accent addressing my companion before I
even got out of bed...I noticed the beauty in the the sunrise over the
East River during our runs...I realized my precious time here is
dwindling and I become even more grateful for my beautiful life here!
I love my mission! I will miss it like crazy when it's over. But until
then, I am living it up and working my heart out :) I love you all!
Have a gret week and serve The Lord by serving his children!

Love Always,
Sister Weyandt