july 27, 2015 letter

Dear Family:

I first off wanted to write and tell you thank you so much for the package that you sent me! And also for the letters, they meant a lot. It was kind of funny, we check the mailbox every night, normally to no avail, but religiously do it anyway, and i was shocked to find a key in my mail box, and a letter! It definitely made for a good surprise, so thank you (: 

This week, was a better week, but still a little discouraging. I would say that one of the things that is the most frustrating right now is that we have so many people that are just on the cusp of being baptized, but because of members, or other situations, we are not able to get into the home. There are about 8 or so people that have expressed a desire to join the church, but a large majority are hard to get into, because we have to go through a member to get to them, which is a really good thing considering the acceptance rate of those who are invited by members, but adds another obstacle into the equation. We are holding out hope for those people, but at this point haven't gotten very far with them. A lot of the obstacle to overcome is the fear of the members ruining a relationship with their friend. That does happen on occasion, but for the vast majority, whether they accept or not, it will bring them closer together because it shows the openness in their relationship. So right now, aside from that obstacle, we are trying to find on our own, which, at least in the united states, has proven to be astronomically low in success.  

The Lord was merciful this week and helped build my confidence and faith in finding on my own. One of the cool experiences that I had this week was when it was about 8:45 pm, just before we were to be home. We were supposed to run by our investigators to help her clean up some of her yard sale, but I got the distinct impression while i was driving that there was someone walking by the park that we needed to give a book of Mormon to and testify of its truth. I turned to Elder Adams and said "There is somebody here that needs the Gospel." and right as I had finished saying that, we drove past a lady walking to her home. I immediately pulled the car over and jumped right out in front of her with a book of Mormon in my hands. I began to speak with her and testify of the book of Mormon and how it can help us resolve our concerns in our life and how God had sent us here to speak to her. She immediately began to cry and said that she was looking for a way to get help from God and that she couldn't overcome what she was going through. We testified that if she read the book of Mormon, God would answer her prayers. She took the book of Mormon and we got her number and she went on her way. Sadly she lives in Washington so we won't be able to teach her, but we will be able to get some missionaries out there to start helping her out. 

A couple days later, while following the spirit, we decided to stop the car in the middle of nowhere and start walking towards a lady on the street. As we were walking we offered some help to a man and woman putting stuff into their car and they politely declined. But the guy, who is about 34 said, "Hey, are you the Mormon Missionaries?" And we said, "Well, yes we are!" As we talked to him, we found out that he had been the vice president of his seminary class growing up and had wanted to go on a mission as a young adult but went to Australia a couple weeks before putting his papers in and got involved with the wrong crowd and began to drink. When he returned home there was a new bishop because his had been called to be a stake president. He was so discouraged at that, that he didn't ever want to come back to church. About 13 years down the road, he finds us walking in the middle of nowhere, and asks for us to teach him. Again, he is sadly someone who doesn't live in our boundaries, but we will be able to get other missionaries hooked up with him. 

Another story of just opening our mouth and talking to people was with our neighbor who lives just below us and to the left. He had rented a brand new 2015 mustang convertible, so we went and began to talk to him about his car. He expressed that he had a friend who was LDS and went on a mission to Africa and would love to learn more about our religion and to stop by and knock on his door any time. Finally we found someone who lived in our area (; But I am very grateful for how merciful the Lord was this week in helping us open our mouths and filling them with the words we needed to say. 

On a more sad note, one of the Elders in our zone and his old companion in another zone, got sent home.  But I felt really bad for the elder that had stayed in our zone because he was really trying to change. I went on an exchange with him just a few days before he had to leave, and I just tried to push him as hard as I could, knowing that he may never be able to serve again. We had a blast and saw many miracles as we forgot ourselves and served the Lord. The STL's will now be covering their area as well, and Elder Adams and I will be the district leaders over that district on top of our other duties. It will be an exciting time! But my prayers go out to the two young men who got sent home and hope that they will still be able to stick to the tree. 

We also spent a large majority of the week helping an investigator with a yard sale. It was a lot more work than I believe anyone thought it would be, but we had already taken a bite and couldn't stop! The sale was going on Friday to Sunday. Sadly it started raining for the first time in a very long time and she had to cover everything up. But I think it was God's way of telling her she needed to come to church (; 

This week was filled with many different emotions, but mainly the emotion of gratitude for my family! Thank you again for all of the support you give me and for going out of your way to help me in any way you can. I definitely have the best family.

Love, Elder Romney.

I like this Voodoo donut!

There are a lot of random berries on the side of the road!