No crazy weather story this week but I do have a scary story! Saturday afternoon we drove to our chapel to do studies alone until our next lesson that was close by. Keep in mind our chapel is in one of the most dangerous cities in Virginia so there is a huge electric gate around it. As we are pulling in we see a police officer opening the gate. We pull up next to him and he tells us there has been a 911 hang up call from the chapel. So we open up the church building for him and walk in behind him. All the lights were off and everything was dead silent. The cop is walking in slowing holding onto the gun on the side of his right hip and we are tip toeing behind him completely terrified. We check all the rooms and there is no one in the building. He checks and finds out that the call is coming from our bishops office which is locked. We never found out who it was but we did NOT do studies in there.
As we were all leaving the building I remembered that I made a new personal goal to teach every person I meet a brief explanation of a principal of the restoration and compare it to something that relates to them. So I run over to his car as he's getting ready to leave. We invited him to church and explained the importance of the priesthood by relating it to the authority he has as a cop. Just like police officers have the authority to check a church building, arrest, give speeding tickets there is also a need for some kind of authority when performing sacred ordinances like baptism and confirmation. And how through a prophet named Joseph Smith that authority is once again on earth. It's always fun to think of new approaches to teaching strangers.
PLOT TWIST: when you find out your investigator is already a member of the church after 2 months of teaching them... Flower is a member! We found out yesterday... just a week before her baptism. Let me explain, Flower said she was baptized when she was 12 but never confirmed in the LDS church. The bishop and his counselors looked everywhere for her church records and couldn't find them anywhere so they came to the conclusion that she was never confirmed therefore, she needed to be rebaptized. Yesterday we were in the bishops office talking about her baptism when we noticed they had been missing information. The bishop checks on a church website again with the new information and there we see Flower's record meaning she was a baptized and confirmed member all along. Woops.
But it was crazy because earlier this week we got a referral for a young man in his early 20s who came here from Peru only a week ago. He was taking the missionary discussions in Peru and is SO prepared. He also has family members in our ward who are members of the church! We taught him twice this week and he is already so prepared! It's such a blessing!
I turned 20 yesterday! Thank you all so much for your birthday wishes. I woke up to a decorated desk designed by Hermana McCracken. After church we had dinner with the Incredibles. They made me tallarines verdes (my favorite Peruvian dish), I got to open gifts they got me and we ate a tres leches cake. Then we went to have a lesson with another family and they got me a cake as well!
Love you all, have a wonderful week and happy Memorial Day! (The DC metro area is PACKED this weekend. Traffic is TERRIBLE!)
Hermana Tapia
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