I thought I should give you an update on Mark and Stephanie, two young people we have taught and baptized. Mark emailed me today and sent me pictures of him at the Oakland Temple and his view from his dorm. He can see the Golden Gate Bridge from his place at Berkley! Mark told me that the Young Single Adult ward up there has 130 people and 13 freshman who he is already great friends with. He did baptisms for the dead at the temple and said he "really, really felt the spirit!" Mark thanked us so much for teaching him. He is recognizing the blessings of baptism and the priesthood!
Stephanie said she, too, had been to the temple many times. She is doing well. Her mom is actually really interested. Before I left, we wrote some scriptures on a note card about baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost from the Bible and Book of Mormon. Stephanie's mom was really moved by those scriptures and has been asking Stephanie a lot of questions. One Sunday Stephanie was in church and her mom called her and asked for Stephanie to come get her and bring her inside. So cool for them to be learning and growing together! Stephanie has had lots of opportunities to teach her mom.
That's all for the old updates. Now for some new ones. A girl named Courtney moved into our apartment complex a few weeks ago and we talked to her more this past Saturday. She told us that her parnets came into town to visit and Courtney had told them that there were Mormon Missionaries in her complex. Her mom said, "MORMONS! You should hang out with them. They are the best people!" That was good to hear. We taught her a little about the Plan of Salvation. She told us that she had met lots of people who are trying to find their faith. We forgot to invite her to church then, but we put a sticky note on her car window inviting her. (By the way, we live across the street from the church.)
On that same Sunday, we were inviting everyone we could to church: people on the street, people we knew. . . We walked over to an open door. Inside were some college kids (3 girls and a guy). They weren't wearing a lot of clothes. . . They offered us cake. I passed on that one (college-age kids. . . hanging out. . . immodest. . . baking. . .) yeah, but we had a member with us who said sure. That allowed us to talk longer. We invited them to church, but they declined. They said they were headed to Pirate's Cove: the nude beach down south between Santa Maria and Nipano. We left our number and wished them well.
It was after all these attempts to find someone to come to church that we were walking back to our apartment. I received a propmting to go invite Courtney. We knocked on her door 30 minutes before church started and invited her to come. She said yes and thought she had missed church. She got ready in 15 minutes and we walked her to church. It went well.
Also, this evening we ran into a guy our age who came down here from San Fran to check out Cal Poly. His car broke down in Morro Bay. His friend ditched him. He walked to SLO (12 miles!) and only had a bag that he packed for the trip. He had no shirt, hadn't eaten in 3 days and was trying to find a place to stay the night and to find a job so that he can work enough to pay a taxi to get him home. He knew very little about where he was and had been praying for help. We got him some nuts, granola bars, water, socks (he had none), shirts (he had none), a jacket, jeans, and a Book of Mormon. We gave him directions to the Salvation Army, said a prayer, and sent him on his way. He told us that he's been searching his soul for answers and that he would come to church this next Sunday. That's all the updates I have. I'll send you some pictures soon!
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