Wowie this week has been a roller coaster. Ups and downs and loopy loops. Our investigator July, the super awesome one who has had the coolest spiritual experiences and confirmations, got into a ton of anti-Mormon material. So he has taken a huuuuge step back from us. We were able to answer a bunch of his questions over Facebook messenger and every time we did, he was super grateful and understood super well. Then we got wifi for a minute on Wednesday afternoon and July had sent us a message the night before saying he doesn't want to get baptized anymore. We asked him why and he said, "Read Matthew 7:15."
15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Ouch. He talked to us more about how he feels that the things we taught him are true but he feels like he shouldn't trust his feelings. We tried explaining that God talks to us through the spirit and the spirit talks to us through our feelings, but he was being super short with us. What July failed to notice about the scripture he sent us, is the next verse. Through this verse, we can know how to tell the difference between a false prophet and a prophet of God.
16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Also something cool, the day after this conversation with July, an elder in the mission put this on Facebook. You bet we shared it and hope July has seen it!
July's mom is doing pretty good though. She came to church yesterday and asked us to come over and teach her. We were hoping July would be there and be receptive, but when we got there, he was sitting on the couch playing video games. He was super stand-offish to us. I just thought, "Hey no problem. We're going to be teaching his mom sitting on the floor right behind the couch he's on. We can teach him too." So that's what we did haha we had a lesson about Jesus Christ and then talked about the spirit and how we receive answers to our questions. When we went in, we had no idea what we were going to teach because we didn't know what to expect, but Sister Hicks and I both felt the spirit guiding us during the lesson. It was super cool. Sister Hicks was sitting in a spot where she could see the TV July was playing on and she said, every single time we were testifying of something and saying things July needed to hear, without fail his game would stop working. It would either glitch or be loading. Every. Single. Time. It was super cool! We know that was God helping July be able to hear the things he needed to hear. We hope that he will really think about the things he heard and the things he's felt and decide to learn from us again!
The day that July told us he doesn't want to learn more was super hard. We were actually on exchanges with the Spanish sisters in our zone, so Sister Hicks and I weren't even together to talk about it and stuff. I was feeling super upset that night because we have personally witnessed the spirit touching July's heart so powerfully and now he doesn't want anything to do with it. When I was feeling super crappy I started thinking about Jesus Christ and His atonement. I thought about how when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane, he suffered for each of us personally. He felt everything we will ever feel. I know that He knew exactly how I was feeling because of that. I prayed to Heavenly Father and asked Him to help me have peace and comfort about the whole situation. And that's exactly what I got. I had comfort knowing that Jesus Christ knows how I feel and loves me, and I felt peace thinking about July because I know that if he will keep searching, God will help him know the truth again.
Another super important lesson I learned from this, is that Satan is good at what he does. He knows each of our weaknesses and strengths and can even take our strengths and turn them into weaknesses. July is a super intellectual and logical thinker and because of that, he was trying to do a lot of research on the church and found a lot of good stuff, but then he also found stuff that has been twisted and changed to make our church sound bad. Satan planted doubts in July's mind and now he's confused. But I know that God is the source of all truth. If July, or anyone wants to know if something is true, they have to ask God. We can't go searching on the internet or asking other people. If you wanted help with your math homework, you wouldn't ask your English teacher, would you? We have to ask God. If any of you want to know the truth, I'd encourage you to do just that. Ask God. Then take steps of faith to show God you really want an answer, go to church, read the scriptures, pray every single day, etc. I know God answers prayers.
I love you all! Have a good week!
Chicken feet soup round 2. I liked it just about as much as I did the first time.
And here's a picture from our exchange with the Spanish sisters! Super fun day!
Mom notes: Brooklyn told me Women's Conference was super stressful because they had to find and arrange rides for Karen women if they wanted them to be there. They ended up getting 22 Karen women there! She also said that she didn't have to translate, thank goodness, a girl from the ward did it.
I asked her a little more about July. She said, "Man I got a little taste of how Heavenly Father feels when his children are so blind to His help. It hurt so bad. I told Sister Hicks, this feels like getting dumped, but worse! We're so sad because we saw July through Heavenly Father's eyes. We saw his potential and the spirit helping him, but now he's letting Satan put doubts in his mind."
Keep July in your prayers.
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