It has been insanely hot this week! Our apartment has also been 86 degrees since we only have one weak A/C unit in a big apartment (I took pictures, but this library's operating system will not allow me to upload pictures!). I went and bought a heavy duty floor fan because I was dying. The only place we can escape the heat is in our car!
It has been an insane week! We have had lots of lessons and reached all of our goals and plus some. Tsubon (13) and Myunbo (11) are being baptized this Sunday by their Dad! We will be teaching them a few more times this week. We taught them a watered-down version of the Plan of Salvation and we realized that they need to be taught more detailed lessons when they started asking questions like: what happens to us after we go to the Celestial kingdom, and what happens to the "Pre-Earth heaven" when we go to the "Celestial Kingdom heaven", etc. The member that was teaching with us was even surprised. They are super smart young men. They are really excited to be baptized as well.
We had a crazy experience last night when we were knocking on doors. We knocked on one door and this older man opens the door and he is wearing a leopard print Speedo (sorry for the mental picture) and says "you have some nerve knocking on my door this early in the morning (by the way it was 6:30pm at this point) get out of here!" and slammed the door. There was some swearing intermixed in there as well. It was pretty humorous at the end of the night. Thought I would share this odd experience with you.
So this week has just been a bit difficult for me, I mean seeing an old man in a Speedo, how could it not have been! Just kidding. There has been a lot of pressure on my shoulders this week. Trying to figure out investigators' needs, understanding their concerns asap to know how I can help them, and trying to help my companion who has a hard time understanding English, etc.
I had an interesting experience as I was praying this morning. As soon as I started to pray, I had this uncomfortable, confusing feeling come over me. My mind was racing trying to understand why I was feeling this way. I remembered past experiences and know this is not how the Lord works. His Spirit speaks joy, peace, love, and godly sorrow/chastisement when we sin, that leads us to repent and this spirit I was feeling was not like any of these I have felt before. I also remembered the scripture in D&C 50:31 “Wherefore, it shall come to pass, that if you behold a spirit manifested that you cannot understand, and you receive not that spirit, ye shall ask of the Father in the name of Jesus; and if he give not unto you that spirit, then you may know that it is not of God.”. I asked God if this spirit was from him and if it was, to let me feel it again. It left and didn't come back. I knew that the adversary has been playing with all this pressure on me and trying to bring me down. There is so much work to do in this area of my mission!
I have been teaching Elder Tuiaki English in the mornings during our language studies. It is pretty fun. I also have been watching the church videos in ASL so I can understand what it is like teaching yourself a language, I am picking up more ASL and I can help my companion learn English. He is very dedicated and works very hard. He is so funny. He says the funniest things that can be a bit racist sometimes since he doesn't really understand what he is saying! He makes me crack up in the car all the time when he tries to mimic accents!
Well I hope you are all doing well and enjoy your week this week! I love you. Thank you Grandma Hooper, my family and Elder Buckley for your letters! They mean a lot to me!
Love from Staten Island,
Elder Hooper
Keep up the good work! ANd stay close to the right Spirit that gives you peace! Love ya!
ReplyDeleteGMA