Late last week we taught a part-member family who has a lot of potential to come back to church. However, this time when I walked into the house there was a different feel to it. While we were trying to teach I could tell something was wrong and I couldn't teach. I sat praying, asking God what it is I am feeling, and what came to mind was one of the individuals has drank too much alcohol. I told them that the spirit is not here and we need to figure out why. She did tell us that she had a margarita, but just a small one, so I figured it was nothing. There were some other things causing some contention too. The impression that alcohol was the reason the Holy Ghost was gone continued to stay in the front of my mind. Not much happened. After the lesson she fed us some dinner and she pulled out her big margarita Bud Light mix from the freezer. It was a mega size! I was disappointed of her actions. I was grateful that Heavenly Father gave me the Gift of Discernment to understand that something was wrong in their household.
(Ok, I have to stop right here! My companion wanted his haircut and we are not in our normal neighborhood right now, so we walked into a Chinese barbershop. It was empty and decently priced. We go in and he sits down and all the Chinese people start speaking in Chinese at the same time really loudly and it got pretty overwhelming. My companion talks over them and says to me in a look of panic "should we go somewhere else where they speak English"? The barber says, "it's ok, we speak English." I just died laughing!)
So, I just love sacrament meeting here in Bushwick. The members are very inspirational. The majority of the members are well educated, have good jobs, raise families in NY, but still struggle. Their testimonies are simple and powerful. I had the opportunity to bear my testimony and it was nice to feel the spirit. It is awesome to feel strengthened by sharing your testimony to the congregation.
So there are just under 800 names on our roles here in the branch I am serving in. 700 of them are people who are not active who we know nothing about. We have been going through that list and been working hard and walking a lot looking up all these people. It has been paying off! Many members still live there and got lost in the branch split 2 years ago. We are continuing to find new families every day! One family in particular has 3 kids that were prepared to be baptized, but they weren't super active and didn't go through with it. We are teaching them again and they still want to be baptized. Hopefully this time they will be able to be baptized. We are helping the Elder's Quorum members with their home-teaching, and we are also getting excited about a family history class we are holding, as well as the "Meet the Mormons" movie showing soon in Brooklyn.
I failed to write in my journal this week so all the details are kind of a blur. I will be sure to write in my journal this week though!
Love,
Elder Hooper
#LDSconf this weekend!
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