The work is moving forward nicely. While our numbers weren't as high as last week, we worked just as hard. We gave a lot of service, which is part of our "Rescue test," or the program that was put into place when they got rid of tracting. We have also been working through a less active list and contacting our referrals. We have a baptism scheduled for saturday and satan doesn't want to let this one go. He is throwing so much stuff in our investigator's way. Yesterday being an example of how hectic things have been. We called her before church, and she was having a mini-meltdown about her baptism this week. She was scared because she knows it is true, but it is a huge change for her. She ended up missing our sacrament. We went over there, talked her down, and convinced her to go to the Salinas 1st ward sacrament meeting. She went and loved it. Her children were also fairly well behaved. Probably better then I was as a crazy 3 year old. We will be working very hard so nothing satan throws at her will derail her this week. It seems like everything that can go wrong, does go wrong, the week before an invesigator is baptized.
We worked so hard on getting her and her family to church, and we were also greatful for the people that were in church. We had a less active there for the 3rd sunday in a row. He is this great German guy who likes to ask the ridiculously difficult questions. He keeps us on our toes. We also had a 25 year old guy, who is also less active, in church. We have been teaching him since I got here. Tonight we are going by to teach him about the priesthood, since he hasn't been ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood yet. This is a big part of the rescue test. We try to help less actives back to church. So far, it has been working pretty well.
This week we have an appointment with a referral that we set up. We left a message and she actually called us back. Amazing. It should be a very busy week.
The work is moving forward well here. I know that we are seeing the benefits from the members continued support and prayers for missionary expiriences. Working with members and the ward council is what drives the work here. It is WAY better then tracting.
Love you all,
-Elder Richards