Another super busy week here in Saginaw. I'm gonna start off this email by talking about 3 new friends Elder Pfau and I made this week whose names are Lexi, David, and kayla. They are Lutheran college students at Saginaw Valley State and they live in our same apartment complex. They approached us last Tuesday in the evening right as we were getting ready to retire and they asked about our mission and then shared that they were all from Utah and were familiar with us.
David was an apologetic and wanted us to stop by so we could just share more with every one. We were hesitant about it at first but we scheduled a lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and gave them a pamphlet. They read and annotated the entire pamphlet when we came back and absolutely loved it. We them taught the Restoration in a very persuasive manner with plenty of Eziekiel/Amos/Peter/John/
I nearly have all of Joseph Smith's account memorized as well and can speak it with conviction so the lesson was one of more powerful ones I've been apart of. At the end all 3 started panicking and were acting very afraid because they felt the truthfulness of the message and they had no idea what they're parents or Lutheran Fellowshippers would think. I'm excited to finally see my efforts in studying the scriptures pay off and be able to see the those feel the holy ghost so powerfully like I did just 3 years ago. A powerful emotion experience.
We have been teaching our other friend Debbie for the past couple of weeks and she's not on Baptismal date yet but I feel obligated to talk about her because she's an absolute saint. She's a 67 year old grandma who lives on the East side of Saginaw which is known to be a cesspool of crime and homicide. She's responsible for her grandson Mason who was born addicted to heroin and he's just 3. All of her neighbors take advantage of her every day in one way or another as she will feed anyone at any time, would let anyone borrow tools, yard supplies, trailers, or anything at a moments notice. She also has a broken shoulder and if it wasn't for Elder Pfau and I she would have zero help with any type of labour around her house. She reminds me of my Memere and has taught me so much about love and charity. She loves our message and we are patiently waiting for her to use her agency to come to church. Shes thinking about being baptized and we are being extremely careful to not be to pushy because she doesn't deserve that but what she does deserve is the True Church and Christs Gospel. She is simply amazing and I admire her.
On the down side we were planning on being groomsmen this week for Aranda and Quays wedding so they could follow the law of chastity and become legally married. Well... the night before the wedding there was some severe domestic abuse and we may never see them again. Really sad because we love them and had the entire wedding set up perfectly but ohhhh welllllll. I'm not going into to much detail about it because it was just rough all the way around.
On Sunday our friend Toryon who is being Baptized on the 13th was at church for the second week in a row and he has been taught all the lessons. We have his Baptismal interview next Thursday and its SO EXCITING. Hes an absolute stud and I'm privileged to teach him. We also had Tisha & Maddie Nixon at church along with they're 3 young grandchildren at church and that WAS AWESOME. They are getting baptized on the 27th and they loved church so much. Sacrament meetings and primary classes are just the best. The kids fit in perfectly during second hour. Tisha and Maddie loved the youth speaker and the Stake president gave an excellent talk and the spirit was very strong.
As for me which I put at the end because I really try not to think about myself a lot anymore... have been doing well. I've been listening to Trueman G. Madsen's talks on Joseph Smith's life and I'm really growing so much admiration for that Man. He is a Prophet and super honest. Dont let anyone tell you different. I'm getting a lot better at memorizing directions quickly in new places and that's a nice skill to have as we bike up to 15 miles daily. For weekly planning on Friday Elder Pfau ams I did it at Golden Corral and I realized that I have been missing out on something beautiful. It is a huge, nice buffet in the Township area and it has all of my favorite foods made fresh. I think I set a record for eating the more BBQ chicken and steamed Broccoli ever and it was totally worth it. It helped me be at peace with the fact that we had to drop over 7 people we were teaching because they were not keeping the commitments we extended to them. More time to find new people which is always fun. A tactic I use while I door knock that breaks the ice every single time and is super effective is when I pretend as if the person whom we are talking to is a person who we are already teaching and when they say wrong adress I apologize and immidiantly start discussing Jesus Christs ministry and the book of mormon. We can pick up to 20 new people to teach in just a day and our awkward creativity helps us see blessings. Finding people and first impressions have become so easy and casual. You just have to conquer the Awkward and stay optimistic(:
Life is a beautiful blur for me and I hope everyone is well back at home. Tons of work to do and it's just great.
Elder Connolly
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