Transfer 6 Week 2 Update 2-21-12

Hi Everyone!

Sooooo.......... the work here in Bennington, keeps going I suppose. I feel like not a whole lot happened this past week but there were a couple of things. Last Tuesday was zone conference and it focused on teaching effectively, it was a wonderful ZC with lots of insights. At Zone Conference we got traded our car and had to get a brand new one. It smells like new car! It is a 2012 Subaru Legacy, beautiful... my mission is converting me to Subaru's from Toyota's, ha! So that was Tuesday, new car and zone conference.

Wednesday, we had to smooth over some things with an investigator and her recent convert daughter. The daughter is 14 and has a steady boyfriend. Before Sister Ha. left, she had committed the daughter to break up with the bf and I had to follow up in the next visit if she did it or not (oh joy baha!) Well, it ended up being two weeks later because they ended up cancelling the week we were supposed to go back. The dad was very blunt and said that it should be the parents decision on who she dates or if she should break up with them, NOT the churches. I drew from my knowledge of the Family Proclamation to the World and told them that we respect and honor parents and that we teach we should have kids respect their parents. I also said that it is out of love for J. that we have asked her to do this, that the Lord loves her and that we love her and we do not want to end up seeing her in a bad situation. I told them that no matter how strong the youth may be, temptations and hormones can still get the best of any teenager. We continued speaking and I think they were finally able to calm down and we were able to have a lesson after that. I know that I wouldn't have been able to do that except it be by the power of the Holy Ghost. I was shaking like a leaf inside because the father really intimidated me but the spirit worked through me to resolve their concerns in a calm and dignified manner like a true servant of the Lord. It was amazing. I know it wasn't me speaking, but the Lord through me. The other great part about that was we had planned a lesson on repentance and after that discussion I decided that that wasn't what they needed to hear then so we switched the lesson on the spot to why do we have commandments and how can we better come to understand them. My trainee did a good job at following the spirit and my lead to switching gears and we gave probably our best lesson we've had with them. They were very focused during that lesson, which is pretty amazing cause it usually doesn't go that way most of the time. The lesson got them thinking about why we have commandments and what blessings come from them so it was a really good lesson. Our goal and hope in having taught that lesson is that by having a better understanding of WHY we have commandments will lead to a better application of them in their lives. At least that is what we were hoping for. Other than that, this week didn't have a whole lot going on, just a lot of finding. I did take my trainee Sister Ho. out tracting for her first time this past week and she says she likes it better than street contacting (or OYM'ing). So we might be starting to do more tracting than OYM'ing in the future. Well, I hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,
 Sister Gifford