Thanksgiving Over Already?

Our Thanksgiving this past week was great. We ate at Shane and Dusty's house. They are recent converts who were baptized about a month before I came to this area. I don't know how much I've told you about them, so here's a quick description. First off, I love them a ton. Dusty is Shane's mom and she is so awesome! She is one of the most giving people I have ever met. She will take care of the needs of others before she takes care of her own. Shane is about 25 years old, weighs about 500 lbs, has a bunch of disorders, and is hilarious. He's pretty loud and he likes attention, and I don't think I've ever seen anyone eat so much in my life. Apparently Shane has this disorder that makes it so his body doesn't tell him when he is full and he doesn't actually need to eat as much as everyone else either. Bad combination. I think it's called Praeder-Willy (sp??) Syndrome. Needless to say, he's a big dude with a big heart. Every time we bring a new missionary over to their home he grabs them in a bear hug and picks them up off of the floor. Shane and Dusty have a friend living with them right now as well. Her name is Tammy. She has been a less-active member for a little while, but she's been coming to church with Dusty. All three of them have health challenges, and then when you throw in the other people that came to dinner, our investigators the Burtons (Debbie has been in the hospital for the past 3 weeks and her husband Walter is basically waiting to die because he has a bad heart), you get a house full of people who might be a little more appreciative of the resurrection when it happens. The food was really good and their was a lot of it. I was grateful that the Hmong missionaries went to Shane and Dusty's the day before and scrubbed the carpets - which are saturated with 9 dogs and 2 cats worth of animal stench... I could actually smell the food instead of the animals. We all had a good time and I felt gratitude at being counted a part of "the family." I am going to miss them.

The miracle of the past week involves a part member family we are teaching. I'll give you the rundown. Last Sunday we met with the Blacks. Bro. Black is a member, but just recently started coming back to church after 30 years of inactivity. His wife is not a member and we have been meeting with the two of them teaching them about the Gospel. Sis. Black has told us in the past that she is interested in the church, but that she wants to take things really slow to make sure that she is doing things for the right reasons. She has said that she planned on getting baptized, but she didn't know when it would be. On Sunday we had a typical visit. They hadn't read from the Book of Mormon in a while, so we decided to read with them. We chose Mosiah 18. As we started to read, I had the thought that I needed to commit Sis. Black to be baptized. Generally I am not nervous to commit someone, but for whatever reason, I was dieing that night. I couldn't shake the feeling that I needed to ask her even though there were a million rationalizations running through my mind as to why it would be better to wait. After we finished the chapter and discussed a few things, I asked Sis. Black a couple questions to judge better what her feelings were about everything. After explaining about the Spirit and telling her that sometimes the Spirit prompts us to do things we aren't comfortable doing, I said that I felt that I needed to ask her something. I gave her the commitment then and she answered with a maybe. We talked about that for a bit, and then I asked her to prepare herself to be baptized on January 1st. She was saying no before the words were out of my mouth. "That is way too soon. There is no way that I could do that." My heart sank a little bit at that and we came away from our lesson wondering what in the world we were going to do to help her realize that she is ready. Well, we didn't have to do anything.

Two days later we got a phone call from Brother Black. He said he had some good news. He told us that he would be advancing in the Aaronic Priesthood to the office of Priest in two Sundays. He also said that his wife had decided that she needed to be baptized and that he would be able to do it!!!!!!!! Holy Cow!! I couldn't believe it when I heard it! Somehow, something changed in those two days. The Spirit worked on Sis. Black and helped her come to the understanding that she was ready. We met with them the next day and scheduled her baptism for Dec. 12th. : D!! I really didn't think that I was going to see any of my current investigators get baptized before I left, but that's not going to be the case now. Sis. Black is on her way to the waters and I couldn't be happier for her!

Good things are happening every day. I'm trying so hard to do my best. I do feel that I'm starting to understand my purpose as a missionary better and I can see the things that need to be done to have success. Consequently, my flaws and imperfections have never been so glaring. The Atonement is such a wonderful blessing. I'd go crazy if I didn't know how to change.

Well, that's it for now. We'll have plenty of time to get caught up in the near future. By the way, is there any way that we could get to the temple first thing when I come home? I don't know if I'm going to be able to make it again before I come home and I would greatly appreciate some time to think before I jump back into life. Let me know what works.

Have another great week! As always, I love you all. Be Mighty!
Elder Justin Hammer

PS. I heard about the BYU Utah game... my comps a Utah fan... thankfully he's not totally crazy... Also, I heard the Jazz beat the Lakers. Sweet! And, TCU's leaving the Mtn. West? Could've seen that one coming. I wonder what Boise St. thinks of that one? Go TCU! (Where's BYU going for a bowl game??)