Dear wonderful family,
Happy spring! Although, June tells me you're not having much of a spring in Texas... What's up with all this snow?! It's been delightfully raining and 60* up here-- y'all need to get with the program!
It's really been a great week here-- I spent Thursday, Friday, and Saturday battling a little bit of a tummy bug, so our weekend wasn't super productive. Saturday morning, I asked the Newark elders for a blessing, and they were nice enough to meet us at the church building to do it. The priesthood is awesome, and I'm so thankful for it! We then went to a youth baptism for Isaiah Barrick. His dad is in the military and has been deployed for a long time. He has leave for two weeks, and so it was so awesome to watch his dad, a worthy priesthood holder who is fighting for our country, be able to perform this saving ordinance for his son. It made me reflect back to my own baptism and how grateful I am I had a daddy who was able to do that for me.
Yesterday, I experienced my first real rude rejection... and it was at church from an active member, no less! Saturday, Sister Parry and I were going to a part of our area that we don't go to very often, Buckeye Lake, and we were going to go contacting down there. Well, we consulted our ward list to see who lived that way that we could visit and this elderly lady was really the only one, so we thought we would pop in to say hello. Well, Sister Parry, as politely as she could, tried to describe this dear sister as being a little less than cheerful-- but I wouldn't listen. After driving around trying to find her place, we just felt like we shouldn't drop in on her. So when we saw her at church yesterday, I approached her (cheerfully) to ask if it would be ok for us to stop by next time we were in the area, to which she responded very coarsely, "Don't come by, I don't want you to come over." "Oh! OK!" I said, and we kept walking down the hall. Hahaha, Sister Parry tried to tell me... So there you have it-- my first real rejection! I sort of felt like Polyanna with the grumpy old sick woman!
Nancy's baptism is going to happen this Saturday at 1:00. She was at church yesterday, sitting by us, and when Bishop Williams announced it over the pulpet, she just beamed with excitment! I am simply extatic for her... I just know this is what she's been looking for, and there's a peace about her now that wasn't quite there when we first started meeting with her. She didn't come to church last Sunday and then she wouldn't answer/return our calls, so Wednesday after our Zone Confrence/Mission Tour with Elder Evans of the Seventy we stopped by her house and there we found a very frazzled Nancy. After talking to her a bit we found out she and Earl got into a huge fight over the weekend and she just couldn't bring herself to church Sunday feeling as angry as she did. She was concerned she shouldn't get baptized if she was capable of feelings like that. All of a sudden I heard myself saying words with such conviction, telling her not to get discouraged and putting off her baptism was not what God wanted, but rather it was what Satan wanted. I spoke to Nancy with no fear, and after she agreed she still needed to get baptized on the 27th and we left, it hit me that the words I was saying weren't coming from me. Heavenly Father knew what she needed to hear and was able to soothe her nerves through me. It was so humbling to see myself be a tool in the Lord's hands.
Wednesday night, we had dinner at the Walkers not too far from Nancy's house, and I felt prompted to ask Sister Walker to come with us to the appointment we had at Nancy's the next day, and so she did. Wow, when we got there, we were teaching the third lesson and when we began to talk about repentance/forgiveness, it was clear why Sister Walker needed to be there-- she was able to relate experiences to Nancy to help her understand the need to forgive Earl. She was the exact right person for that lesson, and I was so thankful I was privy to and acted on that prompting.
The gospel is true, the work is great, and I know that my Redeemer lives.
Thanks for the prayers and the love, I feel them every day! Bundle up and Stay warm all you Texans!
Love,
Sister Chelsea LeSueur
Lance--
Happy 4th Anniversary on the 24th-- I sent your card today :)
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