Monday, July 24, 2017

24 July 2017 - Elder Milius Week 56

Another week down y’all,

The work in Prattville, AL, is moving forward!!! Just at a pretty slow pace right now… but that’s okay! Luckily the Lord is still in charge and we just have to try our best. Like I said it was a pretty slow week but still full of the Lord’s work so I’m happy. We found a few people, got dropped by several who texted us and told us not to come back, but are excited for this week! 
I’ll start by updating on some people I’ve mentioned before. Ann is making me sad. She cancelled our appointment we had set with her and it just seems like she’s lacking desire. We called her an hour before the appointment and she told us not to come by but then when we were trying to figure out another time to stop by she hung up. We called back, and she answered and hung up. We called back again, and she rejected it. So that’s pretty much where we stand with Ann unfortunately. I don’t know if she’s been reading but we are going to try and send the Sisters over there to maybe connect with Ann in a way we couldn’t and help her progress. 
(Speaking of giving people for the Sisters to visit there still isn’t really any progress with Lee. She’s still stuck in her “I’m curious” stage and we haven’t seen her in a while. I have hope though that one day these people who we think are prepared might one day be ready to make and keep covenants with our Father in Heaven. Just like all the Recent Converts who go less active to the church will one day realize the things they felt and come back. Like I said in the beginning the Lord is ultimately in charge). 
Pauline was a lady that we tracted into a couple weeks ago who told us to come back. Then we found her walking through Wal-Mart and she stopped us last week and told us to come by. So, last Monday we went and taught her the Restoration and from what we think she took it all in. She didn’t come to church with us on Sunday but we are hoping to go by again today and teach her again to see what she felt about the Book of Mormon! She’s a great representation of a Southern Black lady haha! 
Kerri, Alex and Shelby we haven’t been able to get a hold of at all. We haven’t been able to get in touch with Courtney and Brooklyn. Haley is out of the state currently and has been for a couple weeks but she’s responding to our text so we’re good there. CHristine, the lady who we thought was so ready dropped us over text. And the really cool Henley family with the little girl who came out and hugged Elder Foudy dropped us over text.
But, this week we found Allen and Danielle who live in a trailer park where a potential sent us to without giving us a number. So, we started at Lot 1 and “coincidentally” knocked on Allen and Danielle’s home! What was crazy was our goal for New Investigators was “A Family of 3.” Even though their daughter is 1-year-old we still found a family of three. I don’t know how solid they will be but it was a cool lesson. That morning we had interviews and President told us to focus on getting in home and getting people to church. Well, we got in and invited them to church (they didn’t come but it’s all good). Hopefully they will be promising! 
We also met a lady named Shayla who told us to come by and talk about the Restoration. She’s methodist and doesn’t see herself changing and is kinda putting walls up. With the Spirit though they can be broken down and we are praying for a text/call from her (she told us not to push because the more we push the more she backs off). 
Another guy named Terris told us to come back about a week or so ago. So, we went back yesterday and are looking to teach him and his wife and two kids, one of which is 8. Again, praying that they keep meeting with us!
Last, but not least, we met Jill. This lady was investigating the church for a year and called herself “an investigator.” Crazy! We were walking into Office Depot to store contact and I said hello to this lady and told her that she was very happy and I liked that. She responded by saying “So are you,” and then she said she knew who we were. Long story short, we stood in Office Depot for a half an hour and talked to this former investigator. She started texting the missionaries who she knew and whose numbers she had from 10 years ago. She was picked up by the Sisters 5 years ago, but having to take care of her 90-year-old mother has kept her from coming back to church as consistently as she was (for a whole year). She said that she used to have the Elders over and they would clean up her yard-the four lots that her dad bought that is half of a city block. We are going to keep meeting with her and hopefully get her coming back again. HEr hold up, like a lot of people, is she isn’t quite sure if the whole Book of Mormon is true. Lucky for us once she gets that testimony it’s time for Baptism!! :) That was probably our biggest miracle this week, and Jill is awesome. She’ll hopefully be in my emails for a while instead of those who are mentioned once and then never again. 

Snippets of the Week:
  • We went on an exchange in Hoover and a guy came up to us after chasing us down. His name was Kevin, he’s an atheist, and he wanted to apologize for being rude to some missionaries a while back. It was a cool tender mercy to be apologized to for a missionary who got slammed previous.
  • In Hoover again we prayed with like 7 people on someone’s porch because people kept coming up and out the doors in an apartment complex. Elder Muaka, my companion at the time volunteered me to say it. 
  • I watched baseball in a restaurant after District meeting. It was refreshing. On top of that Sister Scoleri talked baseball with me, even though she didn’t like the Red Sox it was ok. Phillies fan, tisk tisk.
  • We got bashed by a lady named Erin. She asked about the biblical proof of baptism for the dead, then the spirit world. We proved it to her even if she didn’t accept it.
  • Interviews with President Sainsbury were good, as always! Transfers will be interesting because I have no idea what’s happening!
  • We tracted into a lady who told us that “Gale used to be a Mormon, but she wasn’t anymore.” “Whose Gale?” we asked. “She’s my wife.” Oh… ok. Talk about a conversation killer.
  • A young woman gave her farewell talk in church with Elder Foudy’s awesome talk about member-missionary work! :) Which is going better by the way, we’re getting there with our member visits.
  • I talked baseball with another Part-Member family that we found on Sunday! :)
  • A new family moved into the ward who is loaded. They sell doTerra and were one of the first 25 distributers when it first started. So they’re blessed. And they love the missionaries and missionary work so that’s exciting! 
As I said, lots of ups and downs this week but the Lord is still hastening his work and I’m glad to be part of it! I love y’all, and I hope you make it a good week! Let me know if your Elder in Alabama can do anything for you!

Much Love,
Elder Milius

PS: We saw a car flipped on the interstate on our way to Hoover this past week, crazy! 

-- 
Godspeed,
ELDER MICHAEL S. MILIUS
ALABAMA BIRMINGHAM MISSION

"Behold I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of Him to declare His word among His people, that they might have everlasting life." ~3 Nephi 5:13



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