Hello one and all!
The area:
Our work is going well. We found about 4-6 new people to teach last week on splits but only one was there for the return appointment when we went on Sunday with Elder Franson. That is a little sad. The guy who was there is a 16 year old named Oscar. He is very nice and we talked to him for a while the first time we met him when we were checking a referral. He seems like a pretty inquisitive guy who asks honest questions. He was really easy to get to know and befriend.
We are teaching Manuel and his parents. We knew that Manuel was a little different, but we found out this past week from his dad that he is 37 and still is pretty dependent on them (still lives with them in their trailer. Whats more is that he has Schizophrenia. I am not 100% for sure about that based on the way he acts because I am sure there was some translational errors on my part and probably on the dads hearing it from probably less than Beverly Hills qualified doctor. At any rate he definitely does have a mental illness. We talked to the president for a while about him and we will be working closely with him because if baptism does come up on the radar he will have to have his interview with him. I know that he is willing to learn and be baptized and follow the Savior but his comprehension and commitment level are less than amazing. We did have a lot of success on splits when we taught a very hands on/visual aids friendly restoration lesson with Elder Western who is in the ASL program. The ASL elders have good experience teaching visually and to people who get confused VERY easily. Our main goal right now is the parents though. They LOVE, and I mean LOVE the gospel (the TV is permanently on a weird Spanish Christian channel haha) We had an ok return appointment lesson with them (I had taught the dad on splits once). It was very very very easy to slip into a discussion that bordered an argument because the dad has such a strong belief in the Bible and only the Bible. By the end of it he committed to read and pray about the BoM though. I know the underlying feeling felt was love and friendliness by all of us because we were sincerely laughing at times but it was very passionate. I know though that this reiterated D&C 42:13 (I believe it is) about how important it is to ALWAYs during the lesson have the Spirit...
We are teaching Manuel and his parents. We knew that Manuel was a little different, but we found out this past week from his dad that he is 37 and still is pretty dependent on them (still lives with them in their trailer. Whats more is that he has Schizophrenia. I am not 100% for sure about that based on the way he acts because I am sure there was some translational errors on my part and probably on the dads hearing it from probably less than Beverly Hills qualified doctor. At any rate he definitely does have a mental illness. We talked to the president for a while about him and we will be working closely with him because if baptism does come up on the radar he will have to have his interview with him. I know that he is willing to learn and be baptized and follow the Savior but his comprehension and commitment level are less than amazing. We did have a lot of success on splits when we taught a very hands on/visual aids friendly restoration lesson with Elder Western who is in the ASL program. The ASL elders have good experience teaching visually and to people who get confused VERY easily. Our main goal right now is the parents though. They LOVE, and I mean LOVE the gospel (the TV is permanently on a weird Spanish Christian channel haha) We had an ok return appointment lesson with them (I had taught the dad on splits once). It was very very very easy to slip into a discussion that bordered an argument because the dad has such a strong belief in the Bible and only the Bible. By the end of it he committed to read and pray about the BoM though. I know the underlying feeling felt was love and friendliness by all of us because we were sincerely laughing at times but it was very passionate. I know though that this reiterated D&C 42:13 (I believe it is) about how important it is to ALWAYs during the lesson have the Spirit...
Overall we are trying to make our teaching pool bigger right now because we don't have anyone as of right now who has solid baptismal potential in the month of November. We get a lot of return appointments from tracting, street contacting, we get a lot of referrals from different sources (about one a week), we check a lot of formers but all of it does not seem to result in any solid people. Most people say one thing and do the opposite and don't keep commitments. I know the important thing is to keep working with faith and a smile so that is what I'll do...
As for me:
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Love!
Elder Myers
