This will be the last time I write from Liberty Lake. I will miss this place too much. I love this place. It’s such a piece of me.
This week we started teaching a new person this week. It was a perfect way to end my time here. She is 78. Her name is Loretta Yarrish. She is awesome. We found her tracting. She said that she had met with missionaries before and that we were welcome to come back but that we weren’t going to convince her of anything. --- the thing about missionaries is that we don’t really convince people of anything. Ever. We just teach. People convince themselves. At any rate, we’ve tried to meet with her for the past 3 weeks and something always has gotten in the way. First, her grandson had swine flu, then she had swine flu, then her family was in town for spring break. We half expected to have to reschedule again. We got there, she let us in, we taught a lesson, it was fantastic. That was on Tuesday. The spirit was so strong. Everything went perfectly. She would teach principles before we got to them. She brought everything we taught back to previous principle we had touched on. She committed to read and pray. At the end of the lesson she only wanted to know where our church building was. When we told her she said, “I thought so. Every time I drive by there I think about how nice it would be to go there someday and attend a service. I was going to walk up and catch one this summer. The walk would be nice. When Sister Salisbury and I left neither of us talked, we just smiled. We wanted to keep that spirit with us for the rest of the day. It was so cool. We set up another appt. for Thursday. We planned on setting a date for Loretta so that we could put her on date next week. When we went into the lesson and followed up on the commitment she responded that yes, she had read and she hadn’t “stopped at 12 or 13 or 14…” She just kept going. She said that she loved the Book of Mormon, that she wanted to read the whole thing and that she knew it was true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. We told her we were thrilled she received an answer and asked her what she thought that meant. She said that it meant that there were men on this earth who hold the priesthood and that there is a prophet of God on the earth. It only seemed right to invite her to be baptized. So we extended the invitation. She responded with a smiling, “Yes” and then we extended the date. She said still smiling, “That sounds great”. May 8th! She is going to be baptized on May 8th!!! It was Awesome. We taught her the plan of Salvation and she loved it. We got to death and she said she couldn’t wait to hear the rest of it. She had to take her grandson home to Idaho on Sunday so she couldn’t come to church but she will definitely come next week! On Saturday we went over to her house with Bishop Reed so she could meet him. That went great. We’re teaching her again on Tuesday! I’m so excited. I’m so glad there is something happening. There are so many things happening!!!! We received two solid referrals from members yesterday!!!! It was awesome. The members' view of missionaries have changed so much.
I went on splits with Chelsea Rutter on Friday. She was just baptized in the beginning of the year. We stopped by an old friend. He use to date one of our less actives and we’ve been trying to teach him for a long time now. It was really spiritual. We have a lesson set up for Tuesday. He said that we needed to “Talk” because he’s been doing a lot of thinking. He wants to come back to church. He wants to stay close to the people he’s met there. The spirit was so strong. I’m so looking forward to having him be my last lesson in Liberty Lake.
We taught our friend about prayer, scripture study, following the prophet, and obedience (not necessarily in that order). It went well. We taught the lesson in the home of one of our ward missionaries, Sister Smith. It went well and was extra cool because her husband sat in on the lesson too. She told us that he has really been struggling with his testimony. We committed her to read and pray everyday and to listen to more of conference (she did watch some of it). It was cool because he committed also.
We taught our other friend the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She loved it. She loves everything we teach. She is trying so hard to quit smoking. We gave her a “Preach my Gospel” book on Sunday and she loved it. I told her that when I see her in Rexburg she will be smoke free. She smiled and said “We’ll see” and I said, "No, you will be smoke free I know it." I love her. I will be praying so hard on the plane on Wednesday when the sisters are teaching her.
Fred did not watch conference. He watched the young women’s conference. I think he liked it. We were able to teach him about the restoration. It went really well. He said he would read and pray and for the first time he alluded to possibly joining the church rather than just sitting down and talking. It was awesome.
We met with Brian (the Catholic one) this week and found out his last name. Sattler. So the lesson with Brian Sattler went really well. We brought another member who use to be Catholic. She was fantastic! She really understands the importance of having the spirit there. It was a much more peaceful lesson. We taught him about the Godhead and about Joseph Smith. We left him with Tad R. Callister’s talk from the last October conference entitled, “Joseph Smith, The Prophet of the Restoration.” The sisters are seeing him again this next Thursday. Part of me wishes I could find out what happens.
We had dinner with the family that we are teaching now (the one we’ve gotten close to.) We went over on Thursday. Dad read! It was awesome. He thought that it was “ok” There were a number of things that stood out to him and then there were things that were “not his cup of tea”. After reading the talk he felt like he should express his love to his kids on a more regular and more meaningful basis. We encouraged him to do so. We also had a really good Q&A session about the scriptures with the son. It was awesome. We taught them again on Sunday in a more formal lesson setting. Dad sat in. again. J He may have been pretty zoned out for some of it, but I’m glad he sits in. It went much better than the last lesson. It was much more put together and flowed much nicer. The boy who we’re teaching has a brother who was able to ask some questions that had been on his mind for a while. The family did read 3Nephi 11 together but they forgot to pray about it. So this week they are reading 2Nephi 31 and praying about that. Dad is reading another talk from conference! J Elder Ballard’s talk on fathers and sons from last October priesthood session of conference. He was suppose to have read it this morning at breakfast. I think he will really enjoy it. When Mom dropped me off she thanked me for “being the pushiest missionary her family has ever had”. We’re hoping to follow up on Dad’s reading before I leave.
Sister Salisbury is still great. Sister Jeppson is also great. Being in a threesome with them has been great and the members LOVE having a tall sister. Liberty Lake is tall people country and so she fits in great. She has some awesome ideas for the area and is going to do a lot of good here. She’s related distantly to the Jeppsons in our ward.
Yesterday was so hard. Church was good, but it was awful at the same time. Everyone was saying goodbye and it was ripping my heart out. I tried my best not to cry, but I did. All over the place. Every time I went around a corner, got a hug or was bid farewell too. Every time I bore my testimony be it over the pulpit or to an individual. There was a lot of crying. It felt as thought I was dying. I’m glad that it’s over. It was a day I had to get through. It’s done. All that’s left to really hurtle is to pack. I think I will then finally be spiritually, emotionally and physically there. I love the gospel, I love God. I know that God loves his children. I know that He is perfect. I love Him.
Sister Bailey.
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