catch-up, MTC, March 8, 2012

March 8, 2012:

We taught our second role-play lesson today. This time the person was supposed to role-play that they had had one lesson by some young missionaries before. We were assigned to a sweet young lady, Amanda. I remember her name because she said, “I’m not a man ‘da because Elder Scott didn’t hear her name the first time. She is in a wheel chair. She got in a car accident when she was 17 and is special needs now. It’s wonderful that she is willing to do this service to help us put in practice what we are learning. We are supposed to teach by the needs of the people we are assigned to, instead of the memorized lessons they used to do. If you have access to the book Preach My Gospel, it explains it in there. Every member is supposed to be a missionary now, not just the ones who are set apart to do it like us. If you’re interested, you can get the book at a book store or through a church ward.

Anyway, back to Amanda. The first thing she asked us was, “What’s this resurrection thing.” So, we proceeded to try and teach her about the resurrection. So far, so good???? or so we thought. About half way through the time we had to talk to her (45 min.), I started to get the impression that she was never doing the role-playing thing. It was wonderful. She is such a beautiful little spirit. After the time was over and we went out of the room, we met her parents and her mother and Elder Scott talked about having her go to a Special Needs Mutual. Her mother thought she was too old, but Elder Scott told her they are never too old to go to Special Needs Mutual. We talked to them for quite a while. Everyone else in our group left and went back to class. Her mother said she would look into seeing if there is something at the institute or in their area. I think and hope her mother and she will follow up on that. We all hugged when we had to leave. I think we learned more from her than she from us. I know I did. She was actually called on a mission to do what she was doing there.

We went and found an America First and deposited the check the church gave us for our trip to Nauvoo. We knew they were going to give us money to cover our travel, but were totally surprised at the amount ($1048.50). When I think about it, it will probably cost quite a bit, 3 nights in motels, gas, and food. Hopefully, nothing else, no surprises I mean.

We called Joe and he was just driving home from the house. We are very grateful that they are willing to stay in our home and take care of it while we are gone. That takes a load of our minds and we know the rest of our family will be right there to back them up if they need help and we are very grateful for that.