Loving life in Santa Barbara!

Hey every one!! :)

It's been a good week!! Santa Barbara was packed for FIESTA, so we did a lot of street contacting! Met some crazy people, and had a lot of interesting experiences.. what's new. We have been working with our investigators (all of them are old men haha) and sadly had to drop a couple this week, but we've seen a lot of miracles and the Lord is blessing us in many ways! Charlie and Jamie went MIA.. We have no way of contacting them, which has been frustrating. But we're hoping and praying we can get in contact with them! Ben and Natalie are doing well :) They came to church yesterday and have been enjoying the Doctrine and Covenants video that we let them borrow. We'll meet with them this week!!

 

We met with our investigator David! He is so sincere & genuine.. and has such a desire to follow Christ. We talked about sincere prayer and scripture study.. and he talked about how prayer is his "spiritual weakness" and how he knows that will bring him closer to God. He's already in 1 Nephi 8 and loves the Book of Mormon.. he had a lot of questions about the time line and the geography. He's praying about baptism and every thing we are teaching him. He said the prayer at the end of our lesson.. so powerful. Unfortunately, he will be in San Diego for surgery for a couple months! We're trying to get him hooked up with missionaries there because he's so great!!

 

We met with Jim a couple times.. he always says, "no one walks the walk! There are no real Christians. No one helps me with any thing.." (He's kind of a grumpy old man, but we love him any way). So we showed up in our service clothes and cleaned his house.. We always express to him that we're not there to persuade or convince, but help him feel the love and joy of the gospel. He meets with JW's as well.. every week. The first copy of the Book of Mormon we gave him "exited itself" from his home, so we gave him another and he promised that he would read and pray. haha. He came to church yesterday and even came to the 2nd hour. Him and Jimbo together in sunday school was a reaaal treat!

Jimbo.. so we met with him twice this week. I don't even know how to explain how these lessons go.. he always says.. "No rules, no regulations. We're saved by grace alone" So we talked about the atonement of Jesus Christ and WHY we have commandments. Then the second time we met with him.. we knew it was going to be the "do or die" lesson kind of thing because we really didn't know how to help him progress.. yeah, He brought all these Anti internet articles.. (they were absolutely ridiculous.. completely taken out of context). We had to ask him what's your intent? You're never going to come to know that these things are true, if you're looking at this..  After an intense meeting he told us that he needed to "stop searching for his answers and start listening.." And that he realized we have helped him come closer to God and helped him soften his heart.. he apologized and told us that he would continue to meet with us.. so hopefully, thing will go better. I read this quote by Robert D. Hales after we had met with him. (This talk is so good). He said, "Our aim should be to help others understand the truth, not defend our egos or score points in a theological debate. Our heartfelt testimonies are the most powerful answer we can give our accusers. And such testimonies can only be borne in love and meekness."

 

I know that I was called here for a reason.. my testimony and faith is being refined every day.. I can never deny the truthfulness or power of this gospel. I know that this gospel is real.. I also know that the adversary is real and active.. he will do anything to twist.. to manipulate, but we can always overcome. The lord wants nothing but happiness for us.. We can always rely on him! I love this work!!! I love you all!

 

3 Nephi 5:13

Sister James

August 4, 2014