This week we weren't able to meet with Nick's sister at all. She had to cancel one night, and we were never able to reschedule. We weren't able to meet with Jared this week either. He cancelled our appointment for Saturday and it sounds like he may not want to continue meeting with us. He is starting to study with the Jehovah Witnesses, because he has a lot of family that are JW. But he told us he has talked with them in the past and he disagrees with some of their beliefs, so we might just politely remind him of that and see if he still has an interest in meeting with us.
This week we had some really interesting teaching appointments. On Thursday we were at the UC-Riverside institute building and met the Institute director, Brother Decker. He seems super cool and very motivated to work with us and get us involved and visible at the institute. It was also cool because about 6 non-members walked in and signed up for class while he was talking to us. It will be hard to get to know everybody's names at first, but it is going to be a lot of fun I'm sure. And it is like the OU Institute; it is literally right across the street from the campus so a lot of people park there. It is a lot busier than the RCC Institute. There are about 100 students enrolled and most of them are non-members who heard about it from members in their classes or athletics. It's going to be a lot of fun, but Brother Decker holds us to high standards to be professional and productive while we are at the Institute.
Later that day, we had a lesson at the institute with Sasha, the girl who was being taught back home before she came to college. But she got permission for one of her friends who is on a mission in Kentucky to Skype into the lesson because she is in an iPad mission. It was really weird to pray through a Skype call and to try to teach with them because there was a little bit of a delay and you can't really make eye contact through the phone. But it went really well and she accepted baptism for the 23rd, so hopefully all goes well and we can finish teaching her everything by then.
Another interesting teaching experience was that we had President Mullen on team-ups with us this Saturday. And we took him to go see Vanessa, and to help us talk to her father, who only speaks Spanish. We had it all figured out how we were going to still teach and keep her and her dad involved, but it basically turned into President teaching the Restoration in Spanish and answering her questions. He was also very direct with her father. He asked him several times, because he was struggling with the concept, "If a member of the Trinity tells Vanessa she should be baptized, shouldn't she listen?" He also was very bold about telling him that if she is ever going to be ready to be baptized, it might as well be now, not two or three years in the future. It was kind of fun to see how much Spanish I could understand. I could understand pretty well but fortunately I didn't have to try to speak it too much.
Sunday was kind of disappointing though because we thought we were going to have 6 people at church. Things went well at the family ward; we had both of the investigators we were expecting show up. But then we went to the YSA Ward, and Nick wasn't texting us back so we weren't able to get his sister there, and Sasha slept in, and Christopher and Christian were out of town visiting his sick grandparents, and Vanessa had something she had to do with her family. So we had no investigators at the YSA Ward when we were expecting all of them to be there. But sometimes that's how it goes. When you get too comfortable and confident, sometimes the Lord takes that opportunity to humble you. We weren't really concerned about any of them not coming to church, so we weren't very diligent in making sure that they did have plans to attend.
So the ward has started to feed us more consistently, it was kind of rough there for a bit at the end of the summer. Yesterday we had ribs, which was really good. I don't remember ever having ribs at home and when I told the other missionaries that they about fell out of their chairs. I guess ribs are a big deal where they come from. They taste good but they are kind of messy. We also had ribs at the institute on Wednesday, so I guess I'm making up for 20 years without them.
Hope everything is going well for everyone back home!
See you soon,
Elder Cornaby
Later that day, we had a lesson at the institute with Sasha, the girl who was being taught back home before she came to college. But she got permission for one of her friends who is on a mission in Kentucky to Skype into the lesson because she is in an iPad mission. It was really weird to pray through a Skype call and to try to teach with them because there was a little bit of a delay and you can't really make eye contact through the phone. But it went really well and she accepted baptism for the 23rd, so hopefully all goes well and we can finish teaching her everything by then.
Another interesting teaching experience was that we had President Mullen on team-ups with us this Saturday. And we took him to go see Vanessa, and to help us talk to her father, who only speaks Spanish. We had it all figured out how we were going to still teach and keep her and her dad involved, but it basically turned into President teaching the Restoration in Spanish and answering her questions. He was also very direct with her father. He asked him several times, because he was struggling with the concept, "If a member of the Trinity tells Vanessa she should be baptized, shouldn't she listen?" He also was very bold about telling him that if she is ever going to be ready to be baptized, it might as well be now, not two or three years in the future. It was kind of fun to see how much Spanish I could understand. I could understand pretty well but fortunately I didn't have to try to speak it too much.
Sunday was kind of disappointing though because we thought we were going to have 6 people at church. Things went well at the family ward; we had both of the investigators we were expecting show up. But then we went to the YSA Ward, and Nick wasn't texting us back so we weren't able to get his sister there, and Sasha slept in, and Christopher and Christian were out of town visiting his sick grandparents, and Vanessa had something she had to do with her family. So we had no investigators at the YSA Ward when we were expecting all of them to be there. But sometimes that's how it goes. When you get too comfortable and confident, sometimes the Lord takes that opportunity to humble you. We weren't really concerned about any of them not coming to church, so we weren't very diligent in making sure that they did have plans to attend.
So the ward has started to feed us more consistently, it was kind of rough there for a bit at the end of the summer. Yesterday we had ribs, which was really good. I don't remember ever having ribs at home and when I told the other missionaries that they about fell out of their chairs. I guess ribs are a big deal where they come from. They taste good but they are kind of messy. We also had ribs at the institute on Wednesday, so I guess I'm making up for 20 years without them.
Hope everything is going well for everyone back home!
See you soon,
Elder Cornaby