Every Member an Innkeeper!

Hey Y'all!!

So this week was a pretty busy one. It started out with another run in with the cops- 5th time on my mission, I think this is a record!! But this time it did not turn out so well, I got a speeding ticket. Whoops my bad!! I think you have to be some kind of dope to get a speeding ticket on your mission in the church's car. But well, I did, but at least now I have learned my lesson- I have slowed down and I pay attention to speed limit signs now. SO ya that started off my week, but then it got better after that. My ticket was on Tuesday and then on Wednesday we had this new thing we started up- New Member Lessons. See, in this ward it is REALLY hard to get the members involved in helping our investigators and fellowshipping the recent converts. When a person is baptized they are supposed to receive a series of new member lessons from someone in the ward- usually ward missionaries or the recent convert's home teachers. Well that has not been happening here and the recent converts usually start to slip through the cracks without the love and attention they need. So we were talking about this with the Swaims and Brother Swaim just so happens to be a counselor in the bishopric and he decided that he would do something about this. Since he is always down at the church on Wednesday nights since its mutual night and there are usually always ward members floating around there then he figured we could do a new member lessons type class and try to get all the recent converts to come as well as active members to help fellowship. SO last week we had the first one. Brother Swaim taught the restoration and sadly ym/yw had been canceled that night so there really wasn't anyone at the church but some of our recent converts came. Shaun Roberts came and also Raymond and Vanessa- technically Raymond is not a member yet, he will be, as soon as his divorce goes through he can get married to Vanessa and then he can get baptized. They are a really awesome really strong family!! And so they came and also they brought their friend Clarissa with them and she is not a member. The sisters had taught Clarissa once or twice before whenever she was at Raymond and Vanessa's but she just wasn't ready for the gospel yet and wouldn't come to church. Well on Wednesday she came to church and really enjoyed the lesson. Before we started into the restoration, Brother Swaim had us all go around the room and share our conversion stories. When we got to Clarissa I told her she could just tell us why she came tonight and what it is that draws her to the church. Tears began to flow from her eyes and she said that she knows that this church and the things that we teach can change her life for the better and help strengthen her family. Sis Larrosa exchanged a glance and Smiled REALLY big after hearing that!!! The lesson went great and afterwards everyone mingled. So every week we are gonna have these NMLs (New Member Lessons) at the church, we are gonna get even more people there and we decided that we need to have dessert and also a nursery (last week Raymond and Vanessa's kids and Clarissa's ran around the room while we talked, ha ha) So anyway I am arranging everything and getting these NML's in order because they are awesome!!!

So as far as investigators go- well after the NML we asked Clarissa if we could come over and talk to her some more. She said yes, definitely she wanted to learn more and more about everything. SO we went over on Friday and taught her a bit about the restoration. The sister had already given her a BOM awhile ago but she hadn't read in it yet. But after the NML she went home and read all of the testimony and introduction stuff and then the first two chapters in Nephi! So we talked to her some more about Joseph Smith, then watched the Restoration video. It went very well and afterwards I explained to her about how we pray and asked her if she would be willing to offer the closing prayer and in her prayer ask Heavenly Father to help her to know if Joseph Smith really was a Prophet and if the Book of Mormon is true. She said she would do it! (That never happens; it is hard enough to get an investigator to pray in front of us, let alone about the Joseph Smith and the BOM) She said a great prayer and the spirit was strong. We were pretty darn psyched. She then told us that she wanted us to come to her son's 4th Birthday party on Saturday. Well we didn't really have the time for it, but we felt like we should go. So we went to an investigator's son's b-day party, hmm. Lol No really though it was great, it was awkward at first cause it was just us -the missionaries- and all of her family and her boyfriend's family. Well the Lord truly has blessed me with the ability to BRT (build relationships of trust, also known as just talking to people about themselves and getting them to like us) anyone!! So I played nice nice with Clarissa's family and then Raymond and Vanessa came which was nice cause well, we know them! So us and Raymond and Vanessa sat in the kitchen with Clarissa while all of the family members were in the other room. The whole time Clarissa would stay in there and talk with us as long as she could. It was so interesting to see how much she wanted to be around us and Raymond and Vanessa. We treat her different, we are kind to her and love her and the spirit is with her when she is around us and she notices it! So ya that was cool, she then told us that she would be coming to church on Sunday. Well sadly Sunday morning she and her baby woke up sick, so she didn't make it. But Vanessa told us that the night before Clarissa had gone over to her house to borrow clothes for church. So ya, we aren't sure though cause we called Clarissa and left a message and she hasn't called us back. But hey there is hope for sure- she is elect! Ok so in other news, Elizabeth and Wesley didn't show up to church again and haven't returned any of our calls, our WML (Ward Mission Leader) - the one who referred us to them, said they are really flaky but they want to get baptized. So ya and also Rudy and Vanessa didn't come to church. We went over there yesterday and they hadn't read in the Bom and Vanessa totally had the time to, so we told them how devastated we were and Vanessa felt bad. I was then just going to politely bow out and leave without teaching a lesson because they just aren't ready, but the spirit told me, nope we needed to teach a Plan of Salvation. SO I got out my handy dandy white board (thanks Jennie) and my Plan of Salvation visual aids and taught the lesson. It was exactly what Vanessa needed to hear. I then gave them a mini drop talk at the end, telling them that we love them and enjoy coming over, but our purpose as missionaries is to baptize and so when they're ready to read in the BOM and come to church give us a call and we would be thrilled to come over and teach them more!! After we had the closing prayer and got up to leave Vanessa stopped us pretty much begging us to come back- she said she loves what we tech and it makes her think. I told her great, then you read the chapter we left you in the BOM and then call us! So we left it at that. I know she will call, it's just a matter of time. So ya that is pretty much the story with all of our investigators right now. I have learned that out here in the country things are different. Both Adam and Moran wrote me about that and now I see it. We have to slow things down a bit and be patient, people here don't fit into the typical "teach 'em baptize 'em in three weeks" mold that we are taught to work in. So ya, I find myself having to be more patient and look at the big picture, only time will tell what will really happen. SO ya I am learning a lot out here in the country for sure!!

So now finally on to the subject heading- what does that mean? Well it was the topic of my talk yesterday. We had missionary Sunday yesterday and Sister Larrosa and I spoke as well as one of our ward missionaries, Sister Bourne (she's awesome!). I planned the whole thing and came up with the topics- that is another thing about this ward, if we want something done we have to do it! Lol I don't mind it at all, I plan things and it gets done right. :) So anyway I called Sister Bourne and asked her to speak and gave her the topic of why. Why with all of the many things she has to do in her busy schedule, why does she make time to share the gospel. She gave an amazing talk!! Then Sister Larrosa spoke on how. She spoke on being an example. It was also great, it was her first talk in English and she was so nervous, but she did amazing. Then I spoke on Being an Innkeeper. I related the parable of the Good Samaritan and how he was so awesome and helped the poor man, but what about the innkeeper. The innkeeper also played an important role. He was there when the Samaritan brought the man to him and he took him in. He took care of him. We as members can be innkeepers! Yes of course you are all encouraged to invite your friends to learn more about the gospel, but sometimes there is only so much you can do with that. But there is more to missionary work. We can as members be the innkeepers and be there for the investigators and recent converts who come to church and help them to feel loved and welcomed. We can be the innkeepers and take these people in, we can fellowship and befriend those who truly need us. So I went on to talk about simple ways to be an innkeeper- saying hi to people at church that you don't know. Sitting by someone that is all alone. Invite a less active or a recent convert or investigator over to your house for dinner. Smile at people at church!! Simple things. I then talked about the blessings that come from being an innkeeper. I concluded my talk by sharing a story that is very close to my heart. I told the story of how my parents moved to Washington and my dad was still a recent convert and they didn't know anyone and so they became less active. They didn't go to church and my family lost touch with the gospel for awhile. But one innkeeper changed all that. A man in the ward, who had been assigned to be my family's home teacher, took his job seriously and he became good friends with my dad. He loved and supported him and most of all made my dad feel welcome at church. SO my family started going back, and thanks to this innkeeper when I was three weeks old my family was sealed for time and all eternity in the Seattle Washington temple. I owe so much to that innkeeper and he will never have any idea how long reaching his efforts went. Because of him I am a member of the church, I am serving a mission. I cried a little bit as I related this story because the spirit was so strong. I then ended with my testimony and invited every member in the Pleasanton ward to be an innkeeper. Afterwards we had several people tell us how much they enjoyed their talks. One lady took me aside and told me that my talk hit her so powerfully, she said she has always wanted to do missionary work, but never felt successful in doing so- but being an innkeeper- that was something she could do. I am so grateful the spirit was able to prompt me to talk about such a topic and I want to encourage y'all to think about it as well. Think of whom you can fellowship and try to be an innkeeper- your life will be blessed immensely for it! And remember - by small and simple things are great things brought to pass.

Well Y'all I love you so much and I am so grateful for your love and support! Thank you to all of you who wrote me this week- oh man did I feel loved, a full mailbox makes for a VERY happy missionary! Thanks to: Jennie and C, Amy, Hailey, Kiley, and Maicy, Adam and Downy, Moran and I think that's it. If I forgot anyone sorry, but you can be sure that you'll be getting a letter this week! :)

SMILING ALL THE WHILE
Hermana Kleisler