The Spirit World is here? But what about these ghosts?

We were visiting with a less active mother and daughter today. We have been working with them for some time. We had a visit with the mother last summer out on the front porch and visited with both of them out in the chicken coop last fall. We had dropped off a Christmas gift from the branch and Sister Anderson made soup for them when they were sick. We needed eggs for the meal sister Anderson was making for the missionaries tomorrow, so I suggested we call this mother and daughter to see if they had any eggs for sale. They told us they just sold 10 dozen but would have some by this afternoon. We went out to pick up the eggs and they invited us in. This was the first time we had been invited inside. We had a nice visit with both of them around the kitchen table. We learned a little more about them. They talked about losing a family member a daughter of the mom and sister of the daughter. She died several years after giving birth to a little girl. They shared how this little girls talks to them all the time and tells them when her mother comes to visit. That was special and precious.

However, then they shared how the house they are living in is haunted and they hear this person talking all the time however they have determined he is harmless. Last week in one of our discussions a person we were visiting with said the house he use to live in was haunted. Even the ghosts must like this part of Kansas.

We had a prayer with this mother and daughter and invited them to Church and several upcoming Relief Society events. 

What to do about reversals?

Two weeks ago we had what I thought was a very good meeting with a less active member. We had visited her along with the young elders since they can’t visit single women without others present. We talked about the bible, the Book of Mormon and a little of her conversation experience. I thought we had a very good visit. The Elders then made an appointment for us to come back the following week. The following week and the day of the scheduled appointment we were traveling to district meeting with the Elders and they got a call from this Sister cancelling our scheduled appointment without any explanation as to why. Later that day the elders saw her at the library and she really didn’t want anything to do with them. My suspicion is the local Baptist Minister who lives just up the road from this Sister gave her some incorrect information.

Well, the week prior in our conversation this Sister had shared that it was the birthday of a grandson who she is raising. Sister Anderson and I had talked about doing something for the grandson’s birthday. So last Saturday Sister Anderson made a little brownie heart with green icing decorated with M & M’s and a happy birthday flag on top. We went by to deliver it and the grandmother let us in. She didn’t invite us back but we have found that deeds of kindness will get us into places that we may not get into otherwise. 

Soup for soul of the less active who are sick

There is a less active mother and daughter that we have visited with a number of times to try to get them to come back to church. They live out in the country, the mother is a widow and I believe the daughter is divorced. We have met several women that live alone out in the country, which always kind of surprises me.  On our first visit the mother had already gone to bed and the daughter talked like she wasn’t a member and didn’t seem particularly overjoyed that we came by to visit. A son who does not live in the home and is also a less active member walked out of the house while we were visiting at the door seemed a little upset and did not say hi. On the second visit we had a nice chat with the mother out on the porch. During that visit the daughter came out several times and seemed annoyed at our visit. We invited the mother to church, but she didn’t come out. There were unanswered calls to them between visits, but we kept trying. On the third visit we arrived and the mother, daughter and son, were all out in a barn being used for a chicken coop, doing something with a bunch of half grown chickens. They were all very friendly and cordial. I have a little experience with chickens so I was able to make conversation about the variety of chickens they had. We learned that the son raises chickens and quail and sells the chicks and eggs. Again we invited the mother and daughter to church. The mother mentioned that the daughter didn’t have a skirt and didn’t like to wear skirts. The next visit I went out with the branch President and only was able to talk with the daughter, but the Branch President and the daughter knew some of the same people and I thought it was a good visit. Each visit we made the daughter seemed more open to our visit. Around Christmas time we took a little gift basket to them from the branch and again the daughter’s countenance was brighter and she seemed to be happy about our visit. She even mentioned to us that she bought a skirt. Again we invited her to church and she indicated she might come after the holidays. When they didn’t come out we made a call the following week. The daughter was really sick with the flu that was going around. I suggested to Sister Anderson that maybe we should take her some of her autumn soup out to the daughter. Of course that is one of my favorites as well so I got soup for supper. When we delivered the soup the daughter again talked like she would be coming to church, if she got feeling better. Sister Anderson has done many little acts of kindness since we have been out on the mission. The following week we had branch conference and the Stake President and the Branch President went and visited this family. The mother and daughter mentioned to them about our many visits and expressed appreciation for the soup. They had a nice visit and invited them to church the following Sunday but again they didn’t show up.

Sometimes missionary work can be like this, and it can be  a little disappointing, however I still believe we will be able to get them coming out and enjoying the blessings of the gospel. 

We met with a less active grandmother who is raising her two grandchildren.

We really enjoy all the young missionaries that serve in this branch. However the set of Elders we have now, have been really effective in finding new people. We recently started doing our weekly planning with them and have done more teaching with them lately. They can’t teach a female alone so in those situations they need to have someone go with them and we are always happy to do that.

Around Christmas time they tracted out a less active member who was not on the Branch membership list. This lady was baptized about 10 years ago in upstate New York. She still keeps in contact with the Elders that baptized her, but became offended by members in the New York branch and has not been to our church for years. The Elders invited us to go with them to visit with her.

This lady is raising her two grandchildren, she mentioned that her daughter turned out not to be a good mother so she is raising the grandchildren. We had a nice visit with her, she said she loves reading the Bible. She had lost her copy of the triple combination so we gave her a new copy. She has been attending the Baptist church with her grandchildren and is thinking of joining that Church. As we visited with her she seemed to still have a conviction that both the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants were true. When the Elders talked to her at the doorstep she mentioned that she would never go back to our Church and she didn’t like Relief Society since she was more of a tom boy type.

We had a nice visit with her, I am thinking she will come back to Church, we will see what happens. I do know that Baptists have been fairly effective in getting the youth in our small town to attend their activities.

We have met people in this little town who attend the Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Mound City Christian and Community of Christ Churches. A friend of ours said the Older people attend the Methodist and Mound City Christian churches and the younger families attend the Baptist church. I am thinking they all could benefit from attending our church. We really have met many really good people who attend these other churches.