Thoughts on a Rainy Day

Greetings, everyone! All of our appointments bombed this afternoon and it's raining sooo hard you can't hear yourself think. Elder Z had to put a piece of foam over the bedroom slide so we aren't awake all night when we have big rainstorms. Elder Z is taking a little snooze on the couch trying to recover from another cold. He's been sick on and off most of the month. The humidity and pollen here often wreak havoc with transplants, creating a new disease called the "Tallahassee crud!" Honestly, that is what the doctor said I had.

We are looking forward to Zone Conference tomorrow and to the senior missionary conference next weekend. We're pretty isolated from people we know, so it is always good to get replenished. After six months we know our way around the county as well as Tallahassee which takes some of the stress out of the work. The ward attendance is slowly improving. We had about 60 people at sacrament meeting last Sunday. Two people we are teaching look very promising for accepting baptism. Another very strong less-active woman has come back to church after years of inactivity. We recently had the blessed opportunity to teach her and her non-member husband along with our mission president. The spirit was so strong we felt as if we were in the temple. Such a love fest!

We met another very interesting African-American woman yesterday through a media request for the Book of Mormon. She said she was a "minister of God," preparing to preach the gospel for the last year. She told us the young elders taught her several years ago and she lost the book. She went on to extol the virtues of the Book of Mormon, how easy it was to understand, even more than the Bible. She also related several other spiritual experiences she had, one of which happened the night before when a "Prophet" at a revival meeting told her that before nightfall the following day messengers would come to tell her of a work she was supposed to do. She then described a dream or vision she had about her "building" a large building where people of all nationalities attended from all over the world. As she described it, I thought,"She's describing the temple." When we showed her a pass-a-long card of the Salt Lake Temple, she nearly fell over, saying that was the building she had seen in her dream or vision. The spirit was very strong and she literally shivered as we taught her about temples of the Lord. We have another appointment next week. We are trying to stay steady, not get too excited about this, because people are notorious for getting very excited about the Book of Mormon and then ditching us on the second appointment. She seems very sincere and thirsting for more knowledge and spiritual enlightenment. For sure, she is dynamic!

Elder Z and I are having some success teaching our investigators who speak just a little English. We have them read the scriptures first in their native language, then in English. With our dictionaries at the ready we explain the words they do not understand. We also use the hymns in the same way. Our lessons are a bit long!! One thing is for sure, no matter what the language barriers, people know when they are loved.

Pray for Edith, the Haitian woman we are teaching. She postponed her baptism date, saying she needs more time to settle some things in her life.

Know that we love and miss you all, our dear friends and family. Let us hear from you; it gives us a big boost.

Elder and Sister Zabriskie