Quincy is the Promised Land

Holy macaroni! I can't believe I haven't told any of you about last week yet!!! I have so much to tell you! 

​Honestly, almost all week has revolved around a couple we started teaching this week, so it's time for you to meet Kevin and Rachel! 

The story begins last Monday, at 6pm. You have to understand that nights in the midwest are the worst, because everyone goes to bed when the sun goes down. To make matters worse, working on p-day evening, we don't get a dinner hour, so we have to knock until 9. It's brutal. 

On top of that, it started raining right at 6. 

Honestly, we didn't have good moods at all. But we had to go out and work, after all, I'd just written a poem about this whole concept. Definitely wasn't about to let that be poetic hypocrisy! So, knocking we went!! 

After a train of events, we ended up in a trailer park on the edge of town. I'd never knocked a trailer park before, but I definitely wasn't looking forward to it! As expected, very few people answered, and those who did were super rude. 

It was finally time to head home, as we were walking back we saw a trailer with it's lights on. Elder McCain and I made a rule that we'd always knock on lit houses if we were walking in for the night, unless we really are out of time. So, pretty begrudgingly, we knock one more door in this trailer park. 

The door opens, and Kevin introduces himself and invites us in and has us take a seat. His girlfriend Rachel then comments on how interesting it is that we'd stop by when she was praying for guidance in her life and for a knowledge of the church she needed to join and raise their son in. She proceeds to tell us her and Kevin's life story, and how they have both been led from church to church and over the process have quit smoking cigarettes and pot and stopped drinking. We taught them about the Book of Mormon, and asked if they'd be baptized if they knew it was true. They told us they were actually looking at being baptized, but that none of the churches they'd looked into felt right. That's actually what they'd been praying about! 

We walked out a little shellshocked, but full of gratitude. We probably woke up the whole park singing The Spirit of God.

We met with them again on Wednesday, and Kevin had already read most of 1 Nephi, and was totally applying lessons from the reading into our discussion. About half-way through the lesson Rachel stopped us and said that she had a really important question from the bible and the book of mormon. We said to go for it, and this is what she said, direct quote, "I was reading about the bible temple, and noticed that every time God called a prophet like Moses, they built temples. Kevin said that Nephi built a temple too, so I feel like if your church is the true one, they'd have temples. Do you have a temple?" 

WHAT?!?!?! 

Long story short, they're getting baptized in 6 weeks, as soon as they get married and stop drinking coffee. Kevin is already bearing testimony of the Book of Mormon to his family, and Rachel came to Womens Conference on Saturday. She's already asking everyone to call her Sister Cassidy. 

I'm so in love with them. 

They were pretty much the focus of the week. We also taught Jeri, she's a little hesitant, but making progress, Biron came to church again, and was actually sober this time. He's making friends, so that's good. It was the primary program this Sunday. So there was actually 15 non-members there, and 4 investigators came. It was an awesome day. 

The other highlight of the week was Wednesday night, we had the chance to help clean the temple. There's something amazing about it when it's empty, the spirit was so strong. We got to clean the sealing rooms and the bell tower, which was so amazing! I can only imagine what it must have been like to help build the temple in the early church. I admire those saints a lot. 

Due to the primary program, and the 15 non-members, my poem is a little short this week. My apologies. 

Oh how we're blessed, 

By the Lord, 

We do as we're told, 

We obey. 

By God we're blessed, 

As we share His word,

He shows us Miracles, 

And in gratitude, 

We pray. 

​Love you all! ​

​That's all for now. Here's some pics! 

Us bringing Bishop's Wife a door, I guess she collects old doors...

Last P-day, over the river. Weird pic, but it's one of the only ones I got, so whateves.

The Tower after we cleaned it. Doesn't it look so clean!?!?!