Elder Dallin Schipaanboord: Rad Week

This week was pretty rad! We had a lot of stellar lessons with a lot of people! We met with Bro Kennedy a couple of times and talked with him about the health blessings of following the commandments, because he has insomnia and is always tired during the day and awake at night. We shared part of The Oath and Covenant of the priesthood as well as part of The Word of Wisdom, "To the renewing of their body" "They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint" and invited him to come to church, and HE DID!!! We have been working so hard to get him to church, and he finally came, it was such a happy day!!

We got to go out with Bro Aukema a few times this week, and he brought us to 2 different people houses, and now have 2 new people to teach! One of which was a lady named Billy. She and her family are super awesome. She was baptized years ago but doesn't go and doesn't remember much about the church. She lost her dad about 6 months ago and has been having a really really hard time with it, it is really sad, but we taught her about the spirit world and the resurrection and she found some comfort from it, it was pretty neat.

We also got to meet with the Wilson and had a really good lesson with them about keeping the Sabbath day Holy. We talked about how it is a commandment, just like "Thou shalt not kill" and "Thou shalt not commit adultery," and how all of the rest of the commandments only have one verse, but keeping the Sabbath day Holy has 4. We also talked about the blessings that come from it and read with them from Isaiah 58 where the Lord says that if we turn away our foot from the Sabbath (doing what we want) then he will cause us to ride upon the high places of this world. They really like it and said they were going to try and come, but they didn't..... and that's okay, they understood the message and we are going to continue to work with them. It's hard for them, cause she works and they have 3 crazy kids, so they just decide to stay home, but we will get them there!

We then went over to Cody Pettis' house and taught him about baptisms for the dead and family history work, and got him started up on familysearch.org he loved it! We didn't have much to go off of at first, but once we put in a few names, sooo many more filled in!! And there were so many green temples which means he can take those names to the temple! We are going to work with him some more to get him to the temple and take those names.

During our weekly planning session, Elder Sabin and I did comp inventory and basically found out how much we don't like each other.... hhahahaa!! But we were able to work through a lot of it. Thankfully he was willing to change and move forward, cause I was being really prideful and didn't want to change at all, but he softened my heart and helped me realize how mean I had been and a lot of thing I need to change. Don't get me wrong, we aren't buddy buddy but I am thankful he is my companion, he is making me a better missionary and better person.

Last thing. Yesterday we went out with the Aukema's to visit this family, the Gravely's, and my heart was so full!! She loves the gospel and the church, but her "significant other" wont let her go to church with her kids. It is really sad! The kids are pretty physically handicap (born with no legs, severe allergy to rubber and skin will peel off if he comes in contact with it, their hands are deformed ect..) and when they go to the doctors, they need both parents signatures to go through with things, and the guy wont sign so they can go to church.... it makes me so sad! I have met them 2 times, and I love them so much, they are the sweetest kids that I have ever met! They love sports and always want us to go outside and play basketball or baseball with them, it is so awesome!

This area is pretty slow, and it has taken some getting used to, but it is growing on me a whole lot! The people here are so amazing, and the Lord has been softening the hearts of a lot people. It is so awesome! I really do love it!

Thank y'all so much for all the support, love y'all so much!!

Elder Skippy