We were able to teach Diana's (less active) daughter, Becka, this week. It was good, we talked about the Tree of Life.
We don't have very many investigators now because we had to drop them. It's sad when that happens, but when they're not keeping their committments you have to. That's what's starting to happen with the Mangolds. :(
He says he wants to know if what we're teaching is true or not, but his actions don't really match that. They used to be really good at keeping the committments we left them but now they're starting to stop doing that and they're not coming to church as much.
It's also been hard to talk to people on the street because they're all inside because it's cold now and it's getting darker later. But through it all we are keeping a positive attitude. I love talking to people about the gospel!!!
We were teaching a less active member, Sister Frank, and her 8 year old daughter Kassie who just recently got baptized. We asked them if they would think about the baptismal covenants they made at baptism during the Sacrament and Sister Frank said yes but Kassie said, I don't know. Her mom said, "What do you mean you don't know." Kassie: "It's not like I know the future."
We had interviews with President Jergensen this week and something really funny happened during the interviews. We were all just talking and I said "Hey, you should put on a skit or something." So they actually did! They started acting out Pres and Sis Jergensen dating and their proposal. And then they started acting out Book of Mormon stories. Nephi and his brothers going to get the brass plates from Laban. It was so funny, I played Lehi and the Elder that played Nephi started singing, I guess he wanted to turn it into a musical. I wish I would've recorded it and then you all would be rolling around laughing!!!
Well...I must go now, love you!
--

Hermana Jilyn Hepworth
8515 Douglas Avenue #19
Urbandale, Iowa, 50322

Living Without Jesus

"Living without Jesus is like dribbling a football." ~This was on a church marquee.
Since it hasn't been too long since my last pday not too much has happened, here are the highlights:
So, this week I cut a woman named Debbie's hair. It's funny how we met her, she's the mother-in-law of an inactive woman. Her daughter, Krista, has no idea that we're teaching her mom, so it's pretty funny. She saw us walking on the street a couple of months ago and told us to come over for dinner and she's been feeding us every other week since then. She's also going to make us hats and scarves...she's an awesome lady full of lots of energy!
We also met this less active, Wade, who has never been to church before. We met him a couple of weeks ago and invited him to church and guess what? He came!
I read Pres Monson's talk from Nov 2010 General Conference, I believe. "The Divide Gift of Gratitude", here is an except that I loved,
"Who was this “man of sorrows, … acquainted with grief”? “Who is this King of glory,” this Lord of lords? He is our Master. He is our Savior. He is the Son of God. He is the Author of Our Salvation. He beckons, “Follow me.” He instructs, “Go, and do thou likewise." He pleads, “Keep my commandments.” Let us follow Him. Let us emulate His example. Let us obey His words. By so doing, we give to Him the divine gift of gratitude."
Love you all!
--

Hermana Jilyn Hepworth
8515 Douglas Avenue #19
Urbandale, Iowa, 50322

Halloween

Well, much has happened since I last wrote. We've been able to teach Mat (investigator) and Tami (less active) a couple of times. It's amazing to see how much growth Mat has made since we've started teaching him. When we first met him he only believed in God when things were going good in his life. He never prayed or read in the scriptures. But now he is praying everyday and he says that he feels better after he prays and he knows that there is a God. The scriptures in Alma 30:44 is perfect evidence that there is a God. "All things denote there is a God; yea, even the bearth, and call things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its dmotion, yea, and also all the eplanets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator." So now that his faith is growing the next step is repentence and so we invited him to repent in preparation for baptism and he said he would. :)

We had a lesson with Diana (less active) and Becka (investigator). We talked about the people of Ammon and how they repented (much like we did with Kami and Seth.) But instead of making big sword we just made little paper swords and wrote things we wanted to repent of on them and then tore them up in little pieces and "buried" them in the garbage. When we first told Becka about it she acted aprehensive about it and for a while she just sat there and didn't do anything so I was thinking in my mind that she just wasn't going to do it. But then she started writing things down and she was really getting into it and taking it seriously.

We went over an article in the October Ensign "How to study the Book of Mormon" by Elder Christofferson with some people this week and this is a part that I really liked in it.
"The Book of Mormon authors wrote with future generations in mind, specifically the latter days. In abridging the Nephite records, Mormon said he could not include “even a hundredth part” (see 3 Nephi 5:8; see also Words of Mormon 1:5). Moroni commented, “I speak unto you as if ye were present, and yet ye are not. But behold, Jesus Christ hath shown you unto me, and I know your doing” (Mormon 8:35). These two authors and others, acting under inspiration, wrote what would be of greatest benefit to us in these latter days.

We should therefore study with these questions in mind: “Why was this included? How does this apply today and to me?” President Benson observed, for example, that in the Book of Mormon we find a pattern for preparing for the Savior’s Second Coming. We learn how disciples of Christ live in times of war, deal with persecution and apostasy, do missionary work, and respond to the dangers of materialism.2 As Nephi did, when we study, we should “liken” the scriptures to ourselves—that is, try to discover how to apply what we find in the Book of Mormon (see 1 Nephi 19:23)."

We had a branch Halloween activity and I put on my haircutting apron and went as a hairstylist and Sister Hancock didn't dress up as anything but I told everyone that she was a teacher. (Which she actually is in real life :D) On Halloween we had to come in at 6 and so we carved a pumpkin and played speed scrabble, it was super duper fun. :D.

LOVE YOU ALL!

Hermana Jilyn Hepworth

8515 Douglas Avenue #19

Urbandale, Iowa, 50322