Priesthood Power!

This week I am just going to give you the lowdown. It snowed again on payday, like always!

Tuesday we had a lesson with Beatrice. She is an investigator who doesn't really understand a lot, but she says she always feels these bad spirits on and around her. She said that she was cursed when she was younger while she was living in Chicago. Her son has even been choked in his sleep before, and they are always haunted. We were going to do a handoff lesson with the Elders because she speaks English. She said not today, but I was really worried about her and when I asked her, she said that the spirits were really bothering her. She asked if we could find a priest to help her cast the spirits out. We explained about the power of the Priesthood that the Elders have and that they could give her a blessing. We met Elder Selijaas and Elder Kline at the church and they were able to give her a blessing. Elder Selijaas said that it felt like someone was trying to push his hands off of her head the whole time, that they clearly did not want her to get a blessing. It was crazy. He said it was a weird blessing and they fought through the whole time. Next day, Beatrice called us and thanked us. She said she felt so much better and wanted a blessing for her son too. It was a great experience for her, even though it seemed pretty sketchy to me!

The next day we had new missionary training in Iowa City. It's like two hours away, and of course I drove because I’m such a good driver. We went to the training, and it was pretty repetitive, yeah, because I have been here like 11 weeks. It was us and a bunch of the new missionaries. We drove back and had a lesson with Alisa. She's the one who said she was born Catholic and will die Catholic. She had a lot of questions about the Plan of Salvation and it went really well.

Thursday we had zone conference in Cedar Rapids. That was like an hour and a half away. Zone conference is where we found out Elder Selijaas is leaving this Monday. It was really sad, but he has to go get his shoulder taken care of so he can keep playing basketball. The Zone trainings were really good. Then we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch – I'm not going to lie, we may or may not have watched a little bit of March madness! Then we went and visited a member that Hermana Pearson knew in Cedar Rapids. Then we drove back home.

St. Patrick's Day we visited a bunch of ladies that are in our ward.  We spent most of the day knocking even though we didn't really find anyone. Friday was a day when everyone was kind of mean to us. One guy was talking to my companion and told her how impressed he was by how well/fast she speaks Spanish. Then he looked at me and said "Tú necesitas más practica!"  Yes, I know! It was really sad, but that's OK.

Saturday we went to a baptism. His name was Thomas and he was this cute old man. After he got baptized, I asked him how he felt. He said he was just really relieved because he knew that this was what he needed to do. It was really sad to see Elder Selijaas there because he is just so heartbroken about having to go home.

Sunday we went to church and had lunch with Sister Warner and her daughters and dinner with the elders at Bishop Moose’s house. We tried to visit a couple of people after dinner, and then we went home and studied for a bit. We ran some treats by the Elder’s house and Elder Selijaas wrote us the sweetest note!  He shared his conversion story and about how sad it is to go home. He is going to be so, so awesome – we just think he is great!

I love you all so much – it's not that I don't miss you but I really don't! I love you tons but I LOVE being here and getting to serve the Lord.