I hope it was a good one for all of you!! We had a good one and got to know a lot of the members here as we joined some of their activities.
Ok... So a lot happened last week. Starting last Monday we got a heartbreaking call from a member in one of our wards who knows Mary (someone we are teaching) really well. She called us and told us that after 6 months of being sober, Mary drank again. Mary has struggled a lot of her life with alcoholism and has been doing so great and attending addiction recovery classes to try to overcome this addiction she has. Every day is still a struggle for her and she has found strength in listening to General Conference talks and reading the Book of Mormon. Our lesson last Sunday, she had the impression that Joseph Smith is a true prophet and she instantly had the desire to drink stronger than she has had in a long time. She fell into that temptation. She knows that Satan is really trying to work on her because every time she has a spiritual experience, he tries to tempt her in some way.
This week she also broke her arm! So it has not been her favorite week, but she has been learning a lot through it. We did Come Follow Me with her on Sunday and it was perfect for her! It talked about the Anti-Nephi-Lehi's and how they buried their weapons. Mary related to that very well and told us that she feels that need so great to bury her addictions. She hates not having control on her life and is in a battle trying to win that control back. We have offered multiple times to her a Priesthood blessing and she has turned us down every time but, this week we got a call from her and she said, "can I still get one of those blessing things?" We said, "of course!!" We know that will help her so much and give her the strength she needs to continue on through her trials.
We had a lesson set up with Vince, but sadly that did not end up happening. He did not join the call and we have not been able to get in contact with him since then.
I'm not going to lie, I was kinda sad about that. We have been really trying hard to find someone new to teach in Parma, but it has been a bit of a struggle. Sister Hartshorn and I have discussed a lot about faith. I know that if we continue to work diligently and in faith we will be blessed and will be able to find those that are seeking to find the gospel.
After we had that discussion, we were calling a few potentials that we have called multiple times in our area book and someone answered!! We talked to a girl named Chloe and she said that she wants to meet with us! We could hardly believe it! We will not be able to meet with her in person due to covid concerns but she is working on getting the ability to video call so we can have a lesson this week!
Another update on the technology side of missionary work is that our Mission will also be starting up an Instagram page and YouTube page in addition to the Facebook pages we have been working from! There are so many miracles in store. I know it! Like I said before life is hard most of the time, but if we are diligent and continue in faith it will ALWAYS work out. That is a promise.
I love you all!! Have a great week!
Love,
Sister Beutler
