Stella

Dear America,

This week was a 'Stella' week. It was long. It was weird at times. But it was Stella. I say this based on an extremely frustrating woman that we met while we were out knocking on gates. She was obviously a pastoress married to a pastor teaching her children to be pastors. Which I have no problem with. I like teaching educated people. She was just so. prideful. After initially telling us that she was too busy to even talk, she spent half an hour trying to argue and insisting that she wanted to be taught. She spent a long time telling us to stop worshiping the devil and accept Jesus and stop deceiving people. We were able to slip in a few words and asked her just to pray and ask God about it. She refused to ask, saying that she didn't "want to waste His time asking stupid questions." At one point in the lesson we pulled out a copy of the Book of Mormon and she told us to leave. I'm pretty sure I heard the words, "A Bible! A Bible! We have a Bible!" Some people are really deceived by Satan. I'm sure she thinks the same thing about us. She told us so. That was Stella.

We had the opportunity to finally sit down with a man and his wife that we've been waiting to teach. We weren't sure where to start with them, but as we started teaching about the Plan of Salvation he got a deep look on his face and asked us about Adam and Eve. He said that the story never really made sense to him and he wanted to know why God would let things work out that way. There seem to be some major contradictions. It was really neat because he has been wondering deeply about it for so long and the answer is within his grasp (now that he has the Book of Mormon). I gave him an assignment to read 2 Nephi 2 and find his answer. He said he has a lot of deep questions like that and I'm excited for the restored gospel to start answering them.

I had a personal triumph this week. One family got offended a few weeks ago at church. They stopped coming and said they would never attend Vitin Branch again. We've been meeting them and trying to smooth things over. They finally came back to church on Sunday, which was a big deal for us. It was great to see some fruits of our labor.

Love,

Elder Nelson