WHEW!!!

April 3, 2011 Sunday

Yesterday afternoon Fifi met us at the church for her 2nd lesson. She hadn’t read any of the stuff we’d given her which was disappointing so we spent a lot of time on the importance of that and also a couple of the main teachings of the first lesson we had gone over quickly the first time we met with her. She had gone to Institute on Tuesday night and seemed happy with everything she’d experienced. Then she dropped the bomb: “This is the last time—I’m going to Indonesia.” We both about died, but then she went on and explained that she had a month off from school and so was going to visit her family. She assured us she would be back. Whew! And then she came to church today and stayed for all 3 meetings. It was testimony meeting, so she got a wide variety of teachings, struggles, blessings and testimonies. The investigator class lesson was about faith and how it leads us forward in the gospel. Scott Mortly is an excellent teacher and she enjoyed it. As we sat down in RS, she asked, “So what do they do here?” I explained and she sat through a 3rd meeting. It was neat because between meetings she went up and spoke to 2 different Young Single Adults that she has met at Institute. It seemed like she was taking care of her own fellow-shipping. Before she left, she made sure that we knew when she was returning (May 10) and that we would get hold of her as soon as she came back. What a sweetheart! She was wearing a beautiful skirt. When I admired it, she said it was of Indonesian batik.
This morning we went to the Como Ward so Orson could confirm Yingping. She showed up in a dress and cute sandals. (Last week, she’d worn jeans and Nikes.) Her confirmation blessing was beautiful. Sister Bancroft and I both wrote as fast as we could to get down what was said. She is going to combine our records, type it up, maybe frame it, and gift it to Yingping. We are so glad the Bancrofts are in the Como Ward and can strengthen Yingping for this first little while.
The bishop told us today he’d gotten permission for us to teach Ariel again; but he said we have to teach it in small pieces and slowly. I guess her dad thought we’d just dumped too much on her—and we only did half of the first lesson. But we will do anything so she can be taught. She is super faithful in coming to church.