Catherine Aldous, March 2014

From Sister Catherine Aldous:

We found some amazing new investigators this week. K was walking
her dogs when we were walking back from unsuccessfully contacting a
referral. We "talked with everyone" and started a conversation with
her. Over the course the conversation, we learned that she has been
wondering to herself what her husband will be to her after this life.
It's hard for her to accept that he would just maybe be another spirit
to her and that their relationship would not continue after this life,
but that is what she's been taught her church. She said "I guess you
don't have an answer for that, but is something I'm thinking about."
Do we ever have an answer for that?!! We were so excited to share with
her the doctrine of eternal families. We will be taking her to a
lesson in our church building tomorrow morning. Moments like that make
me so happy to be a missionary. I realize the kind of traditional doctrines that
people have a hard time with that have great answers in the Restored Gospel.

We also started teaching in 18-year-old high school senior named J.
His girlfriend is a less-active member in Washington. He was excited
to take a Book of Mormon. We are also teaching a spunky old lady name
S. She pretty thoroughly understands what we teach, and she
really tries to understand. We will be giving her a chapel tour on
Wednesday. She even understands the apostasy, and called it a "cycle".

We were part of an incredible miracle this week. A few weeks ago, we
had an evening appointment with our stake president and his wife, who
are in our ward. They learned that I played the organ. He asked if I had
played in the 18th Street building. I said how much I loved it. The
man who built that organ is now extremely anti-church and Mormon. It's
really sad. His daughter and her family live with him and his wife.
His daughter is the Relief Society president. His wife is a faithful
temple attender and a lovely member. But his daughter can't even feed
the missionaries in his home, because he gets so upset about it. I
don't know what happened, but it's a really sensitive situation. He's
definitely a "do not contact."

Pres. Barnes how did the idea that I could approach him as a musician rather than as a missionary. I
mentioned it to his wife and she asked him. We were shocked at what
resulted. I had envisioned simply going to their home for maybe fifteen
minutes and asking him about his experience with the organ. Completely
unexpectedly, he agreed to come to the church building and actually
show me the organ. He has not been in that church for possibly
decades. But in addition, they invited us to come to dinner with
them. This is the man who less than a month ago was sneering his daughter
for feeding the missionaries. On Friday night, we met them at the
church building and he spent almost an hour showing me pipes, the back
door and repair areas, and so much about the organ.  Then, almost two
hours taking us to dinner and giving us another appointment. It was
an incredible miracle.

T was baptized on February 9. He loves the Church and feels that God has led him here He loves having "technical" discussions with us, not to bash but because he loves to understand. For example, he wondered why we don't use wine and unleavened bread in the sacrament, and was completely satisfied by the answer in Doctrine & Covenants 27. He said, "There it is in black and white."

An excerpt from Catherine's journal:
"Experience is the prize of mortal life, the gift of God, the result of agency. Through it I learn the good from the evil. This life of experience is only a good thing because Jesus Christ is the Savior. Without Him, agency and experience would be condemning in their consequences.

"From Hymn 195:
'How great, how glorious, how complete
Redemption's grand design,
Where justice, love, and mercy meet
In harmony divine!'

"I don't think I have felt this grateful to my Heavenly Father before. I love Him! And I love my earthly parents for their role in bringing to pass my immortality and eternal life. A mission would be totally worth it, if only to have this moment of perspective, understanding, and gratitude."