Birthday Covid Strikes Again

I am doing a little better, but I also tested positive for Covid. So, it's now been two years in a row getting Covid on my birthday. What are the chances of that? I literally got Covid, both vaccines, and the booster a month ago, and I got worse symptons this time around, it's crazy. Anyway, we'll be home until Wednesday, I believe, then we'll have to wear masks everywhere we go for another 5 days. I'm glad we can leave after only 5 days, but at the same time, we'll still have Covid and even if I have a mask, I don't really want to have an in-person lesson and possibly give someone we're teaching Covid. Elder Astel tested negative and he doesn't feel sick. He mentioned maybe he had a slight headache the other day, but he may not have it yet. We've been calling a lot of people and trying to set up zoom lessons. So far everyone except one canceled, instead of joining us on zoom. I have gotten a lot more language study in though, and I watched all the videos you sent me on my birthday, that was really fun. We went to see the wrestling family, but his brother had passed away that day and he asked us to come back two days later. When we came back, his wife told us he had told her about the meeting, but he just couldn't do it today because the funeral was tomorrow and he wasn't feeling up to it, so he had gone to bed early. His wife rescheduled with us, but then I got Covid, so maybe we'll do zoom. We were supposed to meet with Frederick again yesterday, but we were quarantined and he's without a phone or home, so hopefully he understands why we missed him next time we stop by. But, he may not have even noticed we didn't come, who knows. Marie kept having to reschedule, and then we got Covid, so we had to cancel. Wesley is doing awesome, he had some misconceptions about the Godhead that we were able to explain and he said it makes so much more sense, so that was good. He loved hearing that the good feelings he's getting could be from the Holy Ghost, an actual member of the Godhead, it made him treasure those good feelings he's getting more. He's going to be reading 2 Nephi 31-32 and we were supposed to discuss it tonight, but he hasn't responded to us about doing a zoom lesson. He honestly never responds to our texts, he reads them, and will watch things we send, but if we want to talk to him, we have to go to his house usually. Carol canceled, Zay ghosted us, Aman was at work when we called, and he asked if he could call us back when he got off but that was at 10:30, so we couldn't. Hopefully, he'll call us today though. Jospeh scheduled a lesson with us, but it canceled because of Covid. Malik nothing. Marquita has moved out of our area, but we had a zoom lesson, and we have another one tomorrow hopefully with the Elders in her area. Also, when we called Marquita this week, she was at her mom's house, who took the phone from Marquita and started praising us for all the help and support we'd given her daughter. Marquita's mother, Nora, then told us how her favorite pastor had retired and she feels like her church doesn't take care of its members like it should, and wished it were a little more like our church. She then asked if we pay tithing in our church because she loves receiving blessings from paying tithing. Essentially, we now have two very interested people for the area north of us. We did not go to church, and the zoom link we had apparently only worked for the first week of January, so we didn't even get to zoom in. We did get permission to do sacrament on our own though. Nothing with Sarah and Keith this week. We didn't teach Jesse during this first dinner appointment since he had specifically asked us not to, but we plan to go over again and at least share a scripture with them. Dad is right about Jesse though, I would never participate in half the things he told us stories about. Not necessarily because they were all morally wrong, they were just crazy. Today, the Wetenkamps told us we still couldn't do laundry at their house because they are still in quarantine. I don't know much else, but they are alive and on the home stretch. Also, I got my birthday package and I loved it. So do all the Elders in the district. The Hughson Elders are shopping for us today, and when they drop it off, I'm giving them some jerky and cheez-its. I really love the ring and the oil vial, exactly the things I was looking for:) Good News: So, we had taught this lady named Mary on her doorstep a long time ago and I had forgotten where she lived. She had met with missionaries once before, but right after that, she told her pastor about it, and he convinced her to stop. Anyway, during that doorstep teaching a while ago, we essentially told her about the Great Apostasy and Restoration and how her pastor held zero authority, so she should go ask God instead of him.

Fast forward to now, we had just finished teaching Wesley and something else canceled, so we were looking at where we should go. Elder Astel was reading about previous contacts with those in the area, and when he talked about a pastor convincing someone not to meet with the missionaries, I immediately thought, "That's Mary! We need to go see her!"

So, we drove directly to her house, and when we arrived there was a car that had just turned on. I thought, "Oh no, if that's Mary, she's leaving right now, we need to get out of the car and run in front to stop her and talk to her" I also thought, "I talked to Mary once like 3 months ago, she'll find that a little weird, AND If this is not Mary, this is gonna look really weird." BUT, I got out and didn't even grab my bag because I didn't want to miss her, and it was Mary. Plus, she remembered me, and said she had a lot of questions and wanted to meet Thursday, and we did.

She's still got tons of questions and her pastor is super educated and anti, but she seems to truly want to know the truth, and I know if she keeps wanting the truth she will come to know it as we keep meeting. Miracle: This comes from the Elders in Turlock, but I thought it was funny. They had been teaching this lady and she had been praying for an answer, but she was still unsure. This week, she called the Elders and said they had to come over because she had something to tell them. She showed them a magazine she had gotten that was published by another church and somehow in reading it, she felt like she got confirmation that our church was true. She then gave them the article, so they could read it when they got a chance. Turns out it's an anti article and they talk about Joseph Smith, but somehow she got a confirmation that Joseph Smith was a true prophet from reading an anti article about him. After finishing telling us this story, the Elders said, "Take that Satan, get thee hence. Also, she is never getting this article back." 😂 Challenge: Pretty obvious one this week, I got Covid. So we have to stay in the apartment, but hopefully that will give us an opportunity to call a lot of people and maybe set up zoom lessons with those we haven't met yet. Also, I thought those matches of Jordan were awesome. That was a lot of pins for two days. He was killing everyone, but I would love to see some tougher matches for him in the future, those are even more fun to watch. Love you all, Elder Jaxon Wardle 长老

Adam sent me this picture of us going snowboarding.