Sent: Monday, October 24, 2011 8:59 AM
Crazy week! Definitely one to remember!
This week one of our investigators named Nio (Knee-Oh) called us and told us that she was getting evicted from her apartment. Kind of odd that I prefaced the situation this way... It had been a couple of weeks since we had made contact with her. We had only taught her the Restoration, but she seemed interested with that first lesson we had with her. We called off and on, to no response for two weeks straight. Finally, during weekly planning we gave her another try, lo and behold she picked up! She told us she had read the section we had given her, but was getting evicted. She had a place set-up to live, so the least we could do is offer to help move her stuff. Good thing I was son-of-a truck driver/ Elders Quorum President! We went over and loaded up her stuff into the cute little U-haul, and muddled down to Independece KY. (Just a side note we had to take "Turkeyfoot Road" to get there. Bienvenidos a Kentucky!) The unload went smoother than we thought it would... When we got to the town-home she was going to live in, there was still furniture.... She was actually going to be moving into the town-home of her ex-husband, and he would be picking up a studio apartment. Well as it turns out the husband left a note, saying he'd left, and to take all of the furniture! Nio didn't know what to think, just cry. We don't know why things happened the way they did, but we will be heading back Tuesday to go see her.
If you happen to be a Bengals fan you are in luck! Fenene one of the Defensive Linemen is a member of the Highland Heights Ward. His wife who has been a long time investigator got baptized! It was a simple service for this well to do family, but more beautiful than one can imagine! You could see a stark difference, just with there Vehicles. Fenene drove in with a Chevy that more resembled a Kenworth than a Silverado. It, was huge... However with that difference you could see the spirit work in it's small simple means.
The story of Fenene was interesting. He grew up a member in American Samoa. He'd played football in high school, but he never claimed to be that good. His parents sent him off to the Mainland to get and education, and send home money to help them. That's what he did. He got picked up at a Jr. College to play football, because his grades weren't UCLA worthy. He worked as a bouncer, and a factory worker, trying to get his crazy life in place to help himself, and his family back home.
Finally it came mission time. He went home to begin to prepare for the mission, until life threw a crazy turn at him. Coach Meyers from the University of Utah went all of the way to Samoa a to throw a deal at him. Brother Fenene said he had one of the hardest decisions ever. It didn't help that his mom said, "Mission", and his dad said, "Go play Football, God knows our circumstances". To make the decision harder the dad was a 1st Counselor in the Bishopric.
Well he chose Football. He didn't tell us why he made that decision, the regrets, or the joy, but he commenced to tell me about how family, how he now has a brother who will be able to serve a mission. His story was quite remarkable. I now see NFL players in the a different light. Especially when he made the comment "Ben" (Rothesberger) is hard to take down!
This week has been great! Just hope we can keep plugging away! As for my birthday, I'm stumped as to what I want. I will get the birthday order by Halloween! (That way I can actually look forward to Halloween).
Love you all and have a good week,
Para Siempre,Elder A. Ipson
The Great Ohio Columbus Mission
