We are teaching a couple of twin 12 year old girls who are the daughters of an inactive member. It´s been tough because although they have an impressive gospel knowedge and want to go to the church and the activities, one of them wanted to get baptized and the other, no. We had trouble finding out why, especially because ther mom, who turned away from the church because whe didn´t want to give up drinking, wasn´t helping us either. After trying many times to talk to her mom and getting rejected, we found her raking the grass and offered to help. She told us "no." After trying unsuccessfully to talk to her about her daughters or help her rake, we turned around dismayed and started to walk away.
"Elders!" she yelled.
"Yeah?"
"Do you really want to help me?"
"Yeah, of course" we replied.
"I couldn´t sleep last night, I was so worried about all the things I have to get done. Here, take the rake and I´ll go get another one"
We helped her rake the grass and she still didn´t want to talk, but asked us to help her with some other chores. We then moved a pile of wood in her yard and found an killed a rat that was in her shed. After 2 hours of helping her she opened up.
"I want my daughters to get baptized," she told us. "I want them to get baptized, but I want it to be the both of them, not just one. Florencia wants to get baptized, but Victoria´s brother told her that if she gets baptized her dad (who lives in the US) will stop sending her money."
We were able to talk to Victoria, and she´s now going to talk to her dad, who we hope won´t have a problem with her baptism. It was amazing, however how much raking some grass and killing a rat really helped her mom - who came to church yesterday for the first time after years of inactivity.
If you really want to help somebody and don´t know how, go to their house and rake their grass. He´ll open up and start to help himself.
Elder Casdorph
