Sister H. is awesome and
is totally pumped to work hard and be obedient! Being a trainer is probably one
of the coolest and most humbling experiences ever. It almost is a good thing
that both of us are so new because we are completely depending on Heavenly
Father to help us out. Remember how I said I think Sister H1 (we will call first companion Sister H1 and new companion Sister H) always got
the inspiration because she's driving? I think that is kind of true. Well and
also, Sis H doesn't know the area so God just has to tell me where to go. It is
a miracle how guided we are. I remember talking to my sister, K, and she said
one thing she missed about her mission was working so closely with the spirit.
I now know exactly what she's talking about.
Sister H and I get along
super well! We have a pretty similar sense of humor so we laugh a lot. One
night during planning we were laughing really hard and the next morning we
apologized to Sister P (landlord) for being loud and she said, "Don't you
ever apologize for laughing! That's exactly what I want to be woken up
with!" I love Sister P so much. She really helped me out this week. She
would come in while Sister H was showering and remind me that I can do anything
with the Lord. She also asked every night when we came home how we were holding
up. It's fun for Sister H and I to be able to talk about Women's Chorus songs
and people we both knew at BYU. We were having "companionship
inventory" and I asked what I can do to help her and be a better trainer.
She said "You can stop getting so many dang letters!" That probably
had to do with the fact that transfers put a hold on mail so I got 2 weeks
worth in one day.
Speaking of letters- A
your letters make me laugh really, really hard. In fact every letter I get
makes me laugh super hard. I just want you to know how much I appreciate you
taking the time to write me every week. I never get them on Sunday's because
mail doesn't come but I still love that you wish me a Happy Sunday every
time ;)
Cool experiences for the week
Tuesday we were meeting
with a part member family. We met the less active daughter for the first time
and taught the Restoration. At the end she said "I would like to come back
to church but I have work." That is my least favorite excuse because it's the
hardest to get around. But then she said "I'll start looking for a new
job." SOLID! No LA ever says that haha.
2 Sunday's ago Sister H1
and I were asked to come talk to the 6 year old Primary class about missionary
work. I asked them "Who can tell me what missionaries do?" One kid
said "They go to people's houses to eat dinner!" "yes we do
that, but what else do we do?" Another girl said "You buy food at the
grocery store!" Super glad that everyone thinks all we do is eat all
day....
This past Sunday Sister H
and I taught the High Priest lesson on Relief Society. That was a little bit
intimidating but I think it went as well as we could. At the beginning I said
we were going to introduce the topic by singing "As Sisters in
Zion" They all just looked at me with blank faces until I told them I was
joking.
Wednesday evening it was
getting close to time to go home and we had already used way too many miles
that day so I decided we should just do some tracting because I couldn't use
more miles. As we were knocking doors I kept feeling like we need to drive and
visit the B family. I ignored it because we were super close to home and that
was out of the way. Then finally the words just pretty much vomited out of my
mouth "We need to go see the Bs." Sorry for that imagery. We drove to
their house and of course they weren't there because they told us they were
going out of town. As we turned to walk away and drive home I saw two houses
across the street and I said "we need to go knock on those doors."
The first door was a man named G. He told us that he was having a hard time
because his wife left and he didn't have a job. We let him know that the
message we share can help him in any situation and Sis Hardy told him we would
pray that he would get a job. After making an appointment he told us "You
just made my day. Thank you so much." I don't remember the second house
but we probably gave them a BOM and hopefully that will be a seed planted haha.
The topic of angels had
been standing out a lot to me lately so I decided to make that part of my
personal study on Thursday by reading as much as I could in the scriptures
about angels. I read how you can identify them, what a ministering angel is,
etc. Then that night we were meeting with a less active couple who likes to ask
us a lot of little doctrinal questions. Guess what they asked? "I want to
know more about angels. I heard people who don't get to the Celestial Kingdom
are ministering angels. And how is it that we can identify an angel?" Talk
about guided studies!! I would not have known the answers to those questions at
all if I hadn't read it that morning.
Remember a month-ish ago
when we met that one guy B and I thought he was super prepared and should get
baptized? Well ever since then he never had time to meet with us and we kinda
stopped going by. But as we were driving near his house I felt like maybe we
should try him. When we knocked he was home! And we were able to set up a time!
I thought he had gotten a hold of some anti-Mormon stuff after we met him but
he just told us that he had been really busy the past month.
Friday was our
appointment with G. Just starting into the first lesson he said "I want to
know how I can be one of those sheep. (Referring to the fact that we are
Christ's sheep) We then invited him to be baptized on August 3. He looked down
and said, "That's in a couple weeks right? ....I think I'm ready"
After teaching the rest of the lesson we asked if he would prefer to go to a
Spanish or English ward. (I was a little sad thinking he probably would need to
be passed off to Spanish missionaries) He told us that he wants to go to the
English ward! YAY! So he asked if he could take notes on where the church was.
When we were wrapping up he started to cry and saying, "Thank you, I am so
happy. You are angels sent from God." I'm pretty sure that lesson was one
of my favorites so far on the mission. He kept crying for a couple minutes
thanking us.
Then I felt like we
should visit one of the active members in our ward. She wasn't home but her YSA
daughter was. We planned to teach the Plan of Salvation (We teach the first 2
lessons to our active members so Sister H can practice). After we were done she
got a little teary and told us that she really needed to hear that today. So
dang thankful for the spirit!
That night we gave J a
tour of the church building so he would feel more comfortable coming to church.
We have had a really hard time getting him to come. He kept talking about how
wonderful it felt there. He said, "Right when I walked in the door I felt
different." HIs granddaughter was running around playing with some kids
her age in our ward. At the end of our tour the grand daughter said, "Can
we PLEASEEEE come on Sunday?" And the 11 year old in our ward said,
"Yeah! You can come to Primary with me!" It was so precious. My heart
melted <3
On Sunday we called J to
see if he was coming and he said he didn't think he felt like coming and I kept
asking why and he wouldn't really give a reason so that was a little frustrating.
Then I called G and he answered and said "I'm ready to go!" Ah- I
stinkin love G. When we met with him after church he said he didn't like how
loud the kids were but that he felt very comfortable. He said "So many
people came up to say hi!" Then we met with J and I told him "Not
gonna lie J, I was heartbroken when you said you weren't coming to church"
How's that for a guilt trip? ;)
J such a diligent reader.
He always reads more than we ask and writes down his questions and highlights
what we read in lessons but there is something holding him back. He feels the
Spirit, he describes it all the time but for some reason he will not commit to
coming to church and his baptismal dates keep getting pushed back. At a lesson
a few weeks ago he told me that when I talk my eyes remind him of shark eyes. I
was like uhhhh thank you. But he said it wasn't a bad thing just that they are
very piercing and he can feel that I know what I'm saying is true. So last
night he said, "I found a scripture that describes your shark eyes! Matt
10:20" He said he feels like when I talk it is someone else talking
through me. I try not to get frustrated because it's so obvious that he knows
it's true and feels the spirit but he won't admit it. Keep him in your prayers
if you can.
At church a lady came up to
us who was obviously not a member and gave us her address and asked us to stop
by. Hello?? Miracle?? She started crying and saying her husband was cheating on
her and they were being evicted from their home. She said Elders had stopped by
but she wants her kids to talk to Sisters. We gave her a hug- she really needed
it :(
Then all during dinner an
active member's name kept coming to mind but they weren't whom we planned to
see but around 8:30 I decide we should go see them. His name is Brother D and
he's 87. I absolutely LOVE going to his house because it's like chatting with
my grandpa away from home. He has a less active daughter who is usually pretty
cold to us and never sits in on lessons. Halfway through the lesson she came in
and just sat right down on the couch to listen. As we kept
teaching her eyes got really watery. I don't know what was going on
but I know that we needed to be there.
We also had about 3 less
actives at church. That was a great feeling.
I can't even express how
much I love being a missionary. Sure it's hard, but it is so rewarding.
Training is the best thing ever. I love Companionship Study. We are able to
work together to become better teachers, set goals, and find ways to
improve. Preach My Gospel is so endless. It's like a never ending well of
wisdom. I've learned how important love and service are. When you are training
you can never say anything negative, have a bad attitude, or be lazy. Charity
is the absolute key to everything in missionary work.
I love hearing from you all
SO MUCH. Thank you for the emails, I wish I were better at replying to them
individually but please know I appreciate them. I look forward to reading them
every week. I also appreciate people who take the time to read my epically long
emails. It means a lot to have people care about what I'm doing :)
Family- you are the best.
I don't say that enough. But I think it about 50x a day.
A- things I would want in
a package: Thanks for asking!! I really want more family pictures and Sister
H has a cute little portable photo album. CDs, anything in the missionary
section at Deseret Book, skor bars, candy of course ;) I loved the pictures
from your primary class. I was smiling from ear to ear. L's pictures every week
are also really great.
I've done fairly
well with not gaining weight so far! I try not to snack since we eat such big
dinners.
I LOVE YOU ALL!
Missionary work is so much fun! I laugh a lot, I wish I could talk about all
the funny things that happen but I guess I try to focus on the spiritual
BYEEEEEEE
p.s. go give the
missioanries a referral. Please. ;)
p.p.s. Sister P said
"What the crud" this week and it was the funniest thing ever
No comments:
Post a Comment