Grand Theft Auto

Soooo this week has been so, so crazy. As you can tell by the title of this post, you are in for a crazy story. So once upon a time, the Spanish speaking sisters were at the library doing their online proselyting time. One of them had started at a table on her Ipad because there wasn't another computer open. Well when one opened, she left both of their purses on the table behind them....bad news. After they were done, they discovered that their purses were gone. Bummer deal. So then they go outside and find....yup, their car was gone! dun, dun, dun. The keys to the car had been in their purses. So meanwhile, we had just gotten out of a lesson when the zone leaders called us and told us what had happened. They told us not to go into the church for a while because since the man had their keys, he also had the keys to the church! Bad news. A few minutes later, the assistants to the president (APs) call us and tell us that we can't go home either because he also has the key to our apartment. So we were to go home and pack an overnight back and anything that was valuable and find a member's house to stay at. So the zone leaders had been sitting around our apartment guarding it and waiting for us to pack bags. We stowed our bikes at their apartment so that if the guy broke in, he couldn't steal those. We packed our bags and while we were there the other sisters got home to pack as well. Then the Ap's came. We were waiting for the other sisters so we could drive them to their dinner and such but the Ap's told us we could get going to our dinner appointment and they could take them. So off we go to dinner and the hopes of finding a member's house to stay in that night. 

Meanwhile, the Elders hadn't thought that through too well because the other sisters no longer had a key to lock our apartment. So they texted us and asked us to go home after dinner and lock up the place. We weren't TOO worried about someone breaking in because there are a billion apartment complex's here and there is no way he could find OUR one apartment. So, after dinner we went home to lock up, but I wasn't feeling well so I went to use the restroom while we were there. While I was in the restroom, my new companion was just waiting in our room. Our room is directly straight from the front door. So I'm just washing up when I hear a little tapping on my door. I think she is just telling me to hurry so I am about to open the door and tell her I'm coming. However, as I open the door she shushes me and shoves me back into the bathroom. She said, "shhh, he's here!" A million things just start running through my mind and my reaction, "Are you SERIOUS!?" She had heard someone messing with the doorknob and so she saw him walk in, took a quick profile of him, and then locked our bedroom door. Then she had started to tap on the door quietly saying, "Sister! Sister! call the police!" Then she realized she already had the phone. So she got in the bathroom with me and we locked the door. She handed the phone to me and said she couldn't do this, and dropped to her knees in prayer. The police department answers and I tried to quietly explain that someone was in our apartment. However, they couldn't hear me so they hung up. THEY HUNG UP! At this point I'm shaking and extremely nervous, but at the same time,surprisingly calm. I then called the zone leaders. Elder W answered and I said, "Listen, the AP's told us to come back and lock the doors and a man came while we were here. We are locked in the bathroom!" Elder W said, "Wait what?" So I try to quietly explain it to him again. His response, "Wait, slow down and say that all one more time." By this point I'm a little frustrated. I said, "Elder, LISTEN. There is a man in our apartment and we are locked in the bathroom!!!" Finally it clicked and you could hear his breath catch in his throat. "uhhh, ok just hold on! we'll be right there!" Then in the background as they are hanging up you can hear Elder T say, "Why did they go back!?" So I get off the phone and I'm trying to think of what we are going to do when the man finds us. We thought we could hear him in our room going through drawers and our bathroom is in our bedroom, which means he had unlocked our bedroom door. Then we hear him talking to someone. So now I think that he has friends and they are in our house. It was a terrifying thought! I had my bag on me which was pretty heavy that I thought I could probably use to throw him off guard and my companion was planning things too. (By the way, she is a black belt in Taekwondo). So, we are preparing ourselves for the worst, but then we hear banging on our bedroom door and the Elders yelling, "HERMANAS!!! HERRRMANAAASSS!!!" So we go out, and we find the Elders and the member they were with, standing in a defensive pose, and.....Elder C. Elder C is our housing coordinator for this area. He had been told to come lock the door as well! So poor Sister Wright has never met him before and thought he was the burglar. So, it was actually a tender mercy that the police didn't show up, although a little frightening because they didn't even call us back like they usually do to make sure everything is really ok (we have pocket dialed the police before and they always call back). So, it actually turned out to be a pretty funny story! But it must have happened for a reason, because it was way too ironic that it all worked out like that in the 3 minutes we were home. And it turns out, Elder C hadn't been in our bedroom, but had been opening and closing the sliding door which is right outside our bedroom and it only sounded like he was going through drawers. So ya, pretty scary situation. I have never been in a situation like that so I was surprised how calm I was able to be. So we all learned something from the situation. And luckily, the member that had the Elders, wasn't carrying his gun that day either! It just worked out too well in so many ways. So my poor companion went into shock after that. Crazy. 

So ya, they still haven't found the guy, and he unplugged Tiwi (the monitoring system we have to make sure we aren't crazy drivers...and it can also be tracked) like right after he stole the car so they are a little worried that he knew too well what to do. But they re-keyed our apartment the next day so we were good to go home after that! We stayed at a member's house that night and it was very kind of them to let us stay there. So yes! We are all glad that we are safe and everything is ok. I mean mostly. The other sisters had to call their parents and close all their bank cards and stuff and also get a bunch of new stuff like bank cards, car, tiwi card, etc. So that is a very big bummer, but everyone is safe. But I feel so bad for my companion because she is already trying to adjust to missionary life and she's had people tell her that she is going to get murdered, seen a helicopter flying around the church searching for someone, the sister's car got stolen, then we had our little scare, and the Elders told us to still be cautious cause he could still come back. She had a little break down, but I would too! Talk about adjusting to missionary life. None of us have ever experienced anything like this! But hey, it's a funny story now right? Other than that we had a pretty good week. 

We have been doing a lot of finding and knocking on doors. We had a really good lesson with our church referral and her daughters. We taught the Restoration and she seemed to accept it pretty well. We will be going with her ten year old daughter to activity days tomorrow so that should be fun. 

Our male investigator also came to church this week and he stayed for all three hours! Woo! He's never done that. We didn't even have to ask him either. He had a meeting with the bishop this week and he told the bishop he would get baptized when he was ready. I think he is one of those people who wants it to be his own idea, so we are just going to stop talking about baptism for a few times and see what happens. He is making progress on his own so that is good :) Thanks for all the prayers! 

Also, we taught our less active couple about repentance with the Bishop last night and he invited them to get married to help them fully repent. The girl was a little sad about it because she has always wanted a big wedding, but they don't have the money for it, which is why they have been waiting. But Bishop convinced them to have a little wedding just to make it legal, and then have a big celebration and reception when they get sealed in the temple. They agreed and will be getting married on March 8! We are so excited for them :) So it has been really good! 

We helped a man and his family move this week. He is older and disabled and was a church headquarters referral. So we told him we could help and luckily the Elders could come because we did it all by ourselves. Even luckier, Elder M worked for a moving company for a few years so he was able to play "tetris" in the uhaul. So hopefully we can start teaching this man soon. They moved within our area so that is nice. 

So my thought this week is about the Savior. I am reading about when the Savior came to the Earth and when Samuel the Lamanite is giving the signs of his birth and death. I am slow, so I have never made this connection before...but I love the symbolism that goes into the signs. When He is born, there is added light in the world. A night with no darkness and also a new star. Then, when he dies, there is NO light. The light is gone for three days. So to me, that then made me think of the scripture in John 8:12. "...I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." When He was born, the light entered into the world. He IS the light. And when he was crucified, the light was taken from the world for those days while he was dead. It was something new to me and I really liked it! What a beautiful thing. We need to turn to Christ to get rid of the darkness in our lives. The darkness will surround us sometimes, but as we turn to the Savior, he can dispel any darkness that is around us. Thank you for all the love and support that you give me! I am so grateful to be a missionary. It is one of the biggest blessings in and for my life. I've learned a lot and I'm excited to be able to keep growing.

Giving "Birth" in my "old age"

Sooo, we finally got transfer calls last Tuesday night super late. I was called to be a trainer again! So I'm going to have another daughter! I'm assuming that I will just do her full training until I go home, but you never know what might happen. But I'm really excited because she will hopefully help me not get trunky! So she is super cute. She is from Arkansas. She is the youngest of 5 kids. I picked her up on Thursday and sent my mom/trainer, home. That was a sad day though. She has always been here my whole mission! And I thought I would have one more transfer with her here since the beginning, but she went home a transfer early rather than late. So that was hard to say goodbye to her. 

I feel very privileged and trusted to be called to be a trainer at this time. Only 2 English sisters came in this transfer and I was called to be one of them! Sister W was called to be the other trainer too so that was fun for us to be together for that again. It was interested to see how our trainees fit our personalities too. Sister W is outgoing and crazy (of course in a good way) and I'm a little more reserved. We both got trainees that seemed to fit with the way we are too. So I feel privileged, but I'm also nervous and feel the pressure coming from President and of course, the Lord. 

So this week we taught most of our recent converts at the beginning of the week so Sister K could say goodbye to them. I was super nervous about her leaving because everyone loves her, and also I still don't know the area super well. Sister K has a photographic memory so we never had to look at a map or anything! So this weekend we have been using a lot of maps. haha I know the major streets and it uses the grid system mostly, so that is nice, but I still struggle with all the small streets in between sometimes. I'm learning quickly though. Plus, its good for my new companion to have to look at the map and direct me so that she can learn the area too so that when I leave she will be prepared to take over. 

So one of our new convert families taught US the Restoration this week and I was actually really, really impressed. The mom was like a natural missionary. I felt like she had been studying from Preach My Gospel for months and had applied the teaching skills and the patterns that we use to give commitments and promises and such. It was amazing! haha she loved doing it too so that was really good for them to relay the information to us and bear testimony of the truths that they have in their hearts now. They need to be ward missionaries! They are awesome and the gospel really has changed their lives. We also watched "The Testaments" with them for family home evening this week. They LOVED it and watched it a second time after we left. They wanted us to bring all the church movies we had so we got a huge bag of them at transfers. They were so happy. 

This week I also studied chapter 8 of Preach My Gospel (using time wisely) so that we could have an awesome planning session and help my new companion learn how to set goals and such. So I was really excited about our weekly planning, but when we showed up, our area book had been all messed up with the other elders in our ward...so we spent all 2 and a half hours of weekly planning reassigning all the people that were theirs, back to them. We had to do it one by one and there were over 400 of them. It was ridiculous! Sometimes the iPads are a huge blessing, and sometimes they are a huge pain. That was one of the moments they were a huge pain. We didn't get to plan ANYTHING for this week. Not only did we not get to plan anything, but we NEED new investigators. So we did so much finding this weekend. We knocked on a lot of doors and most of the time they didn't answer. So I felt bad for my new companion, but hey, might as well introduce her with realistic things. haha. 

We did have a couple good lessons within the first day though so that was good. So since we needed new investigators, our district goal for the week was for each of us to find one new investigator. We knocked quite a few doors and were able to meet a few people and set appointments to come back, but they weren't there when we came back. However, at the very end of Sunday night, we were trying to contact a referral from church headquarters that we had tried earlier in the week. She was home! When she opened the door and we told her who we were, she was so excited and let us in! We were able to give her a Book of Mormon. She has a friend who recently joined the church and she is going through a hard time so she invited her to have the missionaries over. She accepted and she is sooo solid! She is a single parent and has a 10 and 4 year old, both daughters. They are adorable! We established expectations and set up a time to come back, so she became a new investigator! Miracles! 

We also are going to start teaching a part member family. The wife is a convert and the husband doesn't know anything about the church. We went over the Family Proclamation this week and we set up a time to go back and start teaching him more about the church because they want the gospel in their lives more :)

Lastly, we are hopefully going to start teaching another woman. She is a snowbird. She loves Native Americans/aborigines because her father is part native,so we gave her a Book of Mormon and set up a time to come back and go over more of it with her. She has a cousin who is a member and has loved what she has learned about genealogy from her so I think she will be really solid too! She was very kind to us and said she isn't sure why she is here per say, but I think this is why :) 

Our less active couple is doing good as well! They want to move to Utah eventually so that would probably be good for them. We went over the family proclamation and looking to God to know how to be a good parent. That was one of the things they had wanted to talk about and it went really well. They have been saying family prayer and the husband gave examples of blessings that he has already noticed and been given just from doing that. They are so awesome as well. I love them. So we have a lot of awesome potential being built up! I'm so excited! 

We also taught one of our male investigators this week and tried to uncover his concerns. He has decided he doesn't want to be baptized "yet" or pick a date. It's hard because I know he has been getting answers, he just is too stubborn to recognize them and also forgets about the experiences he has. Hopefully he comes around. He says he doesn't want to get baptized, yet he still reads the Book of Mormon and believes it is true, believes in Joseph Smith "because the Book says he was a prophet", and he was going to come to church but he got the flu and couldn't. So we still have yet to uncover the real reason. He says he still doesn't feel he has received an answer that he wasn't already baptized by the proper authority. 

Anyway, it has been a really good week! I'm really focusing on the fundamentals this past week and trying to be the best trainer I can. I want to get her started on all the right habits now so she can be going strong when I leave! haha this time feels a lot more like parenthood since the last sisters I trained. Probably because that is going to be one of the next big steps in my life. Which is super weird to think about, so I just won't think about it right now. haha. So this week I would say I have learned mostly about the importance of goals. If we don't have goals to work towards, then we aren't progressing. And many times when we aren't progressing, we start to go backwards. We need to continually make goals for ourselves so we can keep growing spiritually. It is so important! So I invite each of you to make a goal for yourselves in an area that you want to work on the most. For example, I am working on studying the Christlike attributes right now and also the fundamentals. Then I make little goals that help me focus on them. Maybe you want to be more outgoing with the gospel and open your mouth, so make a goal to talk to 1 person that week about the gospel, whether you just mention it or invite them to do something, as you prayerfully set a goal and stick to it; God will help you reach your goals if you do everything you can! Just like our new investigator for the week! We didn't reach that goal until the very end of the night on the last day. Yet, we pushed forward in faith and did all that we could, and God helped us with the rest. Blessings and miracles occur when we have set goals prayerfully. Also, setting the time when you want to accomplish the goal is so important as well, or else we will all procrastinate! I hope you all set goals this week to help you keep progressing! :) Thanks for your love and support! Have a great week!