This week has been a little rough/slow. We didn't get as much done as we
would like to, or have as much success as sometimes, but we are still SO
blessed and grateful for the miracles that God is constantly providing.
Last Monday we had to say goodbye to our sister training leader. It was her time
to go home, dang it. It was really emotional and we all ended up crying.
My companion and I agreed that it made it feel like our missions were coming to an end or going by really quickly and that we didn't want it to be over. We love being missionaries. Our sister training leader
was pretty sad, but of course we sang her our "Goodbye" song and hopefully it brightened her day :) She even recorded it! Ha Ha. The things we come up with are ridiculous. So it's super crazy, but during transfers our whole zone basically stayed the same. Only one person left but a few areas got split so there are a few more companionships now. We have 28 people in our zone! They are probably going to split our zone next transfer which would also be crazy. There are currently two stakes in our zone but each stake would then be its own zone and every ward would have its own set of missionaries! Crazy. We told one of our ward mission leaders that we were being transferred and he was VERY upset and their family cried!!! We then later told them we were joking and they weren't too happy about that ;) Ha Ha it was too funny. So since it was the beginning of the transfer, our zone leaders offered the chance to give blessings to anyone who would like one. A few of us decided to take advantage of that opportunity and it was really good. It was a really good way to start this transfer off and I really enjoyed my blessing. It gave me some good direction as to what I can do better and what I need to focus on and things that will help me. It was really great and the spirit was really strong. OH and we got a new district leader (the only person that left, was our district leader). He has been in my district from the beginning of my mission.
I LOVE HIM. He is so great and he always makes us feel so good! He's just awesome!
So we are really excited about that too. So we had a good start to our week, but it kind of goes downhill from there for a while. That same day, we had two people fall off date. Remember the old crazy lady? She does not understand that she needs to be baptized. She thinks her baptism into the Catholic church is good enough and that he had the proper priesthood in order to baptize her. She is finally opening up to us and talking more, which is why we are just now finding this all out. She just wants to be baptized so she can go to church with her daughter (who is a member). We try to explain she doesn't have to be baptized to go to church but she doesn't really listen/understand. Soooo we don't know what to do about her, but she was supposed to be baptized on the 25th, and obviously isn't now. We then had another woman fall off date. She was supposed
to get baptized on the 18th, but she didn't come to church. She keeps saying she knows the church is true and that she WANTS to get baptized, but then she just doesn't do anything about it! ARRRG. Then we had two appointments fall through right after all of this. Needless to say, we were a little down and frustrated at this point and didn't quite know what to do. However our zone leaders told us to go out to dinner or ice cream and cheer ourselves up :) We had a young woman (we LOVE her) who was going to come out with us and she decided she wanted to take us to In & Out Burger for dinner. It was fun and it was great. Plus then she came to a lesson with us after and we were able to have a member present! Boo ya. That's the best and it helps so much. So that was great. However, the next day I was sick ALL day. It was rough. I never threw up, but was on the verge, with a pounding migraine all day. ROUGH. We didn't do diddly squat. I slept on and off for most of the day and then later we watched "The Testament" on our tiny DVD player. That was a bummer to be in all day because Wednesday is usually a busy/long day for us and we are able to get a lot done. On Thursday I was feeling a lot better so we went out all day. It was pretty productive! We had someone pull us aside today at one of the apartment complexes. We have talked to him multiple times but he is never interested. However he had a ton of questions for us! He is on a lot of drugs, but he wants to be happy like us and change his life around. We had a really good lesson with him and set up another appointment with him. But he is 20 years old so he goes to the singles ward, therefore, he's not ours and we had to give him to the Elders over that ward. So they now take care of him. But it was awesome for him to come up to us and want to learn more finally! We also had some good lessons that day. We did some service for an old lady that we met last week. We dusted her house and stuff and she was just baffled that we would actually do that FOR FREE. She kept trying to pay us but of course we declined and told her we just want to do what Christ would do. So we are going back this week too :) I think she has good potential. We also taught one of our investigators a great lesson and he
is on date for February 1st! Woohoo! He has been SUCH a miracle. He seriously
is such a different person and he loves the church. He is so excited and he tells us all the time that he feels SO great. He said he has seen a ton of missionaries before but has never talked to them. In his words, "I think you two being beautiful really opened that door for me." We love him and he has been someone we can count on to listen and want to change! So hopefully that continues. He even said the prayer in Sunday School! We were so proud. Imagine it's like being proud of your child when they do something good! ;) We also got some fabulous news that one of our investigator couples
are getting married! YAY! Due to some family things and the fact that Melody doesn't want the wedding to be a big deal, it's just going to be us and the bishop at the wedding...in his office. Crazy girl. But she insists. She doesn't even really want pictures!!!! OY. (FYI if I haven't said, the girl isn't a member and the boy is a divorced father and is a member). Anyway so we are very honored to be a part of their special day! The next day was a bummer too. We knocked all day and no one opened the door. We were so tired and hot so we took a minute to sit down by a little pond and call some people. However, there was also a couple walking by that wanted to rest so they sat by us and started to talk to us. They had been having a lot of spiritual discussions the night before and every question/topic they had talked about came up in our conversation. We ended up teaching the Plan of Salvation and also talked about Joseph Smith a little bit. It was a really good conversation and we also found out that they were former investigators! They haven't been taught in a few years though and they said we could talk to them more! We said a prayer with them and the wife was even crying! We made the comment that it was a sign that we had run into them and answered a lot of the questions they had talked about, and she said she knew it was too! SO, there you have it. The Lord knows best and he put us/them in our path. We NEVER sit down to rest, but we had a phone call to make and we were hot and tired, so we did and look who the Lord gave us. So that was definitely another blessing! We KNOW we were supposed to run into them that day. Lastly, we took the same couple that will be getting married to the mission presidents
fireside on Sunday. I think she enjoyed it, but he really did! We really pushed to get him there but he was glad we had pushed him in the end. She is still unsure about some things and doesn't want to jump into it if she doesn't KNOW 100% that it's what is right. But at the fireside they have recent converts tell their conversion story and I think that was super good for her too hear. She only knows Mormons who have grown up in the church. A convert from my old area was also there, so I had her talk to her a little bit. Speaking of her, she is getting her patriarchal blessing next Sunday, and since her family kicked her out, she wants us to go with her! Another huge honor. I'm so happy for her. She is a great girl and so strong. I'm truly blessed to be having all of these opportunities. So even though we had a few days of knocking with no one answering, and also had to stay in one day, we are SO blessed and it's amazing to see all of these little miracles. I LOVE being a missionary, even though you have some "unrewarding" days, the little things always make up for it :)
to go home, dang it. It was really emotional and we all ended up crying.
My companion and I agreed that it made it feel like our missions were coming to an end or going by really quickly and that we didn't want it to be over. We love being missionaries. Our sister training leader
was pretty sad, but of course we sang her our "Goodbye" song and hopefully it brightened her day :) She even recorded it! Ha Ha. The things we come up with are ridiculous. So it's super crazy, but during transfers our whole zone basically stayed the same. Only one person left but a few areas got split so there are a few more companionships now. We have 28 people in our zone! They are probably going to split our zone next transfer which would also be crazy. There are currently two stakes in our zone but each stake would then be its own zone and every ward would have its own set of missionaries! Crazy. We told one of our ward mission leaders that we were being transferred and he was VERY upset and their family cried!!! We then later told them we were joking and they weren't too happy about that ;) Ha Ha it was too funny. So since it was the beginning of the transfer, our zone leaders offered the chance to give blessings to anyone who would like one. A few of us decided to take advantage of that opportunity and it was really good. It was a really good way to start this transfer off and I really enjoyed my blessing. It gave me some good direction as to what I can do better and what I need to focus on and things that will help me. It was really great and the spirit was really strong. OH and we got a new district leader (the only person that left, was our district leader). He has been in my district from the beginning of my mission.
I LOVE HIM. He is so great and he always makes us feel so good! He's just awesome!
So we are really excited about that too. So we had a good start to our week, but it kind of goes downhill from there for a while. That same day, we had two people fall off date. Remember the old crazy lady? She does not understand that she needs to be baptized. She thinks her baptism into the Catholic church is good enough and that he had the proper priesthood in order to baptize her. She is finally opening up to us and talking more, which is why we are just now finding this all out. She just wants to be baptized so she can go to church with her daughter (who is a member). We try to explain she doesn't have to be baptized to go to church but she doesn't really listen/understand. Soooo we don't know what to do about her, but she was supposed to be baptized on the 25th, and obviously isn't now. We then had another woman fall off date. She was supposed
to get baptized on the 18th, but she didn't come to church. She keeps saying she knows the church is true and that she WANTS to get baptized, but then she just doesn't do anything about it! ARRRG. Then we had two appointments fall through right after all of this. Needless to say, we were a little down and frustrated at this point and didn't quite know what to do. However our zone leaders told us to go out to dinner or ice cream and cheer ourselves up :) We had a young woman (we LOVE her) who was going to come out with us and she decided she wanted to take us to In & Out Burger for dinner. It was fun and it was great. Plus then she came to a lesson with us after and we were able to have a member present! Boo ya. That's the best and it helps so much. So that was great. However, the next day I was sick ALL day. It was rough. I never threw up, but was on the verge, with a pounding migraine all day. ROUGH. We didn't do diddly squat. I slept on and off for most of the day and then later we watched "The Testament" on our tiny DVD player. That was a bummer to be in all day because Wednesday is usually a busy/long day for us and we are able to get a lot done. On Thursday I was feeling a lot better so we went out all day. It was pretty productive! We had someone pull us aside today at one of the apartment complexes. We have talked to him multiple times but he is never interested. However he had a ton of questions for us! He is on a lot of drugs, but he wants to be happy like us and change his life around. We had a really good lesson with him and set up another appointment with him. But he is 20 years old so he goes to the singles ward, therefore, he's not ours and we had to give him to the Elders over that ward. So they now take care of him. But it was awesome for him to come up to us and want to learn more finally! We also had some good lessons that day. We did some service for an old lady that we met last week. We dusted her house and stuff and she was just baffled that we would actually do that FOR FREE. She kept trying to pay us but of course we declined and told her we just want to do what Christ would do. So we are going back this week too :) I think she has good potential. We also taught one of our investigators a great lesson and he
is on date for February 1st! Woohoo! He has been SUCH a miracle. He seriously
is such a different person and he loves the church. He is so excited and he tells us all the time that he feels SO great. He said he has seen a ton of missionaries before but has never talked to them. In his words, "I think you two being beautiful really opened that door for me." We love him and he has been someone we can count on to listen and want to change! So hopefully that continues. He even said the prayer in Sunday School! We were so proud. Imagine it's like being proud of your child when they do something good! ;) We also got some fabulous news that one of our investigator couples
are getting married! YAY! Due to some family things and the fact that Melody doesn't want the wedding to be a big deal, it's just going to be us and the bishop at the wedding...in his office. Crazy girl. But she insists. She doesn't even really want pictures!!!! OY. (FYI if I haven't said, the girl isn't a member and the boy is a divorced father and is a member). Anyway so we are very honored to be a part of their special day! The next day was a bummer too. We knocked all day and no one opened the door. We were so tired and hot so we took a minute to sit down by a little pond and call some people. However, there was also a couple walking by that wanted to rest so they sat by us and started to talk to us. They had been having a lot of spiritual discussions the night before and every question/topic they had talked about came up in our conversation. We ended up teaching the Plan of Salvation and also talked about Joseph Smith a little bit. It was a really good conversation and we also found out that they were former investigators! They haven't been taught in a few years though and they said we could talk to them more! We said a prayer with them and the wife was even crying! We made the comment that it was a sign that we had run into them and answered a lot of the questions they had talked about, and she said she knew it was too! SO, there you have it. The Lord knows best and he put us/them in our path. We NEVER sit down to rest, but we had a phone call to make and we were hot and tired, so we did and look who the Lord gave us. So that was definitely another blessing! We KNOW we were supposed to run into them that day. Lastly, we took the same couple that will be getting married to the mission presidents
fireside on Sunday. I think she enjoyed it, but he really did! We really pushed to get him there but he was glad we had pushed him in the end. She is still unsure about some things and doesn't want to jump into it if she doesn't KNOW 100% that it's what is right. But at the fireside they have recent converts tell their conversion story and I think that was super good for her too hear. She only knows Mormons who have grown up in the church. A convert from my old area was also there, so I had her talk to her a little bit. Speaking of her, she is getting her patriarchal blessing next Sunday, and since her family kicked her out, she wants us to go with her! Another huge honor. I'm so happy for her. She is a great girl and so strong. I'm truly blessed to be having all of these opportunities. So even though we had a few days of knocking with no one answering, and also had to stay in one day, we are SO blessed and it's amazing to see all of these little miracles. I LOVE being a missionary, even though you have some "unrewarding" days, the little things always make up for it :)
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| Riding "side saddle" on my bike. Suprisingly, I haven't fallen yet! |
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