A Plain Jane Missionary

Wow this transfer has flown by so quickly! I can not believe that it is already time to be moving again. So we had transfer calls last night and it turns out that I'm leaving the area :( Bummer. I really have loved this ward. The people are amazing and I love all of them. But I guess I'm on to new things! But I'll be honest, the worst part about leaving, is the task of packing. I acquire so many new things every transfer. Especially clothes....I get all the hand me downs :) Which I love, yet it takes so much dang space. Anyway so that is my task for today.

So this week was a little slow, yet good. We had a fun P-day activity last week. We played "live clue" (like the Board game). However, instead of murder, we did "Who converted 'George' with what tool (like Book of Mormon, testimony, etc) and Where (church, members home, etc). So that was fun! I also threw a football with a bunch of Elders before that started and they were all super impressed at my football skills. They kept asking "Where did you learn how to throw a football so well!?" and "Where are you from again?" haha I just told them that my brother is a State Champion Quarterback so it's no big deal ;)

So this week we finally got in with one of the lady investigators we have to find out why she didn't think the Book of Mormon was biblical. She had some silly concerns like that the Book of Mormon tried to copy some things in the Bible but didn't even write them down correctly, or that the church wasn't established until after Christ came. She would never let us teach her the lessons, so those misconceptions could have easily been cleared up in the first lesson. She was kind of mad and was getting a little contentious saying it could NOT be from God because it wasn't biblical. When we told her Joseph Smith hadn't even read the Bible all the way through and that he only had a 4th grade education, she was really surprised and you could see her walls coming down. So we bore our testimonies of the Book of Mormon and also about how much we love the Savior. We told her the reason we wanted to share this with her is because we love her. She told us we are her friends and she enjoys us coming. We took her a talk to read called "The Blueprint of Christ's Church." It shows that everything we believe is straight from the Bible and that we match Christ's church when he was on the Earth. So the spirit was really strong and went great. We were so excited! She finally was listening. However, we went back last night and she told us that nothing in it was biblical....even though every reference it gives is straight from the Bible. She kept making excuses and when we would say, well what about this scripture (that would be from the Bible and totally contradict what she said she learned from the Bible) her response would be, "Well I don't know...I don't want to delve into that. It's just not biblical." So she said we are taking things out of context in the Bible. Long story short, she said there is no way she could ever believe it. So that was depressing. Her heart is definitely hard to the truth and we think that she might be a little scared of change also. I just hope someday her heart is softened and she recognizes the truth.

We had a couple good lessons with another guy this week. He is slowly progressing. He used an analogy that the way he feels is like seeing a $100 bill on the ground, yet he didn't want to put in the effort to pick it up... So basically he likes what we have to say, but he is too lazy to act on it. But something tells me that he understands and likes more than he lets on. He has gone to church 3 times in a row and he is reading parts of the Book of Mormon. Things just seem to be clicking better with him so that is awesome. We sent him to the singles ward to see if he would like it this week. He did like it but he is 31 so he isn't young enough. He can still go to the activities and such though. Anyway so he is a work in progress but seems to be doing well!

We also taught a couple other guys this week. One of the men really needs to go. He always dominates the conversation and he seems to be getting anti material from somewhere or is talking to someone because he had some very nit-picky things that he led onto that we hadn't even ever mentioned. So we need to get him out of there because he talks way too much and we can't figure out what the other guys concerns are. So that is frustrating. We'll have to work on that. The lesson went really well even though it could have been better if the one guy hadn't been there. We took a member couple with us again. I love them so much. They are the best fellowshippers. They were converted when they were 20 and they just relate with people really well. They just had their 50 year baptism anniversary Thursday! Awesome!

We finally got to teach our convert this week! He has been having some health problems and he is finally feeling well enough for a lesson. We had the lesson at a member's house so that was fun. It was like back when this convert was taking the lessons and figuring out that what we were telling him is true. I love this guy. He is like our grandpa out here :)

Sister A got sick this weekend so we went in early on Saturday. We watched a pioneer movie (Legacy) and did a lesson with over the phone. I read some scriptures and caught up in my journal. It was nice to get some extra things done but a bummer to be inside.

I am sad to be leaving this area and our investigators but a change of scenery will be good too! I'm excited to see where I am going! I know that the Lord puts us where we need to be for a reason. I have learned a lot in this area and have grown a lot. This will be the first time I get a companion without going to training meetings every week. So now we will have an extra hour to proselyte each day as well. That will be nice. Anyway stay tuned to see where I am shipped to :)