So
I don't have a lot of time to email. We're going to the aquarium today
because it's Sister Br's birthday and she gets in for free! Of
course nothing went right this morning so email time is cut down, lunch
is no more, yadda yadda yadda.
But
this week was better! For the most part. [= We had a lot of good
lessons with some of our investigators, especially K. and Sister B.. K.
has finally asked us some questions that haven't come up before
concerning the Plan of Salvation. He's big on equality, and he doesn't
really believe that EVERYONE will have the chance to hear the gospel,
although he knows about the spirit world. He's like one of Sister
Br.'s former recent converts who had a big issue with the
priesthood. We've been trying our hardest for him to get a priesthood
blessing, but Satan is getting in the way in coordinating that with the
N's--the missionary couple serving in our ward! Hopefully this week.
Sister
B. came to church once again for Easter! We went to the B home and
Brother B. had tears in his eyes, saying sorry over and over again for
making excuses for not coming to church. Saying that his back hurt, or
he doesn't have a black jacket so he wouldn't fit in with the rest of
the ward, or any other excuse. He vowed that he's never going to miss
church ever again, and it seems like they are being true to their word.
They can't sit in hard chairs for very long so they only come to
Sacrament, but it's better than only coming every 4 months. I'm so happy
that they're coming! We talked to Sister B. about Maintaining an
Eternal Perspective, and then another lesson about baptism. She LOVED
what Sister Br. said about baptism. Later on when we were there she
grabbed her Book of Mormon without asking and she told us
that she has been reading,
being very proud of herself. I was just BEAMING. We're thinking about
inviting her to a baptismal
date in one to two weeks because of it. The only complaint I have about
that family is Karma, their very naughty dog.... Tsk tsk. She bit my
foot (but didn't break skin) and I now have a bruise on my foot because
of it.
We
found out on Wednesday that someone broke into the N.'s apartment. I
was so upset because these are the sweestest, most kindest, senior
missionaries that I've met here. They don't deserve to be broken into!
They took the TV, their kindles, laptop, flashdrives, but ironically
left Sister N's jewelry which was worth more than everything
combined. They don't have any mission pictures now and they've been out
for a year already. Hopefully in the future I'll be able to go through
my pictures and send them the ones I have with them. On Friday we went
out of our area to help them move to another apartment across the street
that's not so hidden in the apartment complex. It was sprinkling when
we first started, but then it ended up raining as we were going back and
forth bringing boxes to the new apartment. (I have a few
battle scars from it,
too.)
Last
Sunday we met a guy named T.. C. (our on-fire recent convert) was
walking us home since it was dark, and T. randomly just came up to us
and asked us if we would pray with him. We said yes, and we talked a
little bit about the Plan of Salvation. We got his address and number,
and didn't think much about it. Later on, we set up an appointment and
called MARTA to get directions to get to his house. We actually thought
he lived out of our area, but the member with us looked his address up
just to make sure the MARTA assistance was correct, and it wasn't! We
almost skipped his appointment because of MARTA's mistake. We taught T.
and his Dad, R. They were SO receptive to the Restoration. They were
even looking up the scriptures, highlighting them, and writing down
notes in the pamphlet we gave them. It was so cute, and they
said that they would be baptized, but
we didn't mention a specific date. The next day we went over again to
talk to them about the
importance of the Book of Mormon. R.'s wife and T.'s Mom- N., came out
of the room and kinda started to attack us that churches are all the
same, what makes ours different? We tried to explain to her, but she
wouldn't listen to us. The spirit was completely gone so there was
really nothing that we could do about it. She left and went back into
her room (she can't leave the house, since she's on oxygen and things
like that) and T. closed the door and apologized. We asked them if they
believed what she believed and that we're not different from the rest of
them, and explained a little bit more about the Restoration and the
priesthood. They shook their head no, and so we continued to talk about
the Book of Mormon. T. said he would be baptized on May 10th, and R. had
a soft yes for the 10th.
On
Friday we started to get really sick. Turns out we both had the stomach
flu! We stayed home all day on Saturday, and I had a pretty bad fever.
We slept almost all day, and we literally did nothing. Sister L. the
mission nurse said we could go to church if we weren't throwing up, so we
pressed forward and went to church. I am so glad we did! We had 10
people at church! We had some less actives come, some investigators
come, and some less actives boyfriend's come. It was a great Sunday.
Then of course we went home because we felt sick, and slept some more.
We went out around 6:30 because we wanted to see N., the amazing
tracting miracle from last week who has angels in her windowsill. We've
gone by a few times to see how they were doing because of heath
problems, but we're teaching them the Restoration tonight since we have a
solid appointment with them.
Cross your fingers that everything will go well!
I
had a realization this week about something one of my MTC teachers told
me- "You're an almost missionary if you think about yourself." (give or
take). I've noticed I've been thinking about me me me more often than
usual. "Poor me for being so tired. Poor me for not having enough
energy. Poor me for not being able to sleep well. etc etc" When in
reality, missionary work isn't about me. I'm 'serving' a mission for
eighteen months. I'm supposed to be serving 'others' for eighteen
months. Not myself. I'm not supposed to be expecting gratitude for every
act of service I do. That's not the point in missionary work. I'm a
missionary so I can help the work of salvation hasten and usher in the
Second Coming of the Messiah. Now that I have a different mindset, I can
see missionary work in a different light, and I'm so astounded
that I've been out in the
field for 5 1/2 months already! I'll only have a year left if I take
the early transfer so I can
find a job, or 13 months left if I don't.
So,
always remember the reason why you're serving others, it'll make a huge
difference. I hope everyone had a marvelous Easter, and to always
remember He lives!
Love,
Sister Sudweeks
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