Happy Monday!
Last Monday Sister J and I had the
privilege of trying to go see a less active that we thought lived close-ish to
our house. Our appointments always fall through on Mondays, but I hope not
tonight since we're teaching C. (our bus contact) the Law of Chastity. Fun, fun,
fun! We missed the bus, so we got directions from the other sisters and started
to walk in the freezing wind. We quickly realized we weren't dressed for cold
weather and walked about 6 miles total. I kept telling myself, "I feel
like a real missionary!"
On Wednesday, we went to zone
training, and we were able to go to the temple and it was great. We were almost
late to the temple but we barely made it on time! I love how I've been praying
this entire week, and I'm getting more realizations and having certain
statements just 'click' in my mind. It's really nothing profound, but it's
helping me more as a missionary, and how I've grown throughout my life and what
I can do differently.
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| Sister J. and I in front of the Atlanta, GA Temple. |
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| I love going to the temple! |
I wish I could tell you all that I
learned in zone training, but right when it was about to start President
Harding talked to Sister J, and she burst out in tears. I was predicting it
this entire transfer- she got her visa. She's leaving on the 25th of March so
I'm probably staying in Atlanta once again. We cried with each other, and had a
hard time concentrating about being better planners. My Mom saw a picture of me
on Facebook at the Zone Conference. You can't tell that I was crying, but with Sister
J it's a bit more obvious.
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| Holding back the tears at our March 5, 2014 Zone Conference |
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| I'm going to miss Sister J. much! She's been an outstanding trainer! |
I taught C. (our bus contact) with
Sister B. about the Word of Wisdom Wednesday night since both of the sister companionships had
to talk to the Relief Society President Sister R. about less actives. He knew
we were going to talk about the Word of Wisdom, and so I prepared myself and
bought him mints, and he gladly accepted them. He opened up to us about some
sad stories that he or his friends have experienced in their lives. He knows that he should change, although it's
really hard. He accepted that he wants to be baptized on March 22nd, so we're
thrilled! One last baptism before Sister J. leaves. I didn't know that it was
standard for an investigator to be clean 2 weeks before his baptismal date, so
I MAY have forgotten that detail! After I found out I texted him explaining
what happened, and that we don't want to rush or push him to do something that
he feels like he can't do. He replied and said that he thinks it's possible,
and now he's been clean since last Saturday. [=
I was on exchanges with Sister W.,
and we taught K. (the man who takes care of his bedridden parents, adult
daughter with health challenges and four grandchildren) with Elder and Sister
N., (the Senior couple assigned to my ward) and Elder N. was AMAZING when he
explained the priesthood and how we're the only church with the proper
authority from God. I thought K. was never going to understand, but he did. I
wrote down some scriptures so I can try to imitate it when we have other
investigators struggling with the same thing. I asked him if he would also be
baptized on March 22nd, but he said no. I was so irritated but I'm trying not
to let it get to me because I know Sister J. has been teaching K. from the very
beginning and she would love to see him baptized as well.
Sister W. and I were driving to see
more less actives, and as we were turning left on a green arrow into an
intersection, we saw a truck just coming straight towards us! I wanted to scream,
but something told me not to. Sister W. was inspired to almost floor the pedal,
to go straighter and then a hard left so we didn't run into the curb. I honestly
thought that huge truck was going to hit the back of our car, t-boning us into
a spin right in the middle of the intersection. We had to stop and park for a
while to get our heart rates down, but thankfully we weren't hurt.
We saw Brother and
Sister B. three
times this week, and they bawled so much when we told them that Sis J.
was
leaving. We brought it up when we talked about Proverbs 3:5-6 and how we
need
to trust in the Lord with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength.
Sister J
is absolutely terrified because she doesn't know Portuguese very well
since
she's been out for 9 months and hasn't had to use her Portuguese since
leaving the MTC. We tried to bridge that to Sister B.’s baptism,
but that didn't go very well. We feel like she doesn't have the desire
to be
baptized, and although she may know it's true, she doesn't want to act.
I'm
trying to keep my optimism but Sister J and I really can't do anything
when it
comes to someone's agency. We don't know what's going to happen, but we
know
that she won't be baptized on the 22nd either.
But R. (our soft-spoken homeless
investigator) was baptized on Saturday! We had to call baptismal coordinators
for our ward because of convert and member baptisms. We're still trying to fix
all of the kinks in it working out since whoever filled the font did NOT do it
right. The baptism started late because the baptismal coordinator's daughter
was getting baptized with R. and they had the programs and also A. their
daughter. The water was absolutely freezing so A. was crying when she went in
because it was all the way up to her neck. Roy grimaced at the temperature when
the prayer was being spoken, and all three of us, (Sister J., Sister E.[the
member who referred him to us], and I) knew that they didn't say his full name!
So he had to go down a SECOND time. Oh isn't he special?! He told us although
it was freezing, he still felt warm after. R. was talking about how different
he felt, but it was a good different. We had to race to make it to see Elder
Quentin L Cook on time, so we didn't stay around after.
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| R on his Baptism Day--March 8, 2014 |
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| R. with some of his ward family. |
For those who may have seen picture on
Facebook of all the 270 missionaries in the Atlanta, GA mission, Sister J. and
I are right in the middle. We're in
the line of the only girls standing in front of the elders. I'm wearing my
leopard print cardigan and Sis J is wearing her turquoise striped shirt. My mom emailed me
the picture and I can barely see ourselves, but we're there! We had to stand there
for over an hour before Elder Cook got there. We were able to shake his hand
along with Elder Piper and Elder Parker. They talked to us on how to become
better missionaries. They taught us that we should have lessons with our
investigators based off the questions that they ask us, because that's what
they need at that moment in time. When they asked us questions based off of
scriptures, we should make them more pro-active in finding the answers for
themselves. Then we'll have them teach it to us, and the spirit will testify to
us as missionaries that what they're teaching us is true. They were talking
about how missionaries are assigned to specific people, mission presidents, or
a place that will influence their life in the future. Now I'm wondering why I
was assigned here! Who knows?
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| Come Listen to a Prophet's Voice.... |
C. came to church on Sunday, and he
loved it. He said that priesthood was AWESOME and he's so glad he came. He does
his research on-line by wikipedia-ing everything, so now we have to read all of
these articles to tell him if they're true or not. Most of it is, but some
small details are wrong. It's funny since when he said that he was clean all of
Saturday, he asked what time his baptism was because he's invited his family to
it already. Apparently his brother thought he was punking him, and his sister
in law said that'd she'd be in class. He told us that their lack of faith in
him is disturbing, but he's glad he has an awesome support group like us.
People are very surprised on how much he's changed, and he has so quickly! I'm
so proud of all of the positive changes he's made in his life so far.
One of the quotes that I've enjoyed
this week is some that Brother B. told C. over the phone when he cancelled us
earlier this week. "Don't look back into yesterday, think about what you'll
do tomorrow." C. told us (he didn't know he was on speaker phone) that
this is what he's been looking for all his life. I agree completely that we
shouldn't ponder on what we did wrong yesterday, but to learn from it so we
know how we can be better people tomorrow. I hope everyone is having a great
week, and praying for missionary opportunities!
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