I Thought We Would Be Shot

Happy Monday!

This week was just as demanding as last week. I don't think I'm ever going to be not tired until I get home from the mission. But I guess a missionary has to do what a missionary has to do!

So much happened this week, so we'll see what my fingers type up.

One of my favorite bittersweet things that happened this week was that we saved a box of abandoned puppies with C.! (He's the man who was baptized two weeks ago.) He was out with us almost all day (the hottest day of the week and I got burned) and Sister B. said someone needs us in this neighborhood. C. prayed that we would find them. Five minutes later we see a box of puppies just stranded on the road. A neighbor said that someone threw them out of a car, which is how we came to the conclusion on why two of the puppies hind legs were broken so they couldn't walk. We got the neighbor to bring out a bowl of water for them because they were super dehydrated. We called Elder and Sister N. (the Senior couple serving in our ward) to take them to a shelter, and they thought we were trying to play an April Fools joke on them, a day late! Since we were so far up north, and they were down south it took them a while to get there. But we were successful, and we were able to continue onto our appointment.

One of the rescued puppies

We found an AMAZING family of seven Monday night after our appointment fell through. They live close to the church, just moved here, and were looking for a church to join. MIRACLES. They accepted a date to be baptized, and we taught them Friday night. It was seriously the most perfect Restoration lesson I've ever taught. They have 5 kids ages from 2-17, and they were all paying attention! At the end we asked them how they were feeling, and all of them either said happy or excited. We talked about the Book of Mormon and the Mom, S. asked where she could get one of them- if she had to buy it, or if it was at the church. She was so excited when we told her we were giving it to her for free. They said that they'd all be at conference, amazing! She said she would talk to her husband about it, and we were just excited to be able to teach him the Restoration, too.

Sorry to make you all excited for that AMAZING family.. But during the Saturday session of General Conference, S. texted us saying that her husband isn't interested, and that they'd be going to a different church. We were heartbroken, asking if we could just talk to her husband and answer any of his questions. But he flat out said no, but it was nice meeting us. My heart completely broke and I was distracted during that session of conference. 

T. is a girl that we've taught twice, and she came to conference. She has some concerns that we're going to try our best to resolve. She lives near the church, but she should in reality be going to the YSA ward because she's 20. She also has a baptismal date but we'll see if she continues to progress this week. She said her eyes were opened because of conference, and she also saw attended a baptism afterward.

One of the other sister's recent converts asked us if we could come by and visit her. We were glad to do so and we met the family that she is currently living with. Some of the kids in that family got baptized Saturday and that's the baptism T. saw, This family had some cute puppies too! Animals galore this week. After I said the closing prayer she asked me if I had questions about heaven. M. tends to see visions of people, and she has no idea what they mean until she describes them to the person. She told me that she saw me in heaven with the 'Heroes of Faith' surrounding me. I was in this huge circle of soldiers and we were about to fight for God. I'm not entirely sure on what to think about that said vision, any ideas? =P

We were coming home late-ish one night on a bus from Five Points (the sketchiest stop of them all) and there was this one woman who was just looking back and forth between Sister B. and I. I'm now used to talking to everyone asking, "Do you want a picture of Jesus?" so I motioned to Sister B. to talk to her since I was sitting across from her, and she was sitting next to her. Bad. Idea. She immediately goes off about how she can't BELIEVE people like us are allowed into this country. (Hello, we were born in this country.) She was going on and on about how she and other people were doing investigations about Mormons in Utah and how we've done all of these horrible things and how it's ALL over the news. She was scooting more and more away from Sister B and looking absolutely disgusted. She had her hand in her purse the entire time glaring at us as we traveled home. She got off very quickly when we got off and stopped, staring at us with her hand still in her purse. We got the worst feeling ever thinking she was about to hurt us, or maybe she had a gun in her purse. We quickly got onto the train, making sure that she wasn't following us. Welcome to Atlanta Sister B! 

We met a man named W., the night Sister B. got here. He LOVES Family History work, and he came to conference as well, and LOVED it. He kept on saying, "Thank you for inviting me" and he said he took a lot of notes during the Sunday morning session. He asked us who Nephi was, and I laughed because he said he would read the Book of Mormon but obviously didn't. I told him he was the first prophet in the Book of Mormon and he looked sheepish. He works nights and sleeps during the day so it's hard for him to do normal things. He's been looking for a day job, and for another place to live because his neighbors aren't the nicest. He wants to come back to church, and he has a great fellowshipper who is a Family History Pro. 

During the last session of conference we were having a bad rain storm so the broadcast went completely out. The Relief Society President, Sister B., and I saved the day! I was able to hook up Roku to a television, and get conference on the screen instead of Brother B. getting an iPad, putting it on the pulpit and having the microphone make it louder. I felt like a little mini hero right there. [=

We're currently having a flood warning and we never know what the weather will be like. We both didn't dress for rain yesterday, and we looked like wet dogs (as well as C. since he came out with us on MARTA in hopes that we'd get 20 member present lessons. We got 18, but that's the highest I've ever achieved towards that goal!) and it was kinda embarrassing how wet we were. I woke up this morning with the wildest hair since I went to bed with damp hair. Lets just say it was hilarious and Sister B. may or may not have laughed at my curly hair.

I've been going through a LOT of opposition the past week due to trying to be totally obedient. But I was reading an Ensign article and I really loved how it went along with Elder Bednar's talk. "Strong people are like kites, they only rise higher when the winds of opposition come against them." We have to have opposition in life, or we would never grow. We should always strive to endure our trials well, and to become more Christ-like each day.

Love,

Sister Sudweeks