Evil Flying Insects of Death While Tracking!

 

Happy Monday!

This week has been full of ups and downs of success, failure, with a splash of miracles here and there! As I read back on these e-mails, I don't have a desire to hide my weaknesses, struggles, and hard weeks. I'm not going to pretend to be strong every week when in reality no missionary is perfect, and I'm far from it. 

These past few weeks have been a struggle, Satan has influenced my thoughts more than I could ever imagine. I was able to turn to a priesthood blessing last Monday that was quite humbling. It talked about how our trials are given to us to help us grow, and it specifically said I was given these trials to become a better Mom, and church leader. All of us can use the Atonement in our lives when we have weaknesses, sickness, and disappointments. The blessing told me to study the Plan of Salvation, and the Atonement of Jesus Christ so I can better apply it to my life. I've been studying the Atonement in depth for this past week thanks to the book True to the Faith, Preach my Gospel, the scriptures, and many, many footnotes. I am so grateful that Easter is coming up so quickly, so I will be able to express my love and gratitude for the atoning sacrifice that Christ so willingly performed in our favor so we have the opportunity to live with our Heavenly Father again.

Like I said, it's been a rough week. We got rejected a lot on Tuesday. Door after door after door. It was so humbling, but I know that every effort is a gain, no matter what the outcome is. It made me realize that success truly is given to each and every missionary, no matter how obedient one may be. C.  was out with us Tuesday so he was able to lift our spirits with Taco Bell and Krispy Kreme doughnuts- we were walking all day, I say we deserved it! [=

Zone Training on Wednesday was pretty awesome. I caught President Harding juggling with three water bottles with my camera. My mission president is so cool, as well as his family. We were reminded to ask "Who Do You Know" to everyone, since if they actually accept the gospel, missionaries know right away who one of their fellow-shippers should be. President Harding promised us that if we had enough faith, we would find a family to teach.  

Our April Zone Conference.  Sister Harding urged us to smile while she took our pictures.  I listened and obeyed!

C. also came out with us after zone training, and took us out to pizza since Sister B. can't have gluten, and he said he knew a place where they had gluten free pizza. He had promised us this before he took us out on Tuesday. In the end he didn't look at the prices beforehand, and he spent a LOT of money on two gourmet pizzas.  Oops!  But he chose the place, not us, heh.  We went to go see some investigators, and after our appointment we didn't know where we should go.  Sister B. and I had different ideas so C prayed on what we should do.  Right as he started to pray I knew (along with everyone else) that we should go tracting near our last appointment.  C. said we should start from the back of the apartment complex.  Our first door we chose was because it had angels in the windowsill.  We knocked and it turned out to be one of the other sisters' former investigators from last June/July!  Her name is N. and she has a problem with high sugar levels.  She lost contact with the missionaries because she's always at the hospital trying to keep them down and she has a lot of allergic reactions to the medication they give her.  She's read about half the Book of Mormon and wants us to teach her again.  She has about four or five kids, and so we're going to be teaching her again.  It's so awesome because I know the spirit guided us to knock on her door.  To top it off for the night, C. went to work and he got a tip from a regular customer that was almost twice as much as he paid for the pizza.  Coincidence?  I think not!  =D  

Sister B and I after the Zone Conference

We've been tracting a lot recently, and can I say that God had such a sense of humor when he decided that he wanted me to go to Georgia? It has the 2nd highest levels of pollen in the United States (or something) and you get pollen on your clothes, shoes, and everything just by walking. My allergies have been killing me, and allergy medication is my best friend. Since there's pollen everywhere, you have to realize that there's bumblebees and hornets EVERYWHERE. Occasionally people are sitting outside and they're literally watching and laughing at us hesitantly creeping up to the doors trying to avoid flying creatures of death that want to attack us because of the bright colors that we're wearing. (Sister Bradford has also been wearing buns a lot recently so we joke that they want to land into her nest of hair.) It makes me so anxious because I've never been stung before and I don't know if I'm allergic. But I laugh at it every time I think about us knocking on a door, waiting a few moments and then running away because there are so many hornets! Why did God have to create hornets? They look so evil. Don't even get me started on my curly hair and humidity as another reason why it's so funny that I got sent to Georgia! =P

W. (one of our newer investigators who LOVES Family History)  worked on Family History with his fellowshipper Sister E., and he told her that he's been reading the Book of Mormon. I'm so happy that he's progressing, and that he even stayed for all three hours of church! Another miracle was that Elder and Sister N. had a stern talk to the B. family about them not coming to church since it's hindering the progress of Brother B., and so they were at church, too! They only stayed for sacrament, but it's a great start! T. (another investigator) dropped us right after we emailed last week, and I'm going to continue to pray for those that have stopped wanting to be taught. 

I've noticed a lot throughout this week that when our plans fall through, we're always led to those that need to hear our message. I've loved being able to just listen to those we're speaking to, having no idea what I'm going to say but not worry because I know those thoughts will pop up into my mind on what to say to them through the spirit. It's such a cool thing to witness because I can be confident that I'm really speaking through the spirit! Sister B. had a really cool analogy during companionship study earlier this week. When you're watching someone play an instrument such as the saxophone, you don't think to yourself, "That's such an amazing saxophone!" You think to yourself, "That's such am amazing saxophone player! He's really talented." I just think to myself that I really am privileged being an instrument in hastening God's work to all of His children that He loves so very much. Always remember that you are loved by me, and Him. I hope that all of you think about Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice this entire week, not just on Sunday.

-Sister Sudweeks

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