September 26, 2011

Hello!

Well, transfers happened last week and I am now with Sister Matthews. She is fantastic! We get along great and I'm pretty much 100% confident it's going to be great transfer. She is an amazing missionary. Sister Matthews is from Moses Lake, Washington. I guess that's the dry part of Washington. She has connections. I think everyone in Greenville is either originally from there or knows someone from there. It was pretty funny. Everyone who talked to her at church at some sort of connection with someone that she knew.

This week was wonderful. On Monday, Sister Joseph and I enjoyed our last prep day together by writing letters and watching a zillion mormon messages. We went on a run/bike ride through Ayden for the last time and it was a beautiful morning to be outside. The sunrises here are gorgeous. It looks just like a painting...but better. We met with Brittany that evening and taught the restoration. It was great! She actually understood the apostasy which a lot of people have a hard time understanding..so we were ecstatic to say the least!

Tuesday we had appointments set up already before we knew that Sister Joseph was being transferred so I went on splits with a sister from the second ward. She served a mission in Chile so we had a good time teaching up a storm. We taught a lady named Tabitha in Ayden. She grew up Catholic, but attends a Unitarian church now. I didn't have a lot of high hopes at first for her because Unitarians are hard to crack. They don't like having a set belief really. However, she really liked the Joseph Smith story about all the different churches and how he wanted to know which one to go to. She said she is really excited to read the Book of Mormon! We gave her a Book of Mormon from the first time that we met her and her husband took it and she doesn't know where he put it, but she really wants to know more and she asked me when we were coming back before we even got to that point. It was great! Afterwards, I was greatly humbled. I was feeling pretty confident that I knew my way around Greenville so Sis. Wells (the sister I was on splits with) and I went up to Greenville to meet with a recent covert in the branch. However, we ended up going in a giant circle and had to cancel that appointment because Sister Johnson doesn't know Greenville as well as she originally thought she did. Lesson learned: bring maps. After that I spent about 2.5 hours calling and then Sister Matthews came! Sister Joseph was her trainer too.

Wednesday we had the great priviledge of going to district meeting. Elder Westley is now our District Leader. We had a great lesson on the importance of sacrament attendance to help people progress and develop a deeper relationship with the Savior. After district meeting we went to Bro. Parker's (a recent convert). He is an older man and is hilarious. We had a good lesson on the priesthood and he is excited to be able to pass the sacrament. However, he said he doesn't like all those little boys running around him when they are preparing because the room is too small. So, he set up a system where they can go in the room and he would carry the trays out. Afterwards, we met with some YSA's on campus named Byron and Cody. Byron came to church last week because one of our members invited him. He really liked church and wanted to know more about Joseph Smith. We had a really good lesson with both of them. I learned last week that teaching simply makes it a lot easier to be bold. I love teaching. Then, we visited the Stantons who are members, but we thought they were an investigator because someone put the wrong name in with their number. They are a great younger couple and have a desire to do missionary work. So, it turned out to be a great visit!

Thursday we spent the ENTIRE day weekly planning. And we still didn't finish. We figured out that we have 17 investigators right now and that is why it took forever. We met with the Limas, a less active family in the evening and taught them about baptism and why it is important to come to church and take the sacrament. They are coming to church this sunday and we are happy. God is happy.

Friday we went to another Less active named Johanna. She doesn't really understand a lot about the church. She converted about 3 years ago and we asked her how her reading from the Book of Mormon was going. She said she hadn't been reading at all. We are going to try and set up having a ward missionary teach her all the lessons again. It is sad to see people who get baptized and then go less active and they don't really understand all the promises they made, but that is why we all have callings in the church. We all help each other learn and grow. We met with another lady that Sis. Joseph and I had originally met at the grocery store on Monday. Her name is Montressa. She is a single mom with two kids. We went over to her house and taught her a little bit about the church and the restoration and what our purpose as missionaries is. She agreed to have us back over and wants to come to church!

Saturday was the best day ever! Kia was baptized and it was a wonderful baptism. I was so worried at first because they were late to their own baptism. It turned out great though and it was really neat. She was so happy! Afterwards we went with Kia and her family and the Tieks and the Youngs out to dinner. Then, we were off to save some more souls! We met a lady named Kim at the gas station and taught a little bit to her there. She was really interested so we are going to meet with her this week. Then, we remembered that the RS broadcast was that night so we went to that and it was AWESOME! Pres. Uchtdorf is my favorite. That talk was something that every lady in the world needs to read.

Sunday was also the best day ever. Kia was confirmed by her husband, Chevaughn and it was definitely a tender mercy of the Lord to see that. I love their family so much. This was probably the most relaxed Sunday I've had in twelve weeks. We were still very busy running to and fro from ward to ward, but it was just a calm day. I don' t know what changed, but it did. We went to Brittany's later and taught part of the plan of Salvation. It was a great week!

I am thankful for all the small things we get to enjoy every day. I am also so thankful for our Savior who made it possible for us to obtain salvation and exhaltation through the Atonement. He lives!

Thank you for every square inch of support you have willingly sacrficed and given for me to serve a mission. I am thankful and love you all.
God Bless!

Love, Sister J