January 30, 2012

Dear Family,

Hello! Well, it's been a pretty crazy week. I feel like I am in a dream. I can hardly believe Sister Matthews and I are companions again! It is SO weird. A good weird, but weird. Being companions with someone you've already been companions with hardly ever happens. So, I guess we're breaking that trend.

Monday was insane. Sister Welch was panicking trying to pack all of her stuff. She was so sad to leave. I was sad she was leaving too. We spent the whole day packing. I took a nice nap and then we packed some more. That evening we stopped by a few of our investigators so she could say goodbye. It's amazing to me that you can learn to love someone so quickly. Sister Welch really loves the people she teaches.

Tuesday the Greenville sisters arrived in Deep Run around 10:30. I was so excited to see them! We helped unpack all of Sister Matthews stuff out of the car and then the Strouds came and picked Sister Welch up to go to Raleigh for transfer meeting. I am sad she left, but I know she will be an amazing missionary in Jacksonville (that's where she got transferred). We didn't have any appointments and I was feeling a bit under the weather (I couldn't seem to shake that cold I had a few weeks ago.) So, we stayed home and unpacked and I slept for a while. There are great things a happening in Greenville! Brittany, that Sister Joseph and I started teaching got baptized the weekend before! We talked to her about being baptized when we first started teaching her, but she said she was definitely not planning on it any time soon. It blows my mind how the gospel really changes lives. She was able to kick her bad habits and she was able to take that next step! She is so solid. The Turners weren't able to meet that night, but we had dinner with a less active and were able to teach a lesson to her.

Wednesday we did some weekly planning and had lunch at the Strouds. Fish Stew! It is the most awful looking stuff, but it tastes pretty good. I am just thankful to get some fish when I can. Sister Matthews does not like fish. She was pretty shocked when they gave her the bowl of fish stew. All of our appointments for the day fell through so that kind of put a damper on everything, but we were able to contact a few referrals and had a great time talking about all of the things we had learned since the last time we were companions. It is hard to go to bed on time because we get talking and then before you know it, it's 10:30pm! Here is the Sister Matthew-ism of the week:
"In order to be part of His Kingdom there (after-life), you need to be part of it here. The Book of Mormon is evidence of that."
I learned some other neat things from her as well. In 2 Nephi 31:18 it talks about how the path is "strait and narrow." Have you ever wondered why "strait" is spelled the way that it is? Well, after doing some research, Sister Matthews and I discovered that there are some archaic definitions of "strait" including: strict, narrow, constricted, and difficult.
We realized that that scripture doesn't mean that once you are in the path it is straight and narrow, but that sometimes it is hard. Sister Matthews also talked about how they call waterways "straits" and those are often treacherous and hard to go through. So, once we've made it onto the path it isn't all sunshine and rainbows. It is hard to endure to the end. It's like running a race. The middle part to the end is always the hardest part. I know that we will be rewarded as we do our very best to endure to the end though. I am thankful Heavenly Father knows each of us so individually and He understands us better than anyone else and knows when we do/did the best we could. We are so blessed to have that knowledge.

Thursday was a combined district meeting with the Greenville District. We had interviews with President Cotterell that day and then we learned about the Book of Mormon and using it as we teach. I was able to ask President about the Turner family that we have been teaching for some time now. They have been struggling to keep commitments and have lost some of the desire they initially started out with. We (sister Matthews and I) have been pondering how we can help reestablish that desire they originally had. President offered some insight and now, I feel like I can look at people in a totally different perspective. He said that a lot of time people try to look for peace and comfort through temporal means. After our lesson on using the Book of Mormon I had an epiphany! The Book of Mormon and our relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are the only things that bring lasting peace and comfort to ourselves and our families. We had a lesson with them that night and were able to promise lots of blessings and we set a date for Austin and Kaitlin for March 10th.

Friday and Saturday weren't too eventful, but on Sunday we had a lesson with Nathan in Beullaville. Duplin County has the worst roads ever. I warned Sister Matthews about the giant pot-holes and told her we should probably just park and walk, but it appeared to to be a bit dryer than the last time we were there. Nope. We tried to go around one of the many giant potholes and slid right into the ditch. The Cottens (members whose house we were going to) saw it all happen and came out to try and push us out, but we were pretty stuck. They hooked our car up to their truck and after a 1/2 hour we were able to get the car unstuck. It looked like we went mudding. I got mud EVERYWHERE. In my shoes, on my coat, in my ears, in my hair. I definitely looked like a representative of Jesus Christ (sarcasm). However, depsite our adventure into the ditch, we were able to have a great lesson with Nathan. He prayed for us that we would not get stuck on the way out. Thankfully we didn't. :) I'll send a picture next week.

I love you all forever!

Love Sister J