Monday, January 9, 2012

Well, the sun shone much brighter on us this week than last week. It got REALLY cold on tuesday and wednesday. It said it was like 30 outside, but my gracious...it felt like it was in the single digits. I am not a fan of humidity in the winter time. Two pairs of tights and the cold still cuts through...luckily it warmed up again to the 50's so it's not too bad.

We stayed at home again last prep day. It was coold and the library was closed due to New Years. We wrote letters, cleaned, and had a great time. There really wasn't too much that happened that day. Everyone was "too busy" to meet with us in the evening so went home and finished up our map book (it's FINALLY done!) Oh, I made a resolution that I would follow Elder Scott's counsel in his talk from conference and made a goal to memorize one scripture per week. This weeks was 1 Nephi 10:19.

Tuesday was the day of much cold and wind and we didn't have any appointments until the evening...so we got a lot of tracting in! Luckily we have been blessed with many referrals recently so that has been keeping us pretty busy. We were able to to contact several of them and had a couple of lessons. We met with a girl named Ashley. She was amazing. She is 20 years old and she asked the best questions. She thought is was so neat that the Book of Mormon was about the people in America. We were able to teach the restoration to her and she wanted the Book of Mormon so we gave it to her, and she said she was going to start reading it as soon as we left. It was awesome! Then we went to her next door neighbor's house. Turns out it was the currently retired librarian from the library that we email from. She invited us in from the wind and cold. She told us about her husband passing away last Christmas because he was in a bad car wreck. We were able to testify of being with our families forever and shared some scriptures with her. She is very familiar with the church, but said she "stuck in her ways as a free-will baptist and could not change." I think that is kind of a funny excuse really. That evening we went to the Turners. We had to drop their baptismal date because they have been struggling to make it to church the past couple of weeks and they have been struggling with reading and praying. We talked to them about the importance of these things and committed them to do all of them. They are such a sweet family. I hope and pray they will continue to have the same desire to live the gospel as they did when we first started going over. They are really struggling, but will make it through. I know they can. :]

Elder Garrett decided to have district meeting in Woodington since the Kinston elders only have one car and therefore they can carpool. It was really cold outside. And inside. I couldn't feel my toes the whole time we were in there. We had a good meeting on the great apostasy. It's funny how quick we forget things...which is why we repeat things and learn them over and over. I also learned that hymn 85 and 185 are the only two hymns where God is the one who is speaking to us and not us speaking to him. Check it out...it's pretty neat! (Dad-Sister Robinson..the lady who sends you pictures said that she really loved your email that you sent to her. It really touched her heart.) After getting in the car and defrosting our toes, we went to Hannah's. Hannah is a recent convert. Her husband is less active and has been less active for many, many years. Hannah is the best. She wants to make sure she is following the Lord in everything that she does. The ward boundaries in this area are pretty crazy and no one really follows them, but as missionaries, we are required to follow them because it dictates where people need to go. Hannah was super confused about it and felt like she was not in the right place. We discovered after looking at the maps that she wasn't and after she went and talked to the bishop of the Kinston ward, she said she felt really good about it and that she knows that's where she needs to be. I know that no matter how crazy the ward boundaries may be, that you are where you are for a reason and there are people who need you in the ward you are assigned to. Ward boundaries are also evidence of the restoration of the gospel. They are important.

Thursday was a slow day. We went and contacted bunches of people and drove almost a 100 miles by the time the day was over. We even started going through our former investigators. Most of which were dead ends because they were from so long ago that those people don't even live there anymore. However, we were able to meet with a less active family and their daughter and her boyfriend were there. The boyfriend, Miguel is not a member and he listened while we taught a bit about faith and church attendance. He doesn't speak much english so we are going to bring him an El Libro, but he wants to learn more! It is so exciting when people want to learn more about the gospel.

On friday, we went to follow up with a potential investigator at the library in Albertson. She ended up talking our ears off for about an hour and gave us a historical tour of the library (it is a really old library) We invited her to go on mormon.org and to call us if she had any questions. She is a talker! We then went and did our library service at the Pink HIill Library and we were able to talk with Tasha, the less active who works at the library. She and her husband have been meeting with the missionaries in Kinston. Their schedules have been turned upside down recently with school and work and everything else. Tasha is having a hard time with it. All of our appointments for the evening fell through. We went and tried contacting some less actives, but didn't have much luck.

Saturday we had a miracle! Sister Houston's neighbor is a less active member...who has been less active for about 40 years. Last time we stopped by her house she closed the door and wouldn't answer when we knocked. We were stealthy this time though and parked in the distance and walked up to her house. She saw us let us in...pretended that she didn't know who we were (which was pretty funny). We didn't play along. Finally, she opened up to us and told us a lot about her life. She has had a very, very difficult life with many trials. We invited her to start taking the lessons and she agreed...so we are excited to start teaching her!

Sunday we went to church in Albertson. Fast and testimony meeting was good. The little girl in front of us kept turning around when we were singing the hymns and at the end of sacrament she told me I sing "really good!" That is probably only the second or third time someone has ever told me that. I think she meant to tell Sister Welch, but regardless it made my day. We had the best lesson EVER with the whole Turner family after church. We went over to Sarah's (recent convert) and then Kaitlin (her cousin we are teaching) and Jason (less active) came over. Sarah's dad even sat in on the lesson. (He is less active) We had a scripture chase for about 45 minutes and then we reviewed the Plan of Salvation with the clever puzzle Carilyn gave me for Christmas. Amy (who is not a member) thought that was the neatest thing ever and found out the website so she could go and buy a bunch of lds puzzles. She is so funny. I don't know why she doesn't just join. She has the whole gospel library on her Kindle that she got for Christmas and she likes buying lds books...and puzzles now. We also had the opportunity to talk about fasting and praying to receive answers to things that are important to us. It was a really good lesson and so much fun! I really love their whole family.

Thank you for all of your love and support. I really couldn't do it without the outpouring of love that y'all have extended.I love you all very much and want you to know that the Atonement is real. I am grateful for the restoration of the gospel. It is incredible and I know that it is the source of happiness in the home. The gospel really does bless families. I love that so much.

The church is true.

Hugs and loves!
Sister J