This past week was the fastest week of my life. I can't believe it's Monday again. Where does time go? (sigh) Sometimes I wish it would slow down just a bit.
Sister Wilson and I had the best preparation day EVER! The Arps are an older couple in the ward who love to go bowling and as we were discussing this over dinner the week before, Brother Arp challenged us to a game of bowling. So, we did just that on preparation day. We had a great time at the bowling alley. Bro Arp's score pretty much was all of our (mine, Sis. W and Sis. Arp) scores combined. Bowling is definitely not my forte in life. However, by the third game, I broke 100 for the first time I can remember in my life! Miracles have not ceased! It was a lot of fun. We also went to waffle house for lunch. Sister W had never been there. I was famished and decided I could handle two chocolate chip waffles. It was a bit of an overexaggeration. I could only get through one and a half. So much chocolate! mmm... We did FHE with the Anderson family. Sis. Anderson is from Layton, UT. She went to Layton High and graduated in "05 and now has three kids. They are the cutest kids ever. We told the story of Enos and the kids dressed up with their dad's sunday shirts and ties on their heads as Enos and had their bows (hangers) and arrows (straws) ready to go. It was so cute. After dinner, we spent the evening contacting referrals with no reaping unfortunately. Oh well. We planted seeds!
Tuesday we went to see the lovely miss Jan. She is reading the book of Mormon everyday and praying and feels really good about everything. We had a great lesson on the commandments. She now understands why we don't shop and go to the movies on Sunday or do other things we would do on any other day of the week. It's always fulfilling to see investigators understanding doctrine. It's fun to see the "wheels turning in their heads." She is such a sweet lady. Russ (her less active boyfriend) has been to church 3 sundays in a row now! Amazing! True doctrine understood changes behavior. President Packer was right. Russ is working on overcoming some word of wisdom hurdles, but he is making so much progress. It's neat to hear him talk about it too because he knows it's only because he is relying on Jesus Christ to help him do what he can't do by himself. We met with the Hudsons that evening with Sister Knight. I love sister Knight. She's like a walking talking Google. She knows A LOT. We read "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration" by Bruce's favorite seventy, Tad Callister. They are still dealing with their issues in D&C 132. We witnessed a miracle while reading the talk. Margaret turned to D&C 132 and read a scripture that answered her question about that section and it seems to be less of an issue for her now. (hallelujah!) The spirit definitley helps people recieve revelation for themselves. It really is such a blessing to have the spirit who can witness of truth and give us guidance and direction. It was amazing. They are still being stubborn about committing to anything to do with joining the church though. One of these days...
Wednesday we met with a young man named Daven. He talked to one of our members, Sis. Bennett while his mom was getting her hair done and Sis. Bennett had a good conversation with him about the church, gave him a Book of Mormon and our phone number. He called us and wanted to meet with us so we met him at the church and had a great lesson with him. He has heard a lot of negative things about the church, but said he would be willing to pray and ponder and read the Book of Mormon to find out for himself. He is very smart and knew a lot about prophets, apostasy, and all of that. It was awesome. We also had a great experience with a less active family, The Barneys. We had dinner with the Barneys which was good. Their son had a friend over named Deonte. He is going to UNC Greensboro. The whole conversation at dinner was on the amendment for families being defined as between man and woman only. They asked us our opinion and we quickly referred them to the family: a proclamation to the world and left it at that...seeing as that is all we really can do. Politics as a missionary are always a fun can of worms! After dinner we did a lesson with them all about putting on the whole armour of God and then talked to Deonte about the restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon. He seemed really interested and agreed to have the missionaries in Greensboro (which is in the Charlottle mission) to teach him more. I am so excited to hear about what happens with that! Missionary work is the best. Even if the people you teach are out of your area. It makes some missionaries somewhere really happy when they recieve a referral letter! :)
Thursday we drove to Morganton (which is in Fayetteville area) for zone training. Sis. W had to get some blood work done so we left bright and early and then ended up being ridiculously early for training. We helped Sis. Cotterell fix the lunch for the other zone who was there for their training and then we made some phone calls and tried to keep ourselves busy there. Training was really good. I saw Elder Fowkes, who was in the MTC with me. I haven't seen him since last June! He came up to me, said hi and then said, "You're getting old on the mission!" Such great words of encourgement from my fellow missionary....
We learned about the doctrine of christ and how we can better help our investigators understand why we invite them to be baptized. It was really good. We did some role plays resolving concerns and it was amazing. I always learn so much when we do role plays. I used to hate doing role plays...
We met with Crystal in the evening and ate dinner with her and then had a lesson. She agreed to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. Yay!
We had a great weekly planning session on friday. We made some pretty extensive plans for helping this area to grow and I hope they will be effective. We went to military promotion dinner for a member in the ward with less active, Bro. King and his daughter Cherish (who is not a member) and we were able to have a good conversation with them. It was good to see the ward reaching out to them as well. Lewis didn't show up. :(
Saturday we were up early and helped Crystal set up a yard sale and then we were of to the Kunz family who were demolishing their front room. We got to tear off that awful wood paneling that everyone puts on the walls here and removed sheetrock and base molding. It was so much fun! We were to recieve a referral from a couple who were there visiting from Apex. His aunt basically lives up the street from us. We contacted her later that day and are planning on going back soon!
Sunday was good. It was hard, but life is hard so what can you do? Just take it in stride and turn to God I guess. Lewis came to church! I was so happy to see him. Jan and Russ went to the Fay 4th ward...so we didn't get to see them. Church was good though. We had some good talks. I realized again how much I love my mom and how much I appreicate everything she taught me. I have such a respect for her. I hope she knew that I loved her and looked up to her and appreciated her patience and cheerful countenance that she always had with us. She really was an incredible woman and no one can ever take her place. I feel like I have a big bar to measure up to in life as her daughter. I wish I could tell her how much she means to me, but I think she probably knows. I believe she was successful in raising us three hooligan children. We seem to have turned out pretty good if I do say so myself. :) I love her.
We had dinner with Bishop Ginn and his family and then did FHE about gratitude. They have a little girl named Kim who reminds me so much of Ashlyn. She kept making pictures for me that said things like, "I love you so much!" and so forth. She is so cute.
Mothers are the best. I am thankful for all the women who have played such a huge role in my life. I spent a lot of yesterday reflecting on that. I am thankful for my 2nd mom, Sis. Lindstrom and for my fantastic YW leaders, Sis. Nielson and Sis. Gooch and all of the other women who were there in my life as a YW. I am thankful for my wonderful aunts and my grandmothers. I love them all so much. Most of all, I am thankful for my mother. She IS incredible.
Have a great week.
Love you all!
Love, Sister J
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