November 21, 2011

Dear Family,

Hello! I hope this email finds you all doing well. It was a good week for Sister Welch and I.

Last Monday we cleaned. And then we cleaned some more. Our apartment hasn't been deep cleaned for many more than a few transfers. I'm still scared to look in the fridge...
We were able to meet with the Freeman family and do FHE with them on Monday evening. They are an active family who are struggling a little. Their daughter was actually the one who introduced Matthew to the church. We had a good lesson from 1 Nephi 16 and we did a real life application at the end and talked about how by small means the Lord can bring about great things. They are a great family.

Tuesday we did a lot of tracting which didn't reap any immediate fruits. We met a lady who was very nice. She told us to come back a couple of hours later. We did, but there was no answer at the door. It gets dark so early now! We are not allowed to go tracting after it gets dark so we decided to start the grand undertaking of making a map book of our areas. We asked the elders if we could borrow theirs to copy the maps. After looking at theirs, we decided it might just be best to start from scratch. Their map book had maps labeled as "Pizza Plus" (a local pizza place), "Food Mart", and my personal favorite, "Where Am I?" (it is a spot in Deep Run that really doesn't have any houses at all). So, we are starting from square one with the map book. They are so helpful! We are partway done, but ran into another obstacle...the ward boundaries here are a little vague. Salt Lake's version of the ward boundaries is not correct according to the North Carolinineans. So, we are trying to sort through that.

Wednesday we had district meeting and interviews with Pres. Cotterell. President talked to me about a lot of things. He told me to make sure that I wrote down all the things I have learned/experienced over the past couple weeks. He talked about the steps to revelation. Recieve, record, respond, review, respond again! I am making an effort to better use my study journal. I wrote down the things that I did learn from everything that has happened. It's good to write things down so they aren't just floating around in your brain. The one thing that I really thing I have learned from mom passing away and being here is to trust in the Lord. I have always thought that I knew what it meant to trust in the Lord, but it's got a totally different angle to it now. It is hard. I also feel like I have deepened love for our Savior, Jesus Christ and the Atonement. I am so thankful for it and I wish there was someway to repay Him for it. I guess all we can really do is just do our best to live our lives like He did. We had a great day after district meeting. We have seen so many miracles this week. We met with a family that is LA in the Woodington ward. They are currently dealing with a very large trial. We decided to stop by and were able to invite them to come to church and to start reading/praying together. Then, when we called them a couple of days later to followup, they were sooo excited to tell us that about an hour after we left that the elders had also stopped by because they felt so impressed. So, they came to church on sunday! We were also able to meet with another LA lady who has been struggling with the repentance process. She says the thing she misses most is her relationship with Heavenly Father. We are excited to be instruments in helping her solve her concerns so she can start coming back to church.

Thursday we did weekly planning and ate at the Pizza Plus. We had Calzones. They were HUGE. I think they just took a pizza and folded it in half and called it a "calzone." It was delicious though. We continued our work on the map book and received a call from a brother in one of the wards that he had talked to his LA aunt and uncle and they want to start coming back to church. Their kids weren't raised in the church so we are going to start teaching them. We also had a lesson with Claire. She is so good at sharing the gospel with her family. I was reading about how when we do missionary work, we are able to have the spirit of the Lord more abundantly in our lives. I think Claire has felt this. I know it's true. She is a stellar lady.

Friday we did some tracting, met with some LA's and then had a lesson with the DiPietro family. We talked about recognizing the spirit and it was such a good lesson. Sis. DiPietro's daughter is a recent convert who has gone less active, but she got so excited to talk about how she felt when she was baptized and when she got her patriarchal blessing. It was so good! I hope they were able to go to church...Both of the wards we are over meet at the same time. So, we can only go to one ward. We alternate every week. We had the coolest experience when we went to do service this past week at the library! The librarian who was there is named Tasha. She was very warm and friendly towards us (more so than usual) and when we started talking to her we found out that her family was from Utah and that she was a member of the church! She is currently LA and just got married to a guy who is not a member. She wants us to come and teach him though and she talked to him about it and he agreed! He has had the elders talk to him before and he didn't feel too comfortable with them...So, we are excited. The only problem is that she lives outside of our area so we will see what happens with that.

Saturday we had made plans to go to Mt. Olive/Seven Springs and do some work there, but then we had a change of plans. We stayed in Woodington and were able to teach a few LA's and then we met with the LA family who want to start coming back to church. Afterwards, we went to Sarah's (she is ten and is going to be baptized on Dec. 3 and she is also really good at having hilarious comebacks) and went with her cousins to go 'possum kickin.' I thought they were kidding. I was wrong. I now feel like a true Deep-Runnite. Their family is VERY southern.

We met with Sarah and her mom again after church on Sunday and taught the Plan of Salvation (Sister Matthews and I used to call it the Point of Sale) Sarah really liked it. Her mom had some doubts/questions about it, but I think they were able to resolve them. Then we taught the ten commandments. I learned a lot of southern terms from them. A fly flap=fly swatter. The boot=the trunk of your car. Pocket book=purse. It was a week of much learning. I ate collards and a corn flitter this week too. Corn flitters are deep fried corn bread pancakes.

Well, my time is up. The church is true. I know that for sure.

I love you all more than words could ever hope to express. I am doing really very well. Some days are harder than others, but when you read, pray, and get involved with church activities, it helps to strengthen you.

You are in my prayers always!

Much love,

Sister J