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
Monday, January 30, 2012
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Pictures from This Week (Jan 23, 2012)
Here is a picture of the following:
(from Left to Right)
Sister Susanna Robinson, Sister Johnson, Sister Heath (Future Missionary)
Here are some pictures that Sister Susanna Robinson from the Deep Run Ward in Deep Run, NC sent to me. I thought it would be interesting to see these.
This one is of a surprise Care Package Amber's family sent her with some....fun stuff????
Here is a picture of a little book that Ashlyn (Amber's sister) made for her.
Monday, January 23, 2012
January 23, 2012
Well, I have never been so full of food in my life...and it is ALWAYS that way. The people here in Deep Run like to feed us. A lot.
Last Monday we went to the high school and played football with ourselves. It was pretty entertaining seeing as how there were only two of us. We had sooo much fun! The weather was really nice too. We went to the Smith's that evening for dinner. They are such good missionaries. They invited our investigator, Greg over for dinner and then we were able to teach him about the Plan of Salvation. Greg understood it, loved it, and asked a lot of good questions about agency, etc. We gave him the Book of Mormon on CD and according to his wife, Miranda (who is a member) he listened to it the whole way home!
Tuesday we spent a lot of time tracting with nothing too exciting to report. We had a referral that a member gave us, but the directions they gave us were 'country directions' and we spent a loooong time trying to figure out which white trailer and which dirt path it was on. We were unsuccessful in our attempts, but we are not giving up. The Turners weren't able to meet with us in the evening so, our dinner appointment held us captive for three hours. We tried to leave once our dinner and spiritual thought was over, but that failed. I am never going to tell people we don't have an appointment after dinner ever again. I learned all about alexandrite, kindles, and deep sea fishing. Woot! Missionary work would have been a nice alternative.
Wednesday was district meeting. We read from Alma 32. That chapter blows my mind every time I read it. We talked about the difference between interest and desire and the importance of constantly nourishing our investigators' seeds of faith. We talked a lot about member work. Did you know that sharing the gospel with those around you is a commandment? I didn't. We found some good scriptures in Doctrine and Covenants 100:5-8; 16:6 and the George Albert Smith quote in Preach My Gospel on pg 12 is pretty great as well. I would invite you to check it out! :] One thing I learned is that no effort is wasted. Sometimes it is easy to get discouraged when we are trying our best to share the gospel and set and example, etc, but don't ever forget that every effort is important. You never know whose life you are touching when you do a simple act of service or share a testimony of a gospel principle. Every thing we do shows who we are and all good things take time and lots of patience. We went to a restaurant after district meeting called the Peach House. A member works there...so we thought we'd stop in and say hello. It's kind of like Zupa's, but a lot less healthy. We went to Claire's afterwards. Her boyfriend bailed on her last Sunday for church..so we asked her if she would invite him to come again. She had already asked him...and she invited her sister who has taken a couple of the lessons. Claire taught her about the Word of Wisdom and her sister has stopped drinking coffee now. She is such a good missionary. We had a really fun lesson with her and went through all the articles of faith. She is still working on getting her picture ID so she can get married soon.
We were finally able to meet up with a less active on the ward mission process last week and we met with her on Thursday. Her name is Brooke. She is a paramedic and her husband is a firefighter. Brooke is super sweet and has a little boy who is also super sweet. He wanted to share his pudding, jello, and chocolate peanut butter balls with us. We talked with Brooke for a while and read some scritpures about prayer. It is amazing to see how the spirit touches people and how everyone can feel the spirit. She told us that she wants to come back to church and that she knows she needs to pray more and read her scriptures more. We invited her to start praying every night as a family (her husband is not religious. At all.) She was super excited about it all and is excited to start doing that!
Friday we went to Mt. Olive and were able to meet with recent convert, Peewee. She has been struggling a lot. We had a good lesson with her and her dog and her mom, Butch. Peewee didn't really open up to us and tell us anything about any struggles she was having, but she did say that she would be at church! I am excited for her. We are going to teach her the lessons again and hopefully that will help her in developing her testimony more. As Sister Voyles (MTC instructor) would wisely say, "We don't teach the lessons to teach the lessons. We teach the lessons to strengthen their faith." That is what we are doing. :] After running around Mt. Olive all day we came back to Woodington and had a lesson with Miguel and Olivia (part member family). They are doing good. We read Alma 32 with them. It was so neat because Olivia really understood how important it is to nourish the testimonies we have by reading and prayer and going to church. Miguel really liked the Book of Mormon. He kept reading ahead when we would stop to talk about a verse.
Saturday was Black Saturday. We were on edge all day anticipating finding out about transfers. We went and stopped by all of our investigators to invite them to church. The Turners are still struggling a lot. I hope they will be able to rekindle that desire they had in the beginning. We have tried so hard to help them, but alas, agency is always the determining factor in the end. We made our way back to Mt. Olive to have an unexpected appointment with a spanish family and recent convert named Elmer. We talked to the elders about them because they wanted us to come over REALLY bad. So, we couldn't say no. The elders said they would be there as well because it was a farewell party for Elder Taylor (who is from k-town) However, when we got there, there were no elders. Just two english speaking sister missionaries and a family of no english speaking Guatemalans. We were able to talk Spanglish to them and figured out there was a big miscommunication. The elders were not going to be there for another hour. So, we went and found a "Restoration" DVD and watched it in Spanish with them..with English subtitles and then told them we had to go. They are such nice people. They wanted us to stay so badly and eat dinner with them, but we had already confirmed our dinner with another family. We spent about 10 minutes trying to explain this and then we were able to have a kneeling prayer with them and were on our way. We received the dreaded phone call of transfers while we were in dinner. Elder Garrett left us a singing message. He sang the "so long, farewell.." song from the Sound of Music and informed Sister Welch that she would be leaving. :( I am sad.
Sunday morning the Zone Leaders called us and we had our hopes up for a minute thinking that they may have changed their minds on sending Sister Welch off, but they just called to inform us that the Greenville sisters would be coming to Deep Run and that Sister Matthews is going to be my companion...again! I am excited to have her back. However, I am really, really sad that Sister W is leaving. I love her a lot. She has been a great companion to me. Church went really good. We went to both Albertson and Woodington wards. Claire came; her boyfriend did not. But, her sister came! The Turners didn't come and we were very sad about that, but Amy came and that made it almost all better. We went to Taylor's house afterwards and had lunch with her and her brother. Her brother made us a comic book called "super missionary" He is pretty hilarious. After lunch we rushed over to the other Turner family for their weekly retention lesson. We focused especially so on Amy (who is not baptized...yet). We talked about how we can liken the scriptures to ourselves (1 Nephi 19:23) and then we read 1 Nephi 8 about the Tree of Life. We were able to find out that Amy is afraid of sticking her head under the water after her sister-in-law and mother-in-law told her she should get baptized. She still has some other concerns, but now she knows that the Book of Mormon can answer any question you may have. Church related or not. :]
I know that the Book of Mormon was written for our day and that it really does answer our questions and concerns we may have if we will ask Heavenly Father for help to find answers to those questions. Sometimes it takes a while, but there are always answers; and sometimes they aren't the answers we want. I know he is mindful of each of us and knows us inside and out.
God Bless and have a wonderful week!
I love you all so much!Love,Sister J
Last Monday we went to the high school and played football with ourselves. It was pretty entertaining seeing as how there were only two of us. We had sooo much fun! The weather was really nice too. We went to the Smith's that evening for dinner. They are such good missionaries. They invited our investigator, Greg over for dinner and then we were able to teach him about the Plan of Salvation. Greg understood it, loved it, and asked a lot of good questions about agency, etc. We gave him the Book of Mormon on CD and according to his wife, Miranda (who is a member) he listened to it the whole way home!
Tuesday we spent a lot of time tracting with nothing too exciting to report. We had a referral that a member gave us, but the directions they gave us were 'country directions' and we spent a loooong time trying to figure out which white trailer and which dirt path it was on. We were unsuccessful in our attempts, but we are not giving up. The Turners weren't able to meet with us in the evening so, our dinner appointment held us captive for three hours. We tried to leave once our dinner and spiritual thought was over, but that failed. I am never going to tell people we don't have an appointment after dinner ever again. I learned all about alexandrite, kindles, and deep sea fishing. Woot! Missionary work would have been a nice alternative.
Wednesday was district meeting. We read from Alma 32. That chapter blows my mind every time I read it. We talked about the difference between interest and desire and the importance of constantly nourishing our investigators' seeds of faith. We talked a lot about member work. Did you know that sharing the gospel with those around you is a commandment? I didn't. We found some good scriptures in Doctrine and Covenants 100:5-8; 16:6 and the George Albert Smith quote in Preach My Gospel on pg 12 is pretty great as well. I would invite you to check it out! :] One thing I learned is that no effort is wasted. Sometimes it is easy to get discouraged when we are trying our best to share the gospel and set and example, etc, but don't ever forget that every effort is important. You never know whose life you are touching when you do a simple act of service or share a testimony of a gospel principle. Every thing we do shows who we are and all good things take time and lots of patience. We went to a restaurant after district meeting called the Peach House. A member works there...so we thought we'd stop in and say hello. It's kind of like Zupa's, but a lot less healthy. We went to Claire's afterwards. Her boyfriend bailed on her last Sunday for church..so we asked her if she would invite him to come again. She had already asked him...and she invited her sister who has taken a couple of the lessons. Claire taught her about the Word of Wisdom and her sister has stopped drinking coffee now. She is such a good missionary. We had a really fun lesson with her and went through all the articles of faith. She is still working on getting her picture ID so she can get married soon.
We were finally able to meet up with a less active on the ward mission process last week and we met with her on Thursday. Her name is Brooke. She is a paramedic and her husband is a firefighter. Brooke is super sweet and has a little boy who is also super sweet. He wanted to share his pudding, jello, and chocolate peanut butter balls with us. We talked with Brooke for a while and read some scritpures about prayer. It is amazing to see how the spirit touches people and how everyone can feel the spirit. She told us that she wants to come back to church and that she knows she needs to pray more and read her scriptures more. We invited her to start praying every night as a family (her husband is not religious. At all.) She was super excited about it all and is excited to start doing that!
Friday we went to Mt. Olive and were able to meet with recent convert, Peewee. She has been struggling a lot. We had a good lesson with her and her dog and her mom, Butch. Peewee didn't really open up to us and tell us anything about any struggles she was having, but she did say that she would be at church! I am excited for her. We are going to teach her the lessons again and hopefully that will help her in developing her testimony more. As Sister Voyles (MTC instructor) would wisely say, "We don't teach the lessons to teach the lessons. We teach the lessons to strengthen their faith." That is what we are doing. :] After running around Mt. Olive all day we came back to Woodington and had a lesson with Miguel and Olivia (part member family). They are doing good. We read Alma 32 with them. It was so neat because Olivia really understood how important it is to nourish the testimonies we have by reading and prayer and going to church. Miguel really liked the Book of Mormon. He kept reading ahead when we would stop to talk about a verse.
Saturday was Black Saturday. We were on edge all day anticipating finding out about transfers. We went and stopped by all of our investigators to invite them to church. The Turners are still struggling a lot. I hope they will be able to rekindle that desire they had in the beginning. We have tried so hard to help them, but alas, agency is always the determining factor in the end. We made our way back to Mt. Olive to have an unexpected appointment with a spanish family and recent convert named Elmer. We talked to the elders about them because they wanted us to come over REALLY bad. So, we couldn't say no. The elders said they would be there as well because it was a farewell party for Elder Taylor (who is from k-town) However, when we got there, there were no elders. Just two english speaking sister missionaries and a family of no english speaking Guatemalans. We were able to talk Spanglish to them and figured out there was a big miscommunication. The elders were not going to be there for another hour. So, we went and found a "Restoration" DVD and watched it in Spanish with them..with English subtitles and then told them we had to go. They are such nice people. They wanted us to stay so badly and eat dinner with them, but we had already confirmed our dinner with another family. We spent about 10 minutes trying to explain this and then we were able to have a kneeling prayer with them and were on our way. We received the dreaded phone call of transfers while we were in dinner. Elder Garrett left us a singing message. He sang the "so long, farewell.." song from the Sound of Music and informed Sister Welch that she would be leaving. :( I am sad.
Sunday morning the Zone Leaders called us and we had our hopes up for a minute thinking that they may have changed their minds on sending Sister Welch off, but they just called to inform us that the Greenville sisters would be coming to Deep Run and that Sister Matthews is going to be my companion...again! I am excited to have her back. However, I am really, really sad that Sister W is leaving. I love her a lot. She has been a great companion to me. Church went really good. We went to both Albertson and Woodington wards. Claire came; her boyfriend did not. But, her sister came! The Turners didn't come and we were very sad about that, but Amy came and that made it almost all better. We went to Taylor's house afterwards and had lunch with her and her brother. Her brother made us a comic book called "super missionary" He is pretty hilarious. After lunch we rushed over to the other Turner family for their weekly retention lesson. We focused especially so on Amy (who is not baptized...yet). We talked about how we can liken the scriptures to ourselves (1 Nephi 19:23) and then we read 1 Nephi 8 about the Tree of Life. We were able to find out that Amy is afraid of sticking her head under the water after her sister-in-law and mother-in-law told her she should get baptized. She still has some other concerns, but now she knows that the Book of Mormon can answer any question you may have. Church related or not. :]
I know that the Book of Mormon was written for our day and that it really does answer our questions and concerns we may have if we will ask Heavenly Father for help to find answers to those questions. Sometimes it takes a while, but there are always answers; and sometimes they aren't the answers we want. I know he is mindful of each of us and knows us inside and out.
God Bless and have a wonderful week!
I love you all so much!Love,Sister J
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Pictures from December 16, 2011
Here are some pictures of Amber with all of the Sister Missionaries in her mission during the mission-wide Christmas conference. Enjoy!
Here's a link to Amber singing some Christmas hymns.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Picture from Deep Run, NC
This was sent to me by a sweet member, Sister Susanna Robinson. The picture was taken January 3, 2012.
Tuesday January 17, 2012
Hello Hello!
It is not as cold this week and I am thankful!
This past preparation day we went to Kinston to buy supplies at the only Walmart for about 30 miles in any direction. Even Wally Worlds are scarce out here. The coolest thing happened whilst we were there though! We saw the Kinston elders as they were leaving and they stopped us to tell us to go check out where a girl named Kim was because they had talked to her about the restoration and she wanted a Book of Mormon, but the elders didn't have one on hand when they went into Walmart so they asked us if we had one. We did. Also, Kim asked them specifically if there were "lady missionaries" who did what they did to which they responded, "why yes, there are" as we walked into the Walmart. So, after we traversed through the Walmart for what seemed like ages to get all of the supplies we needed, we went to Kim's checkout line. We were able to talk to her about the Book of Mormon some and then we offered to give her one, but I guess her supervisor had overheard the conversation that the elders had with her and he told her that she would not be allowed to accept one until her workshift was over. That was sad, but she said we could come back when she went on lunch break. We are a long ways away from Kinston though so we let the elders know and they are going to give her a Book of Mormon! So, that was the exciting news of the day on Monday. We also went to get haircuts. I cut it short..er. I might just shave it all off by the time I come home.
Tuesday we had a long day of tracting in the cold. We were able to get a lot of missionary work done via phone calls though...so that was good. Sister Welch and I learned a lot about how the Holy Ghost is our senior companion and that we are merely conduits for the spirit. I love being a conduit. :) We met with the Turner family in the evening. They have been praying! They are still struggling, but they are making small steps of progress. I am happy for them. We are still trying to set a date for baptism with them, but that will come with time. I am just so happy that they are praying. We made a scripture jar for them that has just a couple of verses that they can all read together as a family. They said they will start doing that!Wednesday it was rainy. We didn't have any appointments in the morning and Claire wasn't able to meet with us that day sooo we went and tracted in the rain. We came home very wet. We went to part member family that lived pretty close to where we were at and when we got there they were shocked because the elders had apparently just stopped by not 10 minutes before. They told us they were not interested in meeting with us, but it was interesting that we had made plans to stop by them the night before..and so did the elders. They just had two chances to listen to the gospel and rejected it. That makes me sad, but I believe they will come around someday. We had a really good district meeting with President Cotterell that evening. We talked about using the Book of Mormon and how it is so important that we learn to recognize and point out when an investigator feels the spirit. The witness of the Holy Ghost should be a central focus of our teaching. We are also experimenting with a new way of seeking referrals and spreading the gospel with everyone in a different way than tracting. President invited us to ask everyone we visit with who they will invite to come listen the next time we come over to their house. It has been working. We have been trying to do that with our dinner appointments and a lot of families are more than happy to invite their friends over to have a lesson after dinner. It is so good!
We were able to meet with Claire on Thursday. Her kids were unusually rambunctious so we did a quick lesson on tithing. She is such a good missionary. (I know I say that a lot, but it so true) Her boyfriend is shy and won't meet with us, but after we leave, she always teaches him everything that she learned from us. She told us a rather funny story when were over there. She said that they were watching the South Park episode that makes fun of religion...LDS people in particular and I guess it really sparked his interest and he asked Claire if he could come to church to see what it is all about. Who would have thunk?We went home after teaching Claire and did weekly planning wicked fast before we headed out to dinner. They had a toy machine with mustaches in it. It reminded me of the mustache party we had last year. I tried to buy a mustache, but I got a bouncy ball instead. After dinner we went to the Turners and read scriptures with them. We read Moroni 6 about church attendance and really stressed the importance of coming to church. We spent some time resolving concerns with that and by the end, they were committed to coming this Sunday! We also got on a crazy tangit about flounder gigging. That sounds like so much fun! They told us that we would have to come back and try it. I think they are right.
We went to Seven Springs to have lunch with Sister Anderson on Friday. She served a mission in England and has a really strong testimony. We talked a lot about how all things denote there is a God. (One of her friends asked her what she thought about evolution). We tried contacting a bunch of referrals we had, but no one was home. We also go a phone call from the auto body shop informing us that our car was fixed! We set up a time with the elders in Kinston so they could come pick up the car. However, when we got there, they were running behind schedule. Turns out the elders forgot that they had told us they would be there. So, Sister Welch and I played scripture baseball for about an hour before the Elders got there. Then, the car still wasn't quite ready so we all played scripture baseball. Elder May is really, really good at scripture baseball and he gets really excited to play. It was really entertaining. After waiting for about an hour and a half, our car was ready to go and we were able to drive back and go to our appointment with a less active/part member family, Miguel and Olivia. We met Miguel a week ago when we went to talk to Olivia's parents who are less active. They just so happened to be there so we invited them to take the lessons. They agreed. There is a bit of a language barrier between us and Miguel, but we were able to teach him the restoration and then watched the Restoration video and he really liked it! They have a ways to go, but they are learning. :]
We met with recent convert, Jennifer on Saturday. She is hilarious. She teaches band at the local middle school and she collects rubber ducks. She is starting a diet so she brought a veggie and fruit tray for us to snack on while we were there. It is amazing to hear (and to see) how the gospel changes people's lives. Jennifer has changed a lot. We had a good lesson and she showed us all of her many rubber ducks. Then we met with Greg and Miranda, another part member family. We were able to identify and resolve concerns that Greg had and it was a really good lesson. They are a really sweet family. Greg comes to church every week. He's just a bit of a rebel. :]
Since both of the wards we attend start at 9 am, it is hard to be in two places at once. So, Sister Welch and I decided to try doing splits so that we could cover both wards. It actually worked out really well! Claire and Greg were both at church and we had a good sacrament on prayer and tithing...both were good things for Claire and Greg to hear. I was glad to be back with Sister Welch at the end of church. Sister Welch did not like doing splits. So I guess we won't be doing that anymore. Amy came to church, but the other Turners did not. :( We had our weekly lesson with Sarah and Amy and talked about service. We are still trying to figure out how to help Amy progress from where she is at. She is so close! We are continuing to work with her though. Her mom-on-law told us to keep working with her. So, I guess we will. We were also able to meet with Nathan, Kaela's boyfriend. We taught him the Plan and it was so neat because we would ask him what he knew about certain principles and he basically knew everything we were teaching. We laid it out in paper for him and at the end he said, "wow. this makes so much since in it's paper form." He is stellar. When Kaela and Nathan were driving us back to our car in Pink Hill, we were able to talk to Nathan some more about concerns he has and about his prayers. He said that he really likes everything we have been teaching and that it all makes sense, but that weird things have been happening since he started talking to us. We told him about priesthood blessings and prayer...so hopefully he will implement both of those.
It was a really great week this week! Transfers are this coming week. I am praying that Sister Welch will stay. (Sisters usually only stay comps for 2 transfers or less...) Miracles happen though!
I love you all and hope you know it. You are in my prayers continually.
God bless and have a wonderful week!
Love,
Sister J
It is not as cold this week and I am thankful!
This past preparation day we went to Kinston to buy supplies at the only Walmart for about 30 miles in any direction. Even Wally Worlds are scarce out here. The coolest thing happened whilst we were there though! We saw the Kinston elders as they were leaving and they stopped us to tell us to go check out where a girl named Kim was because they had talked to her about the restoration and she wanted a Book of Mormon, but the elders didn't have one on hand when they went into Walmart so they asked us if we had one. We did. Also, Kim asked them specifically if there were "lady missionaries" who did what they did to which they responded, "why yes, there are" as we walked into the Walmart. So, after we traversed through the Walmart for what seemed like ages to get all of the supplies we needed, we went to Kim's checkout line. We were able to talk to her about the Book of Mormon some and then we offered to give her one, but I guess her supervisor had overheard the conversation that the elders had with her and he told her that she would not be allowed to accept one until her workshift was over. That was sad, but she said we could come back when she went on lunch break. We are a long ways away from Kinston though so we let the elders know and they are going to give her a Book of Mormon! So, that was the exciting news of the day on Monday. We also went to get haircuts. I cut it short..er. I might just shave it all off by the time I come home.
Tuesday we had a long day of tracting in the cold. We were able to get a lot of missionary work done via phone calls though...so that was good. Sister Welch and I learned a lot about how the Holy Ghost is our senior companion and that we are merely conduits for the spirit. I love being a conduit. :) We met with the Turner family in the evening. They have been praying! They are still struggling, but they are making small steps of progress. I am happy for them. We are still trying to set a date for baptism with them, but that will come with time. I am just so happy that they are praying. We made a scripture jar for them that has just a couple of verses that they can all read together as a family. They said they will start doing that!Wednesday it was rainy. We didn't have any appointments in the morning and Claire wasn't able to meet with us that day sooo we went and tracted in the rain. We came home very wet. We went to part member family that lived pretty close to where we were at and when we got there they were shocked because the elders had apparently just stopped by not 10 minutes before. They told us they were not interested in meeting with us, but it was interesting that we had made plans to stop by them the night before..and so did the elders. They just had two chances to listen to the gospel and rejected it. That makes me sad, but I believe they will come around someday. We had a really good district meeting with President Cotterell that evening. We talked about using the Book of Mormon and how it is so important that we learn to recognize and point out when an investigator feels the spirit. The witness of the Holy Ghost should be a central focus of our teaching. We are also experimenting with a new way of seeking referrals and spreading the gospel with everyone in a different way than tracting. President invited us to ask everyone we visit with who they will invite to come listen the next time we come over to their house. It has been working. We have been trying to do that with our dinner appointments and a lot of families are more than happy to invite their friends over to have a lesson after dinner. It is so good!
We were able to meet with Claire on Thursday. Her kids were unusually rambunctious so we did a quick lesson on tithing. She is such a good missionary. (I know I say that a lot, but it so true) Her boyfriend is shy and won't meet with us, but after we leave, she always teaches him everything that she learned from us. She told us a rather funny story when were over there. She said that they were watching the South Park episode that makes fun of religion...LDS people in particular and I guess it really sparked his interest and he asked Claire if he could come to church to see what it is all about. Who would have thunk?We went home after teaching Claire and did weekly planning wicked fast before we headed out to dinner. They had a toy machine with mustaches in it. It reminded me of the mustache party we had last year. I tried to buy a mustache, but I got a bouncy ball instead. After dinner we went to the Turners and read scriptures with them. We read Moroni 6 about church attendance and really stressed the importance of coming to church. We spent some time resolving concerns with that and by the end, they were committed to coming this Sunday! We also got on a crazy tangit about flounder gigging. That sounds like so much fun! They told us that we would have to come back and try it. I think they are right.
We went to Seven Springs to have lunch with Sister Anderson on Friday. She served a mission in England and has a really strong testimony. We talked a lot about how all things denote there is a God. (One of her friends asked her what she thought about evolution). We tried contacting a bunch of referrals we had, but no one was home. We also go a phone call from the auto body shop informing us that our car was fixed! We set up a time with the elders in Kinston so they could come pick up the car. However, when we got there, they were running behind schedule. Turns out the elders forgot that they had told us they would be there. So, Sister Welch and I played scripture baseball for about an hour before the Elders got there. Then, the car still wasn't quite ready so we all played scripture baseball. Elder May is really, really good at scripture baseball and he gets really excited to play. It was really entertaining. After waiting for about an hour and a half, our car was ready to go and we were able to drive back and go to our appointment with a less active/part member family, Miguel and Olivia. We met Miguel a week ago when we went to talk to Olivia's parents who are less active. They just so happened to be there so we invited them to take the lessons. They agreed. There is a bit of a language barrier between us and Miguel, but we were able to teach him the restoration and then watched the Restoration video and he really liked it! They have a ways to go, but they are learning. :]
We met with recent convert, Jennifer on Saturday. She is hilarious. She teaches band at the local middle school and she collects rubber ducks. She is starting a diet so she brought a veggie and fruit tray for us to snack on while we were there. It is amazing to hear (and to see) how the gospel changes people's lives. Jennifer has changed a lot. We had a good lesson and she showed us all of her many rubber ducks. Then we met with Greg and Miranda, another part member family. We were able to identify and resolve concerns that Greg had and it was a really good lesson. They are a really sweet family. Greg comes to church every week. He's just a bit of a rebel. :]
Since both of the wards we attend start at 9 am, it is hard to be in two places at once. So, Sister Welch and I decided to try doing splits so that we could cover both wards. It actually worked out really well! Claire and Greg were both at church and we had a good sacrament on prayer and tithing...both were good things for Claire and Greg to hear. I was glad to be back with Sister Welch at the end of church. Sister Welch did not like doing splits. So I guess we won't be doing that anymore. Amy came to church, but the other Turners did not. :( We had our weekly lesson with Sarah and Amy and talked about service. We are still trying to figure out how to help Amy progress from where she is at. She is so close! We are continuing to work with her though. Her mom-on-law told us to keep working with her. So, I guess we will. We were also able to meet with Nathan, Kaela's boyfriend. We taught him the Plan and it was so neat because we would ask him what he knew about certain principles and he basically knew everything we were teaching. We laid it out in paper for him and at the end he said, "wow. this makes so much since in it's paper form." He is stellar. When Kaela and Nathan were driving us back to our car in Pink Hill, we were able to talk to Nathan some more about concerns he has and about his prayers. He said that he really likes everything we have been teaching and that it all makes sense, but that weird things have been happening since he started talking to us. We told him about priesthood blessings and prayer...so hopefully he will implement both of those.
It was a really great week this week! Transfers are this coming week. I am praying that Sister Welch will stay. (Sisters usually only stay comps for 2 transfers or less...) Miracles happen though!
I love you all and hope you know it. You are in my prayers continually.
God bless and have a wonderful week!
Love,
Sister J
Monday, January 9, 2012
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
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
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Pictures from Deep Run, NC
These pictures were taken by a really nice lady, sister Susanna Robinson. These are pictures of Amber with her companion, Sister Welch.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Happy New Year! Welcome to 2012
Hello!Happy 2012! I hope you all are doing well. :) I am doing great. So is Sister Welch....now. Poor Sister Welch's luck was running low this week. We had an adventurous week! Lots of trials of our faith...which when we looked at it in retrospect, we had a lot of miracles this week. I will explain...Monday: We had a good preparation day. The library was closed so we had a lot of time to get things done around the apartment. I think I finally caught up on writing to everyone! (huzzah!) We went and contacted some less actives in the evening, but nothing too exciting.Tuesday: We did a lot of work in Woodington. We got a message from Elder Garrett informing us there was a tornado watch in our area and to be careful. Sister Welch and looked outside to see a few clouds and sunshine. We snickered at the warning and continued on our way. We went to contact a referral and when we got out of the car, it was a little windy, but nothing too terrible. Sister Welch and I joked that this was definitely ideal weather for tornados. Sun, clouds, a little wind...ha! Well, we went to the door, talked to the Mr. Heath who lived there. He wasn't interested, but as we turned around to leave, a HUGE gust of wind and rain (it was seriously like cats and dogs) started pouring down. We were under his garage when the downpour started and as we turned around to leave and he told us that we could come in for a bit until the weather calmed down. (miracle!) We were able to talk to them about the Book of Mormon and read some scriptures. The elders had talked to them previously so they knew quite a bit. Mr. Heath's daughter is a convert to the church as well so, he knew quite a bit. Grandma Heath who is almost 90 years old was there and agreed to read the Book of Mormon. She said that she doesn't have anything else to do, so that would be a good pass-time for her. It was definitely a miracle lesson...Mr. Heath even gave us a referral to go by! The weather calmed down about 45 minutes later and we were able to be on our way. We decided to stop by a less active/part member family that we hadn't been able to get a hold of since I first got to Deep Run and another miracle happened! They were there, and they let us in! Their family is going through some hard times right now. The sister who is less active has actually started coming back to church recently, but her husband is not interested in taking the lessons anymore. Afterwards, we headed to our dinner appointment with the Floyd family. As we were driving on the unlit streets of Deep Run, we saw the outline of something in the road. Another car was coming the other direction with their brights on so we couldn't see very well. As we got closer I recognized the outline to be that of a very large deer. I started saying "deer! deer!" Sister Welch hit the breaks and the deer made it safely across the road, but then another deer jumped out right in front of us and we hit it! We pulled off to the side of the road to assess the damage. The deer had hobbled off into the woods and the bumper and hood took the brunt of the damage. Sister Welch's door was jammed and wouldn't open. We didn't know what to do so we called our car inspector, Elder Erickson who didn't answer so we called our other car inspector, Elder Pierce who did answer and told us to call Elder Erickson back. So, we did and left a message. Then, he called us like five times while we were at our dinner appointment. (the car was still drivable...) Basically, the whole mission knew by the end of the night what had happened to the Deep Run sisters. Great.Wednesday: We left our apartment early to go to district meeting, but before we left we realized that we had forgotten the ward roster book and I had forgotten to grab a jacket. So, we went back to unlock to the door, but our door would not unlock. We have discovered that the cold weather makes it hard to stick the key into the door sometimes. We tried to push the key into the door, but that didn't work out so well because the key bent in half. And was stuck half-way in the door. Sister Welch tried to unbend the key, but then it broke off inside the door knob. Luckily we had our handy bathroom window which was still unlatched. I told Sister Welch it was her turn to go through the window. She reluctantly agreed and went through the window. Sister Nannie Mae saw us looking ridiculous going through the tiny bathroom window and came out and wanted to know what was going on. We explained. She gets worried about silly things like that and went to find some 409 to get the remnants of the key out. We were able to get what we needed and headed on our way to district meeting. District meeting was really good. We learned about the importance of always being a fishing missionary from the time we wake up until we go to bed. Elder Garrett took us through our whole daily schedule and asked us how often we teach the gospel per day and what we do to find people to teach starting at 6:30 in the morning. Sister Welch and I have been going to the track to run in the morning and occasionally the youth will go with us and it has been quite productive in gaining their trust and then getting referrals. We had a lesson with Claire and brought Sister Lee with us. She just returned from a mission in Peru and therefore could speak espanol to Claire. We reviewed the commandments and went over goals that we could set for the new year. Claire is amazing. Her top two goals are 1: get married and 2: get baptized. She is stellar.Thursday: The Turner family wasn't able to meet with us on Tuesday because they were sick and then they called to cancel with us for thursday evening because it was Grandpa Turner's birthday. We had a great day of much contacting that resulted in not so much success. It was one of those "character building days" for sure. When we came home we were so proud that we had finally made it through the day without having something catastrophic happen. We spoke too soon. Since the car door was broken, Sister Welch had to climb in and out of the passenger side door. Somehow as she was climbing out of the door, the car key fell off and became lost. In the car. I was staring at the stars for something like five minutes before I started to wonder what in the world was taking her so long. I kept hearing her slide the car seats forward and backwards. I asked her what was wrong and she said that she had lost the car key..in the car somewhere. We looked for that key for about 20 minutes. After searching and researching everywhere we could think of, we said a prayer to find out where the key was. It was only a matter of a couple of minutes afterwards that we felt impressed to look under one of the floor mats and it was there! We really can't do things by ourselves. It is so important to make sure we put God and Jesus Christ in the center of our lives.Friday: We finally made it through the day without anything crazy happening...and we had another miracle lesson! We went to the library to do service and one of the members and her husband (who is not a member came in) Sister Welch started talking her for a bit and found out that her husband really likes movies. We asked if we could come over and watch a movie with her and her husband. They both agreed and we went over and were able to watch Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration. Brother Stroud really liked the movie and he agreed to read the Book of Mormon. He said it was one of his New Year's Resolutions. It was awesome! So, we are going to follow up with him on that and hopefully set up a time to teach him more. He hasn't wanted to take the missionary discussions in the past...so this was a big step! We had to take the car to Kinston to get a replacement car. We now drive an 06 dodge stratus. They appraised our car to be about 2000 dollars of damage. I am thankful for insurance.Saturday: We went to the less active Brother and Sister Pratt's home to help them take down their Christmas decorations. Sister Pratt just found out she has cancer and just started chemo. Brother Pratt suffered a very severe heart-attack earlier in the year and now only 40% of his heart is functional...according to the doctor. So, they have been struggling to keep up with the common demands of life. We were able to have a good lesson with them about setting goals. Sister Pratt wants to come back to church, but Brother Pratt is not as interested. We hope we will be able to help them find ways to soften their hearts and the hard feelings they have. We celebrated Rio de Janeiro as a substitution for New Years...since that happened at 10:00 EST and then we went to bed.Sunday: Went to church in Woodington. Sacrament and sunday school were all focused on repentance. A good subject for the beginning of a new year. Sister Matthews used to always explain repentance to investigators as a "permanent, personal upgrade." We are starting to study the George Albert Smith manual in relief society. I am so excited! It looks like a really great book. We had a lesson with Sarah and Amy. We asked Amy how she felt about the Book of Mormon. (she has been taught before in the past...like 15 years ago) and she said that since she has been reading with Sarah it has been really good. We asked if she had been able to pray about it and she said she has and that sometimes it feels good, but then sometimes it doesn't. So, she just has some doubts. We encouraged her to keep reading and praying. She is so close! I know that if she will just keep doing the church, pray, read (spiritual CPR ;] ) that she will be able to get a solid testimony and know that it is true. After we finished our lesson with them, we had a text from Kaela whose boyfriend showed interest in taking the lessons. She said that he was coming over that evening and that if we could, we should come over. We bailed our dinner appointment and headed to Beullaville. As we were driving to Beullaville, the gas light came on telling us we needed to get gas. However, this was not an option since we were missionaries and it was sunday. Beullaville is about 25 minutes from Deep Run and we hadn't even made it to Kaela's house yet. Beullaville does not take very good care of their roads either. Kaela lives on a dirt road with lots of pot holes. They're more like man holes. As we were driving, we decided to take the lesser of the two pot holes in the road. They were both filled with water and we couldn't tell how deep they were, but figured we'd be okay. Not so. We ended up stuck in the giant pot hole/man hole. I got out of the car to try and push it while sister welch tried to back up. That didn't work...and in the process I slipped and fell in the mud hole. Luckily it just got my knees muddy. We were finally able to dislodge the car from the hole and made it to Kaela's..on time! We had a really good lesson with her boyfriend, Nathan. He accepted the invitation to prepare for baptism and wants to read and learn more. When we got back to the car, we were worried about the gas and being able to make it home, but then a miracle happened! When we turned the car on, the gas meter no longer said we were running on empty and we were able to make it all the way back home without it even telling us that we were running low. I love miracles. Sister Welch and I have been learning a lot about how for every commandment that we keep, we recieve a blessing. I know that is true.I am thankful that this week is over and that we can start anew this week. :) I know that when we set goals for ourselves and desire to accomplish them, that we can. I love you all and want you to know that I pray for you every morning and evening...and a lot of times in between.Have a wonderful week!Loves,Sister J
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