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