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