Solar flares, half-way day, and five zillion appointments (not really, but there were a lot...), Young Women New Beginnings, and so much more! It was a crazy, crazy week! I love being busy. Last Sunday we sent around an exchange sign up sheet and had a pleasing response from the Albertson sisters. We had exchanges for basically every hour of the day this week..and we saw many, many miracles because of it.
Monday: Happy National Pancake Day!...but then we found out that it wasn't actually today. I guess it was on Feb. 28th. To those of you who have access to electronic devices who can keep you up to date on these sorts of important events, I hope you took full advantage of eating pancakes on Feb 28th. If not, you can always celebrate late! Preparation day was a typical preparation day. We emailed, we shopped, we cleaned, we wrote a couple of letters and organized our lives and then it was over! Time goes so fast. I suppose that's not always a bad thing. We also went to the chiropractor again and got to talk to a lady about what we do as missionaries. I gave her a pass along card before we went into get Sis M's back cracked. I hope she goes to mormon.org!
PS-to all you members out there, you can make a profile on mormon.org and it is a great tool to use to share the gospel with your friends/colleagues/family/
Tuesday: We went to Seven Springs to meet with Sis. Anderson and former investigator, Claudia. We had a delicious lunch of homemade pizza and salad (i love vegetables so much). Claudia used to live in Cali and went to church for over a year there. She has taken the missionary lessons before and faithfully attended church. She just has a hard time accepting that Joseph Smith was a prophet. We asked her how she felt about the Book of Mormon and invited her to read and pray about it. She agreed to do that. Sis. Anderson has been such a good friend to her. She called us a few days after we met with Claudia and told us that they had talked for quite a while after we left and that Claudia knows what she needs to do; it's just a matter of doing it. We also met with Denise. We brought Sis. Howard (RC) along. They have a lot in common. Poor Denise is struggling with so many things right now. She needs to let the atonement work in her life. Right after our appointment with Denise, we met with Sis. Pate and headed to Beulaville to contact a referral there. The referral is an older couple (in their 70's). Their names are A.L. and Pauline. A.L.'s sister-in-law (who is a member in the Woodington ward) referred us to them and we went over as soon as we could! They allowed us to come in and we had really good lesson with them. They have had many, many trials. Sometimes I think my life is hard...and then I find out that really, it is not that bad compared to what other people have been through. We were able to talk about why bad things happen to good people. We read 2 Nephi 2:2. I read a talk a while back about trials in life and even when we are doing good, that does not mean we are exempt from being tried. That is part of life. Elder Christofferson said, "If you think that because you are trying to be good that you should be exempt from having bad things happen, then you need to have a chat with Job!" I thought it was pretty funny... A.L. and Pauline invited us to come back. A.L. believes what we teach is true. Pauline insists that she is going to be Pentacostal forever. She kept throwing out those "stump the missionary questions." It didn't work. :] Sis. M and I were both so beat by the end of the day we felt like we needed to be carried home on stretchers. I slept like a rock that night.
Wednesday: Happy Half-way day! Everyone asked me what I did to celebrate being half way done: I threw away a pair of tights. We aren't allowed to play with fire...so I just chucked them in the garbage can. Good bye old tights! We had district meeting in Kinston. The lesson was very good as it always is. We talked about the difference between telling vs. showing in 2 Nephi 32 and then we talked about using the Book of Mormon in the conversion process. I read a talk called, "Preserving the Heart's Mighty Change" a while back and it just solidified my testimony of how important it is to endure to the end by continuing to do those things that invite the spirit (Spiritual CPR! church, pray, and read) We talked about how conversion occurs in the heart...where we feel. We went to lunch with Sis. Robionson and the elders afterwards to a Mexican restaurant and then we skedaddled to Albertson to start another run of exchanges. We went with Sis. Carter and drove all over the place. No one was home. The backup plans of the backup plans were falling through. Finally, we were able to meet with Sis. Potter, who has been ill. She is a sweet older lady who is so worried about doing everything she can so that she can be with her husband and son who have passed away. She feels like she needs to do more than she is. I don't see how that would be possible. She is an incredible lady. I love old people... We went to dinner with Carmen (Matthew's (RC) ex-girlfriend) Matthew is struggling. It is so hard to be strong when everyone around you is trying to get you to go against what is right. Poor kid. It breaks my heart to heart that. I'm confident he'll come around though.
Thursday we went out with Sis. Herring and met with a less active lady named Christy. We had a good lesson with her and invited her to read the Book of Mormon with her family. She agreed to that. We then went on another adventure to find someone who would be home that we could share the gospel with with Sis. Stainback. We had no luck until we decided to stop by Clara's house. We got to see her baby, Julian and he was a cutie! Clara was so happy. She was just glowing. She is a good mom to her kiddos. We had a good lesson with her and then we were quickly swept away to meet the Heaths. We went to Beulaville with them and met with a potential named Kayla. We talked to her about the Book of Mormon and prayer. She was hilarious. She reminded me a lot of a good friend of mine. She told us that "you aren't crazy if you talk to yourself and you aren't crazy if you answer yourself. You're only crazy if you argue with the answer you gave yourself." lol. I think this is further evidence that I am, in fact crazy. :] Thursday was Solar flare day! We went to get some pizza and they had a sign up that said they couldn't accept credit/debit card due to the solar flares.
Friday finally slowed down a bit. We met with LA sis. Moody and RC Sis. Moore at the church and read the "forget-me-not" talk by pres. uchtdorf. I love that talk. Especially the part about the "why" of the gospel. If we don't know why we are doing things, then why are we doing them?
Saturday was Young Women's new beginnings program. They invited us for dinner (grits, sausage, cinnamon rolls, eggs, and pancakes...oh and WHOLE milk) and enlisted me as pianist. We played a really pretty version of the Lord is my Light and had a good evening.
Sunday we taught gospel principles about sacrifice. Favorite scriptures: 3 nephi 9:20 and Matthew 19:29. Afterwards, we went to choir practice and then had a lesson with Greg. We made flash cards with all of the commandments on them and he chose which ones he wanted to learn about first. We committed him to start cutting back with smoking and to read and pray everyday! Hooray for the gospel changing lives. It is amazing. The hard part is letting it continue to change you.
Well, my time is running short. I love you all very, very much and appreciate the love and support and everything else you continue to give.
The church really is true.
Love you!
Love,
Sis J
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