Another week came and flew right by! I don't even know where the time went. Gracious. All days kind of ran together this past week.
We had so much free time this past prep day. It was crazy! In both my past areas we were at least 15-20 minutes from any sort of shopping to get foods and the necessities. Dunn has a Walmart that is like 2 miles down the road. It is AMAZING. I never thought I would be so thankful to have a wally world so close, but really, it's a tender mercy. We finished washing clothes, shopping and everything that must needs be done by 2 pm. I am still in shock. That never happens!
We had dinner with Bishop Ginn (whom I finally got to meet! He sprained his ankle and wasn't able to come to church on sunday so, I had no idea who the bish was until Monday night.) He's hilarious. He reminds me of you dad. I think you two would get along really well. Anyways, we were supposed to have a lesson with Bruce and Margaret, but they weren't able to come so we did FHE with the Ginn family. Their six year old daughter reminds me of Ashlyn. she kept rolling herself up in a blanket on the floor and then crawling around like an inch worm in the living room. It was very amusing. We watched the old seminary video about the Plan of Salvation and how the Plan is like a three act play. Then, we read Alma 24:14. It's a great scripture about how God loves us and give us the Plan of Salvation in every dispensation. Good stuff! Bishop likes to talk. A LOT. He told us about the one and only missionary serving from the Dunn ward currently. Elder Truelove. This child sounds like quite the character. I think it will be in order to come back and meet him. He is basically legendary in the ward.
Tuesday the sweetest lady in the ward, Sis. Knight came out on exchanges with us. We had several appointments, but all of them caved. So, she took us to see very less active Debbie who has been attending the baptist church for nearly 20 years. She loves her church, but I think she knows something is missing. Her husband died in a car crash a few years back and she has asked sis. Knight several times about the Plan of Salvation apparently. We talked to her about the Book of Mormon and she is going to start reading and invited us to come back so, that's a good sign! We also had a wonderful lesson with Lewis (investigator). Lewis has had a very challenging life. He is incredible. He has a long, long ways to go, but he's working at it. We read Elder Scott's talk about the Power of Scripture and he started crying. I almost cried too. We invited him to read the Book of Mormon everyday and he said he would. He also said he'd be at church...which is amazing because he just had surgery on his lung like 4 days before. Incredible man.
Wednesday was district meeting. That's the only place we have to drive a long ways to get to. It takes almost an hour. We drive to Fayetteville (or as some folks call it, "Fayette-nam." There are a lot of sketchy places in Fayetteville. Which is why sisters are in Dunn.) Anyways, we had a great district meeting. Elder Merrill is our district leader. He actually served in Dunn as his first area (way back before they took elders out and put us sisters in). He also broke Sister Wilson's bed when he was serving in Dunn.. Sister Wilson's bed is being propped up with a screwdriver box currently. Elder Merrill is one of the most dedicated missionaries I have ever met. He really knows how to do missionary work and what it takes to become an effective missionary. We talked about planning. "Planning is the most important 30 minutes of the day." I was rebuked. Planning is not my favorite 30 minutes of the day. That's for sho'. But, there is always hope. I can improve! We went out to dinner with the Elmore family that evening and sis. Elmmore's daughter brought her friend, Lauren who plays the guitar in the baptist church she attends. We shared a spiritual thought with them in a sneaky way and invited her to go to mormon.org. She seemed to really enjoy it and Sis. Elmore's daughter said she would explain more later on. Hooray for member missionary work! We then met with Bruce and Margaret and had a nice lesson about the apostasy. Margaret is still having hang ups about Joseph Smith. I'm not sure what she needs. Then, since they have been reading the D&C, Bruce read section 132. Oooh boy. That lead to a lengthy conversation dominated mostly by Bruce. After every one calmed down, we told them that they should pray about it and one of our members suggested going on lds.org to learn more. Thank heavens for members. I had no idea what to say. I'm just a missionary. I don't know everything!
Thursday we actually finished weekly planning before the day was practically over. That was amazing. I keep being amazed by how much simpler things are here. Only one ward to worry about, stores are close. It is wonderful. I love being closer to civilization. There are actually people to contact too! We had a great afternoon of contacting. We met a very nice man named Michael. Him and his wife are both ministers for a non-denom church. They started getting kind of preachy with us and weren't making much sense, but they were very nice people. Their little boy kept bringing out pictures he had colored to show us. He really wanted us to acknowledge his coloring skills. :) He referred us to his neighbor. She said, "I'm baptist." and that is where the conversation ended. We also went to his other neighbor he told us to go by. His name was also Michael. He is moving the Pennsylvania, but knew about the temple in Apex (aka Raleigh) and the DC temple. He asked us if we were voting for Mitt Romney. We told him the church doesn't have a politcal stand. He said he was voting for "Mitt" and had a picture with him as well. He seemed really interested and wanted to learn more, but alas, we are sister missionaries and could not come into his house. We invited him to come to church though and he said he would like to come. Unfortunately, he never showed up on Sunday. (sigh) "just come to church!" (as sis. voyles would say). We had a lesson with Bro. McGee (less active) at the church with Sis. Knight. He is going through a rough time, but is trying to come back. He did come to church on sunday..so we are excited about that!
Oh, and we had a neat experience when we went to get gas at the store. I wanted to talk to someone at the gas station, but it's always kind of awkward to just walk up to people at the gas pump and be like "oh hey! we're missionaries just walking around the gas pumps and we have a question for you..." So, I was praying that we would be able to talk to someone without it being super awkward. We have to save our receipts to send into the mission office. Well, when the receipt came out, it was completely blank. So, we walked up the the little kiosk to talk to the lady who was working. Her name is Celeste. She saw our tags and said that she really liked seeing people with the name Jesus Christ on their tags. We then had the opportunity to share more with her and gave her our card and she gave us her info and we are going to call her and teach her! It was great. We also got our receipt problem sorted out. Good day.
Friday we met with Jan. She was being taught by the Fayetteville elders, but she lives in our area (which is HUGE by the way.) She is amazing. We invited her to be baptized and she said yes! We are tentatively planning on the 19th of May, but she wanted to talk to her dad before she does anything. Her boyfriend is a less active coming back that the Elders were working with. His name is Russ. He is quite the character. He's had a pretty rough life, but knows he needs to come back to church. He kicked his unhealthy habits that have held him back and is on his way back to coming to church. So, we are really excited about that. Jan has a glow about her. She is so excited to learn about the gospel. We went to lunch with them afterwards at Burger King. I haven't been to BK in like, 2 years. It made my tummy upset. Agency is gone when it comes to food and being a missionary. I'm looking forward to reaclaiming that after the mission.
We also had dinner with the Moodys. She is the RS president and is hilarious. She is a computer game addict basically. It's kind of funny. We had a "picnic" at the church and had tuna sandwiches, crackers and pudding for dinner. Then, we went to Bruce and Margarets and had a lesson about faith and assuarances that come from exercising faith. (See Alma 58:10-12 and Jeremiah 3: 7-17) It was a fun lesson, but hard to teach because the Moodys are talkers, and the Hudsons are also talkers. I am not. I am learning how to be more assertive and stay in control of the conversation though. So, I guess it's good. Sister Wilson is really good at extending invitations to everyone and sharing her testimony. I admire her a lot.
Saturday we spent the morning do another service project in Benson. I was so beat afterwards I had a hard time staying awake (evidence of being out of shape). We walked like 4 miles and picked up garbage along the road. Sis. Dean was with us and told her whole life story basically. She found someone's driver's license, a bmx bike with wheels and chain still in tact, and a softball, a microphone, and a roll of film. Oh the things you find when picking up trash! We talked to the police officer who was escorting us. he doesn't go to church, but said he knew enought about our church already. Right. Whatever. We planted a small seed at least.
Sunday was the best day ever! Lewis came to church, the Hudsons came to church, and Jan went to church in fayetteville with Russ. The sacrament meeting was all about the restoration and the blessings of the restoration and priesthood. It was perfect for Bruce and Margaret! I hope they got some answers to their questions. We had 5th sunday potluck afterwards and sat with Lewis and his mom (who is a member) They kept cracking jokes about Sis. W and I getting married when we get home. I told him that was a loooong ways off. He didn't believe me. Funny old people.
It was a good week. We had a lot of fun being missionaries and talking to poeple and it's just been great. I read Alma 32:40 this morning and realized that we need to keep our focus on Christ if we want to partake of the blessings of the Atonement. See also Matthew 14: 27-31. I know that is true and we can do it by reading the scriptures; especially the Book of Mormon and praying for strength and attending church. Then, everything else falls into place. The church is true. I know it.
Love you all so much. Have a wonderful week! I can't believe May is right around the corner. Ah!
Love,
Sister J
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