Hello hello hello!
It has been a great week here in NC. The weather has even been very pleasant. So last monday was crazy. We went to Bishop Ginns for lunch and I got to play the piano and it was wonderful! We were able to finally meet with a potential that we have been trying and trying to meet with that evening and had a great lesson with his girlfriend, Sasha. She is from Guyana and was raised Hindu. It should be a fun teaching experience with her and Ricardo (her boyfriend).
Tuesday we were up before the sun was awake to get ready to go to transfer meeting. We stopped at Sherry's Bakery and got some tasty treats. I wasn't too hungry though. My nerves were getting the best of me. Sister Truelove (who is amazing) took us to Raleigh for transfer meeting. I had to be there by 8:30 for a training meeting. I was the only sister there. I only felt slightly out of place (hint of sarcasm). We reviewed the new 12 week program that they are doing with all the new missionaries now. It is an amazing program. There is so much revelation to receive! I did part of it with Sister Wilson and it was the best thing ever. So, we were singing (trying to anyways) Praise to the Man when all the new missionaries come in to meet their trainers. I was mostly just mouthing the words. I was so nervous! Sister Tillman is great though. I think I worked myself up over nothing....
I heard great news about dear miss Clara we were teaching in Deep Run from Elder Otteson. Clara's boyfriend who was afraid to come out and say so much as "hi" to us and finally came to church the last week we were there has been coming to church every week since then and reads the Book of Mormon more than Clara does and he wants to get baptized and has invited like 3 of his friends to listen to the elders as well! It was probably the most exciting thing I've heard in a long time.
We met with the Hudsons that evening. Dear miss Margaret is still stuck. We are praying for a miracle.
Wednesday's district meeting was great! Elder May (whom I served with in the Kinston stake) is our new District Leader. He knows sister Joseph. They are both from the same home town. We had a good district meeting about asking referrals from everyone. That evening, we were able to meet with the illusive Sister Irwin who has been avoiding us for the past six weeks. Her husband doesn't like the church. So, that is why she hasn't been for a long while. She is amazing though. She even spoke at stake conference when she first joined the church. We invited her to read the Book of Mormon.
All of our appointments on Thursday were stand-ups. (sigh) And then, all of our backup plans seemed to have moved. Poor Sister T was getting pretty down about it. It started dumping buckets of rain again mid afternoon and the wind made the stop lights go out. I guess there was/is(?) a tropical storm somewhere out there in the Atlantic ocean...
It was definitely a good character building day. :)
We had a miracle occur on Friday! We met with Sister Jan and she has decided that she wants to be baptized on the 23 of June! She said she had been praying and praying about it and when she was talking with the Fay 4th elders, she just felt like it was the right day. So, she broke the news to us and we were ecstatic to say the least! She is doing really well. She had a lot of questions about infant baptism and we were able to use Moroni 8 to answer every single one of them. We had an enjoyable evening with the Baysa family. (he's a member, she is not). We met with them last week and his wife has no desire to read the book of Mormon or pray about it or anything, but they invited us back for dinner. So, we went. It was a feast. Bro. Baysa is polynesian. Enough said. Sis. Baysa is a music major and has some amazing piano skills. We played and sang hymns for a while. She added a southern baptist touch to the hymns. It was pretty entertaining.
Saturday we had our mission tour in Apex and got to hear from Elders Giddens, Clayton, and Holland. They were all incredible talks. We got to shake hands with Elder Holland which he told us he insisted upon because that was our interview with him. We all passed! (whew).
Elder Giddens impressed upon our minds the great importance of companion study. It is so true. Comp study makes or breaks your day.
Elder Clayton talked about a whole bunch of things, but the one thing that stood out the most to me was that we should strive to make the church experience for our investigators a place where they won't want to leave. He talked about how we are really good at buidling bigger buildings, but that we need to focus on building bigger buildings that are designed where people cannot leave because they do not want to. I found a scripture today that kind of talked about that in John 15:16.
Elder Holland told us no matter how important we think this is, it's a lot more important that that. He also said that missionary work is the most important thing we can do in the universe because it contributes to the salvation of a human soul. He told us that we are God's investigators, and that preach my gospel is designed to convert the missionary who can then take that knowledge and share it with others. He told us we darn well better not return and be the same person we left as and that we should be expected to do the same things we invite our investigators to do everyday of our lives. He also said that the church is literally in the hands of "escapees of the Aaronic Priesthood." I thought that was pretty funny. :)
I had the priviledge of giving the closing prayer.
I love fast sundays in Dunn. The Kunz's little four year girl always gets up and bears the cutest,sweetest testimony. This time she talked about school and church and prophets. She is a doll. We got to teach the priests during third hour and had a great lesson about why we have commandments. Then we went to the Ramages and had a lesson with their friend, Deborah who wanted to know more about the church. She is very smart and knows a whole lot about the Old Testament. She wants to read the Book of Mormon and we are really looking forward to teaching her!
I love you all. I send my love to the Fitch family and also the Bowmans. I know there isn't much I can say that would ease the hurt, but I do know that God knows what you are going through and that He is always there to help us in our trials (See 2 nephi 2:2)
I love you all! Have a great week!
Love,
Sister J
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