Monday, July 16, 2012

Hello from Dunn, NC!! Woot! Woot!

So, here's the scoop: Sister Welch is the third member of the -panionship! I think I must not be learning the lessons I need to from my former comps. They just keep coming back! We are having a lot of fun though.. It's been quite the adjustment for all of us I think. Sometimes I wish I was a boy. No drama. That would be great. I think we are finally adjusting though.
 
Monday we went to the Trueloves who live in the boonies of Fuquay-Varina. We had dinner with them and the best pecan (it's pronounced pee-can) pie i've ever had. Don't worry. I did get the recipe. :) We went and saw a less active named DeeDee. It was kind of crazy because I told the Trueloves a couple of weeks ago that  I had a dream about her and that I was supposed to go and see her. I had never met her, but I felt like we really really really needed to go see her. It was an intense lesson. Sis. Tillman did a great job. She bore a powerful testimony of God's love and the spirit was SO strong in that lesson. DeeDee's husband who isn't a member told us as we were leaving, "you know, I was just thinking the other day that we should go to church. We haven't been in a while." It was amazing. They didn't show up this week, but hopefully they will come next week. :) Agency (sigh). Sometimes I wish there could be no opposition, but that would defeat the purpose of life.
 
Tuesday was crazy. We had a lesson with recent convert, Jan about the priesthood. It was really neat because she had just learned about the priesthood in church on sunday in the Fayetteville ward so it was a good review and we were able to clear up a few confusions. She is doing great! She loves reading the Book of Mormon and coming to church. After our lesson we drove with Sis. Knight to Raleigh to pick up the mystery sister. It was pouring rain and we ended up being a little late (oops!) Sister Welch was drenched. She was so excited though! We got some dry clothes, changed quickly and headed over to the Andersons to have a lesson with the Hudsons. We read 3 Nephi 11 with them and talked about becoming as a child and how simple the gospel is. They are still being stubborn (AHHHHHH!).
 
Wednesday we had a zone training and Sister Tillman and I were asked to teach part of it on the doctrine of Christ. It went really well. I was glad when it was over. Did I mention that both of the zone leaders (elders Simmons and Schank) are from K-town (Kaysville, UT)? It's a small world. The district leaders in our zone each taught and it was so good! Elder Otteson is in my zone again. He is a district leader in Sanford or Raeford or one of those ford places. He gave a really good discussion on asking inspired questions. I learned SO much from that. It was amazing. He talked about how there are four types of questions; 1) soul searching questions 2) commitment questions 3) application questions and 4) verifcation questions. I learned this week that these principles of inspired questions asking can be applied in more ways than just with our investigators. I think they will definitely come in handy as a future parent. We had dinner with the Dominguez family. They are so great! Sis. Dominguez made jalepeno poppers again. I love those things! Mmmm! Afterwards, we went to teach investigators, Freddy, Charles and Bryan. They were all asleep. Bless their hearts. Mona told us that the nurse gave them their meds early that night. (sigh)
 
Thursday we met with the Little family. They are a part member family. It's a crazy situation. But, I know that true doctrine understood changes attitudes and bahavior. The boys L.H. and Bryan (ages 9 and 16) want to be baptized. They LOVE coming to church. I would too if I lived in their house. We are hoping to start having them taught in member homes so they can feel the spirit more.
Afterwards, we met with Lewis...finally! He has not been feeling well and therefore avoiding us. I guess. We had a great lesson on the Word of wisdom with him and he committed to give up his coffee! huzzah! He has come such a long ways. He is a prime example of how powerful the Book of Mormon is in conversion.
 
Friday we did service. We went to my favorite family's house, the Swaffords. Sis. Swafford is not able to do a lot of things because she is wheel-chair bound so we went and sanded and painted a whole bunch of her furniture. It was fun. I love to work like that. They are working of finding people to share the gospel with and we are excited for them! We had a ward missionary meeting in the evening. Only 2 of our 20 something ward missionaries showed up. Nevertheless,we had a great lesson with them about the Atonement and how that is related to missionary work. There is a great quote by President Hunter that says, "Anytime we experience the blessings of the atonement in our lives, we cannot hlep but have a concern for teh welfare of others...a great indicator of one's personal conversion is the desire to share the gospel with others."
 
Saturday was a really, really long session of weekly planning. It was so long that I had to go and walk outside. Sis. Welch is A.D.D. If that even is a real disorder. We were laughing our guts up all day. We FINALLY finished attempted to contact a referral out in Benson. Unfortunately, I took a wrong turn which put us on the interstate going towards Raleigh. Even more unfortunate was that there isn't much inbetween here and there so, the next exit off of the interstate was about 10 miles later. This created a giant loop and when we finally got to the road the referral lived on, we discovered that the road was closed for repair. I don't think we were supposed to contact that referral that day. There weren't any houses close by so we just turned around and went to our coordination meeting. That was great because we were able to set up some great plans for a fireside. I am so excited! It's going to be amazing. There will be more details as the time draws closer. :)
 
Sunday was amazing. We had 7 investigators come to sacrament! Amazing! Freddy came thanks to the ever so diligent efforts of Bro. Dalton who went and picked him at the last minute due to a ride that bailed. The Little family all came to church. It was really neat to see how they lit up when they saw us. There is a lot of darkness in their lives. Lewis also came and the Hudsons came too! It was definitely amazing. The talks in church were really good. After church we went on exchanges with the Jesters. We ended up driving FOREVER because we got a phone call from a former who was dropped because he fell in love with one of the sisters. Anyways, he called to tell us that his mom (who was also a former) was on her last leg and wanted us to come and see her. He told us the address, but trailer parks are horrible for going a logical numerical order. We ended up getting lost and by the time we finally were able to contact Gary again, his mom had passed away. It was really sad, but a blessing for her. She had been very very ill.  We closed the day with a lesson with Charles and Freddy. Freddy LOVED church. A lady at the assisted living place did not approve of his decision and she made it very clear. He didn't originally show up to our lesson ,but about 20 minutes into it he finally came in. He told us what happened. We ended up having a great lesson on recognizing the spirit and how to tell whether something is good or not using Moroni 7:13-16. He feels good about his decision and recongized right off the bat that because he had felt the spirit so strong, that satan was working extra hard on him. He is great.
 
Being a missionary is the best. Hard? Yes. Worth it? Completely.
 
I know as we deepen our understanding of the Atonement our desire to share the gospel with others will increase.
 
Good scripture:
1 peter 4: 12-13
 
 
Loves to y'all!
 
Love, Sister J

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