Rollercoaster Life of a Missionary

Hello!

I loved the pictures of Ashlyn's baptism! She is such a doll. Lance is looking studly too and dad, you are looking fantastic!

Missionary work is like permanent ride on a rollercoaster! Enough said. I don't want to go to an amusement park for a long time.

So last preparation day we went "hiking" (it was more like a nature walk...) by the cape fear river. It's a gorgeous river. Lots of people like to go kayaking. (not sure on the spelling there). It was so nice to just be able to get out and walk around. There were some pretty nasty clouds that were coming towards us, but we prayed that they wouldn't start dumping rain on us...and they didn't! Heavenly Father does answser prayers. We drove up to Fuquay in the evening to recontact a referral that we all felt impressed to go by again. The same girl answered the door. She was a lot nicer this time than the first time. Nothing really came of it, but we all knew we had done the right thing in going back and talking to her again. Sister Welch has this hilarious talk called, "Life is a Game of Football" by Troy Dunn. Go look it up and prepare yourself to laugh and gain greater understanding of the Plan of Salvation. It is so funny. We listened to it in the car on the way home. It was great.

Tuesday was one of those really big drops on the rollercoaster of life, but thankfully there was a good recovery. :) We received a headquarters referral for a lady named Laura. Her story was pretty neat. She met a lady on facebook who apparently is a member. The member lady posted a mormon message or something and Laura saw it and started asking questions. The lady told her a little about the church and Laura wanted to learn more! So, the member got her information and sent it to us. I love member missionary work. Laura is SO prepared. It is crazy! We went with Sister Anderson to  meet with her and had a great lesson with her. She told us she wants to start cutting back on her caffeine intake and that she doesn't beleive you should wear revealing clothing. She reminds me a lot of dear Clara from Deep Run. She's in the same situation too. Now we just need to help her get married! :D She is so sweet though. I love her already. We also had a good lesson with Jan and the Hudsons. We taught them about the Fall and the Atonement. Elder Holland told us when he came that we should never teach the Fall without teaching the Atonement. You know what's so neat about the Atonement. It makes all the negative signs in life positive signs! With the Atonement, everything comes up roses in the end. So, I didn't have time last week to tell y'all about how funny Sis. Hudson was when we went to the fireside last Sunday. The Hudsons had not met many elders prior to this fireside and our whole zone was there. As one wave of elders came in, Sis. Hudson leans over to Sis. Welch and says, "Those are some fine young men!" Sis. Welch says, "Well, there's a pretty big age difference so they're not much of a distraction really." Then a second wave of elders came in and Sis. Hudson leans over again and tells us, "You might want to consider going younger." lol. Oh my...Sis. Hudson is pretty funny. No chance Sis. Hudson. :]

We had zone training on Wednesday. I don't like accounting. The lessons were really good though. Elder Otteson gave a lesson on member missionary work and started out by asking us why we didn't do missionary work prior to the mission. That'll make you think. He then asked us what had changed since then. We came up with a big list. One of the most important factors was personal conversion. He also said, "you get what you go for." We went and visited a couple of less active members in the afternoon and just had a great time doing missionary work.

We went to Cookout for lunch on Thursday. I got a FOOTLONG hotdog; and I ate the whole thing. I have no regrets. It was delicious. We then commenced the wonderful weekly planning session and then had a nice visit with the Foster family. They are really young. They just went through the temple last December, but are struggling a little bit. We talked about the Law of Sacrifice. I love teaching people about sacrifice and putting up collateral. I think it's one of my most favorite things to teach.

We witnessed a miracle on Friday. We decided to drive out to the edge of Dunn to contact a part member family that no one had been able to contact for quite a while. We just showed up and they welcomed us right in and we had a nice chat. They have a huge dog that tried to sit on me and wouldn't move. The dad and the three daughters are not members. We asked the girls what they thought about taking the lessons again and they're all for it! Now we just need to get the parents on board. We were so excited though! They are such a great family.

All of our appointments cancelled on Saturday except for one. It was disappointing to say the least. We had a good lesson with less active Bro. King on agency though. Nothing too exciting to report though.

Sunday was great! Laura and the Hudsons came to church. Laura has been reading a lot. She downloaded the gospel library onto her phone. She's so funny. She was reading conference talks all during sacrament meeting. She seemed to really enjoy church. The Hudsons are the Hudsons. More active than most members o the church are. We had dinner with the Bennet Family who just went through the temple last month to be sealed. They are so great. Sis. Bennet is awesome. She has such a strong testimony of everything really. We asked her about the blessings of being sealed as a family. She told us that it has helped her put things into perspective and that everytime something bad happens she just takes a step back and realizes that it's just the adversary and so she does those things that drive him out (like prayer, FHE, scriptures, church, etc.)

Among other exciting events of this week: we received word that Nathan from Deep Run was baptized this past week! Hooray! He looked ridiculously happy in the picture. Also, I finished the Book of Mormon! I love the Book of Mormon and it really is my favorite book now. I never thought I would say that. All missionaries say that. I would just say, "yeah right. whatever." But really. It is the best book. I love it and what it can do.

I love you all. Thank you for your continued love and support. The Book of Mormon can heal the wounded soul and bring lasting peace and happiness as we live by it's precepts (that's the tricky part :] )

Love you all!
Love, Sister J