Happy Labor Day 2012

I hope y'all had a good Labor Day! We did. It was actually a very relaxing preparation day. We finished doing grocery stuff, came home, wrote some letters, played the piano (the Clays have a piano...and it is the best thing ever!), took a nap and accomplished everything we intended to accomplish that day. It was nice.

Last preparation day was a different story. We were still trying to figure everything out and it ended up being a very long day. We had dinner with the Hockings and ate salmon. If I am not mistaken, that is the first time I've had fish since I've been in NC. I have missed my fish. We were able to talk about the sisters of the ward with her. I really like Sister Hocking. She is a great lady. Afterwards, we did some contacting and called it a day.

Tuesday was a day of  miracles. We went to contact some referrals. One made it very clear they were not interested in learning more. It was pretty traumatic for Sis. Asay. I wanted to leave that area, but we both felt like we needed to try a couple of other houses before we left. So, we did and we were able to talk to a couple of individuals who were interested in learning more! The first one was a man named Rich. He just moved here from Pennsylvania and expressed quite a bit of interest in learning more. As we were walking to the next house we wanted to go to, a little boy on his tricycle came flying down the giant hill where we were at and ran into a garbage can. It was pretty hilarious and I wondered if he was hurt at all, but he emerged from the garbage can and started running up to the hill again. We said hi to him and he told us his name was Joey. I think he was probably 3 or 4 years old. We knocked on a few other houses and as we were getting ready to leave Joey stopped us and told us to knock on a door. We asked him if he knew who lived there. He told us his girlfriend lived there...haha...So, we knocked on the door and a man named Antwan answered the door. We introduced ourselves and he said, "Hm. I just got saved on Sunday. That's really odd that y'all show up today." So, we were able to talk to him for a while and he wants to learn more because he thinks that us showing up was a sign from God. He wants to get baptized too! And, he was actually just visiting his brother who lives there so he isn't in our area, but the elders will get to teach him! :D We told him about Joey. He said there weren't any ladies in the house...lol. I think Joey was just inspired to tell us to go there.
We had a great lesson with Sis. Donaldson who was recently baptized a few months ago. Her health isn't the best, but she has a strong testimony of the gospel. It is really neat. We also met with Sis. Falco. She is obsessed with Harry Potter and Harry Potter legos. It was really funny. She has all of Hogwarts and that town they go to (can't remember the name...) set up in her apartment. We had a great lesson with her and brought recent convert of 2 weeks, Sis. Gibson along with us.

Wednesday we had a zone meeting with all of the elders. Sis Asay and I got to share a message on the doctrine of Christ.It went well. We had a miracle when we went to contact a less active later that day. We went to this apartment complex and as we were getting out of the car we saw an older lady who was struggling to get her groceries and her wheel-chair situated. We offered to help her and and she allowed us to help her. She then invited us to share more with her about the church. We squeezed that in where we could. She likes to talk a lot. Her name is Virginia. She wants to learn more about the church and I am excited to see how things go.
We discovered on Wednesday night why it is so difficult to see at night whilst driving. I have been having a MAJOR blonde moment and I have been driving with the low-lights on instead of the regular lights for a whole week. I thought the regular lights were the brights. After further investigation on our way home, we discovered that it was user error. :) Hahaha...oh my gracious. I love life.

I was just happy when Thursday was over. We definitely overbooked our schedule and I felt like hyperventilating the whole evening because we were just constantly running behind. Lesson learned. Plan wisely. Sometimes I wish I could just take on the whole world. Sometimes I think that I can. It definitely backfires every time.

We met with former investigator, Lisa on friday night. She was one of our last stops and told us she knew that God had sent us her direction. She wants to start coming back to church, etc. I am really excited for her! She has had a rough past.

Saturday we had Sis. Arkell and Sis. Burdick (the senior sisters who work at the office here in Raleigh) came on exchanges with us. We had a great lesson with a less active named Sis. Huber. She wants to come back to church and by the end of the lesson she agreed to come to church the next day. I love seeing how the gospel changes lives. She looked so happy when we saw her at church.
We also got to go to a baptism in the 2nd ward. They couldn't find a pianist so they asked if we could come. So, we were able to go. I'm guessing Bro. Clements probably sent the picture that he took of all of us there.

We had a great turn out of less actives coming to church. It was great to see them. One of them came even though she felt nauseous and hadn't slept in like 30 something hours. I was proud of her. I'm pretty sure Heavenly Father was too. Fast and testimony meeting was really good. There is a dear old man in the 2nd ward who bore his testimony about a 9 hour silent film. I'm not sure where he was going with it really, but his actual testimony was very good. Our plans for the evening fell through, but we had dinner with the Clays. They are a funny bunch. We were laughing so hard a couple of times I thought I might break a rib.
One other miracle that happened this week was after we finished dinner, we noticed our ward mission leader from first ward, Bro. Henderson had called and had left a message. Apparently a lady named Michelle had called him after talking to another member and wants to learn more and come to church. He gave us her info, we called her and she is excited to meet with us this coming Sunday. I love miracles! When you put good in, you get good out.

I hope everything is going well for everyone. I heard about Katie's baby and my prayers go out to the Branch family.
I know God's plan is much vaster than what we can see with our finite minds. Sometimes things are hard, seem unfair,or  don't make sense. A wise person once asked me if I believed that Heavenly Father can see the end from the beginning. I told him I did. He told me that Heavenly Father most certainly can see the end from the beginning and that with that knowledge we can have our rest assured that He will take care of those things that are unfair, and hard in life in His time. I know that is true. I am grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

Have a wonderful week!

Love,
Sister J