We Are "Elderettes"!

Hello!

I hope you are enjoying the snow. It's just windy and cold here. Today is exactly one month until I become a part-time missionary. :] I think Sister Asay is trunky for me. She tells EVERYONE when I am going home.

We had the craziest week this week. It was so much fun and it went by way too fast.

Last Monday we decided to be a little extreme and we cut our preparation day short so we could have a lesson with Daisy. We had the best lesson with her about fasting and living the word of wisdom. We are going to fast with her next sunday. I am excited for her to experience that. Fasting is such a wonderful way to tap into spiritual power. We dinner with the Pixton family. Their son reminds me a lot of Lance. He is ridiculously tall too. Bro. Pixton (the dad) is about 6'7". They are such a wonderful family. Afterwards went to the Coombs household and had a lesson with Sis. Coombs and "Bro. Bill." Bill told us he doesn't really want to have the lessons anymore which was sad. We had such high hopes for him, but at least we planted a seed! I feel like the song "We are Sowing" is the story of my life...which is fine, but discouraging at times.
I found a really great scripture in Ether during my personal study that morning. It's Ether 12:41. It's so good!

Tuesday was insane. We had an appointment with a man named Donovan at 11 that morning so we met a member at the church to take us there for the lesson. Donovan is less active. He had been wanting to come back to church for a while and thought it was interesting that we just happened to show up on his doorstep one evening. We had a good lesson with him. Sister Evans shared a lot of good things with him. She is a convert and has a really powerful testimony. He told us a really neat story about how his son had texted him that same week and told him that he had decided to start attending the "Mormon church" again. So, it's neat to see how the Lord is working in both of their lives. He was supposed to come to church yesterday, but didn't come. (sigh). It is hard to come back to good things when you have strayed away from them.
When we went back to the church transfer meeting was going on. We ate our lunch in the kitchen and by the time we were finishing up, transfer meeting was over. I got to see Sister Welch and Sister Tillman and a few of the other sisters.
GUESS WHAT?!? Sister Welch told me that the Hudsons (from Dunn) finally have decided to get baptized!!! They are going to get baptized in January. I was so excited! Sister Tillman was telling me about Greenville and I guess they are teaching a girl Sister Joseph and I started teaching named Hawa and she has also worked really hard and wants to get baptized. It is exciting to hear about these people. I am happy for them.
Sister Welch was by herself with all of the elders who were going home (she was the only sister going home) So we asked Pres. and Sister Bernhisel if we could "kidnap" her for the day and go on "exchanges" to an appointment that we had with Reshell. They said that would be fine so we did just that. Reshell was sick so we ended up contacting a few people. We talked to a really nice man named Jose. He didn't speak much english, but we asked him if he would like to learn about Jesus Christ and his face lit up and he said, "Yes!" The spanish elders will now have a good referral to go to. :) Our dinner appointment cancelled so when we took Sister Welch back to the mission home the Bernhisels told us to stay for dinner. We had burritos and laughed ourselves sick. Sister Welch is so funny. I love that girl.

Wednesday was district meeting. The new elder in our district is Elder Waniel. He is from the South Pacific somewhere. (I can't really understand him very well). He is a good elder though. We did a fun district meeting where we were each assigned a topic associated with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we taught about how it applies to us as missionaries, to members, and to investigators. It was fun. We sang a hymn to go with each section so I got a lot of piano playing in! It was great! We had a lesson with a less active named Sister Lybarger afterwards and taught the restoration. She really enjoyed the lesson and gave us pumpkin pie afterwards. We went on exchages with the office sisters afterwards and had no success contacting our backup plans (our original appointment cancelled).

Thursday was great! We had dinner with the Petty family. Their daughter just returned from a mission in Brazil. She a great member missionary now. She brought three nonmembers to dinner. We had a really good lesson with them afterwards. Sister Asay sang and I played the piano and it brought the spirit so strongly and then we testified of Jesus Christ and of prophets and apostles and of the Book of Mormon. We are hoping we can meet with their neighbor, Charles again this week..and we're still working on Sister Petty's unofficial boyfriend, Jared. :]

Friday we went to IHOP with Sister Patrick and her daughter Allison for lunch. I like pancakes. We had a good little lesson with them and then we went and contacted a lot of less active members of the ward that lived in that area. We were able to set up some appointments with some of them and it was a productive afternoon. We had dinner with Sister Donaldson afterwards. I think I'm still full from that meal.

Saturday we stayed busy all day and had a lesson with Shaunti and helped her get organized in her new apartment. We then had a lesson with Sister Falco. The most amazing thing has happened with Sister Falco. I always have some reservations about how things will work out when we promise people blessings for keeping commandments and such. Since Sister Falco has been paying her tithing, she has been incredibly blessed. Her son who lives in Fayetteville had previously estranged her basically, but that morning she received a phone-call from his wife and they talked for a long time and they are going to make plans for the holidays! Sister Falco was so happy and it was neat to see that she recognized that it was Heavenly Father blessing her. We dinner with the Willis family who invited a less active named Sister Barbour over for dinner and then we did a little "music party" afterwards. Sister Willis plays the accordian and her and her husband yodeled for us and their kids did the mexican hat dance too. It was fun and it was really good for Sister Barbour to be there.

Sunday was crazy. It was a taste of Greenville again. We went to three sacraments! We went to the third ward because the Clays were performing a musical number and had invited a non-member friend they wanted us to meet. So, we went. We got to hear from a returned Sister missionary. She served in Mesa, AZ. She gave a great talk and it was by far the best sacrament meeting of the day. A less active member came to church in second ward and he referred to us as elderettes. It made my day.

The church is true and I love you all!

Have a great week!

Love, Sister J