Well, the sun shone much brighter on us this week than last week. It got REALLY cold on tuesday and wednesday. It said it was like 30 outside, but my gracious...it felt like it was in the single digits. I am not a fan of humidity in the winter time. Two pairs of tights and the cold still cuts through...luckily it warmed up again to the 50's so it's not too bad.
We stayed at home again last prep day. It was coold and the library was closed due to New Years. We wrote letters, cleaned, and had a great time. There really wasn't too much that happened that day. Everyone was "too busy" to meet with us in the evening so went home and finished up our map book (it's FINALLY done!) Oh, I made a resolution that I would follow Elder Scott's counsel in his talk from conference and made a goal to memorize one scripture per week. This weeks was 1 Nephi 10:19.
Tuesday was the day of much cold and wind and we didn't have any appointments until the evening...so we got a lot of tracting in! Luckily we have been blessed with many referrals recently so that has been keeping us pretty busy. We were able to to contact several of them and had a couple of lessons. We met with a girl named Ashley. She was amazing. She is 20 years old and she asked the best questions. She thought is was so neat that the Book of Mormon was about the people in America. We were able to teach the restoration to her and she wanted the Book of Mormon so we gave it to her, and she said she was going to start reading it as soon as we left. It was awesome! Then we went to her next door neighbor's house. Turns out it was the currently retired librarian from the library that we email from. She invited us in from the wind and cold. She told us about her husband passing away last Christmas because he was in a bad car wreck. We were able to testify of being with our families forever and shared some scriptures with her. She is very familiar with the church, but said she "stuck in her ways as a free-will baptist and could not change." I think that is kind of a funny excuse really. That evening we went to the Turners. We had to drop their baptismal date because they have been struggling to make it to church the past couple of weeks and they have been struggling with reading and praying. We talked to them about the importance of these things and committed them to do all of them. They are such a sweet family. I hope and pray they will continue to have the same desire to live the gospel as they did when we first started going over. They are really struggling, but will make it through. I know they can. :]
Elder Garrett decided to have district meeting in Woodington since the Kinston elders only have one car and therefore they can carpool. It was really cold outside. And inside. I couldn't feel my toes the whole time we were in there. We had a good meeting on the great apostasy. It's funny how quick we forget things...which is why we repeat things and learn them over and over. I also learned that hymn 85 and 185 are the only two hymns where God is the one who is speaking to us and not us speaking to him. Check it out...it's pretty neat! (Dad-Sister Robinson..the lady who sends you pictures said that she really loved your email that you sent to her. It really touched her heart.) After getting in the car and defrosting our toes, we went to Hannah's. Hannah is a recent convert. Her husband is less active and has been less active for many, many years. Hannah is the best. She wants to make sure she is following the Lord in everything that she does. The ward boundaries in this area are pretty crazy and no one really follows them, but as missionaries, we are required to follow them because it dictates where people need to go. Hannah was super confused about it and felt like she was not in the right place. We discovered after looking at the maps that she wasn't and after she went and talked to the bishop of the Kinston ward, she said she felt really good about it and that she knows that's where she needs to be. I know that no matter how crazy the ward boundaries may be, that you are where you are for a reason and there are people who need you in the ward you are assigned to. Ward boundaries are also evidence of the restoration of the gospel. They are important.
Thursday was a slow day. We went and contacted bunches of people and drove almost a 100 miles by the time the day was over. We even started going through our former investigators. Most of which were dead ends because they were from so long ago that those people don't even live there anymore. However, we were able to meet with a less active family and their daughter and her boyfriend were there. The boyfriend, Miguel is not a member and he listened while we taught a bit about faith and church attendance. He doesn't speak much english so we are going to bring him an El Libro, but he wants to learn more! It is so exciting when people want to learn more about the gospel.
On friday, we went to follow up with a potential investigator at the library in Albertson. She ended up talking our ears off for about an hour and gave us a historical tour of the library (it is a really old library) We invited her to go on mormon.org and to call us if she had any questions. She is a talker! We then went and did our library service at the Pink HIill Library and we were able to talk with Tasha, the less active who works at the library. She and her husband have been meeting with the missionaries in Kinston. Their schedules have been turned upside down recently with school and work and everything else. Tasha is having a hard time with it. All of our appointments for the evening fell through. We went and tried contacting some less actives, but didn't have much luck.
Saturday we had a miracle! Sister Houston's neighbor is a less active member...who has been less active for about 40 years. Last time we stopped by her house she closed the door and wouldn't answer when we knocked. We were stealthy this time though and parked in the distance and walked up to her house. She saw us let us in...pretended that she didn't know who we were (which was pretty funny). We didn't play along. Finally, she opened up to us and told us a lot about her life. She has had a very, very difficult life with many trials. We invited her to start taking the lessons and she agreed...so we are excited to start teaching her!
Sunday we went to church in Albertson. Fast and testimony meeting was good. The little girl in front of us kept turning around when we were singing the hymns and at the end of sacrament she told me I sing "really good!" That is probably only the second or third time someone has ever told me that. I think she meant to tell Sister Welch, but regardless it made my day. We had the best lesson EVER with the whole Turner family after church. We went over to Sarah's (recent convert) and then Kaitlin (her cousin we are teaching) and Jason (less active) came over. Sarah's dad even sat in on the lesson. (He is less active) We had a scripture chase for about 45 minutes and then we reviewed the Plan of Salvation with the clever puzzle Carilyn gave me for Christmas. Amy (who is not a member) thought that was the neatest thing ever and found out the website so she could go and buy a bunch of lds puzzles. She is so funny. I don't know why she doesn't just join. She has the whole gospel library on her Kindle that she got for Christmas and she likes buying lds books...and puzzles now. We also had the opportunity to talk about fasting and praying to receive answers to things that are important to us. It was a really good lesson and so much fun! I really love their whole family.
Thank you for all of your love and support. I really couldn't do it without the outpouring of love that y'all have extended.I love you all very much and want you to know that the Atonement is real. I am grateful for the restoration of the gospel. It is incredible and I know that it is the source of happiness in the home. The gospel really does bless families. I love that so much.
The church is true.
Hugs and loves!
Sister J
Monday, January 9, 2012
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Pictures from Deep Run, NC
These pictures were taken by a really nice lady, sister Susanna Robinson. These are pictures of Amber with her companion, Sister Welch.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Happy New Year! Welcome to 2012
Hello!Happy 2012! I hope you all are doing well. :) I am doing great. So is Sister Welch....now. Poor Sister Welch's luck was running low this week. We had an adventurous week! Lots of trials of our faith...which when we looked at it in retrospect, we had a lot of miracles this week. I will explain...Monday: We had a good preparation day. The library was closed so we had a lot of time to get things done around the apartment. I think I finally caught up on writing to everyone! (huzzah!) We went and contacted some less actives in the evening, but nothing too exciting.Tuesday: We did a lot of work in Woodington. We got a message from Elder Garrett informing us there was a tornado watch in our area and to be careful. Sister Welch and looked outside to see a few clouds and sunshine. We snickered at the warning and continued on our way. We went to contact a referral and when we got out of the car, it was a little windy, but nothing too terrible. Sister Welch and I joked that this was definitely ideal weather for tornados. Sun, clouds, a little wind...ha! Well, we went to the door, talked to the Mr. Heath who lived there. He wasn't interested, but as we turned around to leave, a HUGE gust of wind and rain (it was seriously like cats and dogs) started pouring down. We were under his garage when the downpour started and as we turned around to leave and he told us that we could come in for a bit until the weather calmed down. (miracle!) We were able to talk to them about the Book of Mormon and read some scriptures. The elders had talked to them previously so they knew quite a bit. Mr. Heath's daughter is a convert to the church as well so, he knew quite a bit. Grandma Heath who is almost 90 years old was there and agreed to read the Book of Mormon. She said that she doesn't have anything else to do, so that would be a good pass-time for her. It was definitely a miracle lesson...Mr. Heath even gave us a referral to go by! The weather calmed down about 45 minutes later and we were able to be on our way. We decided to stop by a less active/part member family that we hadn't been able to get a hold of since I first got to Deep Run and another miracle happened! They were there, and they let us in! Their family is going through some hard times right now. The sister who is less active has actually started coming back to church recently, but her husband is not interested in taking the lessons anymore. Afterwards, we headed to our dinner appointment with the Floyd family. As we were driving on the unlit streets of Deep Run, we saw the outline of something in the road. Another car was coming the other direction with their brights on so we couldn't see very well. As we got closer I recognized the outline to be that of a very large deer. I started saying "deer! deer!" Sister Welch hit the breaks and the deer made it safely across the road, but then another deer jumped out right in front of us and we hit it! We pulled off to the side of the road to assess the damage. The deer had hobbled off into the woods and the bumper and hood took the brunt of the damage. Sister Welch's door was jammed and wouldn't open. We didn't know what to do so we called our car inspector, Elder Erickson who didn't answer so we called our other car inspector, Elder Pierce who did answer and told us to call Elder Erickson back. So, we did and left a message. Then, he called us like five times while we were at our dinner appointment. (the car was still drivable...) Basically, the whole mission knew by the end of the night what had happened to the Deep Run sisters. Great.Wednesday: We left our apartment early to go to district meeting, but before we left we realized that we had forgotten the ward roster book and I had forgotten to grab a jacket. So, we went back to unlock to the door, but our door would not unlock. We have discovered that the cold weather makes it hard to stick the key into the door sometimes. We tried to push the key into the door, but that didn't work out so well because the key bent in half. And was stuck half-way in the door. Sister Welch tried to unbend the key, but then it broke off inside the door knob. Luckily we had our handy bathroom window which was still unlatched. I told Sister Welch it was her turn to go through the window. She reluctantly agreed and went through the window. Sister Nannie Mae saw us looking ridiculous going through the tiny bathroom window and came out and wanted to know what was going on. We explained. She gets worried about silly things like that and went to find some 409 to get the remnants of the key out. We were able to get what we needed and headed on our way to district meeting. District meeting was really good. We learned about the importance of always being a fishing missionary from the time we wake up until we go to bed. Elder Garrett took us through our whole daily schedule and asked us how often we teach the gospel per day and what we do to find people to teach starting at 6:30 in the morning. Sister Welch and I have been going to the track to run in the morning and occasionally the youth will go with us and it has been quite productive in gaining their trust and then getting referrals. We had a lesson with Claire and brought Sister Lee with us. She just returned from a mission in Peru and therefore could speak espanol to Claire. We reviewed the commandments and went over goals that we could set for the new year. Claire is amazing. Her top two goals are 1: get married and 2: get baptized. She is stellar.Thursday: The Turner family wasn't able to meet with us on Tuesday because they were sick and then they called to cancel with us for thursday evening because it was Grandpa Turner's birthday. We had a great day of much contacting that resulted in not so much success. It was one of those "character building days" for sure. When we came home we were so proud that we had finally made it through the day without having something catastrophic happen. We spoke too soon. Since the car door was broken, Sister Welch had to climb in and out of the passenger side door. Somehow as she was climbing out of the door, the car key fell off and became lost. In the car. I was staring at the stars for something like five minutes before I started to wonder what in the world was taking her so long. I kept hearing her slide the car seats forward and backwards. I asked her what was wrong and she said that she had lost the car key..in the car somewhere. We looked for that key for about 20 minutes. After searching and researching everywhere we could think of, we said a prayer to find out where the key was. It was only a matter of a couple of minutes afterwards that we felt impressed to look under one of the floor mats and it was there! We really can't do things by ourselves. It is so important to make sure we put God and Jesus Christ in the center of our lives.Friday: We finally made it through the day without anything crazy happening...and we had another miracle lesson! We went to the library to do service and one of the members and her husband (who is not a member came in) Sister Welch started talking her for a bit and found out that her husband really likes movies. We asked if we could come over and watch a movie with her and her husband. They both agreed and we went over and were able to watch Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration. Brother Stroud really liked the movie and he agreed to read the Book of Mormon. He said it was one of his New Year's Resolutions. It was awesome! So, we are going to follow up with him on that and hopefully set up a time to teach him more. He hasn't wanted to take the missionary discussions in the past...so this was a big step! We had to take the car to Kinston to get a replacement car. We now drive an 06 dodge stratus. They appraised our car to be about 2000 dollars of damage. I am thankful for insurance.Saturday: We went to the less active Brother and Sister Pratt's home to help them take down their Christmas decorations. Sister Pratt just found out she has cancer and just started chemo. Brother Pratt suffered a very severe heart-attack earlier in the year and now only 40% of his heart is functional...according to the doctor. So, they have been struggling to keep up with the common demands of life. We were able to have a good lesson with them about setting goals. Sister Pratt wants to come back to church, but Brother Pratt is not as interested. We hope we will be able to help them find ways to soften their hearts and the hard feelings they have. We celebrated Rio de Janeiro as a substitution for New Years...since that happened at 10:00 EST and then we went to bed.Sunday: Went to church in Woodington. Sacrament and sunday school were all focused on repentance. A good subject for the beginning of a new year. Sister Matthews used to always explain repentance to investigators as a "permanent, personal upgrade." We are starting to study the George Albert Smith manual in relief society. I am so excited! It looks like a really great book. We had a lesson with Sarah and Amy. We asked Amy how she felt about the Book of Mormon. (she has been taught before in the past...like 15 years ago) and she said that since she has been reading with Sarah it has been really good. We asked if she had been able to pray about it and she said she has and that sometimes it feels good, but then sometimes it doesn't. So, she just has some doubts. We encouraged her to keep reading and praying. She is so close! I know that if she will just keep doing the church, pray, read (spiritual CPR ;] ) that she will be able to get a solid testimony and know that it is true. After we finished our lesson with them, we had a text from Kaela whose boyfriend showed interest in taking the lessons. She said that he was coming over that evening and that if we could, we should come over. We bailed our dinner appointment and headed to Beullaville. As we were driving to Beullaville, the gas light came on telling us we needed to get gas. However, this was not an option since we were missionaries and it was sunday. Beullaville is about 25 minutes from Deep Run and we hadn't even made it to Kaela's house yet. Beullaville does not take very good care of their roads either. Kaela lives on a dirt road with lots of pot holes. They're more like man holes. As we were driving, we decided to take the lesser of the two pot holes in the road. They were both filled with water and we couldn't tell how deep they were, but figured we'd be okay. Not so. We ended up stuck in the giant pot hole/man hole. I got out of the car to try and push it while sister welch tried to back up. That didn't work...and in the process I slipped and fell in the mud hole. Luckily it just got my knees muddy. We were finally able to dislodge the car from the hole and made it to Kaela's..on time! We had a really good lesson with her boyfriend, Nathan. He accepted the invitation to prepare for baptism and wants to read and learn more. When we got back to the car, we were worried about the gas and being able to make it home, but then a miracle happened! When we turned the car on, the gas meter no longer said we were running on empty and we were able to make it all the way back home without it even telling us that we were running low. I love miracles. Sister Welch and I have been learning a lot about how for every commandment that we keep, we recieve a blessing. I know that is true.I am thankful that this week is over and that we can start anew this week. :) I know that when we set goals for ourselves and desire to accomplish them, that we can. I love you all and want you to know that I pray for you every morning and evening...and a lot of times in between.Have a wonderful week!Loves,Sister J
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Happy New Year!
Dear Family and friends,
Merry Christmas! I hope y'all had a wonderful Christmas time to reflect on the Savior, his Atonement and resurrection. I spent a lot of time thinking about Mary and Joseph. I think she was an incredible woman and he was an incredible man. I was reading in Luke 2 in preparation for Christmas this past week and it just reaffirmed that.
Thank you all for the cards, and packages...I am thankful to have such a sweet family and wonderful friends.
We had a pretty slow week this week. Last Monday wasn't very eventful. My nasty cold came on with a vengeance so Sister Welch and I watched a bunch of Doctrine and Covenants videos. There are some really good stories on those...AND it has the Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration movie on it. We watched one clip (The John Tanner Story) that had one of the Koch boys in it. We were watching and then I was like, "Hey! That's my neighbor." Claim to fame.
We decided it might be best to stay in that night and just go to bed early which worked out really well because all of our appointments for the evening canceled.
Tuesday we went down to Beullaville and met with a girl named Kayla. Her stepson's grandparents are members and that is how we found her. She has gone through a lot of trials in her life...and she is only 25 years old. She feels like God doesn't care about her. She had a really serious trial a few years ago and she said that she felt like God didn't answer her prayers until several years had passed. We pointed out that he had answered her prayer, but that it just hadn't come when she had wanted it. I feel like that happens a lot. Sometimes we will pray and pray and pray, but nothing will happen. A lot of time can go by before we will receive answers to our prayers. I know Heavenly Father hears every prayer and that He is mindful of each of us though. He loves us and wants the very best for us. Sometimes that means we have to go through the refiner's fire (1 Nephi 10:20) to get the very best that he has in store for us. I've learned a lot about that lately. I know without a doubt that Heavenly Father loves us though. Sometimes it is hard to feel and understand, but he is there to help us if we will just humble ourselves, strive to fix the things that are wrong in our lives, give our all/do our very best, and exercise all the faith we have (which doesn't have to be anything more that a teeny little mustard seed...if that's all we've got.) She is interested in learning more. She was telling us about some of the crazy things that she had heard about Mormons. Her nephew told her that he heard from someone at school that Mormons don't eat peanut butter. I told Kayla that I would die without peanut butter. It is a primary staple of my diet.
Wednesday I lost my voice due to the nasty cold. We had district meeting and ironically, we had a few minutes to talk about health and safety. Elder Garrett (our new district leader) asked if we, the sisters had any input. Sister Welch said to stay away from your sick companion. I love her. She cracks me up. We learned a lot about using the how to begin teaching skills and then we role played. I learned (relearned would be more appropriate) the importance of asking inspired questions. Asking questions is how Jesus taught the people in the New Testament. I have loved seeing that as I have been reading the New Testament in my study time. Asking questions also allows the person to receive revelation for themselves and they can answer their own questions instead of having us just tell them an answer. We don't want to just give people a fish...we want to teach them how to go fishing for themselves. Questions are awesome. Sister W and were talking about how we could apply that to life after the mission. There are many applications...
As a sidenote, one of the elders a while back was talking about the importance of area books. He then related it to life after the mission and said that we should all make area books after the mission to use in our dating pursuits. He said we can have a "potentials" section, and a "new and other investigators" sections, and of course, a "former investigator" section. It was pretty hilarious. Later that evening we met with Claire and the Smith's home. Claire is very,very shy so this was a big deal for her. She was really nervous and the Smiths have tried having her over a few times before and she backed out at the last minute, but she came! We had dinner and a lesson. We talked about Samuel the Lamanite. Claire really enjoyed it and said she thankful we coaxed her into coming.
Thursday we drove out to Trenton and had a lesson with Matt and Regina (recent converts). They are getting ready to go to the temple! We got to teach them the last few lessons of temple prep and watched a bunch of really cheesy church movies with them. I think it's funny that those movies are sooo cheesy yet they get me everytime. I almost cried, but then I didn't. Sister Regina is a most excellent cook. She made us homemade peppermint/chamomile tea and snickerdoodle cookies. It was delicious. Afterwards, we went to the Turner residence (Jason, Tiffany, Austin, and Kaitlin). They are excited for Christmas! We read scriptures with them and talked about the importance of scriptures. They are struggling right now, but we know that they will be able to make it over all of their speed bumps in life.
Happy Christmas Adam! We met with Claire again on Friday and gave her a bunch of Christmas stuff. A lot of the people here don't have much. She was excited to meet with us and we had a good lesson with her. She is such a sweet person. She gave us these giant marshmallow things that Sister Welch and roasted over our gas heater when we got home that night. It was like eating a giant peep that had been roasted....mmm.
Happy Christmas Eve! Sister Nannie Mae invited us over for breakfast. I was full for the whole rest of the day. We had grits, sausage, eggs (gah), and biscuits. I was SO full. We did our weekly planning and then we went to dinner with an 84 year old lady and her family. It was very good. Her grandson (?) talked to us for a long time about his mission and all the pranks he pulled on the sister missionaries in his district. It was really funny. We would be so toast if we ever even thought about pulling the pranks that he did. Those sisters deserved it though....after we finished dinner at their home, we went over to Sister Adkins home and ate more dinner there. I do not like food anymore. Sister Adkins kept asking me if I wanted more. I felt bad for saying no so many times so I finally started saying yes and then I just felt sick.
Merry Christmas! We went to church in Albertson. We decided to snag a ride with a girl named Leeann in the ward because we are running low on miles. So, we did that. However, on the way home I was giving Sister W a hard time about how she always loses the keys (it's basically everyday). She then looked at me and said, "I don't have the keys in my bag!" We rummaged through her bag with no luck. We had locked the keys in our apartment. I was supposed to call home shortly after church got out so I was panicking. Nannie Mae wasn't home from church and we didn't know when she would be coming back. So we tried all the windows and finally found that the bathroom window had not been latched down. Sister W said that I should go through the tiny window because my skirt was more "flowy", and I was taller and therefore able to reach the window better. So, I went through the tiny window, got high-centered about halfway, but made it through after grabbing onto the bathroom door and pulling myself through the window. It hurt. I went and unlocked the door for Sister Welch and we sat and unpanicked ourselves. About 10 minutes after that, Nannie Mae came home. Sister Welch and I looked at each other and just laughed. We could have waited for her to get home, but of course, we panicked. It was sooooo good to hear from y'all! It made my day. :) We went to the mission leader, Brother Stroud's for lunch. It was a very large lunch. Sister Welch had requested something "light." To which Brother Stroud responded, "I know no such critter." We were very full. After talking with the Strouds, we went over to the Gray's and ate dinner with them, had orangeade...which is delicious, and Brother Will Gray took a bunch of pictures with his new iPad that made us look really funny.
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and I hope you have a blessed 2012! Don't forget to set goals! President Cotterell suggested that we have spiritual goals for ourselves and physical health goals for this coming year.
I love you all so very much and I am so thankful for each of you. Thank you for all that you do.
Much love,
Sister J
Merry Christmas! I hope y'all had a wonderful Christmas time to reflect on the Savior, his Atonement and resurrection. I spent a lot of time thinking about Mary and Joseph. I think she was an incredible woman and he was an incredible man. I was reading in Luke 2 in preparation for Christmas this past week and it just reaffirmed that.
Thank you all for the cards, and packages...I am thankful to have such a sweet family and wonderful friends.
We had a pretty slow week this week. Last Monday wasn't very eventful. My nasty cold came on with a vengeance so Sister Welch and I watched a bunch of Doctrine and Covenants videos. There are some really good stories on those...AND it has the Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration movie on it. We watched one clip (The John Tanner Story) that had one of the Koch boys in it. We were watching and then I was like, "Hey! That's my neighbor." Claim to fame.
We decided it might be best to stay in that night and just go to bed early which worked out really well because all of our appointments for the evening canceled.
Tuesday we went down to Beullaville and met with a girl named Kayla. Her stepson's grandparents are members and that is how we found her. She has gone through a lot of trials in her life...and she is only 25 years old. She feels like God doesn't care about her. She had a really serious trial a few years ago and she said that she felt like God didn't answer her prayers until several years had passed. We pointed out that he had answered her prayer, but that it just hadn't come when she had wanted it. I feel like that happens a lot. Sometimes we will pray and pray and pray, but nothing will happen. A lot of time can go by before we will receive answers to our prayers. I know Heavenly Father hears every prayer and that He is mindful of each of us though. He loves us and wants the very best for us. Sometimes that means we have to go through the refiner's fire (1 Nephi 10:20) to get the very best that he has in store for us. I've learned a lot about that lately. I know without a doubt that Heavenly Father loves us though. Sometimes it is hard to feel and understand, but he is there to help us if we will just humble ourselves, strive to fix the things that are wrong in our lives, give our all/do our very best, and exercise all the faith we have (which doesn't have to be anything more that a teeny little mustard seed...if that's all we've got.) She is interested in learning more. She was telling us about some of the crazy things that she had heard about Mormons. Her nephew told her that he heard from someone at school that Mormons don't eat peanut butter. I told Kayla that I would die without peanut butter. It is a primary staple of my diet.
Wednesday I lost my voice due to the nasty cold. We had district meeting and ironically, we had a few minutes to talk about health and safety. Elder Garrett (our new district leader) asked if we, the sisters had any input. Sister Welch said to stay away from your sick companion. I love her. She cracks me up. We learned a lot about using the how to begin teaching skills and then we role played. I learned (relearned would be more appropriate) the importance of asking inspired questions. Asking questions is how Jesus taught the people in the New Testament. I have loved seeing that as I have been reading the New Testament in my study time. Asking questions also allows the person to receive revelation for themselves and they can answer their own questions instead of having us just tell them an answer. We don't want to just give people a fish...we want to teach them how to go fishing for themselves. Questions are awesome. Sister W and were talking about how we could apply that to life after the mission. There are many applications...
As a sidenote, one of the elders a while back was talking about the importance of area books. He then related it to life after the mission and said that we should all make area books after the mission to use in our dating pursuits. He said we can have a "potentials" section, and a "new and other investigators" sections, and of course, a "former investigator" section. It was pretty hilarious. Later that evening we met with Claire and the Smith's home. Claire is very,very shy so this was a big deal for her. She was really nervous and the Smiths have tried having her over a few times before and she backed out at the last minute, but she came! We had dinner and a lesson. We talked about Samuel the Lamanite. Claire really enjoyed it and said she thankful we coaxed her into coming.
Thursday we drove out to Trenton and had a lesson with Matt and Regina (recent converts). They are getting ready to go to the temple! We got to teach them the last few lessons of temple prep and watched a bunch of really cheesy church movies with them. I think it's funny that those movies are sooo cheesy yet they get me everytime. I almost cried, but then I didn't. Sister Regina is a most excellent cook. She made us homemade peppermint/chamomile tea and snickerdoodle cookies. It was delicious. Afterwards, we went to the Turner residence (Jason, Tiffany, Austin, and Kaitlin). They are excited for Christmas! We read scriptures with them and talked about the importance of scriptures. They are struggling right now, but we know that they will be able to make it over all of their speed bumps in life.
Happy Christmas Adam! We met with Claire again on Friday and gave her a bunch of Christmas stuff. A lot of the people here don't have much. She was excited to meet with us and we had a good lesson with her. She is such a sweet person. She gave us these giant marshmallow things that Sister Welch and roasted over our gas heater when we got home that night. It was like eating a giant peep that had been roasted....mmm.
Happy Christmas Eve! Sister Nannie Mae invited us over for breakfast. I was full for the whole rest of the day. We had grits, sausage, eggs (gah), and biscuits. I was SO full. We did our weekly planning and then we went to dinner with an 84 year old lady and her family. It was very good. Her grandson (?) talked to us for a long time about his mission and all the pranks he pulled on the sister missionaries in his district. It was really funny. We would be so toast if we ever even thought about pulling the pranks that he did. Those sisters deserved it though....after we finished dinner at their home, we went over to Sister Adkins home and ate more dinner there. I do not like food anymore. Sister Adkins kept asking me if I wanted more. I felt bad for saying no so many times so I finally started saying yes and then I just felt sick.
Merry Christmas! We went to church in Albertson. We decided to snag a ride with a girl named Leeann in the ward because we are running low on miles. So, we did that. However, on the way home I was giving Sister W a hard time about how she always loses the keys (it's basically everyday). She then looked at me and said, "I don't have the keys in my bag!" We rummaged through her bag with no luck. We had locked the keys in our apartment. I was supposed to call home shortly after church got out so I was panicking. Nannie Mae wasn't home from church and we didn't know when she would be coming back. So we tried all the windows and finally found that the bathroom window had not been latched down. Sister W said that I should go through the tiny window because my skirt was more "flowy", and I was taller and therefore able to reach the window better. So, I went through the tiny window, got high-centered about halfway, but made it through after grabbing onto the bathroom door and pulling myself through the window. It hurt. I went and unlocked the door for Sister Welch and we sat and unpanicked ourselves. About 10 minutes after that, Nannie Mae came home. Sister Welch and I looked at each other and just laughed. We could have waited for her to get home, but of course, we panicked. It was sooooo good to hear from y'all! It made my day. :) We went to the mission leader, Brother Stroud's for lunch. It was a very large lunch. Sister Welch had requested something "light." To which Brother Stroud responded, "I know no such critter." We were very full. After talking with the Strouds, we went over to the Gray's and ate dinner with them, had orangeade...which is delicious, and Brother Will Gray took a bunch of pictures with his new iPad that made us look really funny.
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and I hope you have a blessed 2012! Don't forget to set goals! President Cotterell suggested that we have spiritual goals for ourselves and physical health goals for this coming year.
I love you all so very much and I am so thankful for each of you. Thank you for all that you do.
Much love,
Sister J
Monday, December 19, 2011
Merry Christmas - December 19, 2011
Dear Family and Friends,Merry Christmas!I hope you are enjoying the dry cold and snow. It is humid...and freeeezing here; and there is no snow. :(
Last Monday, Sister W and I went to this restaurant in Kinston called the Peach House. A member from the Albertson ward works there and she told us to come sometime...so we did. They have soup, salad, and sandwiches. It kind of reminds me of Zupa's and it was so good! They had fresh fruit and panini wrap sandwiches. Mmmmm! It was so good. In the evening we met with a less active who was baptized about a year ago. Her name is Denise. She knows how important church is and she does a great job of sharing the gospel with her coworkers and family. She said she is just going through a rough spot right now, but wants to start coming back to church. We are excited for her! She is a really sweet lady.
Tuesday we went to Beullaville. We tried to find a part member family, but when we drove out there, we discovered that their address did not exist. That scenario seems to happen a lot. So, we figured Heavenly Father had led us out here for a reason. We parked at a Hotdog/ice cream/gas station and started walking. Houses are REALLY spaced out here. We walked a couple of miles and knocked on a few houses. Most people didn't answer the door, but we did meet a nice lady named Martha. She has a dog that is seriously the size of a lion. It almost knocked Sister Welch flat on the ground. Luckily, he was a nice dog and was just really excited to see new people. She said she was busy and was trying to clean because she had family who were coming to stay with her, but she said we could come back anytime and that she would like to listen to what we have to say. Afterwards, we went to the Turner family and had a really good lesson with their family. Sister Welch's mom sent us a gingerbread house. We decided to figure out someway to get rid of it so, we came up with a lesson plan using the gingerbread house by applying it to the gospel of Jesus Christ. So now I will liken the gingerbread house unto the Gospel of Jesus Christ for you: The plastic board that you build the house on was Jesus Christ. We read Heleman 5: 12 about how Christ should be our foundation. Then, we made the icing faith because sometimes you can't always see the icing. Which is like faith. Sometimes you can't always see it, but you know it is there. We also talked about how faith is like the glue that holds everything together. We read Ether 12:6. Then, we made the sides of the house like repentance because when we repent, it helps us get back on the path that we need to be on. We read Mosiah 4:10. The front and back of the house was baptism because baptism is the gate that we enter through (read 2 Nephi 31:17). The gift of the Holy Ghost was the roof because a house needs a roof to be complete and baptism without receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost is incomplete. (2 Nephi 32:5) Then, we decorated the house with candy and goodness which is like enduring to the end. When we endure, we receive blessings (like the candy!) that make our house more of a home. It was a fun lesson and the kids really enjoyed it. They explained it to us perfectly when we asked them to tell us what we learned. They are still planning on being baptized on the 7th and are super excited. We are also working with their parents and trying to help them kick their bad habits. They really want to change and know how important this is. Poor Brother Turner has been having some pretty serious withdrawal headaches. We keep praying that they will become less intense...
Wednesday we went to the library and did service.. Tasha, the less active was there and so was Carmen (the other girl that works there). We talked to them for a bit and then reorganized a bunch of reference books. I never thought that learning about the dewey decimal system in school would actually be applicable to real life. Ha! Tasha's husband met with the elders for the first time the night before and I guess it's going well so we are excited for them! Carman's aunt just passed away so we took the opportunity to ask her if she would be interested in learning more about the plan of Salvation. She declined our invitation, but said thank you. Her and her husband want to convert to Catholicism....Some day she will be a member of the church. I am sure of it. She is very sweet. I love her a lot. In the evening we went to the Albertson ward Christmas party. It was the weirdest church christmas party I have ever been to. They had tamales for dinner, but ran out before we got there so we had meatballs and pimento cheese sandwiches for dinner. Then, they did some skits. Some of them were pretty hilarious. The YSA's in the ward did a skit where they drew faces on their chins and lip synced songs upside down. The rest of them were a little questionable in my book...but whatever.
Thursday we weekly planned very thoroughly. It took a long time. Our dinner appointment forgot that they were going to feed us...which was okay. So, we went to Subway. When we got there is was like we walked into church or something. We saw the Turners there, Brother Smith, and President and Sister Whaley. Subway was the happening place! We met with the Turners that we saw at Subway afterwards to read scriptures with them. We are trying to make sure we teach our investigators and less actives how to go fishing in the scriptures. It was really awkward at first because no one would say much of anything, but the more we read on, the more involved they got. We read about Alma the Younger and the Sons of Mosiah. It was neat to see how much we could pull from that one chapter alone. You can always learn something from the scriptures.
Friday was Christmas Zone Conference! I played the piano. The Assistants failed with a capital F and didn't inform me of what songs they wanted me to play. So, I got some good sight reading practice in. We spent most of the morning doing role plays. We have a new sister! Her name is Sister McPherson. She is from Highland, UT and she is a nurse. She is really sweet. I hope we get to be compies at some point. Then, we had lunch...which was provided by the Greenville wards and it was so exciting because I got to see some of the G-ville members! I loved it there in Greenville. Afterwards we sang songs in our zones and had a good afternoon of much laughter when they had the missionaries come up and play songs with the chimes. I'm glad they were able to send those videos to you. We watched a couple of clips from the Bible videos that the church has made. You can watch them if you go to mormon.org/bible-videos. They are super good. Sister Welch and I took some time on Saturday at the library to watch them. They are incredible. My favorite was when the angel comes to the shepherds. Take a gander at them when you get a chance. :]
On Saturday we went to the church to practice music for the cantata. We went a tracted Piney Grove road...which we have decided the church should just buy and build a temple on. There are a lot of members that live on that road. We thought we had figured out where they all lived, but when we knocked on one door, we found the Elder's quorum president's wife....who was visiting her mother that lived there. We talked with them for a bit and got some info on a less active so it turned out to be really good. Slightly embarrassing, but mostly good. I was feeling a little under the weather that day so we took it easy for most of the afternoon. We met with Claire and her brother and sister and watched Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration with them. Claire loooved it.
We went to church in Woodington. One of the elders from my district in the MTC is now serving here in Woodington. (Elder Brown). New missionaries get picked on a lot. He said a lot of prayers during church and got to bear his testimony. We had a really good lesson in sunday school about faith. Sister Stephanie gave us each a mustard seed. Sister Welch and I taped ours to the back of our name tags. We went to lunch with the Harpers afterwards. They are an older couple and they told us never to own a chicken farm because it will control your life. We told them we would remember that for future reference. Then, we went to Sarah and Amy's for a lesson. We watched the bible videos with them, had a scripture chase and it was just really good! Oh, and Amy actually stayed for all three hours this sunday! She went to primary with Sarah, but she is going to start coming for all 3 hours every sunday now. We are so excited and are hoping to be able to help her progress in the gospel as we keep meeting with her. I got a nasty cold that settled in pretty well by Sunday evening. I felt higher than a kite when we went to the cantata. I played my song. I don't remember how it went, but then we left after an hour or so of singing. I mostly just moved my mouth and pretended to sing because my voice was pretty much gone. Amy told me I looked sick. I told her I was sick and then we went home and I went to bed. I am feeling better today. I love this time of year though.
I hope yall have a wonderful christmas. "With God, nothing is impossible." (Luke 1:37)I am thankful for our Savior. It is such a blessing to have the knowledge that we have. God bless!
Love,
Sister J
Last Monday, Sister W and I went to this restaurant in Kinston called the Peach House. A member from the Albertson ward works there and she told us to come sometime...so we did. They have soup, salad, and sandwiches. It kind of reminds me of Zupa's and it was so good! They had fresh fruit and panini wrap sandwiches. Mmmmm! It was so good. In the evening we met with a less active who was baptized about a year ago. Her name is Denise. She knows how important church is and she does a great job of sharing the gospel with her coworkers and family. She said she is just going through a rough spot right now, but wants to start coming back to church. We are excited for her! She is a really sweet lady.
Tuesday we went to Beullaville. We tried to find a part member family, but when we drove out there, we discovered that their address did not exist. That scenario seems to happen a lot. So, we figured Heavenly Father had led us out here for a reason. We parked at a Hotdog/ice cream/gas station and started walking. Houses are REALLY spaced out here. We walked a couple of miles and knocked on a few houses. Most people didn't answer the door, but we did meet a nice lady named Martha. She has a dog that is seriously the size of a lion. It almost knocked Sister Welch flat on the ground. Luckily, he was a nice dog and was just really excited to see new people. She said she was busy and was trying to clean because she had family who were coming to stay with her, but she said we could come back anytime and that she would like to listen to what we have to say. Afterwards, we went to the Turner family and had a really good lesson with their family. Sister Welch's mom sent us a gingerbread house. We decided to figure out someway to get rid of it so, we came up with a lesson plan using the gingerbread house by applying it to the gospel of Jesus Christ. So now I will liken the gingerbread house unto the Gospel of Jesus Christ for you: The plastic board that you build the house on was Jesus Christ. We read Heleman 5: 12 about how Christ should be our foundation. Then, we made the icing faith because sometimes you can't always see the icing. Which is like faith. Sometimes you can't always see it, but you know it is there. We also talked about how faith is like the glue that holds everything together. We read Ether 12:6. Then, we made the sides of the house like repentance because when we repent, it helps us get back on the path that we need to be on. We read Mosiah 4:10. The front and back of the house was baptism because baptism is the gate that we enter through (read 2 Nephi 31:17). The gift of the Holy Ghost was the roof because a house needs a roof to be complete and baptism without receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost is incomplete. (2 Nephi 32:5) Then, we decorated the house with candy and goodness which is like enduring to the end. When we endure, we receive blessings (like the candy!) that make our house more of a home. It was a fun lesson and the kids really enjoyed it. They explained it to us perfectly when we asked them to tell us what we learned. They are still planning on being baptized on the 7th and are super excited. We are also working with their parents and trying to help them kick their bad habits. They really want to change and know how important this is. Poor Brother Turner has been having some pretty serious withdrawal headaches. We keep praying that they will become less intense...
Wednesday we went to the library and did service.. Tasha, the less active was there and so was Carmen (the other girl that works there). We talked to them for a bit and then reorganized a bunch of reference books. I never thought that learning about the dewey decimal system in school would actually be applicable to real life. Ha! Tasha's husband met with the elders for the first time the night before and I guess it's going well so we are excited for them! Carman's aunt just passed away so we took the opportunity to ask her if she would be interested in learning more about the plan of Salvation. She declined our invitation, but said thank you. Her and her husband want to convert to Catholicism....Some day she will be a member of the church. I am sure of it. She is very sweet. I love her a lot. In the evening we went to the Albertson ward Christmas party. It was the weirdest church christmas party I have ever been to. They had tamales for dinner, but ran out before we got there so we had meatballs and pimento cheese sandwiches for dinner. Then, they did some skits. Some of them were pretty hilarious. The YSA's in the ward did a skit where they drew faces on their chins and lip synced songs upside down. The rest of them were a little questionable in my book...but whatever.
Thursday we weekly planned very thoroughly. It took a long time. Our dinner appointment forgot that they were going to feed us...which was okay. So, we went to Subway. When we got there is was like we walked into church or something. We saw the Turners there, Brother Smith, and President and Sister Whaley. Subway was the happening place! We met with the Turners that we saw at Subway afterwards to read scriptures with them. We are trying to make sure we teach our investigators and less actives how to go fishing in the scriptures. It was really awkward at first because no one would say much of anything, but the more we read on, the more involved they got. We read about Alma the Younger and the Sons of Mosiah. It was neat to see how much we could pull from that one chapter alone. You can always learn something from the scriptures.
Friday was Christmas Zone Conference! I played the piano. The Assistants failed with a capital F and didn't inform me of what songs they wanted me to play. So, I got some good sight reading practice in. We spent most of the morning doing role plays. We have a new sister! Her name is Sister McPherson. She is from Highland, UT and she is a nurse. She is really sweet. I hope we get to be compies at some point. Then, we had lunch...which was provided by the Greenville wards and it was so exciting because I got to see some of the G-ville members! I loved it there in Greenville. Afterwards we sang songs in our zones and had a good afternoon of much laughter when they had the missionaries come up and play songs with the chimes. I'm glad they were able to send those videos to you. We watched a couple of clips from the Bible videos that the church has made. You can watch them if you go to mormon.org/bible-videos. They are super good. Sister Welch and I took some time on Saturday at the library to watch them. They are incredible. My favorite was when the angel comes to the shepherds. Take a gander at them when you get a chance. :]
On Saturday we went to the church to practice music for the cantata. We went a tracted Piney Grove road...which we have decided the church should just buy and build a temple on. There are a lot of members that live on that road. We thought we had figured out where they all lived, but when we knocked on one door, we found the Elder's quorum president's wife....who was visiting her mother that lived there. We talked with them for a bit and got some info on a less active so it turned out to be really good. Slightly embarrassing, but mostly good. I was feeling a little under the weather that day so we took it easy for most of the afternoon. We met with Claire and her brother and sister and watched Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration with them. Claire loooved it.
We went to church in Woodington. One of the elders from my district in the MTC is now serving here in Woodington. (Elder Brown). New missionaries get picked on a lot. He said a lot of prayers during church and got to bear his testimony. We had a really good lesson in sunday school about faith. Sister Stephanie gave us each a mustard seed. Sister Welch and I taped ours to the back of our name tags. We went to lunch with the Harpers afterwards. They are an older couple and they told us never to own a chicken farm because it will control your life. We told them we would remember that for future reference. Then, we went to Sarah and Amy's for a lesson. We watched the bible videos with them, had a scripture chase and it was just really good! Oh, and Amy actually stayed for all three hours this sunday! She went to primary with Sarah, but she is going to start coming for all 3 hours every sunday now. We are so excited and are hoping to be able to help her progress in the gospel as we keep meeting with her. I got a nasty cold that settled in pretty well by Sunday evening. I felt higher than a kite when we went to the cantata. I played my song. I don't remember how it went, but then we left after an hour or so of singing. I mostly just moved my mouth and pretended to sing because my voice was pretty much gone. Amy told me I looked sick. I told her I was sick and then we went home and I went to bed. I am feeling better today. I love this time of year though.
I hope yall have a wonderful christmas. "With God, nothing is impossible." (Luke 1:37)I am thankful for our Savior. It is such a blessing to have the knowledge that we have. God bless!
Love,
Sister J
Monday, December 12, 2011
December 12, 2011
Dear Family, Friends, and so forth,
First, I just want to say, I love you all. We had a crazy busy week this week.
Sister Welch and I spent like 3 hours at WallyWorld on Monday trying to make Christmas cards and find Christmas gifts. (Walmart is basically the only store here...and it's actually in Kinston). We went to the GCF afterwards (which is like DI) and found some shirts and skirts for really cheap. DI is a rip off compared to GCF.
On Tuesday we had deep cleaning! It took all. day. It was the most cleaning I have ever done in my life. We dejunked the "Magic Marry Poppins Closet" (named for it's ability to store endless amounts of junk and clothes from previous sisters who served in the area), cleaned the fridge and freezer (it was gross), our food storage shelf, the bathroom (that was gross too), and everywhere else that you can imagine. We didn't finish until 6 that night. We spent some time after that trying to contact some referrals, but had no luck. Then, we went to the Relief Society Enrichment Dinner that evening and called a less active girl named Beverly to come. She came and we had dinner together and then President Walker (stake president) spoke to us. He gave a really good talk about "becoming" He told us about the differences between a person who is honorable and one who is valiant; one who has a testimony; and one who is converted. He said that in order to be truely converted we need to learn how to "become." He gave us two things to remember in order to become: 1) remember the power of the covenants you have made (baptismal and temple) 2) have a strong relationship with Jesus Christ. He said that we can do these things by having charity (read 1 corinthians 13). "Becoming" means that Heavenly Father gives us trials and afflictions to overcome ( 1 Nephi 20:10) These experiences allow us to grow and to see people differently that we would have before. I learned a lot from him. I am thankful to be in this stake right now.
Wednesday was zone training! We had a really good zone training. We learned about the role of the Holy Ghost in conversion..the voice that can be felt rather than heard and how it's important that we teach people how to use the Book of Mormon to go spiritually fishing when they read instead of just giving them a fish. We need to learn how to use the Book of Mormon. We also learned about adding our living witness of whatever we are teaching and why it is important. When we testify of truth, the Holy Ghost confirms that truth to those who are listening. We found some good scriptures for how an indvidual can qualify to have the spirit with them as well. ( 2 Nephi 31:13; 3 Nephi 9:20; Alma 17:2-3; Helaman 3:35; Mosiah 3:19) They are just a few...but they are really good to read through! We went over Elder Bednar's talk about becoming a Preach My Gospel Missionary. He gave that talk when I was in the MTC. We also talked about having an "anti-tracting week" where we don't tract at all, but try to use the other finding ideas in the front of our planners. President Cotterell pointed out that tracting was #11 on that list and that should indicate something to us. Sister Welch and I are going to try not to tract as much this week....for some reason it is hard to not tract...even though tracting is one of the less exciting things about missionary work. When we were driving home from Kinston afterwards, it was really, really windy and our ward mission leader in the Woodington ward called us to tell us we should go home because the wind was blowing. It is nice that people are so concerned for us. It is funny that they worry about things like that though.
Thursday was weekly planning and since Sister Welch and I were really pumped about everything we had learned in zone training, it took us FOREVER to finish weekly planning. We weekly planned very well for this coming week. We tried to think outside the box and it was a good learning experience...everything is a learning experience really. We had an interesting dinner appointment. We had rice with beef stuff that hadn't been drained of any of the fat and I think she threw in a couple of sticks of butter with it as well. It was nice lip balm. We met with the Turners in the evening and finished teaching them the Plan of Salvation. Then, we had the kids explain everything to us with the visuals we made. Austin was able to tell us everything perfectly and Kaitlin was able to organize it all into the right spot...even the three degrees! Austin was really excited to share with us that he hadn't been planning on waking up to come to church on sunday because he had been up late that night, but that for some reason he woke up and then he went into the dining room and told his dad (who was getting ready to leave for church) that he wanted to come to church. He said it was wierd because it was like someone was speaking for him and that he wasn't sure why he really wanted to come to church. It was a tender mercy to hear that story. He said that he is starting to like church. We also invited Kaitlin to say the closing prayer (she gets really nervous about praying in front of people). She initially wouldn't do it, but we were able to encourage her some and she did it! Her mama helped her, but she did it!
Friday we finally had a normal day of missionary work...mostly. We tried contacting some part member families and then we went and did library service. We have been tlaking to a lady named Tasha who is a less active member who works at the library. Her husband isn't a member and she wanted us to come over, but she is outside of our area...barely. She is such a happy person. She was telling us funny stories about her family the whole time we were there and she brought her Ipod and speakers so we could listen to christmas music while we shelved books. I found out that I was going to be speaking on sunday. So, we went home and wrote a talk up really quick. I spoke on "how to gain a testimony" using Alma 32. I talked about Hurricane Irene and how some of the trees had been uprooted and some had not and how we could relate that to our testimonies. We need to be have a deep root system so when the storms of life try to blow us over we can stay standing and strong.
Saturday all of our appointments feel through. We went out with Sister Roxann in the Albertson ward and did some work out in Mt. Olive. We talked to the Relief Society President's mother. She told us that she knew the Book of Mormon was true, but that she wasn't going to change because she was stubborn. That was her only excuse. She said that she couldn't change because she had been baptist for so long. Even though she knows it's true. We talked about testimonies and how we should always bear testimony of what we know to be true. I think the she didn't really appreciate that, but it was a good lesson none-the-less.
Sunday we played "run around like chickens with your heads cut off" again. We went to Woodington's sacrament, gave talk, ran to Albertson only to be disappointed because Claire didn't show up, stayed there, had meetings, meetings, meetings, appointment with Sarah and her mom, Amy, ran back to Woodington to do choir stuff and then we went to dinner with the Turner Family (ALL of them). The Turner family is Sarah (recent convert) and Austin and Kaitlin's family. We had fish stew. It was really disgusting looking, but very good. It is tomato based, has bacon, fish, shrimp, potatoes, onions, carrots, and eggs (i left those out). It was good; and really spicy. We also tried "real" hotdogs. They are pork, and are dyed red. According to the people of Deep Run, other hotdogs are not real.
Well, my time is gone. I have a testimony of the Book of Mormon. I know that when we read from it and pray daily, we can draw closer to God than we can in any other way. I have seen it in my own life and in others' lives. I know that Jesus is the Christ. That He lives so that we can live again. I am grateful for that knowledge. I know that we are never alone. Even when we are in the depths of sorrow and despair. We are never left alone. Read President Uchtdorf's talk from conference...because it is amazing!
http://lds.org/general-conference/2011/10/you-matter-to-him?lang=eng&query=october+dieter+(name%3a"Dieter+F.+Uchtdorf")
I was reading the lyrics to Hark the Herald Angels Sing yesterday. They are amazing. I am grateful for our Savior and that we can celebrate Him at this time of year.
Love you all so much!
Love,
Sister Johnson
First, I just want to say, I love you all. We had a crazy busy week this week.
Sister Welch and I spent like 3 hours at WallyWorld on Monday trying to make Christmas cards and find Christmas gifts. (Walmart is basically the only store here...and it's actually in Kinston). We went to the GCF afterwards (which is like DI) and found some shirts and skirts for really cheap. DI is a rip off compared to GCF.
On Tuesday we had deep cleaning! It took all. day. It was the most cleaning I have ever done in my life. We dejunked the "Magic Marry Poppins Closet" (named for it's ability to store endless amounts of junk and clothes from previous sisters who served in the area), cleaned the fridge and freezer (it was gross), our food storage shelf, the bathroom (that was gross too), and everywhere else that you can imagine. We didn't finish until 6 that night. We spent some time after that trying to contact some referrals, but had no luck. Then, we went to the Relief Society Enrichment Dinner that evening and called a less active girl named Beverly to come. She came and we had dinner together and then President Walker (stake president) spoke to us. He gave a really good talk about "becoming" He told us about the differences between a person who is honorable and one who is valiant; one who has a testimony; and one who is converted. He said that in order to be truely converted we need to learn how to "become." He gave us two things to remember in order to become: 1) remember the power of the covenants you have made (baptismal and temple) 2) have a strong relationship with Jesus Christ. He said that we can do these things by having charity (read 1 corinthians 13). "Becoming" means that Heavenly Father gives us trials and afflictions to overcome ( 1 Nephi 20:10) These experiences allow us to grow and to see people differently that we would have before. I learned a lot from him. I am thankful to be in this stake right now.
Wednesday was zone training! We had a really good zone training. We learned about the role of the Holy Ghost in conversion..the voice that can be felt rather than heard and how it's important that we teach people how to use the Book of Mormon to go spiritually fishing when they read instead of just giving them a fish. We need to learn how to use the Book of Mormon. We also learned about adding our living witness of whatever we are teaching and why it is important. When we testify of truth, the Holy Ghost confirms that truth to those who are listening. We found some good scriptures for how an indvidual can qualify to have the spirit with them as well. ( 2 Nephi 31:13; 3 Nephi 9:20; Alma 17:2-3; Helaman 3:35; Mosiah 3:19) They are just a few...but they are really good to read through! We went over Elder Bednar's talk about becoming a Preach My Gospel Missionary. He gave that talk when I was in the MTC. We also talked about having an "anti-tracting week" where we don't tract at all, but try to use the other finding ideas in the front of our planners. President Cotterell pointed out that tracting was #11 on that list and that should indicate something to us. Sister Welch and I are going to try not to tract as much this week....for some reason it is hard to not tract...even though tracting is one of the less exciting things about missionary work. When we were driving home from Kinston afterwards, it was really, really windy and our ward mission leader in the Woodington ward called us to tell us we should go home because the wind was blowing. It is nice that people are so concerned for us. It is funny that they worry about things like that though.
Thursday was weekly planning and since Sister Welch and I were really pumped about everything we had learned in zone training, it took us FOREVER to finish weekly planning. We weekly planned very well for this coming week. We tried to think outside the box and it was a good learning experience...everything is a learning experience really. We had an interesting dinner appointment. We had rice with beef stuff that hadn't been drained of any of the fat and I think she threw in a couple of sticks of butter with it as well. It was nice lip balm. We met with the Turners in the evening and finished teaching them the Plan of Salvation. Then, we had the kids explain everything to us with the visuals we made. Austin was able to tell us everything perfectly and Kaitlin was able to organize it all into the right spot...even the three degrees! Austin was really excited to share with us that he hadn't been planning on waking up to come to church on sunday because he had been up late that night, but that for some reason he woke up and then he went into the dining room and told his dad (who was getting ready to leave for church) that he wanted to come to church. He said it was wierd because it was like someone was speaking for him and that he wasn't sure why he really wanted to come to church. It was a tender mercy to hear that story. He said that he is starting to like church. We also invited Kaitlin to say the closing prayer (she gets really nervous about praying in front of people). She initially wouldn't do it, but we were able to encourage her some and she did it! Her mama helped her, but she did it!
Friday we finally had a normal day of missionary work...mostly. We tried contacting some part member families and then we went and did library service. We have been tlaking to a lady named Tasha who is a less active member who works at the library. Her husband isn't a member and she wanted us to come over, but she is outside of our area...barely. She is such a happy person. She was telling us funny stories about her family the whole time we were there and she brought her Ipod and speakers so we could listen to christmas music while we shelved books. I found out that I was going to be speaking on sunday. So, we went home and wrote a talk up really quick. I spoke on "how to gain a testimony" using Alma 32. I talked about Hurricane Irene and how some of the trees had been uprooted and some had not and how we could relate that to our testimonies. We need to be have a deep root system so when the storms of life try to blow us over we can stay standing and strong.
Saturday all of our appointments feel through. We went out with Sister Roxann in the Albertson ward and did some work out in Mt. Olive. We talked to the Relief Society President's mother. She told us that she knew the Book of Mormon was true, but that she wasn't going to change because she was stubborn. That was her only excuse. She said that she couldn't change because she had been baptist for so long. Even though she knows it's true. We talked about testimonies and how we should always bear testimony of what we know to be true. I think the she didn't really appreciate that, but it was a good lesson none-the-less.
Sunday we played "run around like chickens with your heads cut off" again. We went to Woodington's sacrament, gave talk, ran to Albertson only to be disappointed because Claire didn't show up, stayed there, had meetings, meetings, meetings, appointment with Sarah and her mom, Amy, ran back to Woodington to do choir stuff and then we went to dinner with the Turner Family (ALL of them). The Turner family is Sarah (recent convert) and Austin and Kaitlin's family. We had fish stew. It was really disgusting looking, but very good. It is tomato based, has bacon, fish, shrimp, potatoes, onions, carrots, and eggs (i left those out). It was good; and really spicy. We also tried "real" hotdogs. They are pork, and are dyed red. According to the people of Deep Run, other hotdogs are not real.
Well, my time is gone. I have a testimony of the Book of Mormon. I know that when we read from it and pray daily, we can draw closer to God than we can in any other way. I have seen it in my own life and in others' lives. I know that Jesus is the Christ. That He lives so that we can live again. I am grateful for that knowledge. I know that we are never alone. Even when we are in the depths of sorrow and despair. We are never left alone. Read President Uchtdorf's talk from conference...because it is amazing!
http://lds.org/general-conference/2011/10/you-matter-to-him?lang=eng&query=october+dieter+(name%3a"Dieter+F.+Uchtdorf")
I was reading the lyrics to Hark the Herald Angels Sing yesterday. They are amazing. I am grateful for our Savior and that we can celebrate Him at this time of year.
Love you all so much!
Love,
Sister Johnson
Monday, December 5, 2011
6 Months Out - December 5, 2011
Hello!I hope you all are doing well. I am doing great...as is sister Welch. That windstorm looks like it was awful! I hope the power comes back on soon. Brrrr!
We had quite an adventure on Monday. Sister Welch and received blankets and matching pillows for christmas from a member. However, their dog got a hold of sister Welch's pillow and they had to sew it back together. Sister Welch said her pillow stilled smelled like a dog so we thought it would be a good idea to stick the pillow in the washer. I told her she could throw it in with my clothes. That was a bad idea. When we opened up the washer, there was white fluff everywhere. I think the fluff multiplied and replenished in the washer. We spent about half and hour re-stuffing her pillow and I am still finding fluff inside my clothes every once in a while. It was pretty funny.
Oh, and I forgot to tell you what happened last week when Sister Welch and I were tracting in the Albertson area. So, now I will tell you. Sister Welch and I went tracting one evening to find new people to share the gospel with. There are a lot of hispanic people in Albertson. We stopped at an area that had quite a few streets with houses. We picked a door and knocked and a sweet hispanic lady answered. She told us very nicely that she did not speak much English. So, since Sister Welch and I have been practicing our espanol we made an attempt to talk to her. Sister Welch said something about us being missionaries "a la iglesia de Jesu Cristo de estados unitos" Which, translated says "the church of Jesus Christ of the United States." The lady started laughing and then we both started laughing and she corrected us. We decided it might be best to refer her to the Spanish Elders. I am glad I am an English speaking missionary.We met with a less active couple, the Browns on Tuesday. They have had some pretty serious health problems, but know that they should be coming to church now that they are capable. They just choose not to. It is sad. They said that they might come back to church if we keep visiting them though. Bribery...We also went on exchanges with a couple of members in Albertson/Mt Olive and met with another less active lady named Polly. She is a funny lady. She told Sister Welch and I that she could tell us how many kids we would have and if they would be boys or girls. I told her I didn't want to know. We also met with Kaitlin and Austin and Jason and Tiffany on Tuesday night. (They are Sarah's cousins that we have been teaching.) They have been reading the Book of Mormon together as a family and were able to come to church last week. We taught the Plan of Salvation part 1 with them. It was a really good lesson. We set baptismal dates with them for Jan 7. They are excited and really like coming to church. It is so neat to see their dad who has been less active changing. He was so unhappy the first time we met with him, but he was laughing and smiling and had a light about him that wasn't there the first time we met with him.Wednesday we had a really good district meeting. Elder Thatcher is such a good district leader. He is a very dedicated missionary. Our lesson was on what people need to feel/know on the first contact, what they need to feel and do in the first lesson, and what they need to know and do in order to progress. It was a day of much enlightening.We met with Claire afterwards. She has been kind of sick and wasn't able to read as much as she has in the past, but she found her birth certificates so we could make copies and now she just needs to make copies of some pictures, send it to mexico and then she can get a marriage license! We are excited. She is such a great lady. She desires so much to do what is right. Sarah had her interview for her baptism on Saturday that evening. She was so nervous. She passed. :)On Thursday we went out on exchanges with Sister Roxann in the Albertson ward. She took us to her friend, Ana and we had a lesson and introduced the Book of Mormon. Her grandma-in-law was there and her church has taught a lot of anti against LDS religion. Ana didn't seem turned off by any of what she said though. She agreed to come to church this sunday, but then her grandma was "sick" and had to go to the doctor. We went to some recent converts who live out in the boonies (Trenton). They are the nicest people. They raise goats and their whole lives are basically dedicated to their goats; and the church. Sister Tervo even writes stories about her goats and relates them to the gospel. She is also a most excellent cook. She is from California. It was soooo good to have western food. And vegetables. I miss vegetables. We made homemade creme bole (or however that is spelled) I was worried. I don't like eggs, but eggs+sugar=good.We had a lesson with another recent convert on friday about recognizing the spirit. That somehow turned into temple work and we talked to her about the temple and doing work for her family there. She is excited to go to the temple. We did some service at the library as well and then we spent the rest of the day tracting. It wasn't a very eventful friday, but never the less, it was fun.Saturday was Sarah's baptism! It went very well. I tried to attach a picture, so hopefully it will come up. She was so nervous, but everything went perfect. Her mom was really touched (she is not a member). She has been anti-ed in the past so, we will keep working with her and try to help her find resolve her concerns and hopefully we will be able to make their family an eternal one! We met with a less active named Ann. She was just recently baptized about 2 months ago and she too, has been anti-ed. We are going to just teach them the lessons over again and help them resolve their concerns along the way. She is a sweet lady. It is so sad to see them be so confused.Sunday was crazy! We went for sacrament in Woodington for Sarah's confirmation. That is my favorite part of missionary work. Then we went for the last half in Albertson (they both have church at 9 am...it is really inconvenient) I talked to Matt's girlfriend and I guess he has been struggling. It breaks my heart to hear that. I keep praying that he will be able to make a wise decision. He hasn't told his parents yet and I think it is weighing him down.We had dinner in Jacksonville with the Newbolds with the Tervo's (recent converts), the Elders, and the Newbold's daugther's boyfriend who is not a member. We watched part of the Christmas devotional and then headed home. It was a busy busy week!I love you all. I miss you all so much.I have learned how powerful the atonement is. All things that seem unfair can be made right through the Atonement. I read Mosiah 15 this week. It was really good!
Love you so much,Sister J
We had quite an adventure on Monday. Sister Welch and received blankets and matching pillows for christmas from a member. However, their dog got a hold of sister Welch's pillow and they had to sew it back together. Sister Welch said her pillow stilled smelled like a dog so we thought it would be a good idea to stick the pillow in the washer. I told her she could throw it in with my clothes. That was a bad idea. When we opened up the washer, there was white fluff everywhere. I think the fluff multiplied and replenished in the washer. We spent about half and hour re-stuffing her pillow and I am still finding fluff inside my clothes every once in a while. It was pretty funny.
Oh, and I forgot to tell you what happened last week when Sister Welch and I were tracting in the Albertson area. So, now I will tell you. Sister Welch and I went tracting one evening to find new people to share the gospel with. There are a lot of hispanic people in Albertson. We stopped at an area that had quite a few streets with houses. We picked a door and knocked and a sweet hispanic lady answered. She told us very nicely that she did not speak much English. So, since Sister Welch and I have been practicing our espanol we made an attempt to talk to her. Sister Welch said something about us being missionaries "a la iglesia de Jesu Cristo de estados unitos" Which, translated says "the church of Jesus Christ of the United States." The lady started laughing and then we both started laughing and she corrected us. We decided it might be best to refer her to the Spanish Elders. I am glad I am an English speaking missionary.We met with a less active couple, the Browns on Tuesday. They have had some pretty serious health problems, but know that they should be coming to church now that they are capable. They just choose not to. It is sad. They said that they might come back to church if we keep visiting them though. Bribery...We also went on exchanges with a couple of members in Albertson/Mt Olive and met with another less active lady named Polly. She is a funny lady. She told Sister Welch and I that she could tell us how many kids we would have and if they would be boys or girls. I told her I didn't want to know. We also met with Kaitlin and Austin and Jason and Tiffany on Tuesday night. (They are Sarah's cousins that we have been teaching.) They have been reading the Book of Mormon together as a family and were able to come to church last week. We taught the Plan of Salvation part 1 with them. It was a really good lesson. We set baptismal dates with them for Jan 7. They are excited and really like coming to church. It is so neat to see their dad who has been less active changing. He was so unhappy the first time we met with him, but he was laughing and smiling and had a light about him that wasn't there the first time we met with him.Wednesday we had a really good district meeting. Elder Thatcher is such a good district leader. He is a very dedicated missionary. Our lesson was on what people need to feel/know on the first contact, what they need to feel and do in the first lesson, and what they need to know and do in order to progress. It was a day of much enlightening.We met with Claire afterwards. She has been kind of sick and wasn't able to read as much as she has in the past, but she found her birth certificates so we could make copies and now she just needs to make copies of some pictures, send it to mexico and then she can get a marriage license! We are excited. She is such a great lady. She desires so much to do what is right. Sarah had her interview for her baptism on Saturday that evening. She was so nervous. She passed. :)On Thursday we went out on exchanges with Sister Roxann in the Albertson ward. She took us to her friend, Ana and we had a lesson and introduced the Book of Mormon. Her grandma-in-law was there and her church has taught a lot of anti against LDS religion. Ana didn't seem turned off by any of what she said though. She agreed to come to church this sunday, but then her grandma was "sick" and had to go to the doctor. We went to some recent converts who live out in the boonies (Trenton). They are the nicest people. They raise goats and their whole lives are basically dedicated to their goats; and the church. Sister Tervo even writes stories about her goats and relates them to the gospel. She is also a most excellent cook. She is from California. It was soooo good to have western food. And vegetables. I miss vegetables. We made homemade creme bole (or however that is spelled) I was worried. I don't like eggs, but eggs+sugar=good.We had a lesson with another recent convert on friday about recognizing the spirit. That somehow turned into temple work and we talked to her about the temple and doing work for her family there. She is excited to go to the temple. We did some service at the library as well and then we spent the rest of the day tracting. It wasn't a very eventful friday, but never the less, it was fun.Saturday was Sarah's baptism! It went very well. I tried to attach a picture, so hopefully it will come up. She was so nervous, but everything went perfect. Her mom was really touched (she is not a member). She has been anti-ed in the past so, we will keep working with her and try to help her find resolve her concerns and hopefully we will be able to make their family an eternal one! We met with a less active named Ann. She was just recently baptized about 2 months ago and she too, has been anti-ed. We are going to just teach them the lessons over again and help them resolve their concerns along the way. She is a sweet lady. It is so sad to see them be so confused.Sunday was crazy! We went for sacrament in Woodington for Sarah's confirmation. That is my favorite part of missionary work. Then we went for the last half in Albertson (they both have church at 9 am...it is really inconvenient) I talked to Matt's girlfriend and I guess he has been struggling. It breaks my heart to hear that. I keep praying that he will be able to make a wise decision. He hasn't told his parents yet and I think it is weighing him down.We had dinner in Jacksonville with the Newbolds with the Tervo's (recent converts), the Elders, and the Newbold's daugther's boyfriend who is not a member. We watched part of the Christmas devotional and then headed home. It was a busy busy week!I love you all. I miss you all so much.I have learned how powerful the atonement is. All things that seem unfair can be made right through the Atonement. I read Mosiah 15 this week. It was really good!
Love you so much,Sister J
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