Highlight from Tuesday. We were driving through "downtown" Plymouth and Sister McDowell told me to pull over because there was a lady decorating a Christmas tree. So we pulled over and offered our assistance. We ask a lot of people for small random service and it seems like no one ever lets us help them. She did! So we got to spend half an hour decorating a Christmas tree. They line the main street through Plymouth with them every year and then the businesses are responsible for decorating them.
So Wednesday was lame. By Tuesday night I wasn't feeling good again. I woke up Wednesday morning feeling pretty awful. So I texted the district leader and we stayed in most of the day. I slept off and on all morning. Then I watched Mormon Messages for the rest of the afternoon. Poor Sister McDowell..she was going crazy. It was a good day to be sick though because we didn't have any appointments. The elders were kind enough to make a snow man for us on our porch that day. I'll attach a picture.
I felt a little better Thursday morning. We did our studies and weekly planning in the morning. And then we were free from noon until 9. We started off by meeting the elders at the church for a snowball fight. Probably not the wisest idea still not feeling totally great, but I didn't want to make my companion stay in another day. It was a very successful snowball fight because it's just a huge field behind the church. The elders had gotten there earlier and built a fort. After running around for awhile we decided to build some snowmen in front of the church. We even stuck mormon.org cards in them! President Kelly wasn't too thrilled to see them there on Sunday. He told us he loves snowmen, but to make it in the back next time haha.
For dinner we went to a member's home. It was pretty good. No sweet potato casserole though! I found out yesterday that the elders went to another home and they got sweet potato casserole; I may have been a little bit jealous. After eating we just went home, cleaned our apartment, and wrote letters.
District meeting was good. My district leader chastised me a little bit and told me to just stay in if I wasn't feeling 100%. I kind of ignored him and just went out to work anyways. We met a potential finally. He goes me DJ Wayne. We're both pretty sure he was drunk...about half way through talking with him he pulls out a microphone and tells us he prefers to talk with it haha. Sister McDowell and I just looked at each other and smiled. It was a pretty funny 20 minutes. He said we could come back, so we'll see what happens!
Saturday we finally had our first appointment with an investigator! Her name is Joann. She first met missionaries back in 2009 and met with them pretty regularly. Then she got lost and started meeting with them two years ago consistently for a few months and then somehow got lost again. Then the elders were walking by her house maybe a month ago and her husband was outside and told them that his wife used to meet with missionaries. Joann told them she wanted to take the lessons again from the beginning. So then we went in there and asked her why. She told us that when she was meeting with missionaries she felt at peace and felt like she was heading the direction that she wanted to. Since then, her life is a mess again. She never developed a testimony of the Book of Mormon, so that's where we are starting. I asked her to read the Book of Mormon and this time to search for an answer. She asked what I meant by that. I asked her if last time she read, if she was just reading it like a novel, just reading words on a page. She said yes. We explained what is means to search for an answer and the definition of real intent. She has two kids; her daughter is five and has been asking to come to church. She wanted to come yesterday, but was sick. I have HIGH hopes for her. There's got to be something there if she's coming back again the third time.
Last night we had our second lesson with investigators. Their names are Kara and Sabrina and are cousins. The elders met them when they were standing outside. Both have been to other churches but have never felt the Spirit. That's what they are looking for. They shared with us that they both felt the Spirit the first time they sat down with the missionaries. Kara loves the story of Joseph Smith. Their desire to seek truth really amazes me. They were both anxious to get a hard copy of the Book of Mormon. Kara has been reading it on her tablet or whatever, but then it broke. She's also been praying about the Book of Mormon and feels like it is true. We tried to commit them to baptism, but both said they wanted to attend church first.
I'm really excited about them! They are fun to teach. Oh they are both young, like someone in their 20's. It was good to finally be able to teach someone after a week and a half. We also had some success with less actives this week. One came to church!
We went out to dinner one night with the Relief Society president. She informed us that only three sisters do their visiting teaching and they freak out when she mentions going on exchanges with us. This branch needs some help haha. We'll see what we can do. Since we can't cold contact at night, we are going to see what we can do to help the branch with their visiting teaching.
Being that I'm at my halfway point; I've been thinking a lot about becoming. A wonderful trainer of mine taught me on multiple occasions about phases and how much she hates them. This week was kind of a bad phase; I wasn't in the mood to work because I felt weak and didn't feel good. Now that I've snapped out of that, I'm ready to get back to work. One of my biggest fears is that I won't truly change on my mission and that I will revert back to my old self. I was reading Alma 17:11 this morning "I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls". Through the Atonement of Christ I can be made into anything Heavenly Father needs me to be. But I have to choose it. Yesterday I was reading through some of my notes from the MTC. During one of the devotionals the speaker spoke about the importance of choosing what kingdom we wanted to go to. Once we've made that decision, then the daily decisions are easier because all we have to think is "is that going to get me to the Celestial Kingdom or not?". I've applied that principle in a smaller scale relating to my mission. Is this decision going to make me the kind of missionary I want to be? Hopefully at least a portion of this is making sense. Sometimes I study things and I want to share, but it doesn't come out the way I want it to. I guess, what I'm working on is being diligent. Conversion is something we have to work at, it doesn't come passively. Becoming a missionary....that's what it is all about.
Hopefully this week is awesome! Just kidding, it will be if I make it! We are going to spend a lot of time doing service because a lot of people don't want to meet with us because they are busy with the Holidays. We'll just keep getting to know the area and the branch members.
I love whoever actually takes the time to read these things!
Sister Mayberry
Our apartment is pretty sweet...I tried to take some pictures, but they don't do it justice. There are some nice 70 decorations in there.
No comments:
Post a Comment