Hi mom!
Well my week was just so fantastic! We went on exchanges in
Springfield on Tuesday. I love exchanges because I get to see Sister
Jensen! And since our district has now changed I don't get to see her
every week which is kind of a bummer. I wish that we could have been
companions longer than 6 weeks because we just have so much fun and I
get super motivated. Oh well. But we rode the bus! My first city bus
ride EVER! I was super nervous to talk to people and for the first 20
minutes I tried and tried and everyone near me turned their backs and
looked the other way. Depressing. But then this super awesome old man
got on and I told him I'm going to Brazil and he sat straight up and
started talking to me about missionary work and we talked about the
church and I showed him a picture of the temple and he was just amazed
and said I totally brightened his day. More like the other way around! I
was grateful for him. Then we set out tracting and Sister Johnson is
really good at not taking no for an answer and got a return appointment
with a guy that's pretty active in his church. And she's since told me
that he really wants to learn more! It's so important that we try to
tear down those walls when we first meet people instead of just letting
them go when they say they're really active or comfortable where they're
at. This life is for progression! Not to just sit comfortably. I've
taken that into thought as we've been knocking on doors this week. We've
been informed that we have to drive to Columbus tomorrow
and allot for 116 miles. So we've been walking EVERYWHERE for the past
few days because we can't go over miles! It has been so cold but it
really softens peoples hearts when we're out knocking doors in the 30
degree weather. Wednesday
morning we woke up to snow. It melted by 10 though which I was grateful
for. So since we have no miles we've just been building our teaching
pool through tracting and this week we have so many contacts to go see!
We also had trunk or treat Friday
night and it was PACKED. There were so many less actives and non
members! Sister Hicken and I passed out candy and anyone we didn't
recognize as a member we slipped a mormon.org
card in their bucket with our number on it. The ward is starting to
become more missionary minded. Hearts are prepared in Huber Heights!
That's why we have 3 sets of missionaries. Our investigator Jessica has a
baptism date for November 30th.
She is the funniest person I've ever met. She just tells it like it is.
And it's really easy to be straight forward with her. We're teaching a
7th day Adventist named Karen and she's 70 years old. She told us when
we met with her that she believes everything we've been telling her.
We're teaching her the Plan of Salvation this week because she's lost
both her daughter and her husband. She needs to know her family is
eternal! She is so funny and I can tell she's just really lonely. Tonight
Sister Miller has set up FHE with 5 families from the ward who are all
bringing non members. And she said we have to be there! Done. When
members bring friends, it makes it so much better and more
rewarding because then those investigators have instant friends and
support. Hopefully it goes well tonight!
This week we started a miracle wall in our apartment. Every night
we take out post-it notes and write the miracles from the day. It's
really helpful because we're able to see the blessings rather than focus
on all of the bad that happened. Because really, a day of missionary
work is so long and so many things happen but of course we tend to focus
on what didn't go right. Our little miracle wall has really helped to
boost my mood and attitude! Even if all we had was one little miracle.
One little miracle we had Saturday
was we were walking up by the church and it was so cold and all day I
was just praying that some nice person would pull over and give us a
ride. 5 minutes later a member pulled up and said get in, where are you
headed? God answers prayers that's for sure!
No word on my visa yet but November 1st is this Friday! It's funny though because yesterday
I was reading an article that talks about having faith in the Lord's
timing. It was called "But if not..." by Dennis E. Simmons of the 70. He
talks about how we can pray for things to happen but we also have to be
willing to say thy will be done and if this isn't your will, I have
faith and will accept whatever comes. Then in sacrament meeting a man
from the ward got up and talked about the same thing. Coincidence? I
think not. So while I'm still praying for my visa, I'm also willing to
accept the fact that I just might be here for a little longer than
expected. I'm hoping I can get out before the really cold weather, but
if not... I have faith in the Lord's timing and there's obviously
someone here who's heart is prepared specifically for my testimony.
Love you!
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