Dear Family-
It was so good to hear your voices!! so surreal it was weird...haha but I hope you all know how much i love you and I hope you guys had a merry, happy, restful christmas! things here were busy- we shared the "candy cane" message with as many people as we could and we wrapped up little presents for all the people we saw that day and handed out 4 Book of Mormons! so Christmas was good- honestly it didnt really feel like christmas it felt like every other day of work bc for us everyday is christ centered and full of people to share it with. so yes- that was christmas, after i talked to you guys we went straight to a recent convert's house, she has a lot of disabilities but she is truly the sweetest, cutest little thing so it was good to share that day with her. then we had a big (very southern) christmas dinner full of cornbread stuffing, and corn souffle, sweet potato pie and a bunch of other things that just screamed, "I'm in the South" haha so i loved it..it was very memorable. But the rest of the week- wow a lot hapened.
I did a tradeoff this week with a new sister who has been struggling a lot. She has only been out 2 weeks- so I went with her to her area to do some training with her for a day and she is a campus missionary so we went out to FSU campus to do some contacting after we did training, studying, area book updating/organizing, and appointment making- and guess what! haha so of course- we just so happened to arrive just as the FSU football team was leaving practice and doing all these interviews- it was so weird we just walked there and there were all these crowds of people (perfect for us as missionaries!) and i had no idea what was going on (i have never been on campus before as a missionary) but apparently they are undefeated right now and their quarterback just won the Heisman so it was pretty cool- and random.I took some pictures just for dad and jared- but heres the really cool part- we ended up placing a book of mormon to this guy there after talking to him about it and then we talked to the assistant coach and gave him a mormon.org card and had a good discussion with him. Then we ended up talking to one of the players and teaching him about the church and the website and he was genuinely interested and accepted a card haha it was awesome!! so yeah- now one of the FSU football players is being taught by the elders :) pretty sweet!
We had something else cool happen this week- one of our investigators Cierra, 22 yrs old, she has some slight autism, and she is truly one of the sweetest and most gentle daughters of God I have ever met. I love her. Well she came to church for the first time this sunday (she was nervous to come) but we assured her she would be treated kindly and we would be there with her every step of the way. well she came and after sacrament i asked her how she felt and she said she felt more comfortable and less nervous- then after gospel principles she said, "I am really feeling good!" and then after 3rd hour it escalated to her saying, "Ok- how do i join this church?" I told her, "You just keep meeting with us to learn and reading the Book of Mormon and coming to church and then you get baptized!" she just said, "Ok- when can i get baptized? I want to get baptized. I feel home." :)) I just gave her a big hug- we are setting a baptismal date with her for the 18th of january. It's pretty cool because she has been looking for a "church" for a long time but she said something always held her back from baptism until now- her dad has given her permission to choose for herself- he is a very kind man so yes- its a miracle- we actually met with her bc she saw an add on tv and called to answer a "joy to the world" dvd. the world works in mysterious ways!!
Some sad news however- our investigator lashawn- who I am VERY close to and who has a baptismal date for the 18th as well, and who has been progressing so AMAZINGLY- we have not been able to meet with all week and she didnt come to church- we had an appointment set up with her but she moved after our last appointment, which she told us about- but we dont have a number for her bc she doesnt have a phone and she didnt tell us the name of the complex she moved to bc she wasnt sure at the time- we only know the rough location- so after she missed our appointment and we realized we had no way of getting ahold of her (and we had an amazing lesson prepared) we went out and searched, on foot, every apartment complex in the vicinity asking for her but to no avail...she is gone with us having no way to contact her....but i know God saw the effort we put in and we have been praying to find her some how so please family if you could join us in praying to find LaShawn so we can continue to work with her and prepare her for baptism- she was so genuine- i don't know what happened but I have faith we will find her and see her again.
On thursdays we volunteer at a homeless shelter where we give out food and supplies and we met a man there named David who has just gotten out of jail and is now a volunteer there. He is awesome- missing teeth, tattoos everywhere, and huge- mom i couldnt help but think of you and what you told me...haha i am sure you remember without me having to say!! haha but anyways- we got into a really good discussion with him and he is searching for "truth and light" and he said, "I just want to do God's will now" so he has been filling his life with service ever since he got out of jail and he said he has never been happier- well we testified to him of why we were out here as missionary's and how we have found truth in light in His gospel- he was riveted- we gave him a pass along card and invited him to church next sunday and he was quiet for a minute then looked at us and said, "i will. why not? I will." it was pretty cool. well- i am out of time but I love you guys so much. the mission is flying...i treasure these experiences and pray that God will help me be the best i can. write soon!
love sis b
No comments:
Post a Comment