May 27, 2014

Monday we went and played games at the church with other missionaries and then the family that was feeding us was cleaning the church that night, so they brought pizza to the church and we helped them clean! It was fun. After that we went to the home of an active member family whose less active niece is living with them for the summer and taught her. She was baptized at 8, but has never really been to church except for now while she's living with them so she's basically like an investigator. But she really liked learning about the plan of salvation! 

We have had a lot of opportunities to do service this week! We found out about a service project that a bunch of churches in our community are doing in a few weeks, and we went to talk to the head lady about it. She's such a nice old lady and she is involved in like 10 different charities. We asked her if there was anything we could do to help her, and she didn't think we were serious when we said we were really good at vacuuming and would love to help her clean her house. She is one of just like maybe 2-3 people who take us seriously when we say that. But she was like well, if you offer, I'll take you up on it! YAY SERVICE!!! So we helped her vacuum and dust and clean her house. She was so happy. And while we were serving, she asked what the difference is between our church and other churches and we were able to tell her about the restoration and give her a Book of Mormon!!! And then we also went to a less actives house and helped her with some yardwork. She actually wasn't there, so her husband just told us what she wanted us to do, which was pick clovers. They have a bunch of clovers in their yard and they are trying to get rid of them or something? I don't know if we actually did much. But it was just me and sister p sitting in the grass for like 2 hours just talking about life and what we are going to do with our lives. And we laughed a lot. Good times. And we helped our neighbor, Thelma again. She doesn't have a pressure washer, so we just took some brushes and soap and helped scrub her house and her deck. Mostly she just watched us sitting in a chair in the shade and eating her lunch with lemonade and watched us work in the sun. She's really funny though and we were cracking jokes and she was telling us funny stories from her life. 

We had interviews with President this week. He asked me if I wanted a new area for my last transfer, and gave me good advise about how to finish strong. He told me that I now need to "kick when I don't feel like kicking" (there is an Olympic champion that when people asked him how he was successful he said he kicked when he didn't feel like it) and that much of what I remember about my mission will be how I finish. He said he wants me to work hard, and to "dissapear." aka, don't make a big deal about it. Also, I got my sprint papers this week! Whew! It's basically a paper you sign and hang somewhere that is a promise to yourself that you are going to work hard and forget yourself. 

MIRACLE!!!! READ THIS!!!! Okay so on Thursday we were walking home at the very end of the night, and my companion sees someone across the street. She said "CROSS" I was like ok.. so we crossed the street and talked to her. She was so nice. Turns out she just moved here from Idaho. She knew a lot of members, she had been living with a member roommate for 7 years and never was invited to go to church. She always wanted to though, and has already read the Book of Mormon. What a miracle that we met her! There are so many things that have prepared her in her life. She has had a lot of hardships, and when she came here she viewed it as her new start, her fresh slate. So she is super open to the gospel! I am so glad that my companion followed the spirit to talk to her. We saw her on Saturday Morning. We talked to her about the restoration, which she already knew about, and believed that it made sense God would call prophets today. She committed to pray about June 21, and she came to church yesterday and had a great time! She is such a wonderful person and we are so grateful to be able to teach her. Yesterday we taught her in a members home and it went well. I definitely have a testimony of the scripture "many are kept from the truth, because they know not where to find it." It's motivating to make me talk to everyone I see because now I see them all as her. 

Okay so we went from having the best lesson ever on Saturday to having a not so great lesson Saturday night. We were teaching this young man who went to bible school and he is very smart. He doesn't believe that the Book of Mormon could be true, and isn't really interested in progressing. He's so nice though! He came to church last week, and he wanted to meet again. So we met at a members house (the members are both RM's so we thought they would understand if anything crazy happened, they have been there before) and he brought his friend from Bible College. Oh my goodness. The bible college friend was totally trying to bash with the members, and with us, and wanted to get into it. The member was very gracious though, and was trying to find common ground and agree that we both believed that only through Christ we can return to live with God and we can respect each other. I was worried about what the members thought, but they both were fine with it and had the same things happen on their mission. It just happens a little more often in the South. :) 

We also had dinner with a less active this week. She's super nice, she went to BYU for 2 years, but then went to the military, married a non member and hasn't been active since. They were both really nice and we had a good time. Her husband totally reminds me of John. They weren't necessarily interested in taking lessons, or having us teach their kids, but we hope to see them again. 

And yesterday we had dinner with a member who is wonderful. She's a single lady in her 30's and she took us out for Chinese food, and she told us all about her dating life and she is hilarious she had us laughing so hard. 

I am grateful for the opportunity to serve the Lord and I am so grateful for the gospel in my life. I know that it is true! There is no way a man could have made up the Book of Mormon. I know that no good man ever would write it, and no wicked man ever could. 

Ya'll should go to the temple for me! Sister P and I have been talking about how much we miss going to the temple. We have made schemes to sneak to Columbia and nobody would know. Ha can you get sent home for going to the temple, really? But not even our President gets to go, which makes me feel better. But still. I wish we could go at least a few times!! 

This is our Zone. Can you spot Elder Burrup? ( And Steve, Sister Zarbock is in there too :) )