Hey--this is my last email home! And there's plenty to report.
First, a matter of business. I realized that Jon promised to send me a "Dear Jane" letter on my mission, but I haven't received it yet. With just one week to go, Mum, would you mind calling Jon and reminding him? Let him know I'd still like to be dear janed on my mission, if at all possible. His number is (801) 949-2044.
The Hansen's are in Utah for a week, and we cleaned a goodly portion of their house yesterday. All of our appointments for the day cancelled, but we got to have a good visit with Oscar to teach about the priesthood. We started by reviewing why ordinances are important and thus why authority in ordinances would be important. He totally gets it. I LOVE IT! We tracted all that evening and had A LOT of fun. Sister Williams is learning that being a missionary doesn't mean being a robot, and that the more natural and fun your experiences are for you, the more natural and fun they are for the other people, as well. Some old man let us into his turtle-looking house and told us about his artist-son who's done all kinds of well known stuff around town. At another place, they had a bar set up in the garage and everyone was getting drunk. We walked right up and pulled up a stool. It wasn't, of course, the most productive contacts, but I think we made a good impression : )
A couple weeks ago, we were taught how to set baptism appointments in the first lesson. We've been using it, and it works great! Then this week, we got training about how to start teaching so that it has more purpose and direction, and people will feel a little more accountable for following through. That, also, is working amazingly. Now we're being told to use "baptism calendars" to help people keep that going. We haven't gotten a lot of training on it, and I've hit a mental wall. I'm really not sure how to get people to follow through completely. Whenever I think of the first half of this paragraph, I think, "Right. Just at the end of my mission I figure out what I was supposed to be doing all along." Then I think about the second half, and I'm overwhelmed and grateful that soon, it won't even be my responsibility. Mix of emotions.
We had a great lesson Tuesday with Alisa and Jorge who we found last Tuesday. We taught about the apostacy and restoration. Jorge was awesome. They missed church, so when we re-invited them, Jorge said, "Please Mom!!! We BETTER go this time!" He made just the right comments all the way through. If she listens to him, she'll be good to go for the rest of her life. They set a soft baptism date.
We dropped by a contact from months and months ago with whom we've never followed up, and he turned out to be just about golden. We set baptism date with him, too. He started off explaining how he's felt so abandoned by God, but throughout the conversation shared experiences where the Holy Ghost really stepped in. That helped us in our teaching a lot because we could put his own experiences into a structure and show him how it could grow.
We tried to follow up with another contact who evidently gave us a bad address, and instead ran into a gringo family we've run into twice before. They're kind of Bible-loving hippies...not entirely sure how to describe them. Anyway, I feel a huge connection to them, as does Sister Williams. Turns out the Elders did follow up and teach them and it was an ok experience, but we're going to go back and teach them and we have high hopes. The gospel and the church would help them so much! The mother is an artist and has an amazing picture of a church being melted by the sun like wax, and she named it "apostacia". I asked her what she would paint for a piece titled "restoration".
We had district meeting on a dock again. Sister Williams had a major allergy attack. Afterwards, we went to a restaurant called "Savoy Pizza" and I took 20 minutes to tell everyone the history of swing dancing, which began in the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, New York. I had them all on the edges of their seats, and throughout the rest of the meal, people kept randomly saying, "I gotta learn to dance." It was very satisfying. Only 11 more days...!
I am struggling with trunkiness. I feel overwhelmed in not knowing what to do to help these people, and had the realization this morning that I'm, once again, trying overstep my bounds. Preach My Gospel says to have confidence in Christ, not confidence in ourselves. I need to give him the room to do His job of conversion, and just do my little job of keeping people thinking about it so He's got the opportunity.
I've had another major breakthrough here at the end. I'm trying to hold back more and more so Sister Williams has a chance to shine and figure out she's really good at this. I'm trying SO HARD to learn how to just CHILL OUT, and I've had a few moments of success. It's strange to stop pushing the world and find out it's still spinning. It's exciting but scary. It feels good to let things take care of themselves (especially when I was having no impact anyway) but then I don't know what to do with myself and fall back into default mode. This, however, is life-changing. I'm grateful the experience has come.
Our friend Liz is in the single's branch and going on a mission in 3 weeks, so she comes out with us as much as possible. After teaching with us on Tuesday, she took us and her missionaries to IHOP where she works, and we taught four of her coworkers an entire lesson. We were there specifically to invite Katie, one of her best friends, to meet with missionaries. We told our server that since Liz was leaving, we were going to make her practice teaching with us, and we needed an audience. Of the four, Katie and another girl both want to learn more. We taught them while on duty at the IHOP! It was great!
Monday was particularly busy. We got out late because I needed to prepare our teaching materials (cups lesson). We set a baptism date with Nati at our second appointment. She said specifically things have been weighing on her, and she's looking for long-term relief, which she things would come from strengthening her spirituality. We then went to a small town and translated for some elders who gave a less-active's son a blessing (he was traumatized when it started hailing the other day and refuses to go outside...last update, no change). We had lunch at the COOLEST small town cafe where the milkshakes are made by hand and the waitress' attitude is its own flavor. As we tried to short-cut across the river, we ended up at a refinery where a security guard stopped us. Sister Williams put on her best British accent to get directions, and even got the guy to back us up so I wouldn't have to hop out of the car and look like a dork : ) (Have I ever mentioned that? When backing up a church vehicle, one missionary has to be outside of it to make sure you don't hit anything.) We did quite a bit of driving in the country to visit random people we never get to, and in the process found a couple new potential investigators, and the most adorable red-haired, blue-eyed girl named Cheyenne. She was childhood and springtime incarnate.
We finally met with Jesus Gomez, whose initial contact last winter led us to Oscar. He's a very religious man and gave us some push-back (I don't think he liked being preached to by two little girls), but much to our surprise, he set a baptism date. A couple days letter we dropped off a miniature letter from God reminding him to read the message the Sisters shared.
We stopped by another potential from last OCTOBER, before Sisters were even in the area, and he had all his friends and family over for his son's 2nd birthday. So we joined the party. We have an appointment next Monday with his family and a friend. It was so much fun to kick back, eat a freezpop and talk about missionary work with a bunch of fun Hispanics. You know...maybe I will miss this.
With the Hansen's gone and a couple cold days (that turned into very hot days), we've had fires in their fireplace at night or during study in the morning. I build some pretty mean fires.
We're trying to learn how to juggle a soccorball--keep kicking it in the air without it hitting the ground. While we've made some progress...I have little hope.
Sunday was absolutely terrible. We had FOUR NEW INVESTIGATORS AT CHURCH, which has been a big falling point for us, and the new high councilman spoke. Unfortunately, he insisted on speaking without an interpreter, but he hasn't spoken Spanish in 30 years. He took the entire sacrament meeting and was unbelievably boring and hard to understand. He even started asking questions to the congregation like Sunday School or something. I was horrified, and my horrifiedness didn't wear off all day, and was contagious to Sister Williams, to the point that she just about went home after church. After church, Andy and Adelino, these two guys we've worked with for MONTHS who we love with all our hearts, told us they don't want to be baptized, partly because of doubts and party because of being offended. We had President's Fireside that night which is usually wonderful, and Adelino even came, but then he and Oscar refused to come in. I was afraid Adelino's doubts were starting to poison Oscar like they had Andy. Turns out he was embarrassed about not being dressed well enough, and Oscar stayed to keep him company (what a great fellowshipper...) All of our appointments that afternoon fell through. It was all-around miserable.
The day before it, however, was wonderful. We started the day trying to put the bikes on the car, and it took 45 minutes to figure out the bike rack (we had taken it off to clean it two days earlier). Sister Williams got some good footage of me wearing the rack like a harness, then some footage of me pretending to be stuck when it was finally on the car, then some footage of me being actually stuck in it when it was on the car. Also, she was impressed to call Pompilio that morning (who had dropped us earlier in the week in a digustingly dramatic way) and he had had a dream she would and was super grateful. We found Nati and Angel (who, if you read before, just set a baptism date) when trying to follow up with an old potential, and they just invited us in and said they wanted us to share more. Best of all, we happened upon a parade for West Saint Paul days and, knowing that no one would listen to us if we distracted them from the parade, we jumped in while a high school band was passing and because PART of the parade. We ran and danced and skipped and passed out more than 600 pass along cards. It was the coolest street contacting the world has ever seen! We did that for about an hour straight and were exhausted beyond exhausted. We went to our favorite cafe which was closed but which gave us free cake, then to another cafe where it turns out we know the owner! We his Mass for our dinner break (ironically, Sister Williams complained about how boring it was and then we had our catastrophe some 18 hours later).
And time's up! Love you all! See you at the mission home next Friday! Please pray that I won't be too trunky this week.
Love,
Sister Hoffman
First, a matter of business. I realized that Jon promised to send me a "Dear Jane" letter on my mission, but I haven't received it yet. With just one week to go, Mum, would you mind calling Jon and reminding him? Let him know I'd still like to be dear janed on my mission, if at all possible. His number is (801) 949-2044.
The Hansen's are in Utah for a week, and we cleaned a goodly portion of their house yesterday. All of our appointments for the day cancelled, but we got to have a good visit with Oscar to teach about the priesthood. We started by reviewing why ordinances are important and thus why authority in ordinances would be important. He totally gets it. I LOVE IT! We tracted all that evening and had A LOT of fun. Sister Williams is learning that being a missionary doesn't mean being a robot, and that the more natural and fun your experiences are for you, the more natural and fun they are for the other people, as well. Some old man let us into his turtle-looking house and told us about his artist-son who's done all kinds of well known stuff around town. At another place, they had a bar set up in the garage and everyone was getting drunk. We walked right up and pulled up a stool. It wasn't, of course, the most productive contacts, but I think we made a good impression : )
A couple weeks ago, we were taught how to set baptism appointments in the first lesson. We've been using it, and it works great! Then this week, we got training about how to start teaching so that it has more purpose and direction, and people will feel a little more accountable for following through. That, also, is working amazingly. Now we're being told to use "baptism calendars" to help people keep that going. We haven't gotten a lot of training on it, and I've hit a mental wall. I'm really not sure how to get people to follow through completely. Whenever I think of the first half of this paragraph, I think, "Right. Just at the end of my mission I figure out what I was supposed to be doing all along." Then I think about the second half, and I'm overwhelmed and grateful that soon, it won't even be my responsibility. Mix of emotions.
We had a great lesson Tuesday with Alisa and Jorge who we found last Tuesday. We taught about the apostacy and restoration. Jorge was awesome. They missed church, so when we re-invited them, Jorge said, "Please Mom!!! We BETTER go this time!" He made just the right comments all the way through. If she listens to him, she'll be good to go for the rest of her life. They set a soft baptism date.
We dropped by a contact from months and months ago with whom we've never followed up, and he turned out to be just about golden. We set baptism date with him, too. He started off explaining how he's felt so abandoned by God, but throughout the conversation shared experiences where the Holy Ghost really stepped in. That helped us in our teaching a lot because we could put his own experiences into a structure and show him how it could grow.
We tried to follow up with another contact who evidently gave us a bad address, and instead ran into a gringo family we've run into twice before. They're kind of Bible-loving hippies...not entirely sure how to describe them. Anyway, I feel a huge connection to them, as does Sister Williams. Turns out the Elders did follow up and teach them and it was an ok experience, but we're going to go back and teach them and we have high hopes. The gospel and the church would help them so much! The mother is an artist and has an amazing picture of a church being melted by the sun like wax, and she named it "apostacia". I asked her what she would paint for a piece titled "restoration".
We had district meeting on a dock again. Sister Williams had a major allergy attack. Afterwards, we went to a restaurant called "Savoy Pizza" and I took 20 minutes to tell everyone the history of swing dancing, which began in the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, New York. I had them all on the edges of their seats, and throughout the rest of the meal, people kept randomly saying, "I gotta learn to dance." It was very satisfying. Only 11 more days...!
I am struggling with trunkiness. I feel overwhelmed in not knowing what to do to help these people, and had the realization this morning that I'm, once again, trying overstep my bounds. Preach My Gospel says to have confidence in Christ, not confidence in ourselves. I need to give him the room to do His job of conversion, and just do my little job of keeping people thinking about it so He's got the opportunity.
I've had another major breakthrough here at the end. I'm trying to hold back more and more so Sister Williams has a chance to shine and figure out she's really good at this. I'm trying SO HARD to learn how to just CHILL OUT, and I've had a few moments of success. It's strange to stop pushing the world and find out it's still spinning. It's exciting but scary. It feels good to let things take care of themselves (especially when I was having no impact anyway) but then I don't know what to do with myself and fall back into default mode. This, however, is life-changing. I'm grateful the experience has come.
Our friend Liz is in the single's branch and going on a mission in 3 weeks, so she comes out with us as much as possible. After teaching with us on Tuesday, she took us and her missionaries to IHOP where she works, and we taught four of her coworkers an entire lesson. We were there specifically to invite Katie, one of her best friends, to meet with missionaries. We told our server that since Liz was leaving, we were going to make her practice teaching with us, and we needed an audience. Of the four, Katie and another girl both want to learn more. We taught them while on duty at the IHOP! It was great!
Monday was particularly busy. We got out late because I needed to prepare our teaching materials (cups lesson). We set a baptism date with Nati at our second appointment. She said specifically things have been weighing on her, and she's looking for long-term relief, which she things would come from strengthening her spirituality. We then went to a small town and translated for some elders who gave a less-active's son a blessing (he was traumatized when it started hailing the other day and refuses to go outside...last update, no change). We had lunch at the COOLEST small town cafe where the milkshakes are made by hand and the waitress' attitude is its own flavor. As we tried to short-cut across the river, we ended up at a refinery where a security guard stopped us. Sister Williams put on her best British accent to get directions, and even got the guy to back us up so I wouldn't have to hop out of the car and look like a dork : ) (Have I ever mentioned that? When backing up a church vehicle, one missionary has to be outside of it to make sure you don't hit anything.) We did quite a bit of driving in the country to visit random people we never get to, and in the process found a couple new potential investigators, and the most adorable red-haired, blue-eyed girl named Cheyenne. She was childhood and springtime incarnate.
We finally met with Jesus Gomez, whose initial contact last winter led us to Oscar. He's a very religious man and gave us some push-back (I don't think he liked being preached to by two little girls), but much to our surprise, he set a baptism date. A couple days letter we dropped off a miniature letter from God reminding him to read the message the Sisters shared.
We stopped by another potential from last OCTOBER, before Sisters were even in the area, and he had all his friends and family over for his son's 2nd birthday. So we joined the party. We have an appointment next Monday with his family and a friend. It was so much fun to kick back, eat a freezpop and talk about missionary work with a bunch of fun Hispanics. You know...maybe I will miss this.
With the Hansen's gone and a couple cold days (that turned into very hot days), we've had fires in their fireplace at night or during study in the morning. I build some pretty mean fires.
We're trying to learn how to juggle a soccorball--keep kicking it in the air without it hitting the ground. While we've made some progress...I have little hope.
Sunday was absolutely terrible. We had FOUR NEW INVESTIGATORS AT CHURCH, which has been a big falling point for us, and the new high councilman spoke. Unfortunately, he insisted on speaking without an interpreter, but he hasn't spoken Spanish in 30 years. He took the entire sacrament meeting and was unbelievably boring and hard to understand. He even started asking questions to the congregation like Sunday School or something. I was horrified, and my horrifiedness didn't wear off all day, and was contagious to Sister Williams, to the point that she just about went home after church. After church, Andy and Adelino, these two guys we've worked with for MONTHS who we love with all our hearts, told us they don't want to be baptized, partly because of doubts and party because of being offended. We had President's Fireside that night which is usually wonderful, and Adelino even came, but then he and Oscar refused to come in. I was afraid Adelino's doubts were starting to poison Oscar like they had Andy. Turns out he was embarrassed about not being dressed well enough, and Oscar stayed to keep him company (what a great fellowshipper...) All of our appointments that afternoon fell through. It was all-around miserable.
The day before it, however, was wonderful. We started the day trying to put the bikes on the car, and it took 45 minutes to figure out the bike rack (we had taken it off to clean it two days earlier). Sister Williams got some good footage of me wearing the rack like a harness, then some footage of me pretending to be stuck when it was finally on the car, then some footage of me being actually stuck in it when it was on the car. Also, she was impressed to call Pompilio that morning (who had dropped us earlier in the week in a digustingly dramatic way) and he had had a dream she would and was super grateful. We found Nati and Angel (who, if you read before, just set a baptism date) when trying to follow up with an old potential, and they just invited us in and said they wanted us to share more. Best of all, we happened upon a parade for West Saint Paul days and, knowing that no one would listen to us if we distracted them from the parade, we jumped in while a high school band was passing and because PART of the parade. We ran and danced and skipped and passed out more than 600 pass along cards. It was the coolest street contacting the world has ever seen! We did that for about an hour straight and were exhausted beyond exhausted. We went to our favorite cafe which was closed but which gave us free cake, then to another cafe where it turns out we know the owner! We his Mass for our dinner break (ironically, Sister Williams complained about how boring it was and then we had our catastrophe some 18 hours later).
And time's up! Love you all! See you at the mission home next Friday! Please pray that I won't be too trunky this week.
Love,
Sister Hoffman
I had a couple bad days this week, but thank you Mom for your input on Sunday, because it's helped.
We stopped by Adelino's yesterday for a surprise lesson (it was great--Geovanni (our recent convert) called and asked us to come over and teach him; THAT is how missionary work should run!) but everyone was outside playing soccor so instead of teaching, we played, too, and it was a blast. We ended up borrowing a soccor ball, and we're going to spend all afternoon at a park developing our made futbol skills so we can hold our own. We figure sister missionaries should be multi-talented.
We've spent a lot of time on bike contacting, and I think it's lots of fun. I'm amazed how much easier it is to blow off rejection than when I started my mission. I still chicken out daily, but I'm game for talking to pretty much anyone.
Tuesday night, we were driving through a neighborhood and saw a latino mom outside with her son, we stopped and I hopped out of the car to introduce us. She ended up being just fine setting up an appointment for next week, then was just fine with us sharing some information to prepare them for next week's appointment. Her name is Alisa and we did a quick dialogue about the Holy Ghost we learned just the day before. The Spirit was SO STRONG!!! They're way stoked to learn whatever it was the Spirit was testifying about, and we're way stoked to come back. We started the thought by having the 9 y.o. boy taste salt and describe it without saying "salty", then we all shared experiences when we felt the Spirit, and tried to define it ourselves. We explained that what we share invites that spirit into our homes more, and that God sent us to share that with her. YAY!!!
We had dinner at a member's house Tuesday with all the other missionaries, and there was a new missionary there, so we all shared our strangest mission stories. It was way fun. I was surprised how hard it was to come up with things to share because, while every day of my mission has been sincerely bizar (sp?), there wasn't a whole lot all of the other missionaries hadn't gone through...
We had our district meeting on a dock in a lake. Two of the four missionaries are now zone leaders and go to other meetings, so we don't have the Rule of 3 to have a meeting inside. We do it in members' homes or outside.
Monday night, we had FHE at the Rodriguez home, and it was a blast. We asked them if we could come over with some friends for their FHE, fully expecting that they'd put it on. Of course, right after the prayer, they turned the time over to us, so LIGHTING FAST we came up with an activity. We reviewed the Gospel: faith, repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost, endure. We then went outside and had two lines. I would ask a question from the lesson, and as soon as a team answered, I gave them a raw egg which they had to balance on two fingers (without gripping) and pass down the row. After the activity, everyone was trying to crush the egg with their hands, and Geovanni succeeded. Ironically, the whole egg white and yoke flew straight up in the air and landed...on my face. The whole thing. No aiming necessary. It was disgusting. We got a new egg and for a game had the two teams facing each other (again, in lines behind the front person). They threw the egg back and forth, and the front person would move to the back of the line, but no one would move up, so the teams slowly got further and further. The egg ended up cracking on Sister William's chest. We were very lovely.
After that, we all went inside for treats and Magaly (the mum, who is wonderful) started putting the pressure on Pompilio asking him about his baptism (which was AWESOME because he needed to hear it from someone other than us). He got SUPER defensive (even though he's been planning on May 30th...although he didn't come to church this week because he was looking into another one!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and LASHED OUT at me and Sister Williams trying to make us look like terrible missionaries, which he did very well. To review, Pompilio is Geovanni's cousin and Andy's brother. He's got a very flavorful past and has worked through a lot with us, but has a ways to go yet. He's the one Sister Williams rebuked (and still says he liked it), and he's very dramatic and shifty and doesn't follow through well on commitments. So he claims that two weeks ago when he was talking to Geovanni about baptism, Geovanni told him we (the sisters) and the bishop (who he's never met) didn't want him to get baptized. This offended him, and he's been super shifty ever since (including not coming to church). He takes offense that we think he's lied to us about when he quit smoking marijuana, but gave us 3 different "last joint" dates in the course of that one conversation, one of which was the 32nd of April! We tried to show him that NOTHING we have ever done would give the impression we didn't want him to be baptized, but he just kept talking about how much we hurt him. It was absurd. He told us he wants to be baptized, he doesn't want to be baptized and he wants to be baptized in a different church. Finally, he opted to "take a break" from our visits, and we were relieved. I am grateful that my whole life, I haven't had to deal with people like that. And I look forward to avoiding them in the future. Of course, we do care an awful lot about him and wish the best for him, but he's got to be honest with himself. He's so tied up in lies, he DOESN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT HE'S SAYING. I've never seen anything like it.
Saturday was terrible. We were going to contact all afternoon (contacting is scary and hard to get yourself to do, but ultimately it leaves you with a feeling of accomplishment at the end of the day and it's not so bad afterall) but the Hansons needed help with their yard, so we gladly obliged. We needed transportation help for some investigators to a ward party that night, and in trying to arrange it, we found out a member who's helped us A TON had to move last minute, so we spent the rest of the afternoon and her house helping. She could then come pick up our investigator, but a few minutes before we were supposed to meet up, we got a phone call from the church that NOTHING for the activity was set up. We called the bishop who told us the party was to start at 5:30, not 4:30, so we had to let our people know. The investigator said, in that case, she'd just get a ride with her husband after his work. So we cancelled the ride. Then her husband found out he had to work late, so we had to get the ride again, but she had already made new plans, so she had to rearrange those. Then we found out the husband had the car seats anyway, so she couldn't come. So we cancelled the ride. Then the husband offered to drop the car seats off. So we got the ride back. Then the ride was on her way and the investigator said she'd just rather come with her husband. Then we remembered we were supposed to arrange a ride for Geovanni anyway, because he was supposed to go with Oscar but the Laureano's had called wanting a ride and Oscar said he could if we took care of Geovanni. (Turns out there were 7 people in the Laureano party who had to fit into the 4 free spaces of Oscar's car.) So the ride pulls up to Geovanni's and Geovanni pulls up a minute later because his uncle was just going to take him until we reminded him we were supposed to. GAH!!! I was beside myself. Oh, and the party? It was about over when we got there. And the other investigators never came.
Sunday had some big up-sides. Oscar gave a talk! and it was wonderful! He got his hair cut and bought some Sunday clothes for it, too. We were so proud.
We taught primary. We acted out Alma 17-24, played tic-tac-toe (with lighting and explosions instead of x's and o's), and taught them the "Mother, I love you" song. One of the girls sang it to her mom in the hall right in front of us!
We brought lunch to the church for us, Adelino, Oscar, Geovanni and Andy, because right after, they went with us to the above mentioned member's old house and we cleaned it all out. It only took 2 hours, but that was 12 man hours, and the place was spotless. None of them had ever seen us in pants, and they really didn't know how to take it : )
We had another drop-by lesson with Sylvia. We had to take turns on our missionary duties: one read the Book of Mormon with Sylvia, and the other distracted the son. Unfortunately, "distracting" consisted mostly of dodging Hot Rods flung at unbelievable speeds. I've never felt so threatened by a 3-year-old.
Sister Williams keeps inching closer to going home. This morning, (I take no credit for any of this) I had her spend the entire time making a list of things that were suffered by 20 or more people in the scriptures. Afterwards, we talked about the concept of the "refiners fire" and the "furnace of affliction" and that suffering is just a part of life, and ultimately is for our benefit. It was amazing to see so many scriptures come to mind, and it became somewhat of a loving chastisement for being so focused on her own needs when the needs of the people around her are so much greater. We also talked a lot about how simply submitting to suffering and enduring it makes us so much stronger, and that she cannot reach her full potential unless she develops the ability to endure hard, unpleasant things because she knows she needs to. The spirit was really strong and at the end she said, very solidly, "I'm not going home." I hope, I hope, I hope.
Love you all!!!
Erin
We stopped by Adelino's yesterday for a surprise lesson (it was great--Geovanni (our recent convert) called and asked us to come over and teach him; THAT is how missionary work should run!) but everyone was outside playing soccor so instead of teaching, we played, too, and it was a blast. We ended up borrowing a soccor ball, and we're going to spend all afternoon at a park developing our made futbol skills so we can hold our own. We figure sister missionaries should be multi-talented.
We've spent a lot of time on bike contacting, and I think it's lots of fun. I'm amazed how much easier it is to blow off rejection than when I started my mission. I still chicken out daily, but I'm game for talking to pretty much anyone.
Tuesday night, we were driving through a neighborhood and saw a latino mom outside with her son, we stopped and I hopped out of the car to introduce us. She ended up being just fine setting up an appointment for next week, then was just fine with us sharing some information to prepare them for next week's appointment. Her name is Alisa and we did a quick dialogue about the Holy Ghost we learned just the day before. The Spirit was SO STRONG!!! They're way stoked to learn whatever it was the Spirit was testifying about, and we're way stoked to come back. We started the thought by having the 9 y.o. boy taste salt and describe it without saying "salty", then we all shared experiences when we felt the Spirit, and tried to define it ourselves. We explained that what we share invites that spirit into our homes more, and that God sent us to share that with her. YAY!!!
We had dinner at a member's house Tuesday with all the other missionaries, and there was a new missionary there, so we all shared our strangest mission stories. It was way fun. I was surprised how hard it was to come up with things to share because, while every day of my mission has been sincerely bizar (sp?), there wasn't a whole lot all of the other missionaries hadn't gone through...
We had our district meeting on a dock in a lake. Two of the four missionaries are now zone leaders and go to other meetings, so we don't have the Rule of 3 to have a meeting inside. We do it in members' homes or outside.
Monday night, we had FHE at the Rodriguez home, and it was a blast. We asked them if we could come over with some friends for their FHE, fully expecting that they'd put it on. Of course, right after the prayer, they turned the time over to us, so LIGHTING FAST we came up with an activity. We reviewed the Gospel: faith, repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost, endure. We then went outside and had two lines. I would ask a question from the lesson, and as soon as a team answered, I gave them a raw egg which they had to balance on two fingers (without gripping) and pass down the row. After the activity, everyone was trying to crush the egg with their hands, and Geovanni succeeded. Ironically, the whole egg white and yoke flew straight up in the air and landed...on my face. The whole thing. No aiming necessary. It was disgusting. We got a new egg and for a game had the two teams facing each other (again, in lines behind the front person). They threw the egg back and forth, and the front person would move to the back of the line, but no one would move up, so the teams slowly got further and further. The egg ended up cracking on Sister William's chest. We were very lovely.
After that, we all went inside for treats and Magaly (the mum, who is wonderful) started putting the pressure on Pompilio asking him about his baptism (which was AWESOME because he needed to hear it from someone other than us). He got SUPER defensive (even though he's been planning on May 30th...although he didn't come to church this week because he was looking into another one!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and LASHED OUT at me and Sister Williams trying to make us look like terrible missionaries, which he did very well. To review, Pompilio is Geovanni's cousin and Andy's brother. He's got a very flavorful past and has worked through a lot with us, but has a ways to go yet. He's the one Sister Williams rebuked (and still says he liked it), and he's very dramatic and shifty and doesn't follow through well on commitments. So he claims that two weeks ago when he was talking to Geovanni about baptism, Geovanni told him we (the sisters) and the bishop (who he's never met) didn't want him to get baptized. This offended him, and he's been super shifty ever since (including not coming to church). He takes offense that we think he's lied to us about when he quit smoking marijuana, but gave us 3 different "last joint" dates in the course of that one conversation, one of which was the 32nd of April! We tried to show him that NOTHING we have ever done would give the impression we didn't want him to be baptized, but he just kept talking about how much we hurt him. It was absurd. He told us he wants to be baptized, he doesn't want to be baptized and he wants to be baptized in a different church. Finally, he opted to "take a break" from our visits, and we were relieved. I am grateful that my whole life, I haven't had to deal with people like that. And I look forward to avoiding them in the future. Of course, we do care an awful lot about him and wish the best for him, but he's got to be honest with himself. He's so tied up in lies, he DOESN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT HE'S SAYING. I've never seen anything like it.
Saturday was terrible. We were going to contact all afternoon (contacting is scary and hard to get yourself to do, but ultimately it leaves you with a feeling of accomplishment at the end of the day and it's not so bad afterall) but the Hansons needed help with their yard, so we gladly obliged. We needed transportation help for some investigators to a ward party that night, and in trying to arrange it, we found out a member who's helped us A TON had to move last minute, so we spent the rest of the afternoon and her house helping. She could then come pick up our investigator, but a few minutes before we were supposed to meet up, we got a phone call from the church that NOTHING for the activity was set up. We called the bishop who told us the party was to start at 5:30, not 4:30, so we had to let our people know. The investigator said, in that case, she'd just get a ride with her husband after his work. So we cancelled the ride. Then her husband found out he had to work late, so we had to get the ride again, but she had already made new plans, so she had to rearrange those. Then we found out the husband had the car seats anyway, so she couldn't come. So we cancelled the ride. Then the husband offered to drop the car seats off. So we got the ride back. Then the ride was on her way and the investigator said she'd just rather come with her husband. Then we remembered we were supposed to arrange a ride for Geovanni anyway, because he was supposed to go with Oscar but the Laureano's had called wanting a ride and Oscar said he could if we took care of Geovanni. (Turns out there were 7 people in the Laureano party who had to fit into the 4 free spaces of Oscar's car.) So the ride pulls up to Geovanni's and Geovanni pulls up a minute later because his uncle was just going to take him until we reminded him we were supposed to. GAH!!! I was beside myself. Oh, and the party? It was about over when we got there. And the other investigators never came.
Sunday had some big up-sides. Oscar gave a talk! and it was wonderful! He got his hair cut and bought some Sunday clothes for it, too. We were so proud.
We taught primary. We acted out Alma 17-24, played tic-tac-toe (with lighting and explosions instead of x's and o's), and taught them the "Mother, I love you" song. One of the girls sang it to her mom in the hall right in front of us!
We brought lunch to the church for us, Adelino, Oscar, Geovanni and Andy, because right after, they went with us to the above mentioned member's old house and we cleaned it all out. It only took 2 hours, but that was 12 man hours, and the place was spotless. None of them had ever seen us in pants, and they really didn't know how to take it : )
We had another drop-by lesson with Sylvia. We had to take turns on our missionary duties: one read the Book of Mormon with Sylvia, and the other distracted the son. Unfortunately, "distracting" consisted mostly of dodging Hot Rods flung at unbelievable speeds. I've never felt so threatened by a 3-year-old.
Sister Williams keeps inching closer to going home. This morning, (I take no credit for any of this) I had her spend the entire time making a list of things that were suffered by 20 or more people in the scriptures. Afterwards, we talked about the concept of the "refiners fire" and the "furnace of affliction" and that suffering is just a part of life, and ultimately is for our benefit. It was amazing to see so many scriptures come to mind, and it became somewhat of a loving chastisement for being so focused on her own needs when the needs of the people around her are so much greater. We also talked a lot about how simply submitting to suffering and enduring it makes us so much stronger, and that she cannot reach her full potential unless she develops the ability to endure hard, unpleasant things because she knows she needs to. The spirit was really strong and at the end she said, very solidly, "I'm not going home." I hope, I hope, I hope.
Love you all!!!
Erin
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Last night was pretty special. We've been losing ground with Andy recently...not seeing him as much, and he missed his first Sunday of church in 2.5 months this week, and even when he's at church, he skips on the 2nd and 3rd hours (I don't get what's wrong with them there). To boot, he's waiting for a promised answer to his prayers about whether or not he should get baptized, and we're not sure we should have promised it. The lesson last night, however, changed it all. It went more or less like this:
1. Do you believe you need faith to receive answers to your prayers?
2. Faith is believe plus action.
3. Ether 12:6 -- What do you think it means by "trial of your faith"? It means to see whether or not you'd put your faith into action on your own.
4. There are just two obstacles between you and baptism: getting your mother's permission and being interviewed. Though you're praying, you need to also be DOING something to receive an answer. As you start working on these things now, you'll receive a confirmation that what you're doing is right.
5. First, we need to get permission from your mom. What are you going to say when you call her? (We pretty much role-played him asking his mom for permission)
6. Reviewed Nephi getting the brass plates and the fact that he had to do a couple tries, put forth an effort and do it the Lord's way. It might be the same way in asking permission to be baptized.
7. So what will you do if she says no? (not give up)
8. What will you do if she says yes? Will you be baptized May 10th?
It was SO GREAT to do this lesson. I especially loved the last part, because after we asked the first question, he smiled and said, "I'll tell her thank you." And then when we asked the second question, he said yes. WE'RE SO STOKED!!! We fasted today and he'll call her tonight. So...we might have a baptism this weekend!
We also had quite the miracle with Adelino. We finally dropped him because, as sincere an individual as he is, he's dealing with layers of emotional stuff and problems at home that he's letting interfere with his pursuit of the gospel. He and Sister Williams had a cry session where they both kind of shared the fact that their lives stink right now, and we afterwards realized we couldn't keep pushing him because it was getting nowhere. Fortunately, Geovanni is the world's best fellowshipper, and they've been hanging out. Then, out of the blue, Adelino got a job, he found out his parents' health is improving, and all of the other yucky stuff that's been happening disapated for no apparent reason. He called and, from the bottom of his heart, thanked us for being so consistent and dependable and patient and for helping him so much. He also told us that he talked to his mom about getting baptized (he's 26 so he doesn't need permission, but evidently he wants her blessing). She wasn't excited about it, but said he could. Then, and I don't know where this came from, he decided he's going to stay in the US, and seems really excited about it. He expressed his surprise at finding a church where the people are so supportive, and plans on putting down roots in it. YIKES! Is this the same Adelino who's too shy to talk to anyone in public? WHAT HAPPENED?! So, we've had two major miracles.
And I told you about the smackdown is Pompilio last week. From that night, we hardcore committed him to attending the church's addiction recovery program with us on Tuesday. We got to his house about 15 minutes later than planned (because we were teaching an unexpected lesson to a new investigator) and he wasn't home and his phone was off. We were pretty darn unhappy. So we sat beside the house for some 10 minutes more working on the note to leave explaining that we were done teaching him unless he were to straighten up this, that and the other things. Lo and behold, what should happen, but he drove up with the uncle and he had to walk right by us on his way to the apartment. I guess he had just been working and decided not to go, and he looked SO GUILTY when he saw us. He approached us and I cut off his greeting with, "Don't say anything because we don't want to hear it." He did absolutely the right thing by simply asking if it was too late to go. It wasn't, of course, so as we tried to simmer down, he put on a new shirt inside and, to our everlast astonishment, came out WITH THE UNCLE! I don't know how much I've shared about the uncle in the past, but Geovanni hates him because he's pretty rotten to him. Rumor is he came to take care of Andy because Pompilio isn't capable. When we first came over after his arrival, he left the house through the bedroom window. From there, he graduated to walking through the house on his way out without looking at or talking to us. From there, he would say hello, then actually sat in on a lesson, then out of the blue, followed Pompilio impromtu INTO THE CHURCH to attend a DRUG ADDICTION PROGRAM. We shot baskets in the gym during their meeting, and a handful of times I had to stop and be astounded by the fact that the uncle was in the church. Actually in the church. The next night, he fully participated in a lesson for Pompilio about tithing and was a pretty amazing non-member joint teacher. He's got A LOT of knowledge about the scriptures, and put it to good use as he put Pompilio in his place about being selfish with his money. By the end of the lesson, Pompilio seemed a little excited to pay tithing.
Sister Williams is losing steam big time. She's hardly contacted the past two days, although she's participating more in lessons. To her, the gospel has become a giant, judgmental monster damning disobedient souls to eternal misery when everything that we all do could be construed as sin. She wants to stop thinking about right and wrong and what she's supposed to do about it, and just be a person in the midst of other people. She said a while ago that to retain sanity, she just has to tell herself that everyone's going to heaven. Pretty amazingly, that's exactly what the restored gospel teaches, and I pointed that out. I'm going to print off Elder Cook's talk from conference; we were watching it in Spanish and she didn't get most of it. Ours is the ONLY Christian philosophy of which I'm aware that says that everyone goes to heaven and gives us the individuality of creating our own heaven according to what we truly want to become. We've had this conversation a couple dozen times, but it isn't sinking in for her. I don't know how to make it make sense to her head and her heart. I'm afraid she's going to go home soon.
We've had some amazing experiences this week, and I'm including some pictures to prove it. We had a rain/hail storm with thunder and lightening Tuesday afternoon, so we went out and played in it. Sister Williams has a clip on her camera of me belting "Singing in the Rain" with all appropriate footwork and twirling. I have footage of her rocking out in her own way : ) We went to the science museum and took the world's coolest pictures in front of a light display. We also threw a surprise birthday party for Geovanni in the hospital parking lot (they visited Hno Laureano with us again (they're going to be the best home teachers!) where we played Phase 10). And we got a new mission car.
Oh yeah, and we didn't get to do our booth at Cinco de Mayo even though it would have been AWESOME. President Howell didn't feel good about it, so rather than going into the fiesta, we went unto the fiesta and talked to a steady stream of people on their way in to having a good time. We didn't bother talking to anyone on their way out because most of them were at least partially drunk. Anyway, we talked to over 500 people that day, and thoroughly exhausted ourselves. We'll see what comes of it.
Love you all. Mum, we did get the package and Sister Williams uses one of the stuffed animals to sleep with, and the other to hold on her lap as she drives. All of the materials are going to good use, including the glitter gel which was used to decorate Geovanni's birthday hat. Thank you so much for being so sweet and thoughtful!
Love,
Sister Hoffman
1. Do you believe you need faith to receive answers to your prayers?
2. Faith is believe plus action.
3. Ether 12:6 -- What do you think it means by "trial of your faith"? It means to see whether or not you'd put your faith into action on your own.
4. There are just two obstacles between you and baptism: getting your mother's permission and being interviewed. Though you're praying, you need to also be DOING something to receive an answer. As you start working on these things now, you'll receive a confirmation that what you're doing is right.
5. First, we need to get permission from your mom. What are you going to say when you call her? (We pretty much role-played him asking his mom for permission)
6. Reviewed Nephi getting the brass plates and the fact that he had to do a couple tries, put forth an effort and do it the Lord's way. It might be the same way in asking permission to be baptized.
7. So what will you do if she says no? (not give up)
8. What will you do if she says yes? Will you be baptized May 10th?
It was SO GREAT to do this lesson. I especially loved the last part, because after we asked the first question, he smiled and said, "I'll tell her thank you." And then when we asked the second question, he said yes. WE'RE SO STOKED!!! We fasted today and he'll call her tonight. So...we might have a baptism this weekend!
We also had quite the miracle with Adelino. We finally dropped him because, as sincere an individual as he is, he's dealing with layers of emotional stuff and problems at home that he's letting interfere with his pursuit of the gospel. He and Sister Williams had a cry session where they both kind of shared the fact that their lives stink right now, and we afterwards realized we couldn't keep pushing him because it was getting nowhere. Fortunately, Geovanni is the world's best fellowshipper, and they've been hanging out. Then, out of the blue, Adelino got a job, he found out his parents' health is improving, and all of the other yucky stuff that's been happening disapated for no apparent reason. He called and, from the bottom of his heart, thanked us for being so consistent and dependable and patient and for helping him so much. He also told us that he talked to his mom about getting baptized (he's 26 so he doesn't need permission, but evidently he wants her blessing). She wasn't excited about it, but said he could. Then, and I don't know where this came from, he decided he's going to stay in the US, and seems really excited about it. He expressed his surprise at finding a church where the people are so supportive, and plans on putting down roots in it. YIKES! Is this the same Adelino who's too shy to talk to anyone in public? WHAT HAPPENED?! So, we've had two major miracles.
And I told you about the smackdown is Pompilio last week. From that night, we hardcore committed him to attending the church's addiction recovery program with us on Tuesday. We got to his house about 15 minutes later than planned (because we were teaching an unexpected lesson to a new investigator) and he wasn't home and his phone was off. We were pretty darn unhappy. So we sat beside the house for some 10 minutes more working on the note to leave explaining that we were done teaching him unless he were to straighten up this, that and the other things. Lo and behold, what should happen, but he drove up with the uncle and he had to walk right by us on his way to the apartment. I guess he had just been working and decided not to go, and he looked SO GUILTY when he saw us. He approached us and I cut off his greeting with, "Don't say anything because we don't want to hear it." He did absolutely the right thing by simply asking if it was too late to go. It wasn't, of course, so as we tried to simmer down, he put on a new shirt inside and, to our everlast astonishment, came out WITH THE UNCLE! I don't know how much I've shared about the uncle in the past, but Geovanni hates him because he's pretty rotten to him. Rumor is he came to take care of Andy because Pompilio isn't capable. When we first came over after his arrival, he left the house through the bedroom window. From there, he graduated to walking through the house on his way out without looking at or talking to us. From there, he would say hello, then actually sat in on a lesson, then out of the blue, followed Pompilio impromtu INTO THE CHURCH to attend a DRUG ADDICTION PROGRAM. We shot baskets in the gym during their meeting, and a handful of times I had to stop and be astounded by the fact that the uncle was in the church. Actually in the church. The next night, he fully participated in a lesson for Pompilio about tithing and was a pretty amazing non-member joint teacher. He's got A LOT of knowledge about the scriptures, and put it to good use as he put Pompilio in his place about being selfish with his money. By the end of the lesson, Pompilio seemed a little excited to pay tithing.
Sister Williams is losing steam big time. She's hardly contacted the past two days, although she's participating more in lessons. To her, the gospel has become a giant, judgmental monster damning disobedient souls to eternal misery when everything that we all do could be construed as sin. She wants to stop thinking about right and wrong and what she's supposed to do about it, and just be a person in the midst of other people. She said a while ago that to retain sanity, she just has to tell herself that everyone's going to heaven. Pretty amazingly, that's exactly what the restored gospel teaches, and I pointed that out. I'm going to print off Elder Cook's talk from conference; we were watching it in Spanish and she didn't get most of it. Ours is the ONLY Christian philosophy of which I'm aware that says that everyone goes to heaven and gives us the individuality of creating our own heaven according to what we truly want to become. We've had this conversation a couple dozen times, but it isn't sinking in for her. I don't know how to make it make sense to her head and her heart. I'm afraid she's going to go home soon.
We've had some amazing experiences this week, and I'm including some pictures to prove it. We had a rain/hail storm with thunder and lightening Tuesday afternoon, so we went out and played in it. Sister Williams has a clip on her camera of me belting "Singing in the Rain" with all appropriate footwork and twirling. I have footage of her rocking out in her own way : ) We went to the science museum and took the world's coolest pictures in front of a light display. We also threw a surprise birthday party for Geovanni in the hospital parking lot (they visited Hno Laureano with us again (they're going to be the best home teachers!) where we played Phase 10). And we got a new mission car.
Oh yeah, and we didn't get to do our booth at Cinco de Mayo even though it would have been AWESOME. President Howell didn't feel good about it, so rather than going into the fiesta, we went unto the fiesta and talked to a steady stream of people on their way in to having a good time. We didn't bother talking to anyone on their way out because most of them were at least partially drunk. Anyway, we talked to over 500 people that day, and thoroughly exhausted ourselves. We'll see what comes of it.
Love you all. Mum, we did get the package and Sister Williams uses one of the stuffed animals to sleep with, and the other to hold on her lap as she drives. All of the materials are going to good use, including the glitter gel which was used to decorate Geovanni's birthday hat. Thank you so much for being so sweet and thoughtful!
Love,
Sister Hoffman
Darn it. Just deleted my whole email. I'll try this again.
I'm way unhappy about this weekend. We were going to have a booth at the Cinco de Mayo Fiesta (attendance 100,000 according to the local paper) staffed with tons of missionaries and members. An interior designer from Plymouth helped us put together an awesome exhibit complete with custom-made 4 ft. picture of Christ which we have to pick up tonight. We were going to pass out food and talk to a couple thousand people and burn red like lobsters and start a ton of people on the road to baptism...and President called this morning and said to cancel it all because of swine flu. I'm really, really not happy. I'm going to write him a two-part letter. Part 1 will be if he made the decision by revelation and priesthood keys. Part 2 will be if he made the decision because he's just worried. They'll be very different. This last bit is definitely the cheekiest part of my mission.
I had my last zone conference yesterday and it wasn't very emotional or noteworthy, surprisingly. There was one nice goodbye. There's an elder from my MTC district with whom I didn't get along most of the time there. I thought he was a jock and he thought I was a know-it-all. We made our peace there and have kind of kept an eye on each other since, but he passed me a note thanking me for being an example of "might". : )
joint teachers.
Sister Williams was a rock star last night. We had an appointment with Pompilio, and we recommitted him to quitting weed so he can keep the commandments and get baptized. He was being really shifty about it, so she had an all-out smack-down. She yelled at him for about an hour, and the Spirit was really strong : ) There were a few times when he hung his head in humility, then he'd try to get up and defend himself and she'd beat him right back down. We ended on a good note and this morning he called and told her, "Thank you for beating me up last night." Sometimes the Spirit whispers, and sometimes it hits you with a 2x4. I just sat and smiled most the time, EVERYONE in the room knowing that Pompilio was getting exactly what he deserved. Turns out we had the perfect joint teacher, an opinionated nurse who didn't hesitate for a moment to point out just how addicted and out-of-control Pompilio is. It was a blast! Unfortunately, it went on until about 9:40 and we got home at 9:55pm. Eeks!
I love Oscar. At our weekly Tuesday 2pm appointment, he told our joint teacher about some of the specific spiritual experiences that led him to his testimony, including feeling a profound peace while driving home from baptism-attempt #1. He also said he recognizes that he feels different and wants to keep that feeling. It goes down when he listens to the radio or does other regular stuff he wouldn't think twice about, and it grows stronger when he reads the scriptures, prays and goes to church. I LOVE IT!!! We're trying hard to get the ward to give him the priesthood, get him to the temple for baptisms and give him a calling and home teachers. There's not much sign they're going to do it any time soon. Here's a shout out for keeping your eyes out for the new people. Would everyone who reads this please ask someone in the ward who all the new members are? As a long-time member, you should at least know who they are.
Oscar and Geovanni went joint teaching with us last Saturday, and it was a blast! We'd park the cars and foot race everywhere we went, including the hospital to visit Filipe Laureano who's recovering from TB. They all shared their conversion stories and bonded. It was sweet : )
We taught an amazing 8 lessons on Monday...without even realizing we were teaching so much. The shortest lesson consisted of a rousing rendition of "Popcorn popping on the apricot tree" for a less-active who's adopted us as her daughters. It definitely invited the Spirit : )
I'm trying hard to learn how to not always be in control of what's happening around me. It makes it impossible to work in unity with your companion, and has been my biggest issue my whole mission. I'm sure I'll be a much happier person if I can really figure out how to chill out.
I'm way unhappy about this weekend. We were going to have a booth at the Cinco de Mayo Fiesta (attendance 100,000 according to the local paper) staffed with tons of missionaries and members. An interior designer from Plymouth helped us put together an awesome exhibit complete with custom-made 4 ft. picture of Christ which we have to pick up tonight. We were going to pass out food and talk to a couple thousand people and burn red like lobsters and start a ton of people on the road to baptism...and President called this morning and said to cancel it all because of swine flu. I'm really, really not happy. I'm going to write him a two-part letter. Part 1 will be if he made the decision by revelation and priesthood keys. Part 2 will be if he made the decision because he's just worried. They'll be very different. This last bit is definitely the cheekiest part of my mission.
I had my last zone conference yesterday and it wasn't very emotional or noteworthy, surprisingly. There was one nice goodbye. There's an elder from my MTC district with whom I didn't get along most of the time there. I thought he was a jock and he thought I was a know-it-all. We made our peace there and have kind of kept an eye on each other since, but he passed me a note thanking me for being an example of "might". : )
joint teachers.
Sister Williams was a rock star last night. We had an appointment with Pompilio, and we recommitted him to quitting weed so he can keep the commandments and get baptized. He was being really shifty about it, so she had an all-out smack-down. She yelled at him for about an hour, and the Spirit was really strong : ) There were a few times when he hung his head in humility, then he'd try to get up and defend himself and she'd beat him right back down. We ended on a good note and this morning he called and told her, "Thank you for beating me up last night." Sometimes the Spirit whispers, and sometimes it hits you with a 2x4. I just sat and smiled most the time, EVERYONE in the room knowing that Pompilio was getting exactly what he deserved. Turns out we had the perfect joint teacher, an opinionated nurse who didn't hesitate for a moment to point out just how addicted and out-of-control Pompilio is. It was a blast! Unfortunately, it went on until about 9:40 and we got home at 9:55pm. Eeks!
I love Oscar. At our weekly Tuesday 2pm appointment, he told our joint teacher about some of the specific spiritual experiences that led him to his testimony, including feeling a profound peace while driving home from baptism-attempt #1. He also said he recognizes that he feels different and wants to keep that feeling. It goes down when he listens to the radio or does other regular stuff he wouldn't think twice about, and it grows stronger when he reads the scriptures, prays and goes to church. I LOVE IT!!! We're trying hard to get the ward to give him the priesthood, get him to the temple for baptisms and give him a calling and home teachers. There's not much sign they're going to do it any time soon. Here's a shout out for keeping your eyes out for the new people. Would everyone who reads this please ask someone in the ward who all the new members are? As a long-time member, you should at least know who they are.
Oscar and Geovanni went joint teaching with us last Saturday, and it was a blast! We'd park the cars and foot race everywhere we went, including the hospital to visit Filipe Laureano who's recovering from TB. They all shared their conversion stories and bonded. It was sweet : )
We taught an amazing 8 lessons on Monday...without even realizing we were teaching so much. The shortest lesson consisted of a rousing rendition of "Popcorn popping on the apricot tree" for a less-active who's adopted us as her daughters. It definitely invited the Spirit : )
I'm trying hard to learn how to not always be in control of what's happening around me. It makes it impossible to work in unity with your companion, and has been my biggest issue my whole mission. I'm sure I'll be a much happier person if I can really figure out how to chill out.
Dear Family,
>From Mum's letter, I hear that Tyson and Jana are want me to stay with them when I get back to Salt Lake. I WOULD LOVE THAT!!! It would be so much fun! Just make sure I don't mooch off of you too long : ) I feel so loved. Hey, so where do you two live? I'm fine with living on a couch and out of a suitcase. And Alayna says that you have my stuff in a storage place. Thank you very much for holding onto that for me. I'll be home soon to take it off of your hands.
We've had a lot of fun moments recently. We've had exceptionally good conversations with people, including three very put-together people hanging out by their house yesterday afternoon. Turns out the grandma has met with missionaries and had a good experience. The boyfriend and girlfriend were very impressed with the missionary program and were all for letting us share a bit of goodness.
We were driving by a building I've wondered about in the past and a big garage door was open with two GORGEOUS motorcycles outside. Sister William's dad is a Harley guy, so we had to stop. Turns out the guy who hand-makes all the bikes (big guy with tattoos and earings...just what you would expect) was friends with some of the elders a couple years ago and used to take them on their errands on preparation day because they didn't have a car : ) He never let them share the gospel, but it was mighty fun to hear. He even had the world's friendliest boxer with two spiked collars. I've attached a picture of me on a bike worth $150,000. We were careful not to scratch the paint.
There are also a couple pictures of a great view of St. Paul...and us enjoying it.
And for his 16th birthday last Sunday, we threw a mini birthday party for Andy. He's just waiting for his answer from God about whether or not he should get baptized. He believes in Christ and the Bible and the Book of Mormon and that the gospel was restored through Joseph Smith. He likes the people at church and hasn't missed a week since he started coming 2 months ago. He just wants a confirmation that this is what God wants him to do. We don't understand why he hasn't gotten it yet.
Tuesday was a particularly fun night. We went tracting and made friends with a cool guy about our age who had gone to our church with a friend a while ago but wasn't into it anymore. For all the other English people we met on the street, we spoke in British accents because Sister Williams wanted to spice it up a bit. Everyone was more patient and willing to listen than we anticipated, and no one asked us where we were from. Phew. We then talked to some guys who were drinking beer and digging up bush stumps, and got to share quite a bit. The one particularly mentioned that we were different from other church people and he felt a lot more comfortable. We then hit a low-income project and made friends with these two cute little boys, one black and one Somalian and both probably 2 years old. They both stood there smiling at us and waving : ) We got to talking to a Somalian woman whose response to our offer was, "What, do you want me to tell you about my religion?" Little did she know, we LOVE learning about others' religions, so we enthusiastically asked her to and we ended up talking for some 40 minutes. She eventually said, "Alright, now that I have shared, what do you believe? It's only fair that I listen." We started with Christ being the Son of God and she stopped us there : ) It was a really great conversation, though, and I learned a lot of new things. We then moved to the other side of the building and there were 5 kindergarten and first-grade girls doing exercises of some kind. We asked if they wanted to learn some dance moves, and they were thrilled, although they first roped us into a wild game of Duck, Duck, Goose. After a few rounds, and the addition of a few more kids, we made up some little dance for them and all did it a couple times. Then they pulled out the jump rope, and we got everyone jumping and dancing over the whole sidewalk. They were thrilled! When time came for us to go, they all ran up and gave me a huge hug, then ran to Sister William and did the same for her, then ran back to me, then Sister Williams. This went on for a while before someone stole our Book of Mormon and said we couldn't leave. We chased them for a while, then hit the road. We talked to three more people, the last of whom became a 30 minute conversation and return appointment. His name is Juventino and he was way into what we were teaching. He didn't seem to have any kind of religious background.
So there's a HUGE Cinco de Mayo fiesta in the West Side (our area) every year, and we're making arrangements to have a booth there. We stopped in for information on the last day to sign up, and got permission from the President who's going to pay for it. I'm hoping to get help from an amazing interior designer in Plymouth so it will really be something nice, and something they can use year after year. We put in an order for a ton more Spanish materials, and we'll probably get all the Spanish missionaries from the whole twin-cities there. I'm the most concerned about putting together a good booth since we have limited funds, limited materials, limited time, and (if Sister Simonette doesn't call me back) limited creativity. Oh well, everything works out just the way the Lord wants it when we put in the effort.
Oscar is hilarious. He has a dry, witty sense of humor that I LOVE. We do nothing but laugh in our appointments (exagerating. We share the gospel, too). He's really going strong and should get his first calling in just a bit.
We did a FHE with Los Chavos. We did the Preach My Gospel "attribute activity" and played spoons.
Last Saturday was a blast. Some members put on a barbeque and we got to invite los chavos and Oscar. We played soccor before and after and I found out that I can compensate for my lack of skill by pummeling people, instead. I played barefoot and next week I will send pictures of what was left over of my feet and nylons. I still have a couple cuts and bruises: battle scars.
I'll send another email after this with a couple pictures from Geovanni's baptism. I finally got my camera back (had left it at a member's house).
Sister Williams is getting better little by little, although she's still struggling. To help out, we've been super, super goofy. We make everything into a musical. I hope nobody notices.
We chalked a less-active's driveway with a scripture from the Book of Mormon. Those pictures are on Sister William's camera, too, so I'll send them next week. Now that it's good weather, we've decided we're going to teach the Plan of Salvation on people's driveways with chalk and make them actually walk through it.
That's more or less it. Love you all!
Erin
>From Mum's letter, I hear that Tyson and Jana are want me to stay with them when I get back to Salt Lake. I WOULD LOVE THAT!!! It would be so much fun! Just make sure I don't mooch off of you too long : ) I feel so loved. Hey, so where do you two live? I'm fine with living on a couch and out of a suitcase. And Alayna says that you have my stuff in a storage place. Thank you very much for holding onto that for me. I'll be home soon to take it off of your hands.
We've had a lot of fun moments recently. We've had exceptionally good conversations with people, including three very put-together people hanging out by their house yesterday afternoon. Turns out the grandma has met with missionaries and had a good experience. The boyfriend and girlfriend were very impressed with the missionary program and were all for letting us share a bit of goodness.
We were driving by a building I've wondered about in the past and a big garage door was open with two GORGEOUS motorcycles outside. Sister William's dad is a Harley guy, so we had to stop. Turns out the guy who hand-makes all the bikes (big guy with tattoos and earings...just what you would expect) was friends with some of the elders a couple years ago and used to take them on their errands on preparation day because they didn't have a car : ) He never let them share the gospel, but it was mighty fun to hear. He even had the world's friendliest boxer with two spiked collars. I've attached a picture of me on a bike worth $150,000. We were careful not to scratch the paint.
There are also a couple pictures of a great view of St. Paul...and us enjoying it.
And for his 16th birthday last Sunday, we threw a mini birthday party for Andy. He's just waiting for his answer from God about whether or not he should get baptized. He believes in Christ and the Bible and the Book of Mormon and that the gospel was restored through Joseph Smith. He likes the people at church and hasn't missed a week since he started coming 2 months ago. He just wants a confirmation that this is what God wants him to do. We don't understand why he hasn't gotten it yet.
Tuesday was a particularly fun night. We went tracting and made friends with a cool guy about our age who had gone to our church with a friend a while ago but wasn't into it anymore. For all the other English people we met on the street, we spoke in British accents because Sister Williams wanted to spice it up a bit. Everyone was more patient and willing to listen than we anticipated, and no one asked us where we were from. Phew. We then talked to some guys who were drinking beer and digging up bush stumps, and got to share quite a bit. The one particularly mentioned that we were different from other church people and he felt a lot more comfortable. We then hit a low-income project and made friends with these two cute little boys, one black and one Somalian and both probably 2 years old. They both stood there smiling at us and waving : ) We got to talking to a Somalian woman whose response to our offer was, "What, do you want me to tell you about my religion?" Little did she know, we LOVE learning about others' religions, so we enthusiastically asked her to and we ended up talking for some 40 minutes. She eventually said, "Alright, now that I have shared, what do you believe? It's only fair that I listen." We started with Christ being the Son of God and she stopped us there : ) It was a really great conversation, though, and I learned a lot of new things. We then moved to the other side of the building and there were 5 kindergarten and first-grade girls doing exercises of some kind. We asked if they wanted to learn some dance moves, and they were thrilled, although they first roped us into a wild game of Duck, Duck, Goose. After a few rounds, and the addition of a few more kids, we made up some little dance for them and all did it a couple times. Then they pulled out the jump rope, and we got everyone jumping and dancing over the whole sidewalk. They were thrilled! When time came for us to go, they all ran up and gave me a huge hug, then ran to Sister William and did the same for her, then ran back to me, then Sister Williams. This went on for a while before someone stole our Book of Mormon and said we couldn't leave. We chased them for a while, then hit the road. We talked to three more people, the last of whom became a 30 minute conversation and return appointment. His name is Juventino and he was way into what we were teaching. He didn't seem to have any kind of religious background.
So there's a HUGE Cinco de Mayo fiesta in the West Side (our area) every year, and we're making arrangements to have a booth there. We stopped in for information on the last day to sign up, and got permission from the President who's going to pay for it. I'm hoping to get help from an amazing interior designer in Plymouth so it will really be something nice, and something they can use year after year. We put in an order for a ton more Spanish materials, and we'll probably get all the Spanish missionaries from the whole twin-cities there. I'm the most concerned about putting together a good booth since we have limited funds, limited materials, limited time, and (if Sister Simonette doesn't call me back) limited creativity. Oh well, everything works out just the way the Lord wants it when we put in the effort.
Oscar is hilarious. He has a dry, witty sense of humor that I LOVE. We do nothing but laugh in our appointments (exagerating. We share the gospel, too). He's really going strong and should get his first calling in just a bit.
We did a FHE with Los Chavos. We did the Preach My Gospel "attribute activity" and played spoons.
Last Saturday was a blast. Some members put on a barbeque and we got to invite los chavos and Oscar. We played soccor before and after and I found out that I can compensate for my lack of skill by pummeling people, instead. I played barefoot and next week I will send pictures of what was left over of my feet and nylons. I still have a couple cuts and bruises: battle scars.
I'll send another email after this with a couple pictures from Geovanni's baptism. I finally got my camera back (had left it at a member's house).
Sister Williams is getting better little by little, although she's still struggling. To help out, we've been super, super goofy. We make everything into a musical. I hope nobody notices.
We chalked a less-active's driveway with a scripture from the Book of Mormon. Those pictures are on Sister William's camera, too, so I'll send them next week. Now that it's good weather, we've decided we're going to teach the Plan of Salvation on people's driveways with chalk and make them actually walk through it.
That's more or less it. Love you all!
Erin
Dear Everyone,
It's been a while. Apologies. Here's my explanation of why I didn't write last week:
So I woke up with amazing diarhea (sp?) but fasted that day as we had planned anyway. As the day went on, I got weaker and weaker until we went to that appointment we had to schedule in the middle of preparation day. They weren't home. So I just layed down on their porch. It was bad. We went straight home (well, picked up some gatorade first) and I took in fluids and slept for 45 minutes before hitting the road again for some more appointments. Fortunately, I felt fine then, but the next day still had a little something in my stomach telling me not to eat. I didn't have anything but crackers and gatorade until the late afternoon when we came across and wonderful Mexican barbeque and simply invited ourselves in, taking the opportunity to talk to everyone there. It was the absolutely ideal missionary opportunity, but did, of course, involve having to eat a lot of food. I got most of it down and suffered (and I mean suffered) amazing gas and bloating the rest of the night until our 8pm appointment. We had to have it in the garage because it was just us, Geovanni and Adelino, and we would have had another guy or another girl to go inside (our other joint teacher didn't show up). Anyway, so we start talking and Adelino, who told us two days before that he wanted to choose a date for his baptism, now tells us that he's not so sure that any of it is true, especially the part about three kingdoms of glory. Just then, having to be in the garage worked to our favor big time because the neighbors got home and decided to come chat as well and find out what it is we teach, after all. It turned into a powerful lesson about the Restoration of the Gospel, but as we were getting to the end, I felt something inside shift. I ran out and got to the garden just in time to violently vomit everything I had eaten and suffered the past two hours...right in front of all 6 members, missionaries and investigators. Wow. Exciting. Of course, I've felt just fine ever since.
Funny...I was just looking at my notes of what I was going to write in my email that day, and I was going to include a bit about how I appear to be wearing out my digestive system. I guess I was right.
There are some real down-sides to having two newby Spanish speakers working together. For the past while, when we called to set appointments, we'd ask when they would like us to get together: "juntarnos". One day, I guess I said it one too many times in a conversation with our 30-year-old, former bad-boy investigator, and he couldn't help but laugh. We asked someone else later in the day what he may have been laughing at, and they explained that "juntarnos" means to get together...as in shack up. Oh the embarasment! And I don't even know how long we've been saying it. Now we only use "reunirnos".
Minnesota spring: when winter and summer take turns. It's 50 degrees one day and snows 4 inches the next.
We had 35 appointments last week. That is absolutely unheard of. Of course, they weren't all there, but we took the opportunity to look for investigators in the area and found some. We're having a ton of success...to the point that we're dropping investigators who aren't keeping commitments and looking for new people who really do want it.
I'm staying in this area until my mission ends, which is exactly what I wanted. Unfortunately, I'm feeling some frustration with some ward members, but it's a great opportunity to work on my patience and charity. We'd like to start doing larger ward activities that people can invite their friends to. The ward did them some years ago and they were a huge success. Everyone brought friends and a ton of people got to learn about the gospel. Unfortunately, they were stopped because some of the members started bringing alcohol and after the missionaries left, the events would take a very different turn. We were thinking that was all out of the ward's system and we could start fresh...but then a member brought alcohol to a non-church-function barbeque at a member's last weekend and we're back where we started. Just goes to show that the Lord sends blessings only as quickly as we are able to receive them.
Adelino called yesterday beside himself with sadness. He is so alone here. We changed our plans for the whole day and had him go out with us on bike. We visited some spanish-speakers in a local nursing home and had him give the spiritual thought. He has this dream of sharing the gospel with people in hospitals and prisons, and he did a really amazing job. We then got lunch (Sister Williams and I ate almost the entire pizza) and had him watch some conference talks on the internet. I hope it helps. He's opened up to us a TON, but he's super, super, super shy when there's anyone else around and doesn't talk at all. He really needs good friends, though. Hopefully he's resolving his problems and really getting closer to baptism. He talks about it more, but he's not solid enough yet that he'd stay active if we both were to leave.
We took a member joint-teaching for the first time and she rocked. Our appointment was being slow answering the door, so she just let herself and us in. It was awesome! I love spunky women.
We had stake conference via satellite from Salt Lake City. I've never done anything quite like that. It was like a second general conference.
Sister William's sleeping medication doesn't let her really start functioning until 8:30 or 9 in the morning, so my last bit of my mission has a very different feel than the rest of it. I still get up (unless I was up in the middle of the night with her, which doesn't happen as much anymore) and putter around the house studying or working on little things. Yesterday, we took our bikes to a local park for exercise and followed a trail by the Mississippi River, which was fun. Exercise is really therapeutic for her, so we can take as long as we need for that. When we got back to teh house, that's when we heard from Adelino, so we spent the whole afternoon with him as described above, then went to an appointment with the Vega family. We got there just as the parents were leaving for an errand and told them we were just going to wait until they got back. Sister Williams had an awesome time playing soccor with the kids and teaching them Book of Mormon stories. I, on the other hand, had an all-out (but friendly) bash with the neighbor who was at our first lesson with the family. He read the Book of Mormon through Mosiah and took major offense that when God cursed the Lamanites by removing them from his presence, that he also marked them with a dark skin. He said that was all-out racist. It was a really intense conversation and used all the Spanish I had in me (I really couldn't talk in Spanish after that). in the mean time, the parents had gotten home and Sister Williams had a fun conversation with the mom about being a mom. We then went to an appointment with los chavos at a member's home, and it turns out the members went all-out and threw a barbeque...and los chavos (that always refers to Pompilio, Geovanni and Andy) never showed up! We called but to no avail. Fortunately, the member's cousin was there (the one I stood by awkwardly until she invited us over) and we had a really good conversation with her. So between a slow morning, a fun bike ride, the rest of the afternoon on bike with no appointments, playing with the Vegas and a barbeque...it was a way laid-back day. And yet we still accomplished so much. I like that combo.
Thursday morning was terrible for Sister Williams and I really wondered if she's going to go home...so we spent the whole afternoon blowing bubbles (thanks, Mom) by the lake. It was very chill.
We have to awesome new potential investigators: Oscar and Lily. Oscar didn't believe in God until Lily had worked on him for a couple years, and he thinks he's ready to learn more. Lily says she doesn't pray often, but when she does, God always sends someone. For example, she prayed the night before our appointment with Oscar, and then was at the house when we showed up to teach. She's got a ton of energy and they're both really sharp. I'm way excited to teach them.
Easter was fun. We had a ton of appointments but almost none of them were there (big surprise). Geovanni came out with us as our joint teacher (yay for new converts!) and he LOVES tracting because that's how he was found. We taught a couple lessons and helped some people with their yard work and Geovanni is really just cool.
We spent an hour side-walk chalking scriptures onto a less-actives driveway, and it was Sister William's turn to vomit. We had just eaten a slightly questionable dinner with a member, and then being almost upside-down while drawing was too much for her digestive system and she lost it, too. Oh, what fun.
An appointment recently fell through and we saw a Koptic Christian church with a bunch of people going in, so we treated ourselves to sitting in a few minutes in their service, which was AMAZING!!! Everyone there sang SO BEAUTIFULLY, which was a huge adjustment from our ward : ) Then a member gave us a tour of the church. It was so much fun!
The weather has been absolutely beautiful and it makes life a ton better. The trees and plants are budding and about to burst. I'm grateful. And we're on our way to another barbeque.
Love you all!
Erin
It's been a while. Apologies. Here's my explanation of why I didn't write last week:
So I woke up with amazing diarhea (sp?) but fasted that day as we had planned anyway. As the day went on, I got weaker and weaker until we went to that appointment we had to schedule in the middle of preparation day. They weren't home. So I just layed down on their porch. It was bad. We went straight home (well, picked up some gatorade first) and I took in fluids and slept for 45 minutes before hitting the road again for some more appointments. Fortunately, I felt fine then, but the next day still had a little something in my stomach telling me not to eat. I didn't have anything but crackers and gatorade until the late afternoon when we came across and wonderful Mexican barbeque and simply invited ourselves in, taking the opportunity to talk to everyone there. It was the absolutely ideal missionary opportunity, but did, of course, involve having to eat a lot of food. I got most of it down and suffered (and I mean suffered) amazing gas and bloating the rest of the night until our 8pm appointment. We had to have it in the garage because it was just us, Geovanni and Adelino, and we would have had another guy or another girl to go inside (our other joint teacher didn't show up). Anyway, so we start talking and Adelino, who told us two days before that he wanted to choose a date for his baptism, now tells us that he's not so sure that any of it is true, especially the part about three kingdoms of glory. Just then, having to be in the garage worked to our favor big time because the neighbors got home and decided to come chat as well and find out what it is we teach, after all. It turned into a powerful lesson about the Restoration of the Gospel, but as we were getting to the end, I felt something inside shift. I ran out and got to the garden just in time to violently vomit everything I had eaten and suffered the past two hours...right in front of all 6 members, missionaries and investigators. Wow. Exciting. Of course, I've felt just fine ever since.
Funny...I was just looking at my notes of what I was going to write in my email that day, and I was going to include a bit about how I appear to be wearing out my digestive system. I guess I was right.
There are some real down-sides to having two newby Spanish speakers working together. For the past while, when we called to set appointments, we'd ask when they would like us to get together: "juntarnos". One day, I guess I said it one too many times in a conversation with our 30-year-old, former bad-boy investigator, and he couldn't help but laugh. We asked someone else later in the day what he may have been laughing at, and they explained that "juntarnos" means to get together...as in shack up. Oh the embarasment! And I don't even know how long we've been saying it. Now we only use "reunirnos".
Minnesota spring: when winter and summer take turns. It's 50 degrees one day and snows 4 inches the next.
We had 35 appointments last week. That is absolutely unheard of. Of course, they weren't all there, but we took the opportunity to look for investigators in the area and found some. We're having a ton of success...to the point that we're dropping investigators who aren't keeping commitments and looking for new people who really do want it.
I'm staying in this area until my mission ends, which is exactly what I wanted. Unfortunately, I'm feeling some frustration with some ward members, but it's a great opportunity to work on my patience and charity. We'd like to start doing larger ward activities that people can invite their friends to. The ward did them some years ago and they were a huge success. Everyone brought friends and a ton of people got to learn about the gospel. Unfortunately, they were stopped because some of the members started bringing alcohol and after the missionaries left, the events would take a very different turn. We were thinking that was all out of the ward's system and we could start fresh...but then a member brought alcohol to a non-church-function barbeque at a member's last weekend and we're back where we started. Just goes to show that the Lord sends blessings only as quickly as we are able to receive them.
Adelino called yesterday beside himself with sadness. He is so alone here. We changed our plans for the whole day and had him go out with us on bike. We visited some spanish-speakers in a local nursing home and had him give the spiritual thought. He has this dream of sharing the gospel with people in hospitals and prisons, and he did a really amazing job. We then got lunch (Sister Williams and I ate almost the entire pizza) and had him watch some conference talks on the internet. I hope it helps. He's opened up to us a TON, but he's super, super, super shy when there's anyone else around and doesn't talk at all. He really needs good friends, though. Hopefully he's resolving his problems and really getting closer to baptism. He talks about it more, but he's not solid enough yet that he'd stay active if we both were to leave.
We took a member joint-teaching for the first time and she rocked. Our appointment was being slow answering the door, so she just let herself and us in. It was awesome! I love spunky women.
We had stake conference via satellite from Salt Lake City. I've never done anything quite like that. It was like a second general conference.
Sister William's sleeping medication doesn't let her really start functioning until 8:30 or 9 in the morning, so my last bit of my mission has a very different feel than the rest of it. I still get up (unless I was up in the middle of the night with her, which doesn't happen as much anymore) and putter around the house studying or working on little things. Yesterday, we took our bikes to a local park for exercise and followed a trail by the Mississippi River, which was fun. Exercise is really therapeutic for her, so we can take as long as we need for that. When we got back to teh house, that's when we heard from Adelino, so we spent the whole afternoon with him as described above, then went to an appointment with the Vega family. We got there just as the parents were leaving for an errand and told them we were just going to wait until they got back. Sister Williams had an awesome time playing soccor with the kids and teaching them Book of Mormon stories. I, on the other hand, had an all-out (but friendly) bash with the neighbor who was at our first lesson with the family. He read the Book of Mormon through Mosiah and took major offense that when God cursed the Lamanites by removing them from his presence, that he also marked them with a dark skin. He said that was all-out racist. It was a really intense conversation and used all the Spanish I had in me (I really couldn't talk in Spanish after that). in the mean time, the parents had gotten home and Sister Williams had a fun conversation with the mom about being a mom. We then went to an appointment with los chavos at a member's home, and it turns out the members went all-out and threw a barbeque...and los chavos (that always refers to Pompilio, Geovanni and Andy) never showed up! We called but to no avail. Fortunately, the member's cousin was there (the one I stood by awkwardly until she invited us over) and we had a really good conversation with her. So between a slow morning, a fun bike ride, the rest of the afternoon on bike with no appointments, playing with the Vegas and a barbeque...it was a way laid-back day. And yet we still accomplished so much. I like that combo.
Thursday morning was terrible for Sister Williams and I really wondered if she's going to go home...so we spent the whole afternoon blowing bubbles (thanks, Mom) by the lake. It was very chill.
We have to awesome new potential investigators: Oscar and Lily. Oscar didn't believe in God until Lily had worked on him for a couple years, and he thinks he's ready to learn more. Lily says she doesn't pray often, but when she does, God always sends someone. For example, she prayed the night before our appointment with Oscar, and then was at the house when we showed up to teach. She's got a ton of energy and they're both really sharp. I'm way excited to teach them.
Easter was fun. We had a ton of appointments but almost none of them were there (big surprise). Geovanni came out with us as our joint teacher (yay for new converts!) and he LOVES tracting because that's how he was found. We taught a couple lessons and helped some people with their yard work and Geovanni is really just cool.
We spent an hour side-walk chalking scriptures onto a less-actives driveway, and it was Sister William's turn to vomit. We had just eaten a slightly questionable dinner with a member, and then being almost upside-down while drawing was too much for her digestive system and she lost it, too. Oh, what fun.
An appointment recently fell through and we saw a Koptic Christian church with a bunch of people going in, so we treated ourselves to sitting in a few minutes in their service, which was AMAZING!!! Everyone there sang SO BEAUTIFULLY, which was a huge adjustment from our ward : ) Then a member gave us a tour of the church. It was so much fun!
The weather has been absolutely beautiful and it makes life a ton better. The trees and plants are budding and about to burst. I'm grateful. And we're on our way to another barbeque.
Love you all!
Erin
Dear Everyone,
We had another awesome FHE last night. The hispanic culture loves slap-stick humor, and it worked to our advantage. We played the sign game, the one where you have to send the sign on beat, and they had the HARDEST time getting it down and everyone just laughed their heads off for probably 20 minutes. Geovanni's already turning into a super member losing his shyness and making friends and answering questions in class and whatnot. We couldn't find anyone from our ward to drive us and our two investigators, so I called in the Amazing Laura, the member we lived with in Plymouth (about an hour away) and she cancelled her other plans and came with us to provide transportation and her lovely self. It was a blast.
We had another FHE will some members earlier in the week, and the former elder's quorum president (the one who hit the RS president) made it very clear that he was making a move on me and it was disgusting and I'll fortunately not have to see him again because he's not in our ward anymore!
And to celebrate April Fool's Day, we wore bright colored pyjama pants under our skirts and pulled them down full length at members' houses, etc. It was fun.
Oh, this was unreal! Last week we stopped at a cafe for lunch and phone calls and LO AND BEHOLD, who should be there but Pat Cotton, one of my absolutely most favorite people from Plymouth. We had lots of great lessons sitting in the hammocks in their front lawn. They are DEFINITELY my kind of people. Unfortunately, they weren't quite so interested in the gospel. Fortunately, it turns out they love me just as much as I love them, and after chatting for an hour we promised to keep in touch forever.
In that same cafe, they had chalkboard walls, so we drew on the Plan of Salvation.
We played baseball with some little kids in a low-income area. That was fun, too.
We had an unusual preparation day today. We saved exercise for after study and cleaning, then ran for about 30 minutes, climbed a tree barefoot and sat looking at the lake. It was enormous fun.
We're upping how much we run from 3 to 5 miles to try and get Sister Williams enough exercise (and I, in the mean time, am getting kicked into shape). We also run from the car to houses and everything, just because we feel like it.
We're going tonight to the Wabasha Street Caves, caves that were carved out during Prohibition to make speak-easies. They're supposed to be amazing. I'll send pictures. They have swing classes every Thursday at 6:15 and live jazz and dancing 7-10. Good thing we have appointments set...
We have a recently reactivated member in the hospital with pneumonia for 2 weeks now, and he seems to just be getting worse, although he tells us he's just in there for complications with diabetes. it's really sad to see. It really throws Sister Williams for a loop.
Oh, and you know how the whole reason I was called Spanish was to train my last transfer? Well, that sister had to go home from the MTC because of back problems. I'm now guaranteed (and this is straight from the mission president) to spend my last transfer in this same spot working with the same people and helping Sister Williams. That makes me so happy! It's just what I wanted.
The amazing Sister Farr who was my companion this time last year visited last month and promptly sent me the Book of Mormon in Spanish on CD, and the general conference on DVD in some 17 languages. We're getting the BOM copied for Geovanni, and we're using the DVD's to prep for this weekend's big event.
They put in new leadership in almost every part of the ward, and the overarching theme was that they just pulled up all the humble people. I'm way excited to see how this helps the atmosphere in the ward.
We found a new family to teach who met with missionaries about 5 years ago in NYC. They also just happen to be moving in with a lady I street contacted. She was pretty apathetic although not unkind, but I didn't feel good just closing the conversation and walking away (they were in the middle of moving although refused my help) so I just stood there awkwardly and after a few minutes she turned to me and very sincerely asked us to come visit in their new house down the street. Just about then her roommate comes out, and it turns out he's a less-active member!!! So we pretty much plan on making that apartment Zion.
Sister Williams is making awesome, awesome progress although she's still really struggling with depression. We've identified specific thought patterns (all-or-nothing mentality, the I-should-be-doing mentality) and specific ways of countering those (what's your happy thought? or Argue that.) I'm really excited for the progress she's making, and I totally count her as one of my mission converts : )
Gonna go tour. Love you all!
Erin
We had another awesome FHE last night. The hispanic culture loves slap-stick humor, and it worked to our advantage. We played the sign game, the one where you have to send the sign on beat, and they had the HARDEST time getting it down and everyone just laughed their heads off for probably 20 minutes. Geovanni's already turning into a super member losing his shyness and making friends and answering questions in class and whatnot. We couldn't find anyone from our ward to drive us and our two investigators, so I called in the Amazing Laura, the member we lived with in Plymouth (about an hour away) and she cancelled her other plans and came with us to provide transportation and her lovely self. It was a blast.
We had another FHE will some members earlier in the week, and the former elder's quorum president (the one who hit the RS president) made it very clear that he was making a move on me and it was disgusting and I'll fortunately not have to see him again because he's not in our ward anymore!
And to celebrate April Fool's Day, we wore bright colored pyjama pants under our skirts and pulled them down full length at members' houses, etc. It was fun.
Oh, this was unreal! Last week we stopped at a cafe for lunch and phone calls and LO AND BEHOLD, who should be there but Pat Cotton, one of my absolutely most favorite people from Plymouth. We had lots of great lessons sitting in the hammocks in their front lawn. They are DEFINITELY my kind of people. Unfortunately, they weren't quite so interested in the gospel. Fortunately, it turns out they love me just as much as I love them, and after chatting for an hour we promised to keep in touch forever.
In that same cafe, they had chalkboard walls, so we drew on the Plan of Salvation.
We played baseball with some little kids in a low-income area. That was fun, too.
We had an unusual preparation day today. We saved exercise for after study and cleaning, then ran for about 30 minutes, climbed a tree barefoot and sat looking at the lake. It was enormous fun.
We're upping how much we run from 3 to 5 miles to try and get Sister Williams enough exercise (and I, in the mean time, am getting kicked into shape). We also run from the car to houses and everything, just because we feel like it.
We're going tonight to the Wabasha Street Caves, caves that were carved out during Prohibition to make speak-easies. They're supposed to be amazing. I'll send pictures. They have swing classes every Thursday at 6:15 and live jazz and dancing 7-10. Good thing we have appointments set...
We have a recently reactivated member in the hospital with pneumonia for 2 weeks now, and he seems to just be getting worse, although he tells us he's just in there for complications with diabetes. it's really sad to see. It really throws Sister Williams for a loop.
Oh, and you know how the whole reason I was called Spanish was to train my last transfer? Well, that sister had to go home from the MTC because of back problems. I'm now guaranteed (and this is straight from the mission president) to spend my last transfer in this same spot working with the same people and helping Sister Williams. That makes me so happy! It's just what I wanted.
The amazing Sister Farr who was my companion this time last year visited last month and promptly sent me the Book of Mormon in Spanish on CD, and the general conference on DVD in some 17 languages. We're getting the BOM copied for Geovanni, and we're using the DVD's to prep for this weekend's big event.
They put in new leadership in almost every part of the ward, and the overarching theme was that they just pulled up all the humble people. I'm way excited to see how this helps the atmosphere in the ward.
We found a new family to teach who met with missionaries about 5 years ago in NYC. They also just happen to be moving in with a lady I street contacted. She was pretty apathetic although not unkind, but I didn't feel good just closing the conversation and walking away (they were in the middle of moving although refused my help) so I just stood there awkwardly and after a few minutes she turned to me and very sincerely asked us to come visit in their new house down the street. Just about then her roommate comes out, and it turns out he's a less-active member!!! So we pretty much plan on making that apartment Zion.
Sister Williams is making awesome, awesome progress although she's still really struggling with depression. We've identified specific thought patterns (all-or-nothing mentality, the I-should-be-doing mentality) and specific ways of countering those (what's your happy thought? or Argue that.) I'm really excited for the progress she's making, and I totally count her as one of my mission converts : )
Gonna go tour. Love you all!
Erin
Dear Everyone,
Sister Williams is making awesome progress. She's slept three nights in a row (with some help from medication) and yesterday was a really good day. We have a new game: whenever she starts getting stressed or scared or doubtful, I ask her what her happy thought is. We'll go back and forth until she's feeling better and seeing just how good life is again.
Geovanni (turns out that's how you spell his name) should be getting baptized this Saturday, and he is stoked! It's sweet to see him talk about how much he wants it and how he knows this will help him stay "en el buen camino". Unfortunately, I forgot to get pictures this week of him and the other two chavos, but with the baptism this Saturday, there should be some next week.
We had another young adult FHE last night and it was AWESOME. We had some fresh blood there--the East elders (remember that there are 3 companionships in this ward) brought a recent convert and two members, plus the Saldivars and los chavos (that generally refers to Geovanni, Pompilio and Andy). We started with a prayer and had introductions, as always. In the introductions, you have to share your name, and we have a question of the week. The first time, it was the work you would least want to do, then your favorite place in the world, then something you want to do before you turn 50, then yesterday it was the worst accident or harm you've done to your body. It was hilarious! These people have got stories. The most extreme was Sister Williams who was skating 30mph down a hill when a truck backed up and she hit it. The funniest was when Candace hit her funnybone so hard she went to the hospital thinking she broke her elbow.
We then did a quit skit about prayer where I was praying and Elder James was God and he was trying to answer my prayer but I wouldn't let him interrupt. We played a quick game and ate (as always) delicious Mexican food. It went really, really well. I feel kinda bad because these events tend to be a little long (especially last week when the investigators thought we'd meet at their house at 7 when we meant to start the FHE 30 minutes away at 7) and last night the host family was in a fight so they were hoping we'd keep it a little shorter. It was what it was, however, and hopefully the Spirit it brought made it easier for them to make peace.
Also yesterday, we found another lost sheep who's probably in her late twenties and hasn't been to church since feuding with someone in Young Women's.
We lost our phone and found it again a couple hours later. Tender mercy.
Adelino is talking about wanting to be baptized. He wants to work through some emotional turmoil over his turbulous childhood. He's opened up to us A LOT and is making some progress finally, although we're still somewhat at a loss of what to do for him. We've taught pretty much everything.
Monday, the North elders asked us to do a FHE for a family that joined recently. They live in a pretty rickety part of town. We arrived early so we took the opportunity to talk to a few people. The first contact was a really cool lady who wants to learn more (score!) but the second group were some young men who said really nasty things and it was generally a scary experience. Some people say our part of town is questionable, but I've never felt the slightest unsafe, and that part of town is so much worse.
The FHE was wonderful, by the way. The spirit in that home is so, so, so strong. We taught them basic steps for doing it every week and challenged them to do it next week.
We had an awesome lunch with the ward clerk. A huge problem we have is that the ward isn't very proactive in fellowshipping and getting to know our converts. Even the ward clerk didn't know who all had recently been baptized, so we started telling them about all of our converts. They're going to do some calling-shuffling soon and we gave lots of input on who would be good for which callings. He took careful notes : ) We've gone over all this with our bishop, who's one of the most wonderful men ever, but in the midst of his responsibilities it hasn't become a priority to give callings to recent converts. Hopefully this will get our people a little more firmly established. I'm really, really, really worried about what will happen during this coming year for these wonderful people we're all teaching.
Sunday was good. Though the individual sisters are amazing women whom I love, the Relief Society here has a history of being like a pen of hens and I've been grateful we had to miss most of it for Sister Barrow to play piano in primary. This week, however, I felt the Spirit! Yay!
I feel a deep need to get some new investigators. We've been low on that the last 3 or 4 weeks as we've been focusing on los chavos, Oscar and Adelino. The time has come to start reaching out again. Yikes. It's hard, but when you just dive in and do it, there really is a lot of joy in bringing someone the gospel for the first time.
I can't really think of anything else to share. Love you all!
Erin
Sister Williams is making awesome progress. She's slept three nights in a row (with some help from medication) and yesterday was a really good day. We have a new game: whenever she starts getting stressed or scared or doubtful, I ask her what her happy thought is. We'll go back and forth until she's feeling better and seeing just how good life is again.
Geovanni (turns out that's how you spell his name) should be getting baptized this Saturday, and he is stoked! It's sweet to see him talk about how much he wants it and how he knows this will help him stay "en el buen camino". Unfortunately, I forgot to get pictures this week of him and the other two chavos, but with the baptism this Saturday, there should be some next week.
We had another young adult FHE last night and it was AWESOME. We had some fresh blood there--the East elders (remember that there are 3 companionships in this ward) brought a recent convert and two members, plus the Saldivars and los chavos (that generally refers to Geovanni, Pompilio and Andy). We started with a prayer and had introductions, as always. In the introductions, you have to share your name, and we have a question of the week. The first time, it was the work you would least want to do, then your favorite place in the world, then something you want to do before you turn 50, then yesterday it was the worst accident or harm you've done to your body. It was hilarious! These people have got stories. The most extreme was Sister Williams who was skating 30mph down a hill when a truck backed up and she hit it. The funniest was when Candace hit her funnybone so hard she went to the hospital thinking she broke her elbow.
We then did a quit skit about prayer where I was praying and Elder James was God and he was trying to answer my prayer but I wouldn't let him interrupt. We played a quick game and ate (as always) delicious Mexican food. It went really, really well. I feel kinda bad because these events tend to be a little long (especially last week when the investigators thought we'd meet at their house at 7 when we meant to start the FHE 30 minutes away at 7) and last night the host family was in a fight so they were hoping we'd keep it a little shorter. It was what it was, however, and hopefully the Spirit it brought made it easier for them to make peace.
Also yesterday, we found another lost sheep who's probably in her late twenties and hasn't been to church since feuding with someone in Young Women's.
We lost our phone and found it again a couple hours later. Tender mercy.
Adelino is talking about wanting to be baptized. He wants to work through some emotional turmoil over his turbulous childhood. He's opened up to us A LOT and is making some progress finally, although we're still somewhat at a loss of what to do for him. We've taught pretty much everything.
Monday, the North elders asked us to do a FHE for a family that joined recently. They live in a pretty rickety part of town. We arrived early so we took the opportunity to talk to a few people. The first contact was a really cool lady who wants to learn more (score!) but the second group were some young men who said really nasty things and it was generally a scary experience. Some people say our part of town is questionable, but I've never felt the slightest unsafe, and that part of town is so much worse.
The FHE was wonderful, by the way. The spirit in that home is so, so, so strong. We taught them basic steps for doing it every week and challenged them to do it next week.
We had an awesome lunch with the ward clerk. A huge problem we have is that the ward isn't very proactive in fellowshipping and getting to know our converts. Even the ward clerk didn't know who all had recently been baptized, so we started telling them about all of our converts. They're going to do some calling-shuffling soon and we gave lots of input on who would be good for which callings. He took careful notes : ) We've gone over all this with our bishop, who's one of the most wonderful men ever, but in the midst of his responsibilities it hasn't become a priority to give callings to recent converts. Hopefully this will get our people a little more firmly established. I'm really, really, really worried about what will happen during this coming year for these wonderful people we're all teaching.
Sunday was good. Though the individual sisters are amazing women whom I love, the Relief Society here has a history of being like a pen of hens and I've been grateful we had to miss most of it for Sister Barrow to play piano in primary. This week, however, I felt the Spirit! Yay!
I feel a deep need to get some new investigators. We've been low on that the last 3 or 4 weeks as we've been focusing on los chavos, Oscar and Adelino. The time has come to start reaching out again. Yikes. It's hard, but when you just dive in and do it, there really is a lot of joy in bringing someone the gospel for the first time.
I can't really think of anything else to share. Love you all!
Erin