An Eventful Week

Area: Converse
Companion: Sister Sarah Felix

It's been a pretty eventful week!

On Monday we taught a 14 year old girl who's good friends with a member in the ward. She went to girls camp last year and just turned in her papers to go again this year! She's been taught by the missionaries before, but we lost contact. This was my first time ever meeting her. She loves the Book of Mormon and has already read it all the way through once. She's been reading it on her own and has some really good questions. It's so fun to teach her because she is so enthusiastic about learning. We have another lesson with her tonight!

We had a pretty cool experience on Tuesday. We were looking for someone from the area book, and ended up running into a guy checking his mail. We asked, "are you [C]?" He stopped and said, "How do you know my name?". It turns out that someone named [C] used to live in that house. This man had never met with missionaries before and was taken aback when we knew his name. We got to talking. We shared a Book of Mormon with him and told him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He's a nice, sincere guy in his 20's who's looking for direction in his life. He said he would read the Book of Mormon and check out the website on the card. We bore testimony that God loves him and is aware of his circumstances. We told him that God knows his name. The last thing he said before we left is, "God works in mysterious ways". It was such a neat encounter. We got his phone number, and we told him we'd give him a call so we could answer questions and teach some more. Here's the weird thing. We went back to his house a couple days later and the woman who answered had no idea who [C] was. We tried the house next door but it was empty. The phone number he gave us was the wrong phone number. We're not really sure where to find him again, but we'll keep trying. Maybe we were on a different street than we thought we were. It was a cool experience to talk with him. Hopefully he'll read from the Book of Mormon and find the missionaries again.

On Wednesday we had zone meeting. That is always really fun!  After zone meeting we stopped by the [A] family, who had been referred to us by a family in the ward. We've known about them for a long time, but he's so busy, we could never set a time. They were all home, so we taught the Restoration. It was really powerful because their hearts were receptive. They were open and listening. What a wonderful family! We so look forward to teaching them again this week.

We had an interesting experience contacting a referral. We knocked on the door and waited, then knocked again as usual, and a man came out around the back. He started yelling at us. He asked us what we were doing and said we shouldn't be here and that we had to leave. He thought we were soliciting something, and was pretty mad. We gracefully apologized and were on our way out. He was still talking so we kindly explained that one of his neighbors knows them and told us how wonderful they are and we just wanted to meet his wife. He softened after that and was nicer. He said he would go get her, but she would probably be 10 times more mad. She was actually really nice and accepted a pass-along card. Situations like this happen on occasion. We can't really avoid them all. It's amazing how a soft answer turns away wrath. And how "charity never faileth". He was much softer and kinder when we didn't fight, but apologized and respected his request for us to leave. We felt good after we left because we did what we needed to do and resisted the natural urge to be offended. The spirit was definitely with us.

Also, had a funny experience at a members home. We laughed so hard after! We were getting ready to leave. As she reached for the door I thought she was reaching to give me a hug. Sooo I gave her a hug when she was really trying to open the door for us. She gave me an awkward pat on the back and we left. Sister Felix looked at me and said, "she was reaching for the door". We laughed so hard in the car there were tears in our eyes. Lesson learned; things happen sometimes that are just plain awkward, but those are the most hilarious experiences if we let them be. Enjoying life! It's fun. :)

Hymn #185 [Reverently and Meekly Now] is my new favorite sacrament Hymn. It felt so personal when we sang it in sacrament meeting yesterday. It feels like the Savior speaking directly to me. I encourage y'all to read it and apply it to yourself. I'm so grateful for life, I'm glad to be here, and am so glad that I have and will continue to progress. Line upon line, precept upon precept. It's comforting to know that Lord loves me for who I am now, but more importantly, he loves me so much that he expects me to continue to change and become all that he has designed for me to become. He is my rock. "His love demands my soul, my life, my all." That is not easy, but it's worth it.

I love you all!

Sister Record :)