So we're gonna do two separate emails cause the server went defective last week. Quote from a lady we taught who was trying to convince her roommate to come down and join us. :)
Sidenote: While most of the previous quotes were in a backwoods Southern accent, most of the current one will be city-dwelling black folks. Love it! :)
Ok, lots to say.
P-day adventure:
Sis Jones and I went to help Sis Reed (a senior missionary doing welfare service here) clean her blinds. Quite the adventure! Who even knew you were supposed to clean blinds. It invovled nothing short of disassembling every blind in the house, mixing together many chemicals (which, i'm no housekeeper but i'm pretty sure was borderline toxic...) and hosing the blinds down in the shower. it was truly a grand adventure. preceded by a blissful hilly run in the rain and proceeded by amazing mango chicken fajitas from Sis Reed. Don't worry though that we forgot many crucial parts of our missionary clothes to change back into for our lesson we went to afterwards so that was an adventure!
"TALL PAUL" GUNSTONE
So we went to teach this guy who was baptized a few years ago but hasn't been to church in a couple years. we went into his house and he's like 6' 11" and has a knife collection on his wall. for work he organizes poker tournaments. what the? but we went and visited with him. for as gruff as he seems he's also actually a poet and after we came and taught him more about the gospel, he just kept thanking us for coming and helping him to feel again what he'd felt before when he realized these things are true. he wants his wife to get baptized and to raise his little baby in the church. see, the gospel IS for everyone. :)
THE SNICKERS CHALLENGE
so there's this family in the ward who with every new missionary forces them to eat 3 ice cream snicker's bars before they can leave their house. (after forcing them to eat a ridiculously huge meal). they shout things at you in their crazy haitan accents like, "come on, a baby could eat that!" until you do it. what? but don't worry, i'd been training my whole life for that moment. i intentionally ate my meal super slow so they wouldn't notice i hadn't eaten a ton, and then pounded away 3 snickers ice cream bars. i mean, when else in my life could i have done that without feeling guilty? not that it didn't still involve a tummy ache after. :) and to think, my family mocked me for being addicted to desserts.
STEVEN
Teaching Steven is such a dream. Getting him ready for baptism took almost no effort on our part. he'd read more than we gave him and he'd tell us all about what he learned. he took notes at every lesson. if we hadn't called him that day to check in, he'd call us. he always had really thought-provoking questions and thoughts. and he was coming from a non-Christian background. this kid is AMAZING!!!! he was worried about being able to keep the sabbath day holy cause it's the only day he doesn't work or go to school. he's seriously going non-stop. but he knows the Lord will help him. oh, he called me to see if since his parents said he might not be able to go to all of church every week since they said family and the family business come first, if he could still get baptized. what?! this kid is so hard-core. if only we were all that serious about our commitments we make to God. he knows this is a lifelong commitment that is to be made with his whole heart and that he is to be as obedient to God's commandments as possible. he's such a champ! i'm so excited for the amazing things he's going to do as a member of the church!
Lilburn is still great. sis jones and i are loving every minute serving here! :)happy easter wishes! :)
--sis c
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
"You have the best job in the world"
Quote from our investigator Kelly. I think she's right.
LOPEZ FAM
the lopez family is so rad. they've been through LOTS of hard stuff adn it seems to keep coming but kelly is ready for some big-time changes. she knows what we're teaching her about is true and even though she still has some major things to work out to prepare her for baptism, she tells us about how she has felt closer to God these last few weeks than ever in her life. she keeps coming to church and on easter her husband jose finally came with her. he loved it and decided he wants to come with her every week. she started crying. :)i sat in sunday school with her daughter Lani (who just moved back into the house and has never been to church a day in her life until easter). we had a lesson all about faith in Jesus Christ and Lani asked an awesome deep question about how if we need to have faith in Christ, doesn't He have faith in us? so cool to think about. I know that He does because He sent us here in the first place. He knows we can be successful or this whole plan for us to come back to our Father in Heaven wouldn't even exist. They didn't send us here to fail. they gave us the gift of agency or choice so that we could CHOOSE to follow our Savior and His commandments. i love that she thought of it from that perspective. we're excited to start teaching Lani. it's a little tricky cause we're 5 of the people in that home and they're all really at different places right now, but they will all be so strengthened by the gospel. i'm excited to see the changes that come into their lives and they let them.
STEVEN'S BAPTISM
of course, every bit as amazing as everything else about teaching him. it was such a beatiful baptism. the best part was that the ward members totally took control. the whole thing was planned and orchestrated by the youth. they even made the programs. tanner, one of the 16-yr old boys from the ward baptized him and it was all just so awesome. steven was so excited the whole time. that week on the phone he'd tell us how excited he was getting. we asked him how he felt after the baptism and he said "like i'm home."the next day at his confirmation the blessing talked mostly about his family and how he would be able to help them grow closer together in love. he was so humbled by the whole thing. the Lord really will use him to do amazing things!last night he called us just to let us know he was doing good adn that since sunday it's been easier not to make the same kind of mistakes and fall into the same kind of temptations that he would before. he said that now if he almost says a curse word or the Lord's name in vain he stops and thinks of something else to say. he can totally tell the difference having the gift of the Holy Ghost in his life. :)
TIFFANY BLAS
...is amazing! (I know, i never use that adjective...). her husband is a member of the church but hasn't been in years. (she didn't even know he was until we stopped by :) ) she has three boys and works 2 jobs. crazy busy as you can imagine. we haven't even really been able to teach her a sit-down lesson yet because there's constant chaos and schedule shuffling but since we've started visiting she's started having family prayer (without us even suggesting it). i told her about having couple prayer with her husband adn she got all excited about that. she really wants them all to come to church next week. they were supposed to come on easter but were worried cause the boys had grown out of their church pants. :( i let her know it really didn't matter what they came in and that it was more important that they came. she's excited to read the Book of Mormon and said when we call tonight she wants to tell us about what she's read. :)
EASTER
we had easter dinner twice. the Lopez fam invited us over for Puerto Rican food adn a lesson and then we went straight to the stake presidents house for a lesson and an amazing lesson with Steven adn his little bro. the first part of the lesson involved some kind of logic thing where they were tied up and had to get out. steven is SUPER smart (he explains that he's not super smart, he's just asian :) ) so he was adament that they could get out of the ropes. it was hilarious watching them try. totally reminded me of something scott would've done. the point of the game was that they needed to humble themselves and ASK for help so we read a scripture about ASK and ye shall receive. but even once steven understood the spiritual lesson behind it he was still too stuck on being able to figure it out with his own logic. made the lesson even more appropriate about how we can be so stubborn trying to do things on our own before asking God for direction. luckily, in spiritual matters Steven is very un-stubborn. :) we're going to start teaching his brother next week.
COOL RANDOM FIND
so we felt like we should go tract on a specific street and when we went we found a girl named Jessica who doesn't even live there but was dog-sitting. she was so excited about everything we shared and to hear that there's a prophet on the earth today. the Spirit was so strong as we were talking, witnessing then and there that the message we shared was from the Lord-not from us or from man's ideas. while talking to her, her cell phone went off. usually that's a distraction from the Spirit but it was playing a song that was some Christian song and the chorus said "God is all around us..." She almost started crying. it was way cool. she doesn't live in our area but we're gonna go back and meet her boyfriend who's house it was when he gets back in town. way cool girl. she's very close to the Spirit and relies on the Lord for direction adn answers in her life.
DESTINY AND SUNSHINE
There's lots to write about them but i gotta go. they're the kids who've grown up knowing virutally nothing about God. i asked sunshine the other day what her favorite thing was that she's learned so far since we've been coming over adn she said, in her quite, ultra-shy voice, "what Jesus did for us." blew me away. i'm so humbled by these kids that have such a love of God and are so anxious to feel their Savior's love that they will put all of the things of the world aside. love them, love them.
wow, longest email ever, but there was lots to say. anyone who reads this whole thing gets 10 points (or it's 2 in the morning and you're doing anything but going to bed...go to bed.)
love you all!
--sis c
LOPEZ FAM
the lopez family is so rad. they've been through LOTS of hard stuff adn it seems to keep coming but kelly is ready for some big-time changes. she knows what we're teaching her about is true and even though she still has some major things to work out to prepare her for baptism, she tells us about how she has felt closer to God these last few weeks than ever in her life. she keeps coming to church and on easter her husband jose finally came with her. he loved it and decided he wants to come with her every week. she started crying. :)i sat in sunday school with her daughter Lani (who just moved back into the house and has never been to church a day in her life until easter). we had a lesson all about faith in Jesus Christ and Lani asked an awesome deep question about how if we need to have faith in Christ, doesn't He have faith in us? so cool to think about. I know that He does because He sent us here in the first place. He knows we can be successful or this whole plan for us to come back to our Father in Heaven wouldn't even exist. They didn't send us here to fail. they gave us the gift of agency or choice so that we could CHOOSE to follow our Savior and His commandments. i love that she thought of it from that perspective. we're excited to start teaching Lani. it's a little tricky cause we're 5 of the people in that home and they're all really at different places right now, but they will all be so strengthened by the gospel. i'm excited to see the changes that come into their lives and they let them.
STEVEN'S BAPTISM
of course, every bit as amazing as everything else about teaching him. it was such a beatiful baptism. the best part was that the ward members totally took control. the whole thing was planned and orchestrated by the youth. they even made the programs. tanner, one of the 16-yr old boys from the ward baptized him and it was all just so awesome. steven was so excited the whole time. that week on the phone he'd tell us how excited he was getting. we asked him how he felt after the baptism and he said "like i'm home."the next day at his confirmation the blessing talked mostly about his family and how he would be able to help them grow closer together in love. he was so humbled by the whole thing. the Lord really will use him to do amazing things!last night he called us just to let us know he was doing good adn that since sunday it's been easier not to make the same kind of mistakes and fall into the same kind of temptations that he would before. he said that now if he almost says a curse word or the Lord's name in vain he stops and thinks of something else to say. he can totally tell the difference having the gift of the Holy Ghost in his life. :)
TIFFANY BLAS
...is amazing! (I know, i never use that adjective...). her husband is a member of the church but hasn't been in years. (she didn't even know he was until we stopped by :) ) she has three boys and works 2 jobs. crazy busy as you can imagine. we haven't even really been able to teach her a sit-down lesson yet because there's constant chaos and schedule shuffling but since we've started visiting she's started having family prayer (without us even suggesting it). i told her about having couple prayer with her husband adn she got all excited about that. she really wants them all to come to church next week. they were supposed to come on easter but were worried cause the boys had grown out of their church pants. :( i let her know it really didn't matter what they came in and that it was more important that they came. she's excited to read the Book of Mormon and said when we call tonight she wants to tell us about what she's read. :)
EASTER
we had easter dinner twice. the Lopez fam invited us over for Puerto Rican food adn a lesson and then we went straight to the stake presidents house for a lesson and an amazing lesson with Steven adn his little bro. the first part of the lesson involved some kind of logic thing where they were tied up and had to get out. steven is SUPER smart (he explains that he's not super smart, he's just asian :) ) so he was adament that they could get out of the ropes. it was hilarious watching them try. totally reminded me of something scott would've done. the point of the game was that they needed to humble themselves and ASK for help so we read a scripture about ASK and ye shall receive. but even once steven understood the spiritual lesson behind it he was still too stuck on being able to figure it out with his own logic. made the lesson even more appropriate about how we can be so stubborn trying to do things on our own before asking God for direction. luckily, in spiritual matters Steven is very un-stubborn. :) we're going to start teaching his brother next week.
COOL RANDOM FIND
so we felt like we should go tract on a specific street and when we went we found a girl named Jessica who doesn't even live there but was dog-sitting. she was so excited about everything we shared and to hear that there's a prophet on the earth today. the Spirit was so strong as we were talking, witnessing then and there that the message we shared was from the Lord-not from us or from man's ideas. while talking to her, her cell phone went off. usually that's a distraction from the Spirit but it was playing a song that was some Christian song and the chorus said "God is all around us..." She almost started crying. it was way cool. she doesn't live in our area but we're gonna go back and meet her boyfriend who's house it was when he gets back in town. way cool girl. she's very close to the Spirit and relies on the Lord for direction adn answers in her life.
DESTINY AND SUNSHINE
There's lots to write about them but i gotta go. they're the kids who've grown up knowing virutally nothing about God. i asked sunshine the other day what her favorite thing was that she's learned so far since we've been coming over adn she said, in her quite, ultra-shy voice, "what Jesus did for us." blew me away. i'm so humbled by these kids that have such a love of God and are so anxious to feel their Savior's love that they will put all of the things of the world aside. love them, love them.
wow, longest email ever, but there was lots to say. anyone who reads this whole thing gets 10 points (or it's 2 in the morning and you're doing anything but going to bed...go to bed.)
love you all!
--sis c
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
"Heavenly Father is really...nice."
ah! only 10 min left adn SO much to write. quote is from sis jones. her profound statement after comtemplating all the miracles we've seen this week. :) love it!
too many stories to tell. most of the cool things happening are with kids or teenagers.
MASONS
this family the parents are memebers of the chruch but haven't been for yrs. the kids are both not and know close to nothing about God. sad. so we visited them-- 16 yr-old boy named destiny and 14-yr old girl named sunshine. we've taught them just a little so far but we gave destiny a chapter in the book of mormon to read and he read 10. no big deal. he said it made him feel good and confident because he felt like it's what the Lord wants him to do. rock on! now if the parents will get in gear enough to get these amazing kids to church. man. i've really come to see the weighty respinsibility parents have to raise their kids in righteousness. but these kids are awesome. they want to be baptized so we'll pray the parents will not be holding them back in any way.(yes, the library in lilburn doesn't have Word so i can't use auto-correct options anymore. embrace the typos caise i am. :) )
LOPEZ FAM
this family has tons and tons of drama going on but at the same time, they're finally coming to understand the gospel. the best is the 8-yr old boy elijah. he remembers EVERYTHING. they came to chruch just once and he was telling us all about joseph smith and about a story in the book of mormon where a man keeps challenging God for a sign and is struck dead. then he would borrow our flip chart that has a list that tells you how to pray so he could practice. on his 2nd sunday at church he said the prayer in primary (the meeting for all the little kids). oh! and he held up a picture in of the Savior in Gethsemane and explained to us how this is when Jesus suffered so that we could all be protected and become strong. what?! he's such a champ and really the most spiritually prepared of the whole bunch. love him! and the teenage daughter has had a little bit of a "too cool" attitude until now. she;s become way involved with the youth and really wants to understand what's being taught. we finally got to teach her one-on-one the other day. then a few days later we were teaching her dad and she walked in and we asked her to explain what a prophet was and she was like..."someone who connects us to God...like...the pen thing! she them the pen thing! (this object lesson we showed her)." then she said "like Thomas S. Monson." so precious! their fam has been through a LOT and it's so cool to see the gospel heal them.oh, my other favoritte thing about the Lopez is the 3-yr old Annabell. she was learning my name and the names of the people in pictures we'd show. the only problem was that some of them morphed in her head. "sis cartwright" became "rice" and joseph smith was "sniff." haha! then last visit i'd become "mister cartwright," which i guess is closer. :) she's so fun.
STEPHEN
this kid is such an example to me. seriously. so he asked his LDS friend at school if he could come to church with her cause he thought it sounded interesting. since then he's come 3 times. we just barely started teaching him and the first appointment he was listening and taking notes in the back of his Book of Mormon. what a champ! i love seeing people who get it and who want to get it. when they're really desiring answers, the Lord will really work in them.so yeah, those are the miracles. love it! sis jones is so happy cause she said there's so much going on finally. she's had a few really slow tranfers before this. i told her it's cause Heavenly Father knows i only have 6 months to be proselyting so He's blessing me to make them really full. seriously, we've stayed so busy every transfer. but i've had amazing, obedient companions who want to work as hard as they can so it's been so cool to see all the blessings.
anyway, better go. love you all!
--sis c
too many stories to tell. most of the cool things happening are with kids or teenagers.
MASONS
this family the parents are memebers of the chruch but haven't been for yrs. the kids are both not and know close to nothing about God. sad. so we visited them-- 16 yr-old boy named destiny and 14-yr old girl named sunshine. we've taught them just a little so far but we gave destiny a chapter in the book of mormon to read and he read 10. no big deal. he said it made him feel good and confident because he felt like it's what the Lord wants him to do. rock on! now if the parents will get in gear enough to get these amazing kids to church. man. i've really come to see the weighty respinsibility parents have to raise their kids in righteousness. but these kids are awesome. they want to be baptized so we'll pray the parents will not be holding them back in any way.(yes, the library in lilburn doesn't have Word so i can't use auto-correct options anymore. embrace the typos caise i am. :) )
LOPEZ FAM
this family has tons and tons of drama going on but at the same time, they're finally coming to understand the gospel. the best is the 8-yr old boy elijah. he remembers EVERYTHING. they came to chruch just once and he was telling us all about joseph smith and about a story in the book of mormon where a man keeps challenging God for a sign and is struck dead. then he would borrow our flip chart that has a list that tells you how to pray so he could practice. on his 2nd sunday at church he said the prayer in primary (the meeting for all the little kids). oh! and he held up a picture in of the Savior in Gethsemane and explained to us how this is when Jesus suffered so that we could all be protected and become strong. what?! he's such a champ and really the most spiritually prepared of the whole bunch. love him! and the teenage daughter has had a little bit of a "too cool" attitude until now. she;s become way involved with the youth and really wants to understand what's being taught. we finally got to teach her one-on-one the other day. then a few days later we were teaching her dad and she walked in and we asked her to explain what a prophet was and she was like..."someone who connects us to God...like...the pen thing! she them the pen thing! (this object lesson we showed her)." then she said "like Thomas S. Monson." so precious! their fam has been through a LOT and it's so cool to see the gospel heal them.oh, my other favoritte thing about the Lopez is the 3-yr old Annabell. she was learning my name and the names of the people in pictures we'd show. the only problem was that some of them morphed in her head. "sis cartwright" became "rice" and joseph smith was "sniff." haha! then last visit i'd become "mister cartwright," which i guess is closer. :) she's so fun.
STEPHEN
this kid is such an example to me. seriously. so he asked his LDS friend at school if he could come to church with her cause he thought it sounded interesting. since then he's come 3 times. we just barely started teaching him and the first appointment he was listening and taking notes in the back of his Book of Mormon. what a champ! i love seeing people who get it and who want to get it. when they're really desiring answers, the Lord will really work in them.so yeah, those are the miracles. love it! sis jones is so happy cause she said there's so much going on finally. she's had a few really slow tranfers before this. i told her it's cause Heavenly Father knows i only have 6 months to be proselyting so He's blessing me to make them really full. seriously, we've stayed so busy every transfer. but i've had amazing, obedient companions who want to work as hard as they can so it's been so cool to see all the blessings.
anyway, better go. love you all!
--sis c
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
"All of your sorrows will soon vanish"
TRANSFERS....
so we didn't think transfers would be a big deal so i hadn't even mentioned they're coming up. we didn't figure i would get transfered for my last 6 weeks here, esp. since the number of sisters in the mission was staying exactly the same, but apparently the Lord had other plans.
LEAVING CANTON
we found out mon night that i was leaving (complete shock to us) so tues i packed and we saw some investigators to teach/say goodbye. some people i just had to call, most people will just find out later. we got to see warren (the "grumpy" one) and ellery and tried to see melanie and frances. but yeah, it was really neat to realize a little bit more how much effect a mission is on other people. really surprising and humbling. i'm very grateful for the people i've met here.
SIS BECKER
i left sis b (and what had become half my wardrobe) so she could train the new sis. she's amazing and it was a blissful 6 weeks serving with her. the subject line though was from the dinner the night before we left and that was her fortune so we were laughing hysterically about it. apparently she was secrectly wishing i'd leave this whole time. :)
ARRIVED IN...
so...i'm in Lilburn, GA. good times! the best part is my comp is Sis jones who used to serve in hickory flat so she lived in my same apt so we already loved each other and dreamed about being comps one day. so it was awesome news when we learned we were together.
CANTON VS. LILBURN
the area is WAY different from Canton. canton is a little bit more authentically southern. well, a lot more actually. some may call it "neck." but here there's like every culture imaginable represented. i hear you can knock on 10 doors and find people from like 10 diff countries. the other big difference is while there's a TON of work going on in canton, lilburn is historically a little "slower" so we're excited to get it going more. sis jones is an AMAZING missionary (i can't stress that enough) so it shouldn't be too hard.
THE WORK
there's luckily still a ton going on in canton. we did have one day that felt particularly unproductive because it was more meeting people who took the opportunity to pray for us to straighten out our messed up minds. :) but they were still amazing, very faithful people who've got very strong values. oh! one way cool story. we were tracting and went up to this group of adults in a driveway and talked to this latin woman and gave her a card to order a free book of mormon and told her just a little about it. as we walked away she looked at it and we heard her say under her breath "i need this." we looked at each other and turned right back around and went and told her more and got a return appt. i won't know what happens with her because i left but hopefully the Lord will continue to prepare her.
LETTERS/MAIL
the library facilities are much sketchier here so now i can't really print out my emails like before and stuff and we have less time on the computer. so now i prefer letters versus emails if it doesn't make a difference to you all. y'all.
the address here the same as the mission office:
1150 Cole Dr. SW
Lilburn, GA 30047
k, better go but i love you all! thanks for everything. i'll leave you with a scripture. i'm not gonnna remember excactly but it was in 1 corinthians 13:9 or something. i think. or i'm way off. but it talked abuot zealously seeking after spiritual gifts for the purpose of building up the kingdom of God. i thought that was a cool reminder. we all have spiritual gifts (even if we sometimes don't feel like it) and it's vital we use them for doing the Lord's work in the way He wants us too. then we also know there are definately areas where we're weak adn we'd like to be better at. we are commanded to seek after those spiritual gifts--as long as it's for the sake of serving the Lord. it will take time adn often MUCH effort on our part but the Lord will grant them to us because He seeks to make us better instruments to serve His children.
gotta go. love you all!
--sis c
so we didn't think transfers would be a big deal so i hadn't even mentioned they're coming up. we didn't figure i would get transfered for my last 6 weeks here, esp. since the number of sisters in the mission was staying exactly the same, but apparently the Lord had other plans.
LEAVING CANTON
we found out mon night that i was leaving (complete shock to us) so tues i packed and we saw some investigators to teach/say goodbye. some people i just had to call, most people will just find out later. we got to see warren (the "grumpy" one) and ellery and tried to see melanie and frances. but yeah, it was really neat to realize a little bit more how much effect a mission is on other people. really surprising and humbling. i'm very grateful for the people i've met here.
SIS BECKER
i left sis b (and what had become half my wardrobe) so she could train the new sis. she's amazing and it was a blissful 6 weeks serving with her. the subject line though was from the dinner the night before we left and that was her fortune so we were laughing hysterically about it. apparently she was secrectly wishing i'd leave this whole time. :)
ARRIVED IN...
so...i'm in Lilburn, GA. good times! the best part is my comp is Sis jones who used to serve in hickory flat so she lived in my same apt so we already loved each other and dreamed about being comps one day. so it was awesome news when we learned we were together.
CANTON VS. LILBURN
the area is WAY different from Canton. canton is a little bit more authentically southern. well, a lot more actually. some may call it "neck." but here there's like every culture imaginable represented. i hear you can knock on 10 doors and find people from like 10 diff countries. the other big difference is while there's a TON of work going on in canton, lilburn is historically a little "slower" so we're excited to get it going more. sis jones is an AMAZING missionary (i can't stress that enough) so it shouldn't be too hard.
THE WORK
there's luckily still a ton going on in canton. we did have one day that felt particularly unproductive because it was more meeting people who took the opportunity to pray for us to straighten out our messed up minds. :) but they were still amazing, very faithful people who've got very strong values. oh! one way cool story. we were tracting and went up to this group of adults in a driveway and talked to this latin woman and gave her a card to order a free book of mormon and told her just a little about it. as we walked away she looked at it and we heard her say under her breath "i need this." we looked at each other and turned right back around and went and told her more and got a return appt. i won't know what happens with her because i left but hopefully the Lord will continue to prepare her.
LETTERS/MAIL
the library facilities are much sketchier here so now i can't really print out my emails like before and stuff and we have less time on the computer. so now i prefer letters versus emails if it doesn't make a difference to you all. y'all.
the address here the same as the mission office:
1150 Cole Dr. SW
Lilburn, GA 30047
k, better go but i love you all! thanks for everything. i'll leave you with a scripture. i'm not gonnna remember excactly but it was in 1 corinthians 13:9 or something. i think. or i'm way off. but it talked abuot zealously seeking after spiritual gifts for the purpose of building up the kingdom of God. i thought that was a cool reminder. we all have spiritual gifts (even if we sometimes don't feel like it) and it's vital we use them for doing the Lord's work in the way He wants us too. then we also know there are definately areas where we're weak adn we'd like to be better at. we are commanded to seek after those spiritual gifts--as long as it's for the sake of serving the Lord. it will take time adn often MUCH effort on our part but the Lord will grant them to us because He seeks to make us better instruments to serve His children.
gotta go. love you all!
--sis c
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
“There are only two religions—Baptist and Heathen”
-Quote by a minister I met at a gas station. I actually laughed out loud when he said it...then realized he wasn't totally kidding. But he’s a very good man who’s spending his life trying to bring people to Christ. We were buddies by the end of the chat. Unfortunately...I’m still a heathen. :)
THE ELDERS
No, not as in the missionaries…as in a family. This is the one I told you about where we found them tracting and she’s a member of the Church (but hasn’t gone for several years). So we were teaching them and the husband is pretty not interested at this time but it was amazing to watch the wife as we taught. She was so precious. She was getting really into it. You could see all the things she learned growing up coming back to her. She would get really excited when we were teaching something and if her husband wasn’t getting what we were saying she’d jump in and excitedly explain all about what the Holy Ghost feels like or how the Book of Mormon is the testimony of all these different prophets. At the end, he was overloaded and she was on fire. He was just kinda sitting there stunned from everything we’d told him about and she was all ready to get back to church. She slaps him hard in the leg and shouts excitedly, “Don’t you want to be sealed?!?” He didn’t know quite what to think of that. :) But it was so dang cool to watch it come back to her and to see her desire to be sealed (or united) for time and all eternity in a temple of the Lord. I love that family. They made it to church on Sunday and hopefully they’ll make it again! :)
AMAZING MEMBERS
I’m continually meeting people who are such good examples and I have to store it away in my brain so I can be like that when I’m a “regular” person again. :) This time it was a 16-yr old boy—Sammy Boice. We were eating dinner there and shared a thought from Alma 26 about bringing people from the darkness of the adversary into the marvelous light of God. It talks about how they will then be His and will be in His hands and will not be beaten down but the storms and fierce winds of the adversary (really cool chapter—read it). We finish the whole thing and he just says quietly, “whoa.” Then we were talking about who they’d like us to go visit. (This is something that’s often intimidating as members of the Church to have the missionaries go and visit your friends because even though you want so badly for them to hear these things and have these blessings, it’s easy to worry about offending them or silly things like that.) Anyway, Sammy’s response was, “if you could visit my friend Brian over there and Jenny two doors down, that’d be REALLY cool.” Wow. Who’s that stoked about the missionaries visiting their friends. We tend to be so nervous and have such a lack of faith. This kid blew me away. I hope to always have that kind of excitement to share the gospel.
ANGIE
We met a really cool lady tracting. We asked her what she knew about the Book of Mormon and she said, “not much, all I know is it’s another testament of Jesus Christ.” Ha! A+. Nicely done. She said she’s seen the commercials. She was way cool. She talked about how God’s really been leading her lately and how she just recently came to understand that she can pray specifically about things she needs (instead of just assuming the Lord already knows) and how that’s changed things. We told her all about the Book of Mormon and a prophet today and praying to know if it’s true. She was totally getting it. Then we asked her that when the Lord tells her these things are true, will she be baptized. She said a very bold “Yes!” Usually when you initially discuss baptism, they have concerns like (in the South anyway) “but I’ve already been baptized” so you work to resolve their concerns and teach them why it’s so important. But when she answered with her confident “yes” we were both just like, “uh…well…great!” Then she’s like “if that’s what God wants me to do, how stupid would I be not to?” Man, if only we all had that attitude. Anyway, we should be seeing her tomorrow. She’s a champ.
Alrighty, things are going well. We’re assuming I’ll stay in Canton til the end of my time here. Transfers are March 5 though and you never know. But I love it here and the people. Keep praying for the missionary efforts around the world and helping in whatever ways the Lord would have you in your own areas of influence because that’s the inspired pattern of how missionary work is to be.
Thanks for all the letters/emails/updates.
Catch you later!
--Sis C
THE ELDERS
No, not as in the missionaries…as in a family. This is the one I told you about where we found them tracting and she’s a member of the Church (but hasn’t gone for several years). So we were teaching them and the husband is pretty not interested at this time but it was amazing to watch the wife as we taught. She was so precious. She was getting really into it. You could see all the things she learned growing up coming back to her. She would get really excited when we were teaching something and if her husband wasn’t getting what we were saying she’d jump in and excitedly explain all about what the Holy Ghost feels like or how the Book of Mormon is the testimony of all these different prophets. At the end, he was overloaded and she was on fire. He was just kinda sitting there stunned from everything we’d told him about and she was all ready to get back to church. She slaps him hard in the leg and shouts excitedly, “Don’t you want to be sealed?!?” He didn’t know quite what to think of that. :) But it was so dang cool to watch it come back to her and to see her desire to be sealed (or united) for time and all eternity in a temple of the Lord. I love that family. They made it to church on Sunday and hopefully they’ll make it again! :)
AMAZING MEMBERS
I’m continually meeting people who are such good examples and I have to store it away in my brain so I can be like that when I’m a “regular” person again. :) This time it was a 16-yr old boy—Sammy Boice. We were eating dinner there and shared a thought from Alma 26 about bringing people from the darkness of the adversary into the marvelous light of God. It talks about how they will then be His and will be in His hands and will not be beaten down but the storms and fierce winds of the adversary (really cool chapter—read it). We finish the whole thing and he just says quietly, “whoa.” Then we were talking about who they’d like us to go visit. (This is something that’s often intimidating as members of the Church to have the missionaries go and visit your friends because even though you want so badly for them to hear these things and have these blessings, it’s easy to worry about offending them or silly things like that.) Anyway, Sammy’s response was, “if you could visit my friend Brian over there and Jenny two doors down, that’d be REALLY cool.” Wow. Who’s that stoked about the missionaries visiting their friends. We tend to be so nervous and have such a lack of faith. This kid blew me away. I hope to always have that kind of excitement to share the gospel.
ANGIE
We met a really cool lady tracting. We asked her what she knew about the Book of Mormon and she said, “not much, all I know is it’s another testament of Jesus Christ.” Ha! A+. Nicely done. She said she’s seen the commercials. She was way cool. She talked about how God’s really been leading her lately and how she just recently came to understand that she can pray specifically about things she needs (instead of just assuming the Lord already knows) and how that’s changed things. We told her all about the Book of Mormon and a prophet today and praying to know if it’s true. She was totally getting it. Then we asked her that when the Lord tells her these things are true, will she be baptized. She said a very bold “Yes!” Usually when you initially discuss baptism, they have concerns like (in the South anyway) “but I’ve already been baptized” so you work to resolve their concerns and teach them why it’s so important. But when she answered with her confident “yes” we were both just like, “uh…well…great!” Then she’s like “if that’s what God wants me to do, how stupid would I be not to?” Man, if only we all had that attitude. Anyway, we should be seeing her tomorrow. She’s a champ.
Alrighty, things are going well. We’re assuming I’ll stay in Canton til the end of my time here. Transfers are March 5 though and you never know. But I love it here and the people. Keep praying for the missionary efforts around the world and helping in whatever ways the Lord would have you in your own areas of influence because that’s the inspired pattern of how missionary work is to be.
Thanks for all the letters/emails/updates.
Catch you later!
--Sis C
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
"This is better than food....It's the food you don't never get full of...."
Quote from Lavern in reference to the word of God. :)
I’M A REAL MISSIONARY!
So I’m happy to announce that within a matter of 24 hours I arrived at my ½-way mark and also got bit by a dog!!!! :) Yes! I’m legit now! :) It was the funniest thing. We went to drop by this house to meet this family in the ward nobody knew. The doormat said—in this cutesy font—“The dog don’t take kindly to strangers.” We laughed at the cute little doormat and proceeded to knock on the door. Have I mentioned that EVERYONE owns dogs in GA? No joke. Typically multiple dogs. So we think little of it. We were invited in by a fairly incapacitated elderly couple. There were 3 yippy dogs and I squatted down to help them get to know me and to calm them down, just as the older lady was slowly saying, “now that one bites…” Haha! Too late. He totally got me in the wrist and the leg. Blood, bruising, and everything. He even made a hole in Sis. B’s skirt I was borrowing. It was amazing. He had these creepy little fangs. Anyway, so that couple wasn’t quite coherent enough to make them worry about it so we just waited until we got to the next house we were going to so I could let the mom there nurse me back to health and tell me how to tell if the dog gives me some weird disease. It was hilarious.
FRIGHT OR FLIGHT
So two stories:We were tracting this sketchy curvy road with no sidewalk (sidewalks are exceptionally rare here) and just as we were crossing, Sis. B thought a car was coming and started scampering across the road. I then thought a car was coming too but decided it was quicker to turn back so I started running the other way. We did this crazy little do-see-do type thing in the middle of the road and would’ve been in big trouble if there actually had been a car cause we were running into each other more than away from anything. Resulted in hysterical, doubled-over laughter in the middle of the street. Good times.
Story 2: The winter has been very mild and of course we’re still in great need of rain. One night there were warnings of severe storms and we were supposed to be making our way to a house that was really far and up windy, steep roads (like more of GA). It was Sundays and on Sundays we have “Spartan Sundays” which means we don’t go back to the apt for meals or anything. We stay out all day and everywhere we go is based around teaching and finding so we also don’t go to member’s houses. It’s really neat. So the rain started POURING down just as we were heading to the appt. and it was the same night there were tornado warnings. We could’ve gone back home to hide out until the weather got better but we really didn’t feel like that was what we were supposed to do. It was really imp to us that we get to the appt so we said a prayer that the rain would let up just enough for us to be able to see and drive there safely or that we would know through the Spirit if we weren’t supposed to drive up there. Before the prayer was over the rain lightened just enough and for the rest of the night, the roads were safe. Just a little example of how the Lord looks over us. :) (Of course, that was the same night as the dog bite, but I’ll take the blame for that one!)
MELANIE
Another story about her just cause she’s amazing. We’ve been playing phone tag lately and the last thing we heard from her was a message saying she had some pretty big concerns so call her back. We were worried, naturally, because more often than not the people we teach here come into contact with very false information that leads them away from the Church. So we were praying hard that we’d get the opportunity to resolve her concern. We finally got a hold of her last night and she just had a concern about something that can so easily be explained through understanding the Atonement of Jesus Christ and that it’s meant to provide salvation to ALL men. She asked us for scriptures she could look up that would help her understand what she was worried about and she told us she wanted to meet with us two nights in a row so she could make sure she understood and would have time to ask us all her questions. What a blessing! She’s so dang cool! I was so impressed she knew to go to the scriptures and to us. She’s making leaps and bounds! I’m so excited for her.
VALENTINE’S DAY—MISSIONARY STYLE
So this V-day Melanie invited us to some fancy-schmancy dinner at the place she worked. We went cause we were hoping to be able to get to know her husband more. Turns out she and John didn’t intend on sitting with us and we were almost eating by ourselves (a big waste of time from a missionary perspective) but we invited this other random couple at a table next to us to join us. So we ended up eating with complete strangers and discussing missions and the gospel of Jesus Christ over fine dining. It was so random and cool. I was grateful that the Lord provided us with an awesome teaching experience.
SMALL MIRACLES
All-in-all it’s going great. I love to see the amazing miracles the Lord puts in our path every day. There’s always something where it times out just perfectly so we can catch someone for the 5 minutes that they’re home all day or that we can find them in the first place. Our friend who we’ve been teaching is going through a divorce and moved out of her house. All we knew was she moved somewhere in this subdivision of 1000 houses. No joke. It’s huge. So a few days later we decided to look up some old investigators and see if they were interested in resuming the discussions. We went to this house to see if they still lived there and we ended up talking to this way cool guy who had just moved in with his girlfriend and her best friend. And guess who the best friend was!!! That’s right! Our friend April who we’d lost contact with. What are the odds? I love it!Yeah, so things are going great. Only 2 months left here. Crazy. Transfers and March 5 and then I’ll know if I’ll spend my full 6 months in Canton or if I’ll go somewhere new for 6 weeks. Crazy.
Alrighty, thanks for everything, once again. Always keep making goals and striving to be better. Any time we are striving to improve, we are drawing closer to the Lord.
--sis c
I’M A REAL MISSIONARY!
So I’m happy to announce that within a matter of 24 hours I arrived at my ½-way mark and also got bit by a dog!!!! :) Yes! I’m legit now! :) It was the funniest thing. We went to drop by this house to meet this family in the ward nobody knew. The doormat said—in this cutesy font—“The dog don’t take kindly to strangers.” We laughed at the cute little doormat and proceeded to knock on the door. Have I mentioned that EVERYONE owns dogs in GA? No joke. Typically multiple dogs. So we think little of it. We were invited in by a fairly incapacitated elderly couple. There were 3 yippy dogs and I squatted down to help them get to know me and to calm them down, just as the older lady was slowly saying, “now that one bites…” Haha! Too late. He totally got me in the wrist and the leg. Blood, bruising, and everything. He even made a hole in Sis. B’s skirt I was borrowing. It was amazing. He had these creepy little fangs. Anyway, so that couple wasn’t quite coherent enough to make them worry about it so we just waited until we got to the next house we were going to so I could let the mom there nurse me back to health and tell me how to tell if the dog gives me some weird disease. It was hilarious.
FRIGHT OR FLIGHT
So two stories:We were tracting this sketchy curvy road with no sidewalk (sidewalks are exceptionally rare here) and just as we were crossing, Sis. B thought a car was coming and started scampering across the road. I then thought a car was coming too but decided it was quicker to turn back so I started running the other way. We did this crazy little do-see-do type thing in the middle of the road and would’ve been in big trouble if there actually had been a car cause we were running into each other more than away from anything. Resulted in hysterical, doubled-over laughter in the middle of the street. Good times.
Story 2: The winter has been very mild and of course we’re still in great need of rain. One night there were warnings of severe storms and we were supposed to be making our way to a house that was really far and up windy, steep roads (like more of GA). It was Sundays and on Sundays we have “Spartan Sundays” which means we don’t go back to the apt for meals or anything. We stay out all day and everywhere we go is based around teaching and finding so we also don’t go to member’s houses. It’s really neat. So the rain started POURING down just as we were heading to the appt. and it was the same night there were tornado warnings. We could’ve gone back home to hide out until the weather got better but we really didn’t feel like that was what we were supposed to do. It was really imp to us that we get to the appt so we said a prayer that the rain would let up just enough for us to be able to see and drive there safely or that we would know through the Spirit if we weren’t supposed to drive up there. Before the prayer was over the rain lightened just enough and for the rest of the night, the roads were safe. Just a little example of how the Lord looks over us. :) (Of course, that was the same night as the dog bite, but I’ll take the blame for that one!)
MELANIE
Another story about her just cause she’s amazing. We’ve been playing phone tag lately and the last thing we heard from her was a message saying she had some pretty big concerns so call her back. We were worried, naturally, because more often than not the people we teach here come into contact with very false information that leads them away from the Church. So we were praying hard that we’d get the opportunity to resolve her concern. We finally got a hold of her last night and she just had a concern about something that can so easily be explained through understanding the Atonement of Jesus Christ and that it’s meant to provide salvation to ALL men. She asked us for scriptures she could look up that would help her understand what she was worried about and she told us she wanted to meet with us two nights in a row so she could make sure she understood and would have time to ask us all her questions. What a blessing! She’s so dang cool! I was so impressed she knew to go to the scriptures and to us. She’s making leaps and bounds! I’m so excited for her.
VALENTINE’S DAY—MISSIONARY STYLE
So this V-day Melanie invited us to some fancy-schmancy dinner at the place she worked. We went cause we were hoping to be able to get to know her husband more. Turns out she and John didn’t intend on sitting with us and we were almost eating by ourselves (a big waste of time from a missionary perspective) but we invited this other random couple at a table next to us to join us. So we ended up eating with complete strangers and discussing missions and the gospel of Jesus Christ over fine dining. It was so random and cool. I was grateful that the Lord provided us with an awesome teaching experience.
SMALL MIRACLES
All-in-all it’s going great. I love to see the amazing miracles the Lord puts in our path every day. There’s always something where it times out just perfectly so we can catch someone for the 5 minutes that they’re home all day or that we can find them in the first place. Our friend who we’ve been teaching is going through a divorce and moved out of her house. All we knew was she moved somewhere in this subdivision of 1000 houses. No joke. It’s huge. So a few days later we decided to look up some old investigators and see if they were interested in resuming the discussions. We went to this house to see if they still lived there and we ended up talking to this way cool guy who had just moved in with his girlfriend and her best friend. And guess who the best friend was!!! That’s right! Our friend April who we’d lost contact with. What are the odds? I love it!Yeah, so things are going great. Only 2 months left here. Crazy. Transfers and March 5 and then I’ll know if I’ll spend my full 6 months in Canton or if I’ll go somewhere new for 6 weeks. Crazy.
Alrighty, thanks for everything, once again. Always keep making goals and striving to be better. Any time we are striving to improve, we are drawing closer to the Lord.
--sis c
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Nothing happens overnight. If it did, it wouldn't have taken 6 days for Christ to make the earth.
Subj: From Randall, one of the inmates we’re teaching. So profound. I know that he’s right. Change doesn’t happen overnight. I think it’s cool to think of all of the miraculous things that God COULD make happen but He loves us enough to have us work for them.Ok, not much time to write…So we’ve had lots of little miracles and of course a few disappointments to go along with it.
LOST AND FOUND
One cool thing…we prayed about where to go tracting and decided to go to one part of one cul-de-sac. (In a subdivision that has over 1000 houses in it. Yes. We get lost every time we go in there. I’ll be navigating and say, “now take your sixth left, follow by your third right, and then your forth left.” And the street signs are black. Yes, black. Anyway…) So we were tracting and there were all these painters painting a house and I was worried cause I didn’t know how we’d decide which painter to talk to or whatever. Then by the time we got to the house there was a lady outside supervising who I thought was like the head painter lady. Turns out she was the owner of the house (who we would’ve assumed didn’t even live there) but she’d just come out long enough to check her mail. She’d moved in a couple of years ago from LV. I figured she’d know who Mormons were because she lived out west. We introduced ourselves and I said “we’re members of The Church of Jesus Christ…” and she said, “I am too!” She’s LDS and her husband’s not. She’d never tried to find a ward out here though cause she just figured there wasn’t one close by in the South. I informed her that yes there definitely was and that about a third of them lived in her subdivision. She was really excited about it.The Lord has blessed us with a lot of part-member families we’ve been finding. At zone conference Elder Zwick talked a lot about that and how imperative it is that we help them realize all of the blessings that the Lord wants to give them and since then, we’ve found many!
MELANIE
Melanie is moving along so very well. She always tells us she needs to take it slow and initially she was telling us how she doesn’t like the missionaries to call or check up on her every day or every couple days or whatever so we’ve been very aware of that. (Usually we try to touch base often because they come up against opposition often too). Since we’ve started teaching her she’s been calling US instead to basically bear her testimony to us over the phone. It’s awesome. She’s trying to stop smoking and she told us yesterday that she took a 20-min break at work and instead of going to smoke, she went and read her scriptures. She also said she emailed her brother-in-law who’s on a mission and told him all about how she knows in her heart that everything the missionaries are teaching her is true. She said she told him that cause she hoped it would energize him and remind him not to give up on anyone. What the?! Precious! We love her! Lots of prayers are being answered right now for that family. :)
Not much else to report. One of my new favorite scriptures though, and I’ll leave it with you in light of V-day…(if I’ve already shared it in an email, oh well. It’s still valid. :) )2 Nephi 26:24“He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation.”I leave you with my testimony that I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. I know that He loves each of us with an incomprehensible love. Because of this love, He gave us commandments and a place on earth where we would experience opposition and have to prove ourselves worthy. It is this same love, though, that provides the way back and the means by which we can have peace and strength daily and for eternity.The best way you can show you appreciate this love is by sharing it with others.
I love you all!
sis c
LOST AND FOUND
One cool thing…we prayed about where to go tracting and decided to go to one part of one cul-de-sac. (In a subdivision that has over 1000 houses in it. Yes. We get lost every time we go in there. I’ll be navigating and say, “now take your sixth left, follow by your third right, and then your forth left.” And the street signs are black. Yes, black. Anyway…) So we were tracting and there were all these painters painting a house and I was worried cause I didn’t know how we’d decide which painter to talk to or whatever. Then by the time we got to the house there was a lady outside supervising who I thought was like the head painter lady. Turns out she was the owner of the house (who we would’ve assumed didn’t even live there) but she’d just come out long enough to check her mail. She’d moved in a couple of years ago from LV. I figured she’d know who Mormons were because she lived out west. We introduced ourselves and I said “we’re members of The Church of Jesus Christ…” and she said, “I am too!” She’s LDS and her husband’s not. She’d never tried to find a ward out here though cause she just figured there wasn’t one close by in the South. I informed her that yes there definitely was and that about a third of them lived in her subdivision. She was really excited about it.The Lord has blessed us with a lot of part-member families we’ve been finding. At zone conference Elder Zwick talked a lot about that and how imperative it is that we help them realize all of the blessings that the Lord wants to give them and since then, we’ve found many!
MELANIE
Melanie is moving along so very well. She always tells us she needs to take it slow and initially she was telling us how she doesn’t like the missionaries to call or check up on her every day or every couple days or whatever so we’ve been very aware of that. (Usually we try to touch base often because they come up against opposition often too). Since we’ve started teaching her she’s been calling US instead to basically bear her testimony to us over the phone. It’s awesome. She’s trying to stop smoking and she told us yesterday that she took a 20-min break at work and instead of going to smoke, she went and read her scriptures. She also said she emailed her brother-in-law who’s on a mission and told him all about how she knows in her heart that everything the missionaries are teaching her is true. She said she told him that cause she hoped it would energize him and remind him not to give up on anyone. What the?! Precious! We love her! Lots of prayers are being answered right now for that family. :)
Not much else to report. One of my new favorite scriptures though, and I’ll leave it with you in light of V-day…(if I’ve already shared it in an email, oh well. It’s still valid. :) )2 Nephi 26:24“He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation.”I leave you with my testimony that I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. I know that He loves each of us with an incomprehensible love. Because of this love, He gave us commandments and a place on earth where we would experience opposition and have to prove ourselves worthy. It is this same love, though, that provides the way back and the means by which we can have peace and strength daily and for eternity.The best way you can show you appreciate this love is by sharing it with others.
I love you all!
sis c
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