Shows the kind of environment I've been living in :) HEAT WAVE, BABY!
Anyway.
This week was much more positive and eventful than last week.
We had district meeting on Wednesday, which included district interviews with our district leader.
Let me tell you. It is SO relieving to get along with my district leader. I no long dread district meetings or district leader interviews.
I was still feeling kind of down from this previous week when I sat down with Elder G. He asked how I was adjusting and I said, "Eh. I just feel like I'm not getting to know this ward well enough. Like I'm not clicking, or something."
"I felt the same way when I came in!"
"You did?!"
Elder G. came from a small branch right next door to Owego before he came to Saratoga. He told me how it can be hard to go from a small ward/branch where you know everyone, and everyone knows each other, to a large ward in a city where nobody knows you, and it's harder to get to know people. That made me feel better, knowing I'm not the only one who experienced this.
Tuesday we also had dinner at a member family's home, which consisted of me trying on 6-inch, brightly colored high heels which were basically unwalkable, and all of us putting whipped cream on our hands and throwing it into the air and catching it with our mouth....or faces. Mostly mine just liked to stick to my hand and I ended up just eating it off of my hand anyway. But still, it was fun!
So now for our investigators. So we have a ninety-year old investigator. He's basically deaf, so every lesson we have with him WE HAVE TO BASICALLY YELL REALLY LOUD SO THAT HE CAN HEAR US. We tried to teach him the Word of Wisdom for the second time. Basically, we had to stop calling it the Word of Wisdom, because he misses the 'of' and goes off on a tangent about literally, the word "wisdom." He committed to live the Lord's Law of Health......we're just hoping he realized he committed to live it. It's hard to know what's really getting through to him, especially because he likes to get off on tangents during our lessons. This last lesson, he started talking about his black dog, and this is how I brought the subject BACK to the Word of Wisdom:
"HEY, YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE IS BLACK? COFFEE! COFFEE IS BLACK! WHICH IS SOMETHING THE LORD HAS ASKED US NOT TO DRINK IN THE WORD OF WIS---.....I MEAN THE LAW OF HEALTH."
We also have another investigator. She met with missionaries years ago, and started meeting with the sisters a few months ago. After disappearing off the face of the earth after a few times meeting with her, she called us two weeks ago and asked to meet with us again. We had a good first lesson with her about church and we met again with her yesterday. We walk in, and she asked if she could watch the Restoration DVD, because she remembered she really liked it before.
So we sit down, and pop it in. The spirit is present, she is way into the movie. Tears are forming in her eyes.
Then the time comes for Joseph Smith to pray to know which of the churches is true. He walks into a grove of trees. Looks around him, begins to kneel....then....
*knock knock knock*
"Oh it's my friend!"
CURSE YOU, SATAAAAAAAAAN!
She left to go visit with her friend, and we couldn't figure out the remote. So basically she came in at the very LAST ten seconds of Joseph Smith seeing Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.
But she still liked the movie! We had a discussion with her about the Book of Mormon. She described how when she was studying before, she REALLY felt peaceful, calm and happy. She really missed that feeling and wanted it back. We told her she could feel it again, and committed her to be baptized. She said it was definitly a possiblity, but she wasn't sure yet. So yay! Hopefully we'll continue to see progress with her, there. It was really cool.
We also traveled up to the one and only: Adirondacks.
I don't know if they're mountains....or forests.....but basically there was a big green spot on the map of my mission in my call letter indicating a national forest, and from the beginning I wanted to go there. FINALLY we were able to travel up there because we had a bunch of leftover miles! We went tracting into the NICEST people! None of them were really intrested, but a lot let us in and asked us what we believe.
Thankfully, I had been studying in Preach my Gospel the 3-5 minute explanation of some of the lessons, so I was able to give a good rundown of the restoration of the gospel.
The 3-5 minute run down of the plan of salvation? Yeah that was pretty lousy on my part.
But still! It was awesome.
And I was incredibly grateful I studied that, because later we met up with a family who used to invsetigate. They weren't interested in learning any more, but they let us in and we chatted with them for a bit, when their daughter (who is our age) said, "So I'm like, confirmed a Catholic and all, but I'm kind of athiest....no, well, agnostic. I mean I believe something's there. I just don't know what. I mean my dog's so cute SOMETHING had to create it! So what is it you guys believe?"
Aha! I'm glad you asked that. Thank goodness for Preach My Gospel. I was able to give a brief run down of the restoration of Jesus Christ's gospel. At the end, she said, "....that makes sense! Like it's super logical. Cool."
We asked if she wanted to continue learning, and she said, "Eh. Too busy for that."
"Well check out this website. We've gone viral." Then I gave her a
mormon.org card. So yay!
We had a lot of other mini miracles/adventures this week, but basically I'm out of time and still need to email President Wirthlin.
I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! Things are looking better, and hopefully they'll continue to go up, and hopefully we'll find more investigators.
loves!
Hurrah for Israel!
Sista' Stimpson
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