the email of the week

Sunday night, Sister L and I woke up and both said, "I had the weirdest dream."

It turns out, we both had the SAME weird dream. We both dreamed that Elders and Sisters started being put in companionships together. In our dreams, it made complete logical sense to do so!

Then we woke up, and were like, "That would break every law in the book!"

Later, we told Elder R about the dream.

"Man that'd be so weird to be companions with a Sister," he said, "You're walking down the street, and it's all like......'So.....you like.....sports?'"

"And Sisters just spend the whole time walking down the street talking about how cute people's clothes are anyway," said Sister L.

Then we started talking about companionship inventory. Now, companionship inventorty happens once a week. You and your companion basically sit down and talk about what you do well as a companionship, or what you need to improve on as an individual or companionship.

"Yeah, during companionship inventory I'd be all like, 'Look. I get that you think their clothes are cute. I get it. I really do. But you don't need to say it!'"

"Right. And then we'd say, 'Look. I don't care what team won some kind of competition or superbowl years ago that nobody but you remembers. It has nothing to do with how cute that woman's outfit is.'"

Then we decided that those dreams were a sign that we were going to go on a senior couple mission one day.

Anyway.

This week was great! First of all, I have an awesome companion. She is so sweet, so loving, so fun, so happy and so enthusiastic about the work! Second of all, it's FINALLY spring. We have spent a lot of time finding people, and have had some good success!

We have also been having really productive visits with the less active members in the ward, which has been SO great. We visited with a less active member and asked her if she had read the Book of Mormon lately. When she said no, we read the introduction with her, and talked about how much of a blessing the Book of Mormon is. It's not just scriptures, but a story, too. It was meant for our generation to read. These words bring so much guidance, peace and joy into our life. We invited her to read it, and told her we'd call her every evening to remind her to read it.

Instead, she called us.

"Hello, Sisters!" she said in the message she left us, "I just wanted to let you know that I found my old Book of Mormon and have been reading in it."

Turns out, she had been reading the Pearl of Great Price.

Yesterday, she called us and left another message.

"Hello, Sisters," she said again, "I just wanted to let you know that I started the Book of Mormon yesterday and I'm in 1 Nephi chapter 9. I didn't get to read as much as I wanted to today, but I still read."

Basically, this woman is amazing. Before, she wasn't progressing. At all. We'd invite her to church, she would say no. We would commit her to read the Book of Mormon, and she wouldn't. Now, she is making it a sincere priority and it has been wonderful.

Also this week, we visited with another woman who introduced our current ward missionary to the gospel and was present at all of her lessons before her baptism. Since then, this lady has stopped coming. We brought the current ward missionary with us and brough President Uchtdorf's talk, 'Come, Join With us.'

We sat down with her and gave a brief introduction to the talk, and even before we read it, she said, "Ah great. I think this talk is meant for me."

"Yes, I think so, too," I said, "President Uchtdorf says in the first paragraph, 'I'd like to address this message to _______.'"

"Yeah, I think if you skip every other letter or word it says something like that."

We had a nice talk with her, then asked her what's holding her back from church right now.

"Pure laziness, honestly." she said.

"Laziness?!" cried the ward missionary, "Oh honey. If it's just laziness then you ARE coming to church tomorrow. I mean, if it were something else or something doctrinal, then we could discuss it, but I will NOT take laziness as an excuse!"

"I knoooow!"

We talked some more with her, and then committed her to come to church. She agreed.

The next day, we were standing in the foyer of the church, when I turned around, and saw this lady walking down the hallway. It was weird. I wasn't surprised at all to see her. In fact, I felt like this is where she was supposed to be. Some old ward members who knew her before she quit coming greeted her. At the end of church I approached her and asked, "So, how's it feel being back?"

"It feels good to be back."

"We're glad to have you back. Is there a time we can come visit you this week?"

"Oh honey, I'll see you here next Sunday!"

I couldn't help but laugh. I tried to set up an appointment, but she had to say goodbye quickly so she could grab the relief society binder and sign up to get the weekly emails from them.

Basically, it was amazing.

We found three really good potentials that we are hoping to be able to pick up as investigators this next week. Unfortuantly, I don't have time to write about our experiences in meeting with them, but hopefully next week I can tell you the story of our first lesson with them!

I'm remembering what it feels like to see miracles happen around you.

Hurrah for Israel!

Sister Stimpson