This week has been one of the greatest and most stressful weeks of
the mission!! Although most of the time some of the best weeks are also
very stressful!
Sorry this one's gonna be a long one! SO much happened this week! But there are some amazing miracles you just got to read!! :)
Well
first, I'll start out with transfers...our new companion is Sister
Johnson!! She is soooo amazing! I just love her so much!! And also, we
heard the wrong thing and she wasn't sick, she was just waiting for her
visa so she was serving in Canada for a while. So she's actually been
out about 7 or 8 weeks! but she seems like she's been about for at least
7 or 8 months! She is such an amazing missionary! I didn't know I was
going to get trained so much in my mission! :) Haha
We
went street contacting for the first time with her and wow I realized
how terrible I am at it. She just has this way of getting people to
stop. Actually it's really simple but she just doesn't fear anyone! And
she is so good at testifying! And she is such a hard worker! Man I could
go on and on and on. She's just THAT cool.
I
love that she has certain words that she says like, "washroom" instead
of bathroom and she says "pardon" instead of "what?" and also she says
the word pasta "pass-tuh" It's so great. Also when she was serving in
Canada she was serving with my friend Elder Stallings (Taylor) from Utah
State!! So that was fun to figure out! :)
So
the big thing of the week was the baptism we had!! It was really wasn't
our baptism though, we just walked into it and planned it basically. The
Elders were teaching this guy named Thomas and he had a baptism planned
for October 24th but then the Elders left so we had to get it all
planned out and get him all ready! Now this is where the stress of the
week comes in...(I'll get back to this in a second though)
So Thursday
was a great day (but insane!) So we had a bunch of things planned for
the evening and so all the timing had to work out so we could get places
on time so we could leave on time and so on. So we had this appointment
with that guy Nathan, the one who came to church and it was just such a
weird situation (we finally reached out again and he said he would meet
with us...(even though he seemed 0% interested)). so we planned to meet
him at 5:30 because he got out at like 4:30 from work but traffic is a struggle in Nashy so we set it for later. And we had to leave by 6:15 or 6:20 to get to our dinner appointment. Well, he didn't get there until 6:00 because of traffic!!
Okay
but this is where is gets SO GOOD! Brace yourselves for this MIRACLE!
So we sit down with him and we ask him about his BOM reading and what he
thinks about everything and he said he wasn't sure about Joseph Smith,
like he literally didn't know anything about him so he was asking who he
was. So we talked about him and also we talked about the BOM and the
Bible and he said he felt so much better because he thought we didn't
read the Bible! And then we started doing some How to Begin Teaching and
talking about how this message will bless his life and what not and he
just kept saying, "That's nice." (Don't get me wrong...that
sounds condescending but his tone was one of sincerity).
So
then we shared Moroni 10:3-5 and invited him to pray about it and we
talked about the Holy Ghost and he said, "So y'all are the messengers. I
was also praying another time and I read a verse that said that
messengers would come before my face and prepare the way for me (PS
that's Matt 11:10).
You are the messengers." I about cried the spirit was so strong. And
then the member that was with us bore such a simple but amazing
testimony and it was so cool.
Then after we
kind of finished he asked, "Do y'all do baptism?" And we were like,
"Yes!" And he said that a year ago he was reading in the Bible and he
prayed and opened it and read a verse about baptism and he knew that's
what he needed to do. So then we invited him to baptized and he said
yes. So then we invited him to be baptized on Nov. 28
but then he asked a question about baptism so it never got to the point
but it was one of the most amazing lessons I have ever had on my
mission. And we left by 6:20. Booyah.
We
made it on time to our dinner appointment and left on time to make it
to the mission home to have a lesson with Carlos!!! (The timing
working out was a huge miracle in and of itself!) I finally got to see
the mission home!!! :) We had a great lesson with Carlos and the
Andersen's. Also, Patti (RC I think I told you about) came and so did
Ivan and it was so awesome. We talked about temples and eternal marriage
and it was so perfect to have the Andersen's there!
But then we didn't even leave there till 9:30
(haha at least President was there) because the Andersen's were coming
back from a meeting. So then we didn't get home till 10 and we were
planning Thomas's baptism interview and then we looked at his
teaching record and saw that he didn't have any of the laws and
ordinances! And some random commandments (like obey and honor the law
and stuff). So we called up Elder Barrus and we asked him what the
dealio was and well...there was confusion about what needed to be taught
before and after baptism. So we had to call President and ask him what
to do and he said to try to teach him everything since the baptism was
already set for Saturday and so then we had to move his baptism interview to Saturday and teach him everything on Friday and we had like 10 million other things to figure out...we didn't end planning till like 10:45.
So then on Friday,
there was about 17 struggles getting to be able to teach him because he
doesn't have a car so we went with this other member to pick him up
and then go teach him but traffic was INSANE and so we went to a park
and then this homeless guy was selling some art or something and
then Thomas had about 45 min - 1 hour before he had to be back
(including driving). But the lesson actually went really smoothly and we
got everything taught and did the baptism interview questions to
prepare for his interview! We felt like he was ready to be baptized. We
were worried because we didn't want to baptize him too quick so we
prayed and prayed and prayed all day before the lesson that we would
have the gift of discernment to know if he was ready. All of REALLY felt
the spirit as we went through the questions so we knew he was ready!
Gratefully,
the baptism went really smoothly and it was just a great baptism! The
Elders were able to come back for that and many YSA came and it was just
great :)
So yesterday I got to hear the
Nashville Tribute Band for the second time on my mission!!! Oh my
goodness they were SOOO good! They did their "Redeemer" CD and oh my
goodness I always forget that it's like 20 million times better live!!
It was so cool and the spirit was soooo strong. Carlos came to church
and went to the fireside by the band but him and Ivan left part way
through for some reason but I'm glad he got to hear some of it. I
seriously love the NTB so much!!
Well that's
it on this insane week!! This week is probably going to be pretty busy
too! We're working with double the people since we took over the Elder's
area! It's crazy but I love being super busy!
I love being a missionary so much!! I'm not gonna lie, if I was
offered the ability to serve 2 years like the Elders, I would take it in
a heartbeat! I think it's so unfair that they get to serve longer than
us! I told sister Dillon this week, "I feel so unfaired!" I like to make
up words sometimes...haha
My ponderizing
scripture for the week is D&C 42:14. One of the goals for this
transfer is to improve in my ability to listen to, recognize and follow
the spirit and so I wanted to pick one related to that. I really like
this scripture because it can be like a command or a statement of fact.
We are commanded as missionaries that we must teach by the spirit or we
shouldn't teach. And on the other hand, if we aren't teaching by the
spirit, we really can't teach. It would be pointless to teach without
the spirit because really we aren't the teachers, the spirit is.
I love y'all lots and I hope y'all have a blessed week!
Love,
Sister Myers
PS Happy Halloween! :)
Here's some pictures!! :)
1. Us and the other Sisters at Sweet Cece's (like Menchies...owned by a member so we eat free once a week!)
2. Us, Alek (member) and Tim Gates - what a classy guy!
3. Us and the Truman brothers :)
4. Us, Jason Deere (lead singer of NTB) and Dan Truman!
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