I know I'll probably say that again later in my mission, but this past week really was the best one so far. And just know that not many hugely funny things happened this week, but REAL missionary experiences, so get excited! I'm becoming a real missionary!
Last P-day after e-mailing, Sister Saunders was still with us (her companion, the Sister Training Leader was in Rapid City for training), and so with her we filmed the greatest music video ever. It was a flute version of "We Thank Thee, O God, For a Prophet", and Sister Jensen and I did river dancing in the background while Sister Saunders played the mop like it was a flute. I can't send it to you because it's too long, but it was great. Haha. Hopefully someday you'll see it. I'll send you the pictures we took last week though. Enjoy those.
So last Tuesday was the best day (up to that point. Wednesday was actually better. But more on that in a second.) Why? Because we were productive allllllll the day long! Which hadn't ever happened before! We went at 9 am to help Sister Billings, and active member work on finishing her basement, which was very exciting and fun, then we got to go visit Donna again and it was so great because the Spirit again spoke through me. She brought out a couple copies of the Book of Mormon, and was like "I read part of this..." and we were like "What? Woah!" And it was legit. (Her husband, before he had died, had been investigating the Church, and she had read the Book of Mormon with him) We saw she had a Restoration pamphlet, and I asked her if she remembered what was in it. When she said no, I asked her if she would like to be reminded what it said. When she said yes, I had to conceal my joy. We got to teach the Restoration! That was our first time ever doing it together with an investigator. Awww man it was great! Then, we got to go help out A less active member in the ward named Karen. She hasn't been to church in 2 1/2 years, and wasn't even on the ward list! But the Elders found her tracting and so on Tuesday we got to go back and help her clean her apartment. She has a husband, Brian, and 2 adorable little kids, ages 3 and 17 months. That was our second visit with them. Sister Jensen and I got to put our man pants on and build a bookshelf. It's the best looking bookshelf I've ever seen. (But I'm a little biased). And THEN, we got to go have a lesson with Danielle and Anthony, 2 investigators we had been trying to get with. It was their second time being taught ever, and we taught the Restoration again. Danielle is Christian, Anthony is a non-practicing Buddhist, and they're a cute newlywed couple. It was a powerful lesson, and they invited us back. I think why it went so well is because they're not afraid to ask questions. Which is always AWESOME. So yeah, that day was great!
But the NEXT day was even better. We taught 4 lessons! FOUR! In ONE day! We got to teach a member present lesson with our investigator Mandy, and we were actually even able to get her on date for baptism!! We have her on for November 23, but we will see. It's going to be so cool! An investigator that I taught, getting baptized!! We also got 2 LARCS, which are lessons with Less-Active members or Recent Converts. We got to meet with Faith again (an LA) and she's the cutest pregnant lady ever! She's about my size, and even though she's not due for another month, she looks like she's about to pop. She's huge. But so nice. We love working with her. And we also got to meet with Candice and Richard, 2 recent converts. We're trying to work with them to get them to the temple to do baptisms, but we'll have to see. We need to help them gain the desire. But we'll get there! And we also taught Jartu about Book of Mormon reading.
This last Friday we had a cool experience. We were having dinner with Kaylee (a LA) and her non-member boyfriend, Carl. The other sisters told us that we need to teach her the Restoration. They've tried, but Satan always stops it. When we got to Kaylee's apartment, she was like "We're going out to eat. That okay?" And I thought to myself "Sneaky, devil, sneaky." But down we went to Pizza Ranch, which is exactly like Pizza Pie Cafe but not as cool and they have mashed potatoes and gravy as well. They also brought one of Carl's friends, and Sister Jensen were wondering how this would work out. We each said a personal prayer that somehow we could teach the Restoration. When we got our food and sat down, Carl asked us "Are you going to pray?" And we took the opportunity and ran with it so we prayed there out loud in the middle of Pizza Ranch. Bam. Then, we started eating and Carl's friend, nicknamed Fortune, who is also a non-member, started asking these really great questions about the doctrine and about us as real people. We had them guess our ages, and at first Fortune and Carl thought we were 16. (We get that a lot, I have no idea why. Do we really honestly look that young? Wait. Don't answer that.) Oh dear. But then they started asking questions like "What holidays do you celebrate?" "What is the Church's stand on tattoos and piercings?" "Isn't the Catholic Church the root of all churches in the world today?" And with that last one, we were able to go into Lesson 1, starting with how God established His church on the earth when He was here, and then we went through the Apostasy and into the Restoration. We didn't get to quote the first vision account, but the Spirit was still there, at our little table in the middle of Pizza Ranch. We ended up giving Fortune and mormon.org card and inviting him to visit to learn more about what we believe. It was so cool! Kaylee and Carl came to Sacrament Meeting yesterday, but the seed has been planted in Fortune. He's so prepared.
Yesterday morning at approximately 8:37am, a time which is forever burned into my memory, the worst thing that has ever happened on my mission so far happened: The first snowflake fell. Gah! It has begun.
Mandy didn't come to church yesterday, even though she said she would, so that was disappointing. Jartu didn't come either. Neither did Candice and Richard, or Karen, Brian and the kids. But! Faith and her son did, and so did Kaylee and Carl. So one step at a time, it's progressing!
I have now been out over a month! It is crazy to me how fast it all goes by! I have been in the field for 3 weeks as of tomorrow. It is crazy how insane it is. 1/18 of my mission is already complete! EEK! So so weird. Hold onto every moment you have!
And that's a wrap! I have started reading Jesus the Christ by Elder Talmage, and it's amazing. Read it along with me! You will not be disappointed!!
I love you all! The Lord lives!
Sister Leslie
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Last P-day before the music video with Sister Saunders, me and Sister Jensen with the Minot Library Sign, A view of Minot and all it's trees, Sister Jensen and I in raincoats before helping Sister Veazy pick apples, our "The first snowfall" face (Sad), my great quote wall next to my desk.
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Kirsten, Sounds like you're doing great. I've got a couple of missionary opportunities here myself. The neighbor to the right of me was once LDS and now she is Catholic. The good news is that we've become friends. The neighbor to my left, Mike, is inactive. He has been working on putting up a fence between our yards during the summer. We have had some good talks.
ReplyDeleteDoug is the ward mission leader in the new ward, and I am the second counselor in the YW. We have many girls who are not currently coming out to church.
Thanks for your inspiring blog posts!
Love,
Aunt Kathy