 |
| Saw this cute sign while on exchanges this week. |
Hey Y'all!
This week has been crazy! We started off with an adorable miracle that happened as we went to the house of little Miss May. She is an older woman, suffering from dementia. She can't ever remember anything, but she loves us coming and reading from the Book of Mormon to her. We were doing just that on Monday when this adorable little girl came in and asked May if she could go get the woman's mail. After that adorable confrontation, we gave the girl a pass-along Easter card. She was so excited to have it! When we left Miss May's house, we found her with a whole group of kids, gathered around one of our members kids who had fallen off of her bike. That little girl went right to her aid and helped our member's daughter, Kyra, by putting a band-aid on her scrapes. We walked over to see what was wrong and how we could help.
The first thing I noticed was that the little girl still had her pass-along card in her hand. She was so excited to see us! We talked to the group of kids, and she stated that she got the awesome card form us. The kids then turned to us and insisted we give them cards so they could pass them out at their churches. Hahaha! They completely cleaned us out of pass-along cards! :D They were so excited to get them. Then, one of the kids noticed the Book of Mormons we were holding and asked us about them. I told them that it was another Testament about Christ that goes hand-in-hand with the Bible. The kids eyes went wide and one said "There's more than just the Bible?!" It was adorable. Haha! We left them all with a Book of Mormon each and told them to show their parents. We plan to go back and see how they did with the BOM'S and pass-along cards.
Our next day was filled with service for members and a great unexpected appointment with a headquarters referral, P* H*. We've been trying to give her the Bible she ordered ever since I got out here in the field, but each time she doesn't answer her phone, or isn't home. We met her father and niece and actually had made an appointment to go see her on Tuesday. The niece wasn't home, but miraculously Paula was! We talked to her for a good long time. Paula is a minister, and at first we were like oh no, not a Bible bash session. But this lesson was different. We discovered Paula is a very deep thinker, and very willing to search for the answers in scripture and to pray with a sincere heart and real intent. We showed her the Book of Mormon towards the end and had her read the last two paragraphs of the introduction. She read, and re-read, and re-read, thinking long and hard. Then she looked up at us and said that she needed to take this book and do exactly what the introduction said. Read it, and pray with real intent to know if it is true. WOAH! Our minds were blown away! We were so excited about that. Then, to top it all off, Paula asked us to come back and speak to her youth group about all this. OH MY GOSH! We were so excited and we readily agreed. That was a BIG blessing an a miracle. :)
Wednesday was... Interesting... We had an appointment with Miss C* first, and decided to take a recent RM named Desitny. The lesson itself was great. She shared a powerful testimony and really blew us out of the water with her teaching skills. She really made Miss C* think about the Book of Mormon and if she really believed in it. It was AFTER the lesson that our lives got crazy... Miss C* decided it would be a good idea to take us out for milk shakes. We didn't really know what to do, but since we had a member with us, we agreed, thinking that it wouldn't take more than 15-20 minutes to do. Instead Miss C* was cruising us down the road WAY out of our area. WAY OUT OF OUR STAKE! She took us almost an hour away, then had us sit and eat the shakes at the restaurant for like an hour, then took us a long way back home. She took lots of detours, showing us her friends houses, and other things we honestly didn't care about because WE WERE BEING DISOBEDIENT!!!! We were freaking out in the back seat. Miss C* was NOT a good driver, and we were breaking so many rules because of her. She took us in-front of Creflo Dollar's house and then turned around into the front lawn and almost stalled the car, trying to get up a ridge onto the road in the wet grass! WHAT THE HECK Miss C*?!?! We returned 3hr's later to her home, having missed one of our appointments with a member and being late for our next lesson with J*. Lesson learned. NEVER GET IN THE CAR WITH MISS C*!
Like I said, J* was next on our list. We went with Sister Fincher, and we are so glad we did. J* is someone who likes to search a LOT. Knowing this, we gave him church websites that he could look into and warned him of anti mormon material. Still, he didn't listen to us and found his way into anti material. He wasn't scared away from us, and he still wants to and is reading the Book of Mormon to find out more and understand more, but he asked us to discontinue the discussions. Sigh... Sister Fincher was golden with us, though, and helped answer many of his concerns about Church History and the Book of Mormon. Thank goodness for members!
We went on exchanges on April 1st, which was fun. But the high-light of the day was a prank we pulled on our District Leaders. Sister K called them up, and pretended like we got in a car accident. She sounded out of it and was really playing it up, then Sister Magkopa started crying in the back-round. We scared the heck out of them!!!! Hahahahahahaha! They were so mad that we did that! They tried to get us back, but we knew and the prank was pretty lame. :P Hahaha!
Finally, we had General Conference. wow. That was an amazing weekend. We watched it at the church, and it was just so amazing. None of our investigators came, although we almost had one. S* came in the morning for regular services. Apparently our new phone had made his contact change names and so when we thought we were texting S*, we were actually texting someone else who never responded. URGH!!!!!!!!!!! S* texted us in the morning, but we didn't get it until after the first session of conference. NO!!! He didn't go to the last session unfortunately...
However, that didn't ruin our spirits for General Conference! There were many talks that touched me, made me think of our investigators and less-actives, and really helped me with my own questions. President Uchtdorf's talk on Sunday morning really touched me, though. His talk about how no matter how shattered our lives may be right now, if we look to the Lord and go to Him, he will rebuild us. His use of the Good Shepherd was beautiful. How can we get the Good Shepherd to come rescue us? We are already worthy of that rescue. It doesn't matter how we got lost, if we are the ones who caused it through sin or trials, the Good Shepherd WILL find us, and if we look to Him and reach out our hand, asking for Him to save us, He WILL. There are no conditions, all we need to do is remember His love, and keep trying harder. Have a hope that we can believe in Him. Act on that hope, cry out to our Savior who loves us more than we can possibly imagine. And if we do that, he will rebuild us, he will save us. What an amazing thought. It's hard to believe that there is someone out there who loves us THAT much, but there really is. Our savior is truly the good shepherd, he is there waiting, with open arms and a stretched out hand, ready to lift us up. All we have to do is act on that faith, that hope, that he is there to help. I love my Savior, and want to spread that message with everyone I see. That's why I'm out here.
What was ya'll's favorite talk? I challenge all of you to think of your favorite talk, then to share it. Post it on Facebook, share it with a friend, write an email to someone with your testimony. don't let the wonderful spiritual outpouring we have received this weekend go un-noticed by the rest of the world. This is a wonderful opportunity we have to share the words of our LIVING prophet and apostles who spoke to us. Don't pass it up! :D
I love all y'all!
Y'all's Southern Bell,
Sister Welch
These first three pictures are of a war I am having with my companion.
She payed me 69 cents ALL in pennies for an item. I DON'T want the pennies, so we have been sending them back and forth to each other in funny ways. Here are her ways.
While on exchanges everyone piled up on each other one night.
Poor Sister Makgopa is on the bottom!
No comments:
Post a Comment