December 30, 2013

For those of you who didn't have the privilege of talking to me on Christmas....

Early Christmas Eve afternoon we went to a lady's house with the elders for German food! Then elders had to leave because her son left but we got permission to stick around and watch The Polar Express! Later than evening we went to another single sister's house. We found out that her family in town hadn't invited her over for Christmas so we kind of invited ourselves over. She made us spaghetti and then we watched Joy to the World.

Christmas was great! It started snowing just a little bit while we were studying in the morning. Then Sister McDowell and I got back into her pjs to open presents. We just chilled for a few hours and then went to a member's house for lunch. Then we went straight to another member's house for dinner. SO MUCH FOOD! At which point I got to skype the fam :) PS Kenz I DON'T appreciate being called awkward....it's only gonna get worse by the time I get home. HA and you have to live with me.

So Christmas was almost the highlight of the week, because Thursday was TERRIBLE. We went tracting for awhile because, well we didn't have any appointments. I think just about everyone on this particular street opened their door, said they weren't interested in a not very polite way and closed the door. This one lady didn't even answer. Through the door she asked what we wanted. We told her. Her reply "we love Jesus go away" haha Sister McDowell and I tried to laugh as much as we could. I felt like Thursday was a complete waste of a day. I was in a pretty bad mood by the end of it. Friday wasn't much better. Well district meeting was pretty good. Remember Nathan? I gave him a call Friday night asking if we could stop by the next day. He said to try after 2.

So after 2 rolls around and we try Nathan, but no one was home! I slipped a fell and scraped by knee and got super wet. So frustrating. On Wednesday Chastity texted us saying she wanted us to come over so we could prepare her for baptism! We had a lesson with her Saturday evening. She had read everything that we asked her to. We taught her the beginning of the plan of salvation, she was soaking it up like a sponge! She was very giddy and excited to learn. At the end we committed her to be baptized on February 15th. She proceeded to fill out all the lines on the back of the pamphlet we left her (probably only RMs know what I'm talking about). Then she said "I have a date, it's like I'm getting married or something!" Sister McDowell and I just laughed at her. She then invited herself to our weddings and said she was going to throw cake haha.  Were way pumped about her. In fact at church the next day she went up to the elders and showed them her baptism date.

Sunday was kind of intense. Both Sister McDowell and I figured we wouldn't be staying together, so that's all we could think about. Church was alright, BUT AFTER!!!! Ok this is exactly what I put in my journal entry last night.

"I love being a missionary!!! I wish I could capture exactly the emotions I feel when I teach. After church we walked to see if Nathan was home. He was! He was planning on us just dropping off a Book of Mormon, we had other plans which included teaching him a lesson. We asked him if he had some time that we could sit down and talk to him. We said and opening prayer and did HTBT (I usually forget). Then he told us how it had been a rough couple of days. So we started right into the Restoration. I LOVE TEACHING!!!!!! He was soaking it all in. I did most of the talking...I just get so excited! We went into more detail on the Book of Mormon because that's what he was interested in. Once we got done explaining it and bearing our testimonies, we didn't even have to commit him to read it, he said he was going to all on his own! Then we explained about the restoration of authority and committed his to baptisjm!! Aaaahh...he said yes, obviously. He told us how he had been baptized when he was younger, but he didn't know what it meant. He totally felt the Spirit. He loved the pictures in the pamphlet, especially the First Vision. He looked like he was going to start crying a couple of times. We asked him to pray at the end and he said no because he would start crying. I walked out of his house on clouds! I didn't want to leave. I wanted to stay in that moment forever. When I was committing him to baptism I felt like it was a The District worthy moment for sure. I love being able to share my testimony and watch people be able to feel the Spirit. I really wish I could capture every feeling I felt, but words can't describe it. In PMG it says that sometimes we receive referrals because someone else is prepared. Nathan is a perfect example. It's an incredible experience to see someone hungry for truth. He hadn't heard about anything we shared with him."

Seriously nothing could bring me down after that lesson. All the pain/misery from the past two days were swept away in that 45ish minutes we spent with him.

Transfer calls seemed to take forever. The unexpected happened! We are BOTH staying in Plymouth. I think I'm excited?!? No I am. I felt like my work wasn't done here yet, but I felt like there was a possibility that I would get moved. I feel like I'm just getting to know the area, and even though it's hard I think Sister McDowell and I will finally be able to see some changes.

 So I'm looking forward to the next six weeks and the challenges that lay ahead