JUAN:
There are so many people. We always hear that we need to talk to
everyone, but that is super impossible in our area. We really do try to
talk to as many people as we can. But other people hear our
conversations and see our interactions with others so it's so important
that we're always acting like a representative of Jesus Christ! The
other night I started talking to this man and he was like, "I know who
you are. I've been watching you and have been listening to your
conversations with others. I have a lot of respect for you." SO NICE! Ah
man, he was the sweetest! We talked to him for a while and I was way
excited to schedule an appointment with him but Spanish is his first
language so we passed him off to the Spanish speaking Elders in the
area. Anyways it was a good reminder to me that someone we aren't
talking to might be watching to listening!
CREEPER OF THE WEEK: Yep, it's back. On Thursday I was on an exchange with Sister Hsing (from China) we passed out a lot of mormon.org cards on our way to an appointment. After the appointment I checked the phone and we had a lot of texts!
"Which one were you? Asian or white girl?"
"Can you tell white girl to message me? I would really like to get to know her. Thanks."
"What's her name? She's still in my head."
"I would like to know about Jesus. He just introduced me to the girl of my dreams."
I
have no idea who was texting us but we just told him the Elders could
teach him about Jesus Christ and then he wasn't interested. Anyways he's
crazy because we weren't responding to his texts and they just kept on
coming. He sent a lot more like. "Hi." or "Why are you ignoring me."
Anyways he was definitely the creeper of the week.
EXCHANGE:
We go on exchanges with the Sister training leaders once ever transfer.
I was with Sister Hsing this last Thursday and it was so much fun! We
had a lot of appointments that day but while we were traveling we talked
to so many people and it was a blast. She's an awesome missionary who
is so focused on the work but is still able to have fun! She's going
home next week. I'll miss her but I'm glad I was able spend some time
with her!
SKILLS AND INTERVIEWS: I seriously
love the Clayton's so much. They are both just super amazing. I was way
excited for my interview with President Clayton and one-on-one chat with
Sister Clayton. But man, we definitely sat down in the wrong spot
because we were the last two missionaries to be interviewed before the
zone leaders. While missionaries went out one by one the Zone leaders
reviewed our goals, set new goals and we did some training that lasted
about three hours. Anyways by the time our turn was up they were running
short on time so my interview was like 2 mins long. I was bummed
because some missionaries got like 20 mins with him. But I am lucky I
didn't have any serious issues I needed to talk to him about. Like I
don't have depression or health issues and I'm happy with what I'm doing
so it really is OK. And they were both so sweet and told me they loved
me and they were so proud with how much success we've been able to have
in our area.
ANTS FOR DAYZ: So my apartment is
pretty sketchy.... Cops are there a lot because a lot of crazies live
there. And I'm pretty sure smoking is allowed. We used to just smell it
in the hallways but now that our heater is on we smell it in our room.
Like really strong. Anyways that's annoying but another bad thing is we
have ants all over. It's super gross. Some of my least favorite spots
I've seen them.
-On my pillow right before bed. Rude. I'ts my turn to use it.
-In the shower. They don't give me privacy. tisk tisk
-On my scriptures. I feel like that's sacrilegious.
-And
IN MY CEREAL. You guys I don't know where it came from but I had like 4
bites before I noticed something black floating in my milk. WORST. I
didn't finish the bowl and haven't had cereal since.
Anyways I'm so sick of them. We got this ant killer thing at Walmart but it didn't do anything. so.... Any suggestions?
SUNDAYS
ARE CRAZY: The ward really uses the missionaries a lot, and I love it.
But this last Sunday was a little bit crazy! We had five investigators
that had committed to come (four for the first time). So coordinating
with them before church was a little stressful. In sacrament meeting we
did the musical number. A lady in the ward wanted to sing but didn't
want to do a solo so I sang with her and my companion accompanied. We
taught Sunday school. The teacher texted us Saturday and said she would
be out of town so it was a little bit last minute but it ended up going
really well! We had a baptism in the ward after church and Sister
Crandall and I were asked to do a presentation right after the actual
baptism until they came out again. Anyways I wasn't nervous about that
until I saw the Claytons walk into our building!! They go to a baptism
each Sunday but normally there are about 12 so the probability of them
showing up isn't too high. Well they came so that was nice.
EMBARRASSING
MOMENT OF THE WEEK: So remember how I did the musical number in
sacrament meeting? Well I was super excited about it. We sang, "What
Child is This." I know it's a Christmas song but we've already had our
Thanksgiving here so it's technically OK. We practiced on Saturday and
it was sounding pretty good. She wanted to do a solo on the first verse
and then wanted me to do a solo on the second verse. I've never done a
vocal solo in my life. NO JOKE! So I was kind of excited! I looked over
the words on Saturday night so I would be able to look our when I sang.
But that was a bad idea. I sang "Why lies He is such SWEET ESTATE. Where
ox and ass are feeding." BAHAHAHA I was supposed to sing MEAN ESTATE!!!
I totally staretd smiling and my voice sounded really bad. HA Picture
Marie, Becky, and I singing at our ward picnic but not quite as bad. I
never started full on laughing just smiling... WOOPS. I guess most
people didn't notice. We got so many compliments so that's good.
FRANTIC
BEFORE CHURCH: Oh man, right before sacrament meeting this last week
was HILARIOUS. Jill was already inside sitting with a member but we had
two more investigators on there way. Neither of them had been before so
we were waiting for them to come so we could all go in and sit together.
The other two sets of missionaries were always waiting for people.
Elder Wiratma and Elder Sessions were waiting for Matthew who was
supposedly getting baptized after church. He hadn't answered his phone
or responding to their texts since the night before so they were
freaking out. Elder McKinnon and Elder Akino were waiting for two boys
that were supposed to get confirmed in sacrament meeting. It was so
funny because we were all so stressed about our investigators coming and
they were all being super dramatic about it so I of course thought it
was super funny and just kept laughing! It all worked out. Matthew came
and got baptized after church! The boys came about 15 mins late but were
still able to got confirmed. And ALI CAME!! Our other investigator
didn't show up but that's OK.
ALI: You guys,
I'M SO EXCITED ABOUT ALI! He's a Muslim from Somalia and we've met with
him twice and he came to church!!! He has doubts about his religion and
is super curious about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
so he asks a lot of questions, but he's doing awesome. We invited him to
the baptism after church and he came to that too!! President and Sister
Clayton were talking to him before the service and ended up sitting
with him. So that's cool. I hope he asked all his hard questions to them
because sometimes his questions freak me out. Like, I DON'T KNOW!!! But
the Clayton's love him so hopefully we'll keep meeting with him and he
will get baptized one day! :) He's super tall, about 28, and is so
friendly and happy.
JILL: She is getting
baptized this Saturday!! Oh man, I'm so happy for her! She has been
doing really well! The ward has been amazing with welcoming her in. I'm
so grateful to all of them!! On Sunday we didn't really talk to her. She
was always sitting with other members. YAHOO! We gave her a framed
Jesus picture about three weeks ago and she still cries about it
everyday and tells us it's the best gift she's ever received. I'm happy
we gave it to her. And I'm happy an inactive lady gave us a call and
said she didn't want it anymore because Jill has loved it so much.
SUCCESS:
We have been super blessed this week! We hit standards of excellence
again! YAHOO! This week about 23% of the missionaries reached it.
Standards is having at least 2 baptismal dates, 2 investigators who
attend church, 2 investigators who are progressing, 4 member present
lessons, and 2 new investigators. Right now we have 5 baptismal dates so
we are way excited about that! We were able to teach 18 lessons this
week! I think that's the highest it's ever been for us. We had a ward
missionary meeting and I felt bad because the Elders only had 4 lessons
for the week! They had a bunch of scheduled ones that fell threw. THE
WORST! Anyways, we were super blessed this week and hopefully we can
help our investigators continue to progress!!
SPIRITUAL:
On Wednesday I read a talk by Tad R. Callister about being a
consecrated missionary. It is amazing and gave me so much motivation to
be a better missionary. There was one sentence that stuck out to me that
I've been thinking a lot about. "Sometimes we have missionaries who are
so worried about offending people that in the process they never even
save them." Oh man, I needed to hear that because I'm not as bold as I
should be. I hate making people feel uncomfortable so when our
investigators tell us they didn't do the reading I always say something
about how life is busy so it's hard. But I should be saying something
about how sad I am that they weren't able to read because they're
missing out on blessings. And on the bus I don't have a problem talking
to people. I actually love it. But I've had so many conversations where
they say something about sports, or work and I get carried away and they
get off the bus without me even sharing my testimony about the gospel.
Yikes. I've been trying to be better about talking about the gospel
sooner in conversations.
OK Playas, my wrists
are kind of hurting from typing so I think I'm done :) You're all super
awesome and I love you all more than David loves church basketball.
Sister Dayton
No comments:
Post a Comment