September 19, 2011

Hello!

So this week was a whirlwind of faith and trust. We started the week on a high with a district meeting where our mission president gave training on "answering hard questions". I totally felt prepared because that is my mission at Temple Square, so I gave my two cents every once in a while and felt it was a great refresher for going back to Temple Square next week. After being on that spiritual high we got a phone call from some members in the ward that their dog had died and due to their health problems they couldn't dig a grave for it. So we busted out their shovels, sang songs from Holes, quoted Hamlet, and just had a fun time trying to dig a two foot grave for this dog. I am not sure they appreciated our happy nature at the moment but hey, the dog is a lot happier so they should be too.

Come Thursday during our weekly planning we decided that we had been hanging onto our investigators too long so we ended up dropping four of them. I was so sad because we have worked so hard in this area and I wanted to leave it better than when I got here (which having just two investigators would be better than when I got here but still, it's a [Christ-like] pride thing) But I have experienced it many times. When you drop people the Lord gives you more people. The day we dropped all of them, people started coming up to us and asking to meet with us. We would start talking to people and they were interested in learning what we were all about. One of our potentials even called us and asked for a ride to church!! Can life get better? I will drop someone everyday if this is what happens! As we put our trust in Him, He will follow through. Wow, we are more of a hindrance to the work than the people who don't have the gospel. Good thing Heavenly Father is patient with us.

With all of the flooding we were given permission to do service around the area on Saturday. Next Saturday we can go to Owego and help. We heard that the church even came with all of their Mormon Helping Hands t-shirts just like after Hurricane Katrina. We helped a lady clean out her basement and in the process we found a Book of Mormon! We asked her about it and her brother is a member. She said she would be more than happy to have us stop back and teach her more. So Sunday we stopped by and as we were teaching, her boyfriend sat in, then another friend stopped by and sat in on the lesson too! We walked out with 3 new investigators! So needless to say I felt much better about leaving this area strong. We already have completely planned the entire week (literally) so it is going to go by fast. Tomorrow I am going to the Palmyra Temple and visit the Sacred Grove as well. I am so excited, I didn't realize how much I missed seeing a temple every day. I am so grateful for my experiences here but I am so excited to go back to Temple Square and get back to bearing my testimony every 5 minutes- can't beat that! Until next week!