October 29, 2011

Hi Family!

For the majority of this week we were at Welfare Square, taking tours and helping people fill their food orders at the Bishop Storehouse. I really love serving here; we meet so many people. And when you help with hosting (filling their food orders) you can be sure that you are going to have a great conversation with people because they always have a story on why they are coming in and how their life is going. It is really sad to see people going through hard times but it is such a testimony builder of what the Church is all about, helping one another and supporting ourselves through hard times. We personally go to church to be uplifted by the messages that are shared but we build relationships with our ward family for support. One such story was a lady who was less active for many years. Her husband left her but because her neighbors were always supporting her she came back to church and has felt such an outpouring of love. She knows this is where she is supposed to be. So whenever people say that they don't need church to worship God, tell them to read Moroni 6 for further explanation.

I also called a man who recently lost everything and is looking for a place to live. I talked with him about being physically set (house, job, food) before we are able to sit down and be spiritually fed. He paused and said, "You are the first person who actually understands what I am going through!" Wow. Yea, Welfare Square! That is what Sister Mata'utia and I have focused on this whole transfer, and I love when the Lord gives you people who need what you have really come to understand.

Welfare Square is slowing down but sometimes it is CRAZY. We sometimes have back to back to back tours and we have no time for anything. By the end we are dead.

Friday the International Missionaries came to Welfare Square. The MTC always sends them to the Humanitarian Center but after taking a tour, decided to switch to Welfare Square. It was so much fun! But they were more camera-happy than listening. That’s ok, the MTC people came up to us after and thanked us for a spiritually uplifting tour.

Oh oh! I forgot to write about this last week: The apartment complex next to the main Sisters’ apartments had a HUGE fire. I was sleeping and having wonderful dreams when I heard our doorbell going off. It took me forever to register what was going on. But I heard the door open and a sister yell "SISTERS, GET OUT OF YOUR APARTMENT; DA IS ON FIRE!" DA is our main apartment complex. My first thought, “I don't care. They are 1/4 mile away, not my problem.” But I stumbled out of my apartment and we watched the apartment NEXT to DA burn for about an hour. President showed up and cancelled our sacrament meeting since we had been up for over an hour at this point. It took us all at least an hour to fall back asleep. But nothing happened to the apartment complex-which was a miracle because there is a tree that touches both apartments and it was on fire. But if another fire happens over there, tough! I am sleeping through it.

That's my week! Until next Saturday!