January 29, 2011

Hola Family!

So funny story: we called Portugal and this guy answers and didn't speak English at all. It must have been a wrong phone number because the guy we talked to did speak English. Anyway he asks in Portuguese, "Who are you?!" And I bust out, "Missionaries for La Inglesia de Jesu Christo de los Santos de los Ultimas Dios." (forgive my horrible Spanish spelling) He yells something and hangs up. I was like why didn't he understand me? Oh yeah, he speaks Portuguese and I was speaking Spanish. Ok, so not that funny but I was quite proud of myself for attempting Spanish.

Anyway, so the Humanitarian Center = amazing. I love it there. The days seem really long because we are there from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m., then the Square from 4 p.m. - 9 a.m. and it is so different. At the end of the day we are always asking "Was that this morning?!" The days go by fast; it is just they don't seem connected with each other. Anyway we have the tour down and we've given it many times already. For the first few days nobody came in but yesterday it was insane. The day we had a tour every hour was the day that the senior couple had a family emergency and had to leave. Lunch is only from 11 a.m. -12:30 p.m. so we kinda had to sneak and get lunch - yes, it is that important that I am writing this in my letter to everyone. They have great food there! The people that work at the Humanitarian Center are refugees or immigrants getting job skills and learning English. So the ones cooking are hoping to work in a restaurant I think. But the food is really good and it changes everyday, so not like the MTC. Hallelujah.

Our miracle there was this mother and daughter that came in. They were not members so we explained who Joseph Smith was and the Book of Mormon during the tour - but not in great detail. At the end of the movie we show people, we give them a card to request missionaries and they checked "Temples". Um... did we talk about temples? Oh well, we will take what we can get! I am not sure how sincere she is in converting but her daughter goes to a boarding school out here so I think she just wants to know more on what Mormons do. They are from Wisconsin though, pretty cool.

This family from England living near Manchester came and they were so prepared! This would be my first British family that referred for missionaries. That story is for Drew (I am trying to get stories from all of your countries ok!) Brazil, and all South American countries. I need a Portuguese or Spanish comp; pray for me. Australia is covered; Hong Kong is covered; Canada is covered. Thailand - still working on that . Japan - still working on that one too. I did send a referral for Japan a few transfers ago! Italy - covered!

Anyway life is good for me; just working away. Oh we just took five Catholic priests around... interesting. I told them that the authority to run Christ's church was gone and waited for death to fall upon me. They just smiled like they would to a little kid who didn't understand what they were talking about. Oh well, nice guys though. I am sure they will help many people. Anyway until next week!

January 22, 2011

Hello Everyone!

So my new assignment is the Humanitarian Center! So Tuesdays and Thursdays we are there all day giving tours! I am so excited because 1) they feed you but more importantly 2) The spirit is so strong there because we are telling stories all day on how people selflessly help people. It inspired me to want to pursue humanitarian trips after my mission. Africa needs a lot of help, Mom you can come with me! Ha ha *cough* anyway. But we wont be on the Square that much at all this transfer, maybe five hours a week which is crazy but I am so happy because when I first got here I thought that I wanted to go outbound between January and March because it is so dead on the Square. I got my wish! I don't think I will ever go outbound since they only sent out either Sisters this transfer and next transfer has General Conference and then it is summer so this is my outbound! I think that I will miss the Square, but I am so excited to be where I am at.

The Sisters that came back from outbound this transfer are struggling to get back into the swing of things here. Outbound is more chill while here it is "Go go go!" So they feel overwhelmed and give each other pep talks a lot. They all love outbound; they say it is amazing to have investigators and teach people but nothing beats Temple Square when it comes to teaching people all day.

Anyway Humanitarian Center: So we will have a whole new script to "memorize" which has lots of facts and stats. When we have no tours we do service all day! I am going to get so good at sewing. We will also do the night tours so when youth groups come in we will help them with service projects and give them a tour as well. But we will help them make quilts, put emergency kits together, stuff like that. The food is only at lunch time but it is free! I can't wait to not have to only eat peanut butter anymore. Funny thing: when you walk into the kitchen during meal times on the Square nearly every sister has a huge jar of peanut butter. It is a constant debate on which is better: crunchy or smooth. Crunchy by the way.

Our investigators are doing well. Hard to get a hold of but now we can text them and so we get in contact with them a lot more. Hard to have a lesson via texts so it is more like "Did you read Moroni 10?" "Did you pray?" We have a baptism tomorrow and I am excited to call her to see how it went! She lives in Temecula too! But other than since Tuesday not much has happened. We actually have roommates now and they are amazing cooks. One of the Sisters is all about working out. I joked that we should go running at 6 a.m. and she was like "Sure!" I got really excited. Keep you posted on all of that and the Humanitarian Center! Till next Saturday!

January 18, 2011

Hello People!

So this was the last week of the transfer! It is amazing that I have been here for so long now. Well, I guess "so long" is a relative term, but anyway we worked hard this last week to finish the transfer strong. We called our Albanian investigators and some of them met with missionaries! So exciting. Hopefully they keep progressing so they can get baptized. But on the Square we took a huge group around attending a teacher conference. They were all intently listening and we had our eyes on the ones who we thought might refer. But at the end the ones we thought were not interested referred and the ones we thought would be didn't. Ha ha whatever. We will take anyone. Right after that tour we found four teachers from Korea. They bluntly stated that they just wanted history and nothing else. Yeah whatever. So we took them to the Tabernacle and told history then slid in some points about prophets. Then we went to the Assembly Hall and told them all about the Book of Mormon. Then we went to the temple and started telling them all about that. And before they knew it 2/3 had checked the box for missionaries. That is right! Go pioneer stories and the skill of being able to tie the most random things and objects to gospel topics.

We had transfer conference yesterday! I am staying with Sister Sulollari and we are going to be in the extended zone, meaning that we will either be at the Beehive House, Welfare or Humanitarian Centers (please assign us to one of those two! They feed you!), or guest services and west gate desk. So it will be exciting. We will still be teaching people on the phones but our Square time will drop to maybe a few hours a week. So sorry if anyone wants to look for me there, chances are I won't be there. Kinda glad though the Square is dead so I want to be where I will be needed and useful.

Break Time

January 11, 2011

Hello!

So this week went by so fast! This coming week is the last week of this transfer so everyone is getting excited for the transfer conference that is coming up; making predictions about who is going outbound (I wouldn't be surprised if nobody is, they are stopping the program anyway), who is going to be with who, etc. It is also sad because the sisters who are leaving I am really good friends with. Oh well, life goes on. But the major events this week was service! We went to the Utah Food Bank and sorted cans. They would bring a box that was over 5 feet tall and 5 feet wide full of cans! We set to work and cleared out 3 of them in 2 hours! Oh yeah go Sister Missionaries. Other than that it was normal missionary work. Half days on the square and half on the phones. We called our investigator from Austraila who hasn't heard from the missionaries (I sent that referral a month ago - Matt I am blaming you for not making the system more efficient 14 years ago) so he just read the whole Book of Mormon. No big deal. Love those people. And another investigator we had who lives in Temecula we had her call the bishop for missionaries and they were there that night! She has a baptismal date January 23.

So weird story for the week: We talked to this family by the Jerusalem Map in the North Visitors Center. The Uncle was completely anti and right when I had the thought that I needed to get away asap this random guy pops up with a Scottish accent and says, "Hello! I'm Joshua McGravy!" The family was weirded out so they left but we kept talking to him. Very long story short, he wasn't from Scotland but Utah had a girlfriend who was a member of the church but her parents wouldn't let her marry anyone who wasn't a member. He felt that he needed to come to Temple Square. At first he said that all religions get us to Heaven and the whole time I was waiting for some amazing saying from the Spirit to let me know what to say to help him. Nothing amazing came but we just talked, through some bible scriptures back and forth, asked some deep questions, paused, you know all of the good things to do when praying for the spirit to do all the work. Then he stopped and said that he has actually met with many missionaries before, but nobody spoke with as much conviction as Sister Sulollari and I had. Then I found myself saying (so cliche sounding on e-mail but it was awesome so go with it) "Will you be baptized into this church by someone holding the priesthood authority of God?" He said you already know my answer but I responded with "Yeah but I just want to hear you say it" he said YES! I never thought I would get to say that sentence on temple square. He will visit after he is baptized. So cool I love being a missionary. Anyway thanks for all the love, miss you all! Until next week!

January 4, 2011

Hello Family!

So it is amazing how up to New Year's the square has been crazy with over 7,000-10,000 people coming through the gates every hour. Then *poof* lights go off and we are lucky it seems to even make it to 1,000 a day. Good thing we have the ability to teach people over the phones for half the day or life would be really hard. But the other day we dubbed it "Albanian Day" Because everyone we talked to had connections to Albania. First we were walking outside the Temple and this family stops us and asks, "Hey do you have any Sisters from Albania?" Um... I pointed to Sister Sulollari. They got all excited and said that they had a family that she needed to teach because they didn't understand! An hour later we ran into a girl whose husband was from Albania. His parents lived here too but they were now inactive. She said that she would bring them for a tour. Then a family from Albania wanted a tour. She hasn't "passed off" yet in tours but we took it anyway and they referred to have missionaries. So she was really happy.

Other than that we didn't celebrate New Year's really. We were going to have a mission party but it was so busy on the square that they cancelled our "Talent Share" and it was like any other night. At midnight though we all woke up due to the fireworks, poppers, screaming, and insanity outside our windows. My companion was really sad because I guess they have a big celebration in Albania but we didn't do anything- so she was a little homesick. I have tried looking for Albanian stuff here in Salt Lake and unfortunetly there is nothing here. So go Wal-mart! But we did get our "Talent Share" sisters danced or sang songs from their native cultures. It was so cool to think that I have friends from all over the world. Some of them don't have much of a church to go back to but I know that they will be such a strength to their countries. Some sisters left the mission and become the Relief Society Presidents because there is no one else.

I wish there was more to report on this week but this week has flown by! Nothing major happened. It is amazing how fast time is starting to pick up. January 7 is my 6th month mark- when did that happen!? I just got here. I heard it only goes faster too. Lately as we have Holidays I think, "I will be home for this next year" and then I get afraid and I have a small panic attack. But oh well I will just keep working and forget about it. Anyway Happy New Years Everyone!!!!

Fun Pictures With Some Great Friends... fun times!