Finding Through Service

Monday - Our bishop took us to The Egg and it was really good. We spent most of the day at home, though napping, cleaning, and for me to write letters. We even waxed the car for zone conference! It was really good. Sister Danz had never waxed a car, she said "my parents would be so proud of me!" I hope they are. She is a great missionary. We had dinner at the Hulls. They are super great. They had family that lives in Windsor which was really nice. After, we went to see Rachel who hasn't been to church the last 6-7 weeks. It was a good lesson. She told us she would come to church on Sunday. 

Tuesday- Because we had zone conference we had to cancel two of our lessons. ): But we were able to attend our dinner appointment and it was a wonderful experience. We taught what we had learned in this conference. It was on the Atonement and the sacrament and how we can have a more uplifting experience. We were able to met with the Norton family and share the restoration, and invite them to church. Only sister Norton was there, it was good to get to know her. We tried more less-actives only to find no one was interested.

Wednesday- We visited with Ebrina a potential investigator, we shared the restoration, and she was very willing to learn more. She told us she would even be baptized when she came to know these things for herself. She was very excited about reading the Book of Mormon. Sister Black was next and we sang "follow the prophet," the primary hymn. We spoke about how the Lord has called a current prophet and how he has given us them all throughout scriptures. Sister Thomas was next, we spoke with her about keeping the commandments and invited her church, and to read the Book of Mormon. Sister Walsh was next, since she has a hard time reading the scriptures we decided we'd help, so we read 1 Nephi 1, we invited her to church and to read chapter 2 so we could go over it together next week. Also, she made us cookies and they actually weren't so hard we couldn't eat them!!! It was a miracle.

Sister Marsh was next we shared the restoration with her and invited her to come to church, read the scriptures as a family, and to work on improving family prayer. It was a great lesson. I know Heavenly Father helped me to have even a small glimmer of hope for her coming to church on Sunday. We had dinner with a new family in the ward, the Mortonson family, who isn't related to the ones in my last ward . . . but they do know them. Dinner was great, at the end I got to hold a bunny they found in the yard during dinner. We invited them to pray for missionary experiences. Also in the middle of the closing prayer I had the prompting to ask if brother Mortonson would be willing to come with us to a lesson that night at 8pm. Especially since half the ward is out of town, and it was youth conference week. So the bishopric was gone as well. Luckily he said he'd love to.

Then we had to go to our next lesson, we met with the Randall's and since we had to make it quick we only taught about family history. They seemed very willing to do so. After, we met with the Hinshaw's and brother Mortonson came! Crazy thing though is brother Mortonson knew the family from work, (I hadn't even made the connection of work with the families.) they spoke for a while and it was truly amazing. We invited him to be baptized he didn't say yes, but he didn't say no. It's the first time I've ever had someone not say yes. When we invited him to church he told us he didn't want to lead on his wife (She is a less-active). It would be great if he could receive an answer for himself.

Thursday- Service at Habitat Build. It was super fun. I enjoy doing service....but this is the first transfer I've had where we've done some much service with Elders. Nothing against them, it's just weird doing so many things with them in a sense. I like only seeing them one, maybe two days a week.

We met with Jennifer and invited her to church. Now she is talking about moving in with her boyfriend. A lot of the things she says reminds me of some people I know. I wish I knew how to help her but as I'm typing this I've had some thoughts. So we'll see what happens next week.

We went to meet with another less active but she was asleep but her less-active 30 year old daughter let us in, so we sat down, and I flat out said "I don't really know much about you, could you tell us about you." And she did. Our mission was fulfilled, we got her last name (it's different that her families) and now we can have her records put in the ward. We shared the restoration with her and invited her to church. She sounded like she wanted to come. After, we tried some less actives. Only 300 more to go!

We found one had moved, but someone else was living in his home, and was painting, so we volunteered to help. He told us to come back the next day. We had dinner with the Pfau family. They are super cute. We invited them to improve their personal prayers and as a family. They agreed. Next, we met with Ben and Susan. We discussed prayer and scripture study. At the end, we invited them to have meaningful scripture study, and to make their studies more regular. They both agreed.

Friday - Always a busy day, and somehow never enough time. We did service in the morning and then because we finished early we started weekly planning at a donut place. It was pretty distracting so we sat outside Starbucks. And that wasn't too bad. We only wrote in our scheduled events for the week. Our 1:30 cancelled but it worked out, because it gave us time to go back to Eric and Jessica's and paint. We are the first set of missionaries they have ever met before. We had enough time to paint 2 walls with 2 coats. They were very grateful, and very surprised when we showed up to help. It's amazing how in today's world when people keep their word it's surprising. After, we met with Amanda and it wasn't our best appointment, her mom was in the room, Amanda is very quick to snap harsh things at her mom. She is going to be a sophomore in the fall, and she wants to go to DUKE when she graduates, her mom wants her to go to BYU. So they snapped at each other for a while about it. Ugh.

We had dinner with Sister Macfarlane. She's a lovely lady. We spoke with her about enduring to the end. And what we could do to make it a more pleasant journey. And had her list off ways we endure. And invited her to improve one of them in her life.

We finished the evening weekly planning.

Saturday - We had studies. And went and did service. I've learned how much jobs and being on a mission have helped me even more to speak with people. After, we tried meeting with less actives. We found a drunk man in his yard with his friends we were able to get them pass along cards, he's very passionate about the Savior. After, we met with the Sweiglards and shared the restoration with two lovely ladies. Then we went to a nursing home to meet sister Heiman. She has dementia so she doesn't remember a lot and she has never truly been all there. We were able to speak with her and her roommate Andrea about the atonement. They asked for study material so we told him we would bring them some things to study. We ended up meeting with sister Miller and spoke with her about enduring to the end and invited her to come to church and do what heavenly father has asked her to do. We had dinner with the Carrillos, and invited them to do missionary work and look for people they know who could benefit from this message. They invited us to go and visit Sylvia. We received a referral!

We ended the night meeting with Brother Mark. Since no one was home but him we had to meet outside and it was raining. It was a quick lesson but we spoke about missionary work and service. We invited him to come to church and to encourage those around him to follow the Savior and for him to focus on helping them. We then came home to finish updating records.

Sunday - We went to church and it was a great experience especially since our Zone Conference about sacrament. It was a lot easier to think of the Savior. We had missionary correlation after church, it was very quick. Which was good, because after church was a very packed day. We had 2 dinners and we had other things we needed to get done. We had dinner with the Checketts who are new in our ward, we invited them to do missionary work. We also had dinner with Sister Meik, who we live with. We spoke with her about the Atonement and invited her to rely more upon it. We also meet with the Bradstreet's and reminded them of the promises we make at baptism. After, we met with brother Mark, he wasn't at church and we shared my favorite scripture: Doctrine and covenants 84:88

"And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up."

We aren't sure what's going on, but I haven't felt as impressed as I did at that time to share that scripture.