Dis' Week 10-10-11

Hello everyone!

 

This week was pretty decent; 14 lessons, 4 new investigators, 2 investigators at church and lots of service (pictures included). My main focus will be on the new investigators and the service we did this week in this email. 

 

Monday we picked up a new "gator" as my companion calls it. Her name is R., she is kinda crazy but in a funny way, haha. She makes trash picking a hobby and art, you wouldn't believe how much can come from trash picking. Almost everything in her home is trashpicked and you can't even tell that it was, and she makes stuff out of it! One of her creations is this lamp she has that is made out of 70's salad dishes and a salt shaker and it looks really cool, maybe one day I can get some pictures of her creations from trashpicking. Anyway, I met R. through my last companion Sister E., and this transfer and some of last transfer we have been visiting her but she likes to talk A LOT so we usually never get to teaching her. However, one evening that we were visiting her she had some questions so we get to teach her the message of the Restoration, which was cool. We visit her quite often because she lives pretty close to us, and she has lots of projects she is working on that we offered to help her with. She has a little boy named G., who she was planning a party for on Saturday (just a few days ago). She was having it be a campout with games, BBQ, tents of course and a firepit. We told her that we would help by setting up the tents so that was part of the service we did on Saturday. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of that, it was pretty funny seeing these two ladies in skirts setting up tents, ha. We got them up though and we helped her with a few other things, she was pretty stressed about everything she had to do so it was good that we were able to help her for a little bit.

 

On Wednesday, we picked up another investigator who was a member referral! Yeah! Her name is B., very nice except in the lesson there seemed to be a tiny bit of contention because apparently she used to have a pretty interesting life-so to speak, and one day some person started talking to her about Jesus Christ and she said that she went through the whole repentance process(according to her) and she felt the spirit. Which is all nice and dandy except the weird part is that she said she baptized herself in her bath tub and said that she was baptized. We were teaching her about the restoration and tried to explain to her about priesthood authority and why it is needed and matters, but she wasn't getting it. I hope we didn't mess up that lesson and that she will read the Book of Mormon, pray and invite us back, but we'll see.

 

On Friday, we did our regular service at the clothing donation place called the Food Pantry and got a lot done there. Saturday, we did double duty service and still got in three lessons, haha.

Saturday was a crrrazzzzzzzzzy day! Taught a lesson, helped the elders garden for an investigator whose mom got cancer and couldn't keep up her garden so the missionaries and the ladies family came to the rescue to help prune and fix her garden. It was actually a lot of fun and we got to meet some of the elders investigators and help them. So we gardened for a good two hours and the end result is in the last picture shown. After gardening, we took a quick break to freshen up and eat before we headed back out to teach another lesson, where we picked up two more investigators. There is a slightly funny story about one of the people we saw. So awhile back, we recieved a referral from headquarters about this girl named L. who is from China and lives close by us. We met her once and kept trying back but couldn't get ahold of her for awhile (L. 1). Moving forward a time, we met another asian named L. (L. 2) through our investigator D. and got to know her. Well, we tried to call L. 1 this past week and were very excited to have L. call us back, but after she called us back we realized that it was L. 2, not L. 1 that we had accidentally set up the appointment with, haha. Nevertheless, we still came through with the appointment because when we met L. 2 we did get her contact information when we were with L. and D. that one day awhile back. Lucky we already had her address and phone number, haha. So we went to see L. 2 and one of her roomates was there, his name is B. and we ended up teaching both of them and will see them for another appointment later this week. Neither of them have any real concept of God so we have to be extremely basic but it is kinda nice because it's not like they have been taught false doctrine all their lives like most people we run into.  After we taught L. and B. is when we went to help R. with setting up the tents and stuff, and ended with another lesson. So Saturday was pretty busy and exhausting but it was a good day. We are teaching a lot of less actives along with our investigators. It is amazing how many less actives there are here in the ward, over half of ward is inactive.

 

With an extremely inactive ward, plus 15 investigators, we have a lot of work to do, and it can get overwhelming at times but somehow, some miraculous way we seem to manage and get through each day and week. My mission president gave me a scripture he wanted me personally to memorize, Mosiah 4:27 which states:

 

"And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order."

 

Another scripture that stuck out to me this week during my personal study was in Alma 29: 1-3

 "1 O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the  trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!

2 Yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and come unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth.

3 But behold, I am a man, and do sin in my wish; for I ought to be content with the things which the Lord hath allotted unto me.

 4 I ought not to harrow up in my desires the firm decree of a just God..."

 

These couple scriptures have just helped me remember to find a pace that works, don't overwork, and to be grateful for the work that is being done and what I have been given. Sometimes as a missionary it is easy to get into the mindset where you always feel like you need to do more, that there is so much to do and not enough time and energy to do it all. A wise mother once mentioned to me to slow down, step back and listen. Listening to the promptings recieved and act on them. I came to a point this week that if I can just love and serve those that have been "allotted" unto my companion & I and love/serve my Father in Heaven, then I will be a sucessful missionary. For a lot of the time I do wish that I could cry with the trump of God to every people, but having unrealistic expectations of oneself does more damage than good as a missionary. Earlier this week, I was super stressed out that I could not reach the expectations I set for myself, let alone the standards of excellence for the mission. I was told by my mission president that less than a handful of missionary companionships actually reach the standards of excellence per transfer. That doesn't mean they are bad missionaries, but that the standards of excellence are goals to aim for- they are achievable but very difficult to accomplish. Needless to say, that made me feel a lot better about everything I had been stressing about. Anyways, I suppose that all of this could apply to any life situations where there is so much to do and it gets overwhelming but to just step back, breathe and trust in Heavenly Father that everything is going according to His plan and time table. May we all be able to remember to wait upon the Lord as one of the apostles mentioned in general conference.

 

-Love Sister Gifford