Dear beloved family members,
It's starting to get hot and humid, but not too bad yet. Can't say I'm
too excited. Also, Hannah I love you. I read your message to creepy
young 48 year old dude to my roommates and they loved it.
Lots of teaching and service this week. The Velasquez are doing well
and are still on track to be baptized in two weeks. Brother Velasquez
asked us to come over Saturday at noon to talk to him. He had been
listening to the radio at work and some anti Mormon things about
Joseph Smith came up. Understandably he was concerned so he did the
good thing and talked to is instead of looking up more in the wrong
places. We were able to explain more of who he was and what he did and
why there were previously polygamists and how he can find more
information. For the past month I've been doing a lot of reading
during meals out of the institute manual about church history in the
fullness in times which covers a ton of information about Joseph Smith
and the saints that I never knew about. So I'm glad I have that new
knowledge fresh in my mind so I could explain things a lot better. We
told him that essentially he needs to pray about the Book of Mormon
because that's the only way he's going to know if this is true.
We have a couple new investigators we taught last week and have return
appointments with this week. One of the new investigators is a lady
whose daughter just graduated high school and is really struggling
financially. She needs to hear the gospel and the way that we found
her is amazing. Two months ago when I was on exchanges with Sister
Leben, we took Sister Knudson with us to teach Tina but she wasn't
there. I was super annoyed and I felt bad that we took Sister Knudson
with us for nothing so we went to check on a less active who also
wasn't there. Sister Leben suggested we tract 3 houses. I didn't want
to but Sister Knudson is an rm and loves tracting and I felt like we
owed it to her. So we each chose a house. The first two didn't answer
and when it was my turn to choose the last one, I saw a house way down
the street I thought we could try so we walked down and knocked and
this lady answered the door and we finally met with her again last
week. Super cool.
A member, Sister Ainsworth, had a bunch of family in town for her
daughters graduation and she asked us to come over and share a message
with a few of them. Two of her ex in laws(?) were here from California
and we had a great lesson on the restoration. One of them is part of
M.I.M.E.S (men in ministry encouraging souls) and they showed us a
video called "Anointing" by MrScalesProductions that has mimes. Look
it up. I have no comment. (;
We spent six hours on Saturday helping a pregnant couple move. They
are moving a couple apartment buildings over. They are the coolest
couple ever, I love them. Also, we were in jeans all day to help them
which was really freeing. They paid us with cafe rio.
Funny story. I met Pam Hinckle at the Visitors Center. She came in
with her husband and another sister greeted her and I wasn't going to
go talk to her but I decided to so I walked up and we talked. After a
couple of minutes she asked if my mom's name is Wendy. Surprised, I
said yes. Then she said, "Wendy Stevens?" Again I said yes and then
she got super excited and told me that's her cousin and that her mom
is sisters with my grandpa. What. So we ended up talking for a long
time. She was saying how she can't make it to grandma and grandpas
anniversary party this year and I, jokingly and sadly, said I can't
either because of prior arrangements. We decided that if we ever have
seen each other before, then it was at Great-Grandma Becky's funeral
in 2007 in Wyoming. She told me that she had visited grandma and
grandpa in Nauvoo last summer while they were on their mission and she
happened to have a bunch of pictures from that on her phone. It was so
so nice to talk to her. I loved talking about my family with her
instead of just telling people about my family. We took a couple
pictures and hugged and it made me very happy. She came in at 3:15 and
my shift ended at 3:30 so if she had come any later I would've missed
her and I'm only at the Visitors Center on Fridays right now. Such a
miracle.
My zone is now being known as The Great Seneca Strepidemic. The fun
thing about being on a mission is that things spread around the
mission quickly. Like bed bugs. That was a problem two transfers ago.
This transfer it's strep. So far I haven't had it. But I have had
really bad allergies and it transitioned to a cold today. Super fun.
Today we had our transferly zone activity. We went mini golfing. They
divided us into 8 teams and had us keep score. My team and another's
tied for first place. 18 holes and an average of 47.6 points. Boo-ya.
Read Alma 38:9 por favor. I love you all! (:
Love,
Sister Black
It's starting to get hot and humid, but not too bad yet. Can't say I'm
too excited. Also, Hannah I love you. I read your message to creepy
young 48 year old dude to my roommates and they loved it.
Lots of teaching and service this week. The Velasquez are doing well
and are still on track to be baptized in two weeks. Brother Velasquez
asked us to come over Saturday at noon to talk to him. He had been
listening to the radio at work and some anti Mormon things about
Joseph Smith came up. Understandably he was concerned so he did the
good thing and talked to is instead of looking up more in the wrong
places. We were able to explain more of who he was and what he did and
why there were previously polygamists and how he can find more
information. For the past month I've been doing a lot of reading
during meals out of the institute manual about church history in the
fullness in times which covers a ton of information about Joseph Smith
and the saints that I never knew about. So I'm glad I have that new
knowledge fresh in my mind so I could explain things a lot better. We
told him that essentially he needs to pray about the Book of Mormon
because that's the only way he's going to know if this is true.
We have a couple new investigators we taught last week and have return
appointments with this week. One of the new investigators is a lady
whose daughter just graduated high school and is really struggling
financially. She needs to hear the gospel and the way that we found
her is amazing. Two months ago when I was on exchanges with Sister
Leben, we took Sister Knudson with us to teach Tina but she wasn't
there. I was super annoyed and I felt bad that we took Sister Knudson
with us for nothing so we went to check on a less active who also
wasn't there. Sister Leben suggested we tract 3 houses. I didn't want
to but Sister Knudson is an rm and loves tracting and I felt like we
owed it to her. So we each chose a house. The first two didn't answer
and when it was my turn to choose the last one, I saw a house way down
the street I thought we could try so we walked down and knocked and
this lady answered the door and we finally met with her again last
week. Super cool.
A member, Sister Ainsworth, had a bunch of family in town for her
daughters graduation and she asked us to come over and share a message
with a few of them. Two of her ex in laws(?) were here from California
and we had a great lesson on the restoration. One of them is part of
M.I.M.E.S (men in ministry encouraging souls) and they showed us a
video called "Anointing" by MrScalesProductions that has mimes. Look
it up. I have no comment. (;
We spent six hours on Saturday helping a pregnant couple move. They
are moving a couple apartment buildings over. They are the coolest
couple ever, I love them. Also, we were in jeans all day to help them
which was really freeing. They paid us with cafe rio.
Funny story. I met Pam Hinckle at the Visitors Center. She came in
with her husband and another sister greeted her and I wasn't going to
go talk to her but I decided to so I walked up and we talked. After a
couple of minutes she asked if my mom's name is Wendy. Surprised, I
said yes. Then she said, "Wendy Stevens?" Again I said yes and then
she got super excited and told me that's her cousin and that her mom
is sisters with my grandpa. What. So we ended up talking for a long
time. She was saying how she can't make it to grandma and grandpas
anniversary party this year and I, jokingly and sadly, said I can't
either because of prior arrangements. We decided that if we ever have
seen each other before, then it was at Great-Grandma Becky's funeral
in 2007 in Wyoming. She told me that she had visited grandma and
grandpa in Nauvoo last summer while they were on their mission and she
happened to have a bunch of pictures from that on her phone. It was so
so nice to talk to her. I loved talking about my family with her
instead of just telling people about my family. We took a couple
pictures and hugged and it made me very happy. She came in at 3:15 and
my shift ended at 3:30 so if she had come any later I would've missed
her and I'm only at the Visitors Center on Fridays right now. Such a
miracle.
My zone is now being known as The Great Seneca Strepidemic. The fun
thing about being on a mission is that things spread around the
mission quickly. Like bed bugs. That was a problem two transfers ago.
This transfer it's strep. So far I haven't had it. But I have had
really bad allergies and it transitioned to a cold today. Super fun.
Today we had our transferly zone activity. We went mini golfing. They
divided us into 8 teams and had us keep score. My team and another's
tied for first place. 18 holes and an average of 47.6 points. Boo-ya.
Read Alma 38:9 por favor. I love you all! (:
Love,
Sister Black
No comments:
Post a Comment