Last Wednesday was transfers! I now have a new companion! Her name is
Sister Busath. She is 22 and from California, about 45 minutes from
San Francisco, and this is her last transfer before she goes home. We
have both been training for the past three transfers and are worn out
so we are so happy to be together. It's fun having two older sisters
in the mission be companions. So we are working super hard this
transfer before she goes home and I go back to Chinese. There is
another companionship in Kensington as well. Sister Sundwall and her
trainee Sister Mateaki who is Samoan and from Provo. We aren't
splitting the area, we are just kind of splitting investigators. We
have alternating shifts at the VC so there's always someone in our
area which is nice.
Last Tuesday, the day before transfers, Sister Huddleston and I taught
a woman named Lucy. She's in her 20s and has a baby boy who was born
within days of Harrison last June. The elders found her while tracting
and then passed her info to us. We went and checked on her he week
before and answered some questions. She said she wants to learn
because she doesn't know any mormons and is curious. On Tuesday after
lunch with the Kearls (I hope you got that picture, mom and dad) we we
and met her at a Starbucks and answered more of her questions because
she has a lot. She pulled out her Book of Mormon we gave her and asked
us to mark some chapters she should read. She also downloaded it on
her Kindle. It went super well and by the end she looked at her cup of
coffee and said she should probably start giving it up. We didn't even
tell her to, she just decided on her own! She is so so cool and she
and her husband want to try coming to church one Sunday. We are
meeting with her at the VC tomorrow. I love her, she is amazing. God's
elect right here!
The next day was transfers which was grand. It snowed as transfers was
ending and it was beautiful. We were on shift that afternoon and then
that night Sister Busath and I went and checked on referrals and
potentials and knocked some doors. It ended up being a pretty
successful and fulfilling night.
Thursday was Mom's birthday!! Sister Busath and I went to the VC for
shift at 9am and did mormon.org chats for 1 1/2 hours. We got a ton. I
love doing chats. Anti-Mormon stuff doesn't even bother me anymore.
I've heard it all. Joseph Smith had 40 wives and was a mason and blah
blah blah. Tell me something I don't know. Doing chat and having anti
people come on has really solidified my testimony. My testimony
doesn't stand on what the world has to say. I tell every single person
on there that the ONLY way to know its true is to read the Book of
Mormon and pray about it. The promise is real. We don't only get anti
chats, we get a lot of other good ones as well that range in topic.
That night we had Ward correlation and then we checked on some
referrals. One of the elders, Elder Hansen, went home on Wednesday.
Before going to the airport, he decided to knock one more house. They
guy who answered was interested so we stopped by on Thursday and we
have a return appointment for tomorrow night.
We taught Alba Friday night and she is as golden as she was when we
found her six months ago. She really has felt the spirit and is
converted. She's had friends try to tell her that she's wrong and that
the Book of Mormon is false but it doesn't even faze her. She just
bears testimony to them and prays for guidance on what to tell them.
She is going to talk to the bishop to get married to her bf and then
she and Gio are going to get baptized next month! I'm so happy! I'm so
glad I get to teach her even though I was gone for a few months in the
Chinese branch. The night we found her still stays in my memory as one
of my favorite nights.
Saturday we visited lots of people and had success with teaching a
former who I actually taught last time I was here and had to drop. At
3:30 we went on shift at the VC which was grand. Sister Busath and I
talked to a really nice lady who lives in Philadelphia and whose son
is serving a mission. She's the one who sent mom and dad the picture
of Sister Busath and I.
Sunday was grand. Sister Busath and I discovered a new fascination
that took up thirty minutes of our comp study. In the back of the hymn
book it has meters and it shows which hymns have which meter pattern.
The hymns that have the same meter pattern can be sung with each
other's tunes. For example hymns 2 and 3 can be interchanged as well
as Come Thou Fount with at least 10 other hymns. It's really amusing.
We develop weird fascinations. I read Institute manuals for fun and we
play games using maps.lds.org and most of our conversations in the car
consist of church doctrine. I love it, you don't get this at home.
That night we went around checking on people. The four of us share one
car so it makes things a bit tricky and interesting. Sister Busath and
I went to see a less active who was very polite but told us he has no
interest in coming back to church. In the prayer before we visited him
I asked God for something to happen to make our time there worth
while. As we were about to get into the car after talking to him we
heard a woman calling out. We went to see who it was and she was
calling for her cat. We talked for a minute and invited her to the VC
and then we asked her her religious background. She told us she was
baptized mormon. WHAT. Her whole family left the church years ago.
What are the odds that right as we are by her house she opens the door
to call for her cat so we can talk to her and she turns out to be a
member of our church? Crazy. I love seeing how involved God is in the
work. We are going to try to visit her again. It was so cool.
And that is it. I'm so happy to be with Sister Busath. We work so well
together and she's teaching me a lot. At first back in October I
thought that I would be Chinese for the rest of my mission and then I
thought I would be training for six transfers straight if not for the
rest of my mission. But now I'm back English for a bit and I'm not
training this transfer and I'm the junior companion again which I
didn't think would happen again. I'm so happy. This is going to be the
best transfer. It's baptism transfer!
I love you all and hope you have a good week!
"Lift up your heart and rejoice, for the hour of your mission is come;
and your tongue shall be loosed, and you shall declare glad tidings of
great joy unto this generation"(
D&C 31:3).
Love, Sister Black
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