Wednesday, July 6, 2016

I got Whacked with a Book of Mormon! June 27, 2016

This week was sure interesting. 

After our P-day last week, we went to stop by a few potentials and none of them were in. So that was kinda discouraging. But we had a lesson with Pam in the park and so that was good! And then we street contacted back to the bus interchange and went home. So it was kinda a short day, but still good nonetheless. I made cocoa cookies to take to district meeting, but Sister Sovala liked them so much, they were pretty much gone by the end of the day...

Tuesday was another day of cancellations. Sister Sovala found this guy who seemed interested and then kept texting her weird messages like "Do you like bad boys?" So we had a good laugh over those and then told him he could meet with the elders if he was really interested...he didn't reply to that. So we went and visited a lady named Belina instead. She is so passionate about the church it is awesome! She loves missionaries and felt so bad she didn't have any food for us because she was on her way to the store and if we had just stopped by an hour later she would be able to be more like our momma. She is so sweet! Then we went home for a quick lunch and tried to stop by those same people from the day before, but they weren't in again. So we'll try one more time, probably tonight, and then leave them to the area book. Which I'm not too sad about, one of them scares me a lot. We nicknamed him Scary John. He seems really nice, but has tattoos on literally every part of his body. We had another lesson with Pam in the park and then went to teach Graham. One of the members met up with us and we had a great lesson. We taught him about the Plan of Salvation, but he said his mental illness won't allow him to read or pray...so we're not sure what his plan is. But Sister Slater was just like "that's ok, you can just listen to the Sisters" and so we didn't want to enforce the importance of it while she was there because we knew she'd correct us and then we'd correct her and it just wouldn't have been the best spirit in the house after that. So we went back to our flat (apartment) and I made more cookies so we could actually take them to district meeting

We had district meeting on Wednesday. The Zone Leaders came and picked up up because they moved the time to 8:00 and we would've had to wake up at 4:00 to be ready in time to make that in time. So they picked us up at 7:00 instead and we didn't have to wait for a bus! SO blessed! Then we knocked doors in the area and had our branch correlation meeting. Then I wasn't feeling well, so we went home for about an hour and then continued knocking doors. We had a great lesson with Ephraim afterwards about church and what we do there. We had kinda forgot to tell him all about it before he came last week, and so he left after an hour. But he was excited to stay all three hours after we explained what they were for! It was a total miracle though because Sister Slater lost her phone, so we couldn't get in touch with her but another member lives next door to him and she agreed last minute to go teach with us. Then we went home and I think I met the rudest person in England! Haha it was actually really funny. So we were at the bus station and I told a lady I liked her dress and she ignored me, so I said it again. She looked at me and said "Thanks. I don't like yours. Now go away, I'm not interested." Haha I've never met someone so bold and insulting at the same time! We laughed about it a little bit, and then realized she was probably a little drunk. She kept almost falling out of her chair on the bus.

We were supposed to have a lesson with a less-active named Jessica today, but we got there and she said she had forgotten and was helping her friend with some painting and they didn't need any more help. So we rescheduled and then knocked some more doors. It was voting day-they're voting if they should leave the EU or not...so not many people were in. Then we had a lesson that was supposed to be in the chapel, but the guy, Peter, said "I like to do things privately, let's stay outside" and we were like what? You want to stay in public to do something private and not go inside? It was funny. It was a good lesson though and he seemed really interested and loved what we had to say about everything and agreed to a baptism date of July 16! Then we went to have a lesson with a guy in our ward named Darren. He has some special needs and the Branch President has asked that we teach him the lessons. We only got about half way through and then he was done. So we talked to his grandma for a little bit and then went and knocked on some doors of less-actives in the area. The one wasn't happy at all and then the other was on holiday, and the last one was Sister Slater's daughter, but not interested anymore. So that was an interesting exchange!

We had a lesson Friday morning with this really nice lady named Kerrie. She didn't realize we wanted a lesson though, so we had planned on being there an hour, and she had planned on 20 minutes...so it ended a little awkwardly. But we just went and knocked some more doors. It started pouring though and so a really nice lady let us in her house. We started talking to her and she wasn't interested, but we kept talking until the rain stopped. It was really funny because she kept opening the door to see if it had stopped. Then we had a ton of time left, so we took an hour off for what they call "mormon.org time" which basically means we're allowed to get on the computer and look up talks and Mormon messages and such. It was really relaxing! Then we had a lesson with Nathan. We were supposed to role play handing out a Book of Mormon and so I was the investigator and he was the missionary and he just handed it to me and said "here" and I was acting how a normal person would and kept saying I didn't want it if I didn't know what it was. Well, I guess he wasn't really in the missionary mood, because instead of explaining it, he hit me with it. In the face. And it hurt. But then it started raining. So payback! He got soaked and I had an umbrella :)

Saturday we got into town to have a lesson with Peter and he texted us that he decided to stay with his own faith. So that was a bummer. It was Armed Forces Day though so there was a parade in town! Then we went knocking doors at some less-actives and two of them let us in! It was such a miracle! The one said her mom has really missed it and that missionaries had just forgotten about her and she's disabled so she hasn't been able to go back to church due to that. But they want us to keep coming back! Unfortunately, the mom is in Wales for a month...We had another lesson with Ephraim about the Plan of Salvation and he just took it all in! He is so amazing! He takes notes as he reads the Book of Mormon and reads them to us what he's learned. He's already in 2 Nephi! Such a stud! We asked him again about baptism and he said he wants to but he wants to keep studying. So we'll see!

Sunday was amazing! Ephraim came to all three meetings and in Gospel Principles, there were only like 7 of us, so we all introduced ourselves and said if we could have one wish, what would we wish for. Ephraim's answer was that he'd wish to be part of the Mormon community some more. So amazing! Such a great example! We had a lesson with him after lunch and talked about the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. He was ok until we mentioned tea and coffee and was so funny! We could tell he didn't want to give up tea, but he said "If you say its bad, then I won't have any starting tomorrow" then he went inside and grabbed his tea and asked if those were ok, because he didn't know what herbal tea was. We were praying that's what he drinks, but he drinks black tea. But he is so willing to give it up, we were in shock! Then we went and visited Pam to make sure she is still ok. Then we had a little bit of time left on the bus, and so we decided to stay on afterwards because we thought it looped around and went back to town, but it didn't. We wound up at the Sheffield Airport and it was actually really funny. We were so lost. But luckily another bus came around about half an hour later we could get back on to go to our house. Biggest "whoops" moment of my mission so far!

So for my spiritual thought:
"There will be days...when your hears are heavy and your heads hang down. Then, please remember, Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, is the Head of this Churc. It is His gospel. He wants you to succeed. He gave His life for just this purpose" -President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "Have We Not Reason to Rejoice?"

I love you all!
-- 
Sister Hope

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