Monday, August 29, 2016

Splitting up is Hard to do! July 11, 2016

Another week has just flown by! I'm loving every minute of it. 

Monday was the Fourth of July, so even though English people don't really celebrate that, we had a zone BBQ. It was interesting and short because we had to travel like an hour to get to the chapel they were holding it at. And by the time we got there, all the buns were gone, so that was interesting. After the BBQ, we went and had a lesson with Jim and re-taught him the Restoration because we weren't sure how much he took in last time at the doorstep. We were right, he was more worried that we were standing out in the rain than what we were actually saying. So it was good we planned to re-teach him. Then the most amazing thing happened! We were waiting for our bus at the interchange and this drunk guy named Gordon who always talks to us started trying to give Sister Sovala a cardigan and his friend, Andy, came up and asked if he was bothering us. We laughed and said we know Gordon and he wasn't bothering us at all. Well then Gordon started talking to me (and I honestly can't remember much what he said) and Sister Sovala talked to Andy. He said he's been looking for a way to turn his life around and so Sister Sovala talked to him about Jesus Christ, taught him to pray, and committed him to work towards baptism. IN THE BUS STATION! I was so shocked. But then I looked at Andy. He just seemed to be radiating. I can't even describe it, but it was so obvious that Heavenly Father was mindful of him and loved him so much and he was definitely the person we were supposed to be talking to. It was quite awesome.

Tuesday we had a lesson with a less-active named Lavinia. She still reads the Book of Mormon and prays and talks to the missionary who baptized her, but doesn't go to church for personal reasons. We talked to her about the restoration and the importance of church and she said she'll come next week. She had already promised to babysit her sister's kids this week, so she couldn't. Then I was craving Chinese food, but all we had time for was McDonalds. By the way, McDonald's here is a lot nicer than McDonald's in the states. Anyways, they had a chinese dipping sauce, so surprisingly enough, McDonald's satisfied my Chinese craving for the most part. Then we went to the library and I did the technology assessment to prove I'll use my iPad responsibly. And then we tried by Andy's house, but he wasn't in. So we had a lesson with Becky instead and then went to teach Graham. He's doing so well!

Wednesday we had district meeting and set our district goals to "baptise" (English Spelling...): Book of Mormon in finding, Adjust the lesson to the investigator, Pray in Planning, Teach when you find and find when you teach, Involve the members, Speak to everyone, and Enjoy the work. It was really great. Then we were supposed to have a chapel tour with Graham, but he called us and said he was too drunk because his friend came over. So we had a lesson with Jim instead. Then on our way back to town, we were on the bus and saw Andy walking down the road. So we ran off the bus as fast as possible and talked to him. He had been in the hospital with blood clots in his legs. He said he really wanted to talk to us, but he had to get to the pharmacist before they closed. So we followed him. They were closed and he went crazy. He hit his head against the wall and it started bleeding. We had no idea what to do. So we said a prayer with him and he just kinda ran off after that. Yeah, it was crazy. So then we tried by another guy's house, but he didn't answer after he said he was home. Not fun. 

Thursday. We started off our day with a lesson in the park with Nathan. It turned more into a grass fight..but it was fun! Haha then we went to stop by some less actives. One wasn't in, one invited us back for Saturday, and one was just plain awkward! So we stopped by and this guy answered the door and he wasn't the person we were looking for. He was a guy we had talked to in the street a couple weeks ago and got really mad we asked him what the score of the football game was the night before instead of Jesus because he felt we were hiding our true intentions...Now we're at his door. And he thinks we've been following him. And he's not happy. We laughed and said we'd update our records. Anyways, then we had a lesson with Darren and it went pretty good actually. Then we had another lesson with Graham. He was having a really hard OCD day and at first wasn't sure he wanted us to come over, but decided he needed us to because we help him. He is so cool! He may turn into an eternal investigator, but he wants us there, so that's a plus!

Friday was an adventure. We had weekly planning and then had a role-play lesson with Becky because we were going on splits for an hour afterwards with Pam and Becky. So that was good, but then the lady we were going to visit, wasn't in. So we went to a less-active instead. It was pretty good! We met back up a couple hours later and then had a lesson with Pam about feeling the Holy Ghost. So it was a good day, but a very quick day. It was especially great for me because I got to feel more comfortable in my own teaching and finding abilities because I didn't have Sister Sovala to lean on.

Saturday went well-ish. We did a full-day split after visiting another less-active named Michael. And it was really hard because Becky had a sore leg and didn't want to walk. That kinda contridicted with missionary work...we had a lesson with Jim and wound up having to drop him as an investigator because he said he wants to learn, but he'll never get baptized and he knows he won't and so he asked us to stop asking him...so we had to drop him. Then we had a lesson with Ephraim! He's back from London! We confirmed him for an interview on Saturday! So make sure to keep him in your prayers! Then we went and visited Pam's husband and had a great lesson with him. We wanted to have a one-on-one lesson with him from the beginning, so it worked out! I was very grateful though at the end of the day to be back with Sister Sovala.

We had church on Sunday, obviously. We taught Young Women's, so that was interesting! We only have one YW in the branch and she didn't want to go into Relief Society. It was especially interesting because we didn't have the book to teach from at our flat, so we couldn't prepare a proper lesson. But it still went good and she came out of her shell quite a bit! Then we had a lesson with Ephraim on the blessings of tithing and then had our first lesson with a man named Carlos. It went ok and he agreed to work towards August 8th as a baptismal goal!

So yeah! My thought today comes fromRobert D. Hales "Preparations for the Restoration and the Second Coming: My Hand Shall Be Over Thee"
"In the Lord's service, the path is not always easy. It often requires sacrifices, and we will likely experience adversity. But in serving Him, we discover that His hand is truly over us."

-- 
Sister Hope

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