Hello hello!!
Happy Monday everybody! I love celebrating P-day! It's my favorite holiday on the mission! haha! Probably because it comes around once a week and it's basically the only holiday we get...
Anywho... This week has been.. well... a rollercoaster.. to say the least! It's has been one of the hardest/funniest/craziest weeks of my mission so far... Last Monday was sister Yarrington's birthday!! Happy Birthday Sister Yarrington!!! Her mom sent here a cake in the mail. it was a little squished, but it was still good. So we lit candles, I sang to her and she blew out the candles.. and wax went all over the cake. HAHA it was fun! We went to Ooltewah to our stake center for p-day. It was my first zone activity in the Chattanooga Zone. It was hard not seeing all of the familiar faces that I have grown to love in the Kingsport Zone, but I have made some awesome new friends down here. And 2 of the elders that were serving in my last zone were transferred down here too! So that was nice! We played volleyball and dodgeball and I laughed pretty much the whole time!! I just love being around all of the missionaries and having a good laugh.. It helps take the stress away.
Tuesday we were going through our area book to see if there were any former investigators we could go visit and maybe teach again. We decided on a few that were in the same apartment complex and we headed over there. We went to the first house and the person we were going to see had moved, so we taught a lesson to the elderly gentleman that had moved in and headed to the next apartment. There, we met Mike!! He is so fun! We laughed and joked with him a little and then
he said that his uncle was a Mormon and that he wanted to get back into a church. We taught him a little bit at his doorstep and scheduled a return appointment. We went back Friday night and taught him and his girlfriend, Nicole. We took Bro. Hilliard with us on the team up because we thought that he and Mike would have a lot in common. Turns out.. we were right! Bro Hilliard is so funny!! I always joke with him at church and he told his wife that I am gonna give him a run for his money! haha! He and his wife were recently re-baptized and he has such an awesome testimony! He told us after the lesson that Mike was crying. We couldn't tell because he had a hat on and it kinda shaded his eyes.. but we could tell that he was feeling the spirit because it was so strong during the lesson. I am so grateful for the spirit testifying that what we were saying is true. This work wouldn't happen without it. It's the most important part of the work because without the spirit, they wouldn't be able to recieve answeres to their prayers. I love seeing it work in someone's life!! It's amazing! We invited them to church and they said that they would come.. but Mike ended up having to work on Sunday so he said that he would have to reschedule a time to meet up with us... I pray that he really will call us and that we will be able to teach him again.
Wednesday was a hard day for us... we tracted into Chris last Sunday... he teaches at Bryan College here in Dayton. Bryan is a Christian school that teaches a LOT of anti... So we tried our best to have a really good lesson prepared for him. We spent almost 2 hours preparing this lesson with scriptures and with a visual and all of these things that we thought would help him understand.. we got to his house and he and his wife were so nice.. we started talking to him a lot about just life in general and getting to know each other.. he actually teaches photography and film which of course I loved! I asked him who he thought were good photographer and if he had any suggestions.. etc.. well then we went into the kitchen to start our lesson and the atmosphere changed immediatly.. he stopped listening to learn and started listening to contend.. He said that he was super open minded but he just kept saying that "we are gonna butt heads on this.. this is where you and I are gonna have a problem.. etc" it was so annoying! We had truly tried to listen to the spirit and to teach a lesson that we thought would be helpful for him.. and he didn't even listen to us.. I think that the only time he really listened to us was when we were testifying that we know that our message was true and I know he felt the spirit when I was telling him how I came to know that this is true... It was discouraging to see that he felt it and still denied it.. I struggled for a few days about that.. It just want people to accept this message so badly and I get frustrated and hurt when people are so blinded by their pride! We have another appointment with him this Wednesday and we are probably gonna drop him.. oh well.. I have learned so much about other people's agency and I have truly come to taste somewhat of what Heavenly Father must feel when we choose not to use our agency to accept him.. It's truly heart breaking.
Luckily there was a little light on Wednesday... We went to Sister Wyman's house for dinner. She is recently coming back to church and come to find out.. she lived in Fielding and that her son graduated the same year as Skyler!! She knows Seleste and her kids becuase she was in the other Fielding ward!! haha! Crazy! It is such a small world!! It was fun talking to her and trying to figure out who we knew in common! I am still shocked!
Thursday we went tracting with a recent convert. Her name is Melissa. She is 18 and joined a few months ago. We are teaching her dad right now.. and he is the other really frustrating/ hard thing we have had to deal with this week. It's hard to explain Bill.. He is very smart.. and he has a lot of stories. He was an alcoholic and now he is working a lot with the AA. It's very cool to see that he is so passionate about helping people recover from their addictions. It's cool to see him apply it to God and to life in general. I have leaned a lot from him already.. but it is SO HARD to teach him because he talks so much. We say one thing and he tells us a 5 mon story. Which is good... to a point. And we kinda had another Chris situation on Thursday.. we had spent a ton of time preparing a lesson just for him and we got about a quarter of the way through it... It is so discouraging when you are not able to teach all that you need to to help him understand.. He had a ton of questions but he wouldn't let us talk enough to answer them.. it's hard to be patient and figure out how to teach to his individual needs. I have really had to apply patience and had to really rely on the atonement this week. I have had to trust that the Lord will guide us in teaching what Bill needs to know.
Last Saturday we went to dinner with our Zone Leaders, Elder Condie and Elder Jensen. They are probably my favorite people here!! They are so funny and ALWAYS smiling! It was so much fun listening to them try to explain what kind of hair they liked on a girl and Elder Jensen made layers out of tortilla chips and held them up like it was his hair! So funny! This week they came to our district meeting on Friday and we went to the Montgomery's home for lunch. Sister Montgomery is from Germany.. and her food was.. well.. interesting to say the least.. you never ask what kind of meat it is.. you just eat it. AdVeNtUrEs!! haha.. anyway.. Sister Montgomery had a Mary Kay party and she invited us sisters to it. We were able to teach a pretty cool lesson to the Mary Kay lady(Brandi). She had a lot of questions for us and it was fun to answer them.. there were 6 missionaries there.. so it was interesting to see how we all taught in unison and how the spirit directed the conversation. Well the Elders left and we were going to stay for the Mary Kay party and then Elder Jensen and Elder Condie walked back in to get something that they had forgot.. we were just about to do facials and Brandi asked if they wanted to join in.. they looked at each other and then they kinda laughed and say sure. So they were learning how to do a facial and we moved on to the make up part of the party.. well... they decided to stay for that too!! It was hysterical watching the Elders put on make up!! I will have to send you pictures! So funny! I laughed so hard that I had a headache after! Definately the funniest moment of my mission so far! I love them!!!! That right there changed my whole week around!!! HAHA! It made up for all the ups and downs from the rest of the week!
Sunday we went tracting for a while and I love when we only have to knock on 2 doors and have 2 lessons. The first door wasn't really interested.. but the second house was awesome! The Halls are really cool! They are retired and just do some side work for fun. He actually had a brain tumor about 5 years ago and I was able to tell them about dad. It was interesting to hear their story and it reminded me of what it was like when dad was sick.. I am so grateful for the priesthood and for being able to have blessings given of healing and of comfort! We talked alot about religion and we left them with a book of mormon. they are excited to read it and they said that they will come to church sometime in the next couple of weeks! I really pray that they will be able to answer their questions and that they will really pray to know the truth.
Anyway... this is long and I have to go email President Griffin.. I love you all so much! I love serving and I love being a missionary.. hard times.. fun times and all! Keep praying for me! Love ya!
Here are a couple of my favorite quotes of the week:
"I have to use this toothpaste because it strengthens my enaminal.."-Me (referring to ENAMAL) haha
"Darth Vadar is radically stupid"Sister Dunn last Sunday was referring to her husband being Darth Vadar in politics
The Book of Mormon and the Bible are kind of like a marriage..it's like how men and women are different, but they are equal and they help strenthen each other! .I loved this!! (Faye Halls)
love you mucho
