Good mornin' from Chattanooga TN!
We are in Chattanooga at the Mac store in the Mall emailing this week! I love it here in Chatt! It is so much fun to be here and to see more of wonderful TN!!
This past week has been really good. We have been doing a lot of tracting and we have found like 5 new investigators! So that's awesome!
Last Monday we just stayed in Dayton because it was raining and we didn't have anything to do.. so we watched some preach my gospel videos and chilled. It was kinda nice to just have a day at home to relax and unwind from the craziness of everyday life. We went grocery shopping at walmart and by the time we were done, it was pouring outside!!! We were soaked within 10 seconds! It was warm rain so it was kinda fun. We wanted to play in it when we got home, but by the time we got to our house it had already stopped raining! Gotta love Tennessee rain. And I thought that Utah weather was strange. It rains really hard here for a few minutes and then it stops within seconds...
We did a lot of tracting on Tuesday, but the weather was beautiful!! We didn't even have to wear jackets, I think that it was in the 70's! I loved it!! We tracted in a pretty rich neighborhood and we I think we had one lesson.. It is really hard to find people that are willing to listen in the richer neighborhoods. But I have a motto that the Lord needs temples so why not baptize the rich! Lots of tithing money there haha JK.. Tuesday night our relief society pres and her husband took us to a chinese buffet for dinner. It was good to spend some time with them and we had a good lesson on the importance of the Doctrine of Christ. I have come to realize just how much the doctrine of Christ is taught in the Book of Mormon and the General Authorities teach it in almost every talk. The importance of having faith in Jesus Christ and repenting of our sins. How we have to be baptized by the proper authority to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. We receive the wonderful gift of the Holy Ghost which helps us endure to the end. I am so grateful for the Plan of Happiness and I know that if we do those things we will be truly happy. We will be able to make it through whatever life throws our way and that we will find joy in the journey!
Wednesday was Sister Shumway's Birthday! I got up early and put post its all over the house. I also made smoothies. It was fun to be able to serve my companion and help her know that I am grateful for her. We went tracting by our house and we found 3 new investigators! We had some really good lessons with really cool people and we are going back this week. I have decided that I am going to love tracting. It is up to me to have a good attitude about it so I am going to!! I took Sister Shumway to Cheezee's for her birthday and that was fun! :]
Thursday was a really long, good day! We had to go to Ooltewah for training meeting so we had to be up and by 5:00am and we had to be ready by 6:30. We drove to Hixon to meet up with Elder Pratt and Elder Adams. They drove the rest of the way. We had meetings from 8:00am to 4:00pm. It was really good though. I learned a lot. We were able to do a lot of role playing for our investigators concerns. We had a really good time seeing all of the missionaries in the Zone. We have the biggest zone with probably like 40 missionaries. It's fun! We got home and then we went to go teach Bill. he is doing well, but he is hard to teach.. he has to resolve his own concerns.. He has to restate what he thinks in his own words. So we are still learning how to teach to his understanding! He still wants to be baptized we just can't set a date with him probably until April or May.. Hopefully sooner but.. what can you do??
Friday we didn't have district meeting at all so it made the week seem off.. it felt like Saturday. Haha. We went to lunch with the sisters in our branch. It was good to spend time with them and get to know them better. The sisters in our branch go to lunch the first Friday of the month. SO it was fun to be able to go. We didn't do our weekly planning on Thursday because of the training meetings so we planned on Friday. We went tracting for about 2 hours and found 2 more investigators! It's nice to see the work starting to pick up. One of the guys that we met is in his 20's and he is SO funny!! I am excited to teach him more.
Saturday was rainy and cold.. No fun. Especially after the good weather we had all week. We went to visit a widow in our ward and we had dinner with the Hilliards again. I love that family so much!! Sunday was good. We went to visit some less active members after church and had dinner with the Montgomery family! I love them a lot too! I am so grateful for the help that they are in this area! Brother Montgomery is so awesome too! He has the best stories from when he was a pilot in Vietnam. It's crazy some of the things that he has been through but he has the strongest testimony!! I love it!
This month I have learned that I need to suck it up and just work and have a good attitude. I have been reading in the 1998 October conference ensign and I was reading a talk by Pres. Hinckley. He said that t"The Best is yet to be. If you are on the straight and narrow path, the best is yet to be." I have realized that that is so true. I am so grateful for the prophet and for his wise counsil and how it is still relevant today! I love this work so much and I am really grateful that my Heavenly Father knew that I needed to be here now.. I needed these learning experiences to shape me and teach me how to be better and how to rely on him more fully.
Thanks for all you do! Mom, I got my package! Thanks! It was what I was wanting! :]
Hope that you all have a wonderful week! I love you all so much!! Talk to you later!
Sister C
