Update on Amanda
So, this week me and Sister Merriam were debating if Amanda was really sincere about baptism and wondered if we needed to drop her or not. I thought that maybe we should but I felt as though we needed to give her another week and then we would decide.
I am SO glad that we waited another week because we went to go see her on Wednesday and she is totally get her life in order! She is picking up her house and re doing it, she stopped taking drugs, she started going to school, and she is cutting back on smoking. What an improvement! I am so happy for her. We decided to push her baptismal date back to March 7th due to the fact that she hasn't attended church twice yet. :( We are still trying to figure out what we could do to help her strengthen her testimony about the church and so far so good. We re taught her the restoration and she is going to read and pray about it. So that's good. She is excited for her baptism and loves when her "New Sisters" come and visit to teach her because she loves the spirit that we bring into her home. (Or outside on her front porch: Southern Style ) :)
I got my bike this week!!! The weather is warming up this week! It is not as cold and I am excited for that because bike riding will be much better. :)
Michelle
Michelle is one of our new Investigators. :) The elders began to teach her but then passed her to us, so we only began to teach her this week. She is so steadfast and came to church with us last week. Yay! She was supposed to come to church yesterday as well but unfortunately she couldn't find a ride. She really wanted to go and felt bad that she couldn't but we reassured her that she tried her best and that we would help her find a ride next week. She was excited to know that we would help her out :)
Michelle expressed her love for us and love for the things she has learned and she has committed to baptism which will also be held on the 7th of March. I am so happy for her! I know that this step will bless her and help her with the struggles that she is currently facing.
Christine
Christine is also one of our new investigators. It was so funny how we met her too. We were tracting some homes behind Walmart for about an hour and a half and we started to get hungry so before heading home we decided to knock on more house. We went up to the house, knocked on the door and something happened. No one answered... Man... So we knocked one more time just in case they didn't hear the first knock annndddd no one answered again. We were kind of sad but knew that we just had to get going. While we were walking back, a girl who was on the phone at the time, hung up, and called to us "Are you girls going to come over and talk to me about church!?" and we were like "Definitely!" and walked over towards her. She was so friendly. When we got over to her she told us to wait because she wanted to go grab her momma and her husband. haha she was so excited! She had told us that she was looking for a new church to attend and wanted to attend church with us! She was even doing all our hard work like getting our phone number, getting the church address, and asking us what to wear and when to come and everything. She is totally prepared! It is unusual to find someone who is greatly interested like she is. I believe we are going back to her home to teach her this week. I am excited! :)
First Store Contacting on my own!
After writing my letter last week, we had to go to the store to pick up some groceries and some pictures. Well, while Sister Merriam was getting pictures, an old elderly man came up to me and starting looking at my name tag and in my mind I was like "He is looking at my name tag! Here, let me dust it off for you. " haha. I got really nervous though in that situation because I had to talk to him about everything without the aid of Sister Merriam! Yikes! I was so happy that the spirit was guiding me and directing me because without it, I would have not known what to say. :) He took a Book of Mormon and a mormon.org card with our phone number on it, so that was great! :)
The Palace
There is this place called the Palace and it really is the cutest little Sand which and Ice Cream shop in the world. It is decorated like the 50's and the Harvey's Milkshake is to die for! It is on the top 10 foods to eat in Alabama and I believe it because it was so good! Yum! If I ever visit Alabama after my mission, I am coming back to this place. :) mmmmmm
Pizza Party with Sister Bryant
I haven'y told y'all about Sister Bryant yet huh.
I have gotten so close to Sister Bryant this past 3 weeks. We go and visit her like 3 times a week because she is old, and can't come to church for health reasons. Her husband died and she lives on her own, so we go and visit her to give her company. I LOVE HER! She is my Alabamian Grand mother. I am so glad that she lives just a few apartments down from us because sometimes she will need us to come over for help.
The other night though, something was wrong. She called us and she was crying. :( nooo!!! So, we went to visit her and I guess she was just having a really hard day because she couldn't remember anything and she was frustrated because she couldn't remember the password to her email and aol account. She was saddened because her brain wasn't functioning like her old young self. So, while we were over there, we shared some scriptures to uplift her, and sung a couple of songs. (Totally inspired songs too for they were both her husbands favorite and he would sing them to her all the time. We had no clue!) We then proceeded to figure out the computer situation in which she told us that she had gone into kidney failure! :( what?! No! man...I was so heart broken. She continued to tell us that she had been in kidney failure for 4 years but refused to go in to get treated because her husband went through the same thing and hated the treatments. He died for the same reason. It wasn't until that day that they told her that she didn't have much longer to live. However, she did tell us that she was in good spirits because she was ready to go see her husband and she felt at peace with the songs we sang to her. I was happy that she told us that. She also wants to "Be a missionary like we are" and is excited to do that in heaven! haha she has a good sense of humor. I love her :)
That night she demanded that we have a pizza party so she ordered pizza and we had a good night. :) Me and Sister Merriam had other plans that night but we both felt the Lord's approval to be with her at the time. It was like he was there the whole night singing songs, reading scriptures and eating pizza with us. haha :) It was a totally good experience.
Other than that
I don't have much else to say besides that one night we went to the palace to eat and they were closed :( aww. The good thing that came out of this though was that we were able to find this cute little case of books and written on the top was "Take one give one." So me and Sister Merriam decided to donate two Book of Mormons with our testimony written in it to the box. Hopefully someone was able to take them and read it :)
Well, I am really having a good time in Alabama and came to the conclusion that y'all are going to have to pack up and move here because I never want to leave! :) It is so great! Y'all would have a blast here.
Thanks again for all the letters! I have enjoyed reading them. :) Sorry this letter was a little shorter.
I hope it is a good week for everyone! The Lord loves all of you So very Dearly. Don't ever forget that!
Southern Missionary In Training
Sister Ralph
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