This week started off pretty well. I had to go to Tupelo Mississippi again for another exchange and it was a blast! Instead of exchanging with Sister Alred like I did last time, I exchanged with Sister Gibbs. We get a long so well and it is so crazy because she has only been out for 6 months and is already a STL (Sister Training Leader). That is crazy to think about. Good for her :) she really is a great missionary!
While in Tupelo we were able to teach a few people.
This one person we went to go see was a recent convert to the church and we needed to go teach her the new member lessons. We did so and I learned a lot from Sister Gibbs. The way she teaches and brings the spirit into the home is inspiring. I feel like it was good for me to be taught from her and spend time getting to know other areas of the mission.
She also stated something about how they needed to get me a cello while I am serving that way I could play in sacrament and other meetings. I got so excited about that! haha! I miss playing as much as I used too.
Wednesday
I had quite an interesting day on Wednesday
The day Started like usual, just me and Sister Merriam getting ready and having studies. In the middle of my training, there was a knock on our door and we were interested who it was because we usually don't expect anyone to come visit. We went to go answer the door and found out that our Team up had come 30 minutes early on accident. haha. We still had 30 minutes left of training so we finished that up and then went to go work. We originally wanted to go see Rachel (Another investigator) but it turned out that she was not there so we went to go see Ami instead. However, Ami was not home either. Man... I am So glad for plan C.
Hey... This reminds me of a quote "When plan A doesn't succeed, don't worry because you still have 25 other letters of the alphabet to go." I don't know why I just thought about that but it is so true. Something that I have learned while being out on a mission is that it is good to have back up plans and not get discouraged when things don't work out. The Lord has a perfect time for everything and it is important to trust that he will bring things to our path at the exact moment we need it. The same thing sort of applies to prayer. When your prayers don't seem like they are being answered right away, it could be the fact that the Lord is preparing us to receive the answer at the most absolute and perfect timing. It is always good to have faith and hope that he will answer our prayers.
Also something else I learned is Faith and Hope. I always knew that faith and hope go together but I never really knew why. After studying and researching about it I came to the realization that Faith is to BELIEVE that God will answers prayers and hope is having CONFIDENCE that he will answer. So, hope is way great to have along side of faith.
So after Ami didn't work out, we decided to go see a man (Frank) who has been inactive for a while and touch basis on him and see how he is doing. This man makes denters and it is way cool to go visit him because he is usually in his shop which is filed with cool tools and teeth and stuff like that. Kind of interesting. :) When we went to go visit him we went to go knock on his shop door. Only, a man (probably a customer), answered saying "Oh it's the mormons!" and we went in and were able to talk to this man.
I don't know why this week has been different but for some reason we have been placed in situations where many people want to argue with us about religion. This man clearly wanted to argue with us. This is a sticky situation. As missionaries, we want to expand upon what people already believe, but there also is a line that we need to draw whenever someone wants to prove they are right. We don't want to prove that we are right. Nor do we want to argue about religion. Instead we just want to take what a person believes and help them expand their faith in Christ. Whenever we are faced with a situation where it is likely to turn into bash between two beliefs, we have to back away from that situation as best as we can. Easier said than done I will say.
We taught this man the restoration very simply but you could tell he wasn't interested and that his heart was hardened. Man... Hopefully we will have better luck this week when we go to check up on Frank again.
We had fun this night as we went to Activity Days. The activity days teacher, who lives just a few apartments down from us, wanted us to come share a message with her girls about missionary work. What a fun night! The girls made heart shaped soap for a late Valentines craft and then we talked about how they were each a child of God and how he loves them. Then we talked about how their friends were also children of God and that we could help them realize that through missionary work. It turned out great and the girls loved it! :) So fun.
Also on Wednesday, we were able to go over to Alyssa and Randy to check up on them. They were home! yay! They had the best reaction to the restoration ever! :) This family is Golden. They have great faith and they are always really engaged learners. When we got done talking the husband, Randy, just looked up at us and said "That's AWESOME!" haha the way he said it was amazing and wow! What a great lesson.
We then went to go teach Brea at Walmart. She is a sweety pie let me tell ya. She really wants to learn but since she is so busy we have been teaching her at Walmart while she is working. She even expressed how she wants us to come teach her at the hospital while she is on her lunch break! How exciting! I LOVE her!
Thursday:
Thursday was weird too. We usually have district meetings on Tuesday but it was switched to today. At district meeting, me and Sister Merriam along with the other two sisters decided to wear matching clothes for fun. It was a blast! :) Things ended up working out because two of the sisters (Sister Merriam and Sister West) had the same skirts so we borrowed them and we were able to match.
While weekly planning this day, we got a text from the elders that they were in our area and they needed to know if they needed to go see anyone in particular. We suggested that they should go see Ashton and Annie (The cute newly weds that we met a couple weeks ago). They were able to do so and they said the lesson went great! They loved learning about the message we had to share with them. I am excited to go over there and teach them more.
Friday: Elder Farrell's Birthday
Friday was Elder Farrells birthday so me and Sister Merriam made him Dump Cake (Pretty much Apple Cobbler) and made him a card. I love birthdays and holidays while on a mission. They are so fun and always interesting! :)
Also on Friday it snowed and iced! Thankfully we were given permission to do missionary work and weren't snowed in because we went to go see Ami and had an amazing lesson about the Word of Wisdom. She even took all of her cigarettes and tobacco and threw them away! YAY! I was so happy for her. She is going to do great and we have a plan written out for her for when she is tempted to light a cigarette. She is awesome! She wants us to come visit with her every day until her baptism just to check up on her and to make sure she completely prepared for this next step in her life.
Saturday
We met Marissa on Saturday (while playing the color game) at Walmart and we are going to start teaching her and her family. :) I have great hopes for her. She is really cute and bubbly and we got a long with her real well.
We had a really good lesson with Micha as well to help her prepare for her baptism. We watched the Restoration video with her and she expressed how inspired she was to be baptized coming up pretty soon. We read a little bit of the Book of Mormon with her and she stated that she knows without a doubt that it's true. Yay!
Sunday
Sunday was such a Sad but Good day all at once.
Three of our investigators who committed to come to church ended up not coming. So sad. I really really hope they come next week :( Also, Sister Merriam caught a fever so we stayed in the apartment all day and rested. While she was resting and getting better, I made a lot of cute crafts and studied a lot. So even though we weren't able to go out and work, I still had a productive Sunday. :)
And that brings up back to today! :) We are going to take it easy today so that Sister Merriam could continue getting better. Thank goodness it is P-Day so that we could relax a little.
I hope y'all had a great week. I am glad that y'all are healthy and enjoying the birthday Celebrations! :) Transfer calls are on Saturday so we will see which one of us (Me or Sister Merriam) get to stay in the area or gets to go. Who knows, maybe we will both stay for another 6 weeks! I don't think I will leave this area quite yet and i don't want to either. I have grown to love Russelville AL and never ever want to leave haha! :)
Can you believe it? I have been out in the field for 6 weeks? Where has time went? haha :)
I love you all dearly! Have a great week and thanks for all of your prayers! I am strengthened by them :)
~Tori
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