Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Bloggers

Hello world! How is everyone? I myself am having a bittersweet week. I had to say goodbye to my mission president on Wednesday, and I will admit that I cried a little. Mostly for them because although I know they're happy to go home (three years is a long time!), I also know that they're having a hard time wrapping their heads around leaving. I ran into them in a hall after zone conference and got to speak with them both privately for a little while. They said such kind words to me. I am sad to see them go and I will miss them. I hope President Lewis (the new mission president) is up to snuff.

But I also got to have a wonderful weekend with my beloved investigator Maria. She drove us an hour and a half north to the Sacramento temple so that we could do the temple tour. Practically unheard of down here in the southern part of the mission where we are far from the temple! But she is the best. She also brought her little son Osker (yes, that is how it's spelled) and asked me questions about being sealed to him after she's baptized. It was so sweet. She still won't set a baptismal date, although she talks about it like it's a certainty. She says that she doesn't feel like she knows enough yet, but she does. Any suggestions on how we can help her feel ready?

Anyhow, that's all for now. Have a wonderful week everyone!

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Happy Father's Day!

Good times down here in Stockton, CA, or "The Promised Land" as it is called in this mission. Despite SATAN and his many attempts to stop Anna's baptism from happening, it all went through without a hitch. The baptism was scheduled for 3pm and we got a call from Anna a few hours before saying her ride to the baptism had fallen through. We would just take her but missionaries aren't allowed to give rides to anyone other than fellow missionaries. Big no-no. Normally it wouldn't be a huge deal getting a ride for her, but yesterday was ward temple day so NO ONE could take her. It was very stressful. And then an hour before the baptism the bishopric member we'd set up to come said he couldn't anymore. And we can't do the ordinance without a bishopric member there. Uh-oh! But it all came together--we found a ride, we found another bishopric member, and the baptism was great. She was so excited and that was just wonderful to see.

I hope everyone's Father's Day was wonderful, and your lives in general as well.

Monday, June 20, 2011

The past three weeks...

5/30/11

Greetings from Stockton, CA, USA. Things are still going well here. We have lots of investigators and I love them all, although none of them seem solid to get baptized any time soon. It's disappointing, but we're doing all we can and it's up to them now. I've asked my district leader to train us on Satan's plan next district meeting so that we can learn to take our investigators' agency away. I have high hopes for that approach.

Sometimes being a missionary is more like being a therapist. People tell you the most personal things. For example, we went to visit a less active woman this week who we'd never met. We sat down on her couch and I asked her how she was doing. She took a deep breath, then went into a 40 minute break down of the last 30 years of her life, including her ex-husband's affair, her OWN affair, and their subsequent nasty-sounding divorce. And a few days ago we visited a less active couple in the ward. We discussed how marriages and families are under attack and we need to do all that we can to strengthen our homes and families. The husband told us that he knows that's true because he keeps wanting to leave his wife and go for someone younger, but then he decides that starting over with someone else is too much work, so he stays. His wife, by the way, was sitting right next to him on the couch, texting. Blergh.

So that's life in the big city. Have a wonderful week everyone!
 

6/6/11

Hello friends and family. Happy summer. You wouldn't know it's summer from the weather here in central CA, but I've been told that it is. Speaking of that, congrats to Kelly and Jacob Bromley, whose wedding I heard was marvelous in every way despite weather difficulties. And congrats to upcoming summer wedding couples, including Quandi Quinnterton and Jason and Lindsey, who I look forward to meeting.
 
You remember how I told you last week that people tell us the most personal things about their lives? Well, sometimes they tell you the most personal things about OTHER people's lives. Like about how other members of the ward are sex offenders (in fact, child molesters). And sometimes they even pull up these member's mug shots and list of crimes on government websites. And it is very, very uncomfortable.
 
On an entirely different note, we are constantly trying to think of new ways to teach the lessons. So Sister Despain and I tried something called the tea bag lesson. It corresponds (loosely at best) with lesson 3 in Preach My Gospel, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end). Basically in this lesson you light a tea bag on fire and it mysteriously floats through the air. It is magical. I won't go into the symbolism, because it's not the greatest. But a lot of missionaries in this mission use it, so we decided to try our hand at it. We test drove the lesson during companion study the other day. We could not get it to work. Every time we blew the tea bag off our hand it plunked in a fiery death to the floor, where it proceeded to light the carpet on fire. (Just a little.) Finally Sister Despain got it. "I DID IT! I DID IT!" she yelled victoriously, when the tea bag suddenly floated to the ceiling and set the smoke detector off. Sister Despain can't hear high pitched beeps, but I sure can, and we could not get the stupid thing to shut off. For several minutes. I think I lost about 10% of my hearing that day. Good thing the member we live with was out of town.
 
And that's all for today folks. Have a wonderful Monday.
 
6/14/11
 
This has been a week of miracles! I will share a few.

1. We found a fruit stand that sells delicious fruits and vegetables, and cheap like you would not BELIEVE!
2. Despite rumors and speculation to the contrary, I've been allowed to stay in Stockton for another transfer, which I'm thrilled about.Yesterday I was so convinced I was leaving I'd already halfway finished packing by the time I got the phone call that I'd be staying. I'm not sure why I'm still here because there are new ASL sisters who could come here and do deaf work, but I'm so glad things worked out the way they did because I'm very attached to some of our investigators.
3. One of our lukewarm investigators actually started reading the Book of Mormon and said she couldn't stop! She said it made perfect sense to her and that she's much more interested now. This was a very happy moment for me. We can barely get most of our investigators to read a verse on their own.
4. We picked up a new investigator named Maria this week. How did we find her? Oh, she just REFERRED HERSELF TO US on mormon.org. I want to kiss the creator of mormon.org. Anyway, Maria's in her 30s and has an adorable 6 year old. She came to a baptism with us this weekend and to church. She's been searching for the true church for some time and said none of them felt right. But she said that on Sunday she felt like she belonged at church. Which she DOES! I love her to death. She is so cool and put together. I'm going to get her baptized if it's the last thing I do.
5. We had a random woman show up to church on Sunday. I went to talk to her and found out that her name is Anna. Her mom got baptized 2 years ago and Anna's been attending church with her for about a year over in Fremont (she just moved to Stockton this week). She said that the spirit she felt at church convinced her of what she's been trying to decide for a year and she'd like to be baptized this weekend. "Do you think you can help me with that?" she asked. Uh, CAN I!

So this has been a pretty awesome week. The best of my mission so far. Great things are happening in Stockton, and I'm so happy to be a part of them.