Oh, and just a preface. It WAS spring break last week so our week was a bit harder to fill up.
Monday night: FHE was fun. We played some pictionary/telephone game that was pretty hilarious. It was where you wrote down a sentence on a piece of paper and then passed it to the next person, who drew out the sentence with pictures, and then folded the paper so you couldn't see the sentence, and then passed it. The next person had to write the sentence based on the picture, then folded the paper over the picture and passed it and the next person had to draw pictures and so on. It was pretty funny. Frank, our investigator, came and had tons of fun. Afterwards, he wanted to read 1 Nephi chapter 8 with us, about Lehi's dream, so of course we said yes! Our ward mission leader Ivan jumped in and it was a really awesome lesson!
Tuesday: We had lunch with Alissha and ate some yummy pizza.
Then, we went to the mission office and printed off a new ward list and went through all of the guys in our ward with the elders. Then, we did some genealogy stuff. We printed off our fan charts and a few cool quotes about genealogy, and we're going to try and use that as a contacting technique this week. So if you have any cool family history stories please email me so I can use them!! (Hint hint, family!!)
Then, we had a lesson at with Frank at Kristin's house. She shared a super awesome quote that I took a picture of, so I'll send that to y'all asap! Frank really liked it, and thought she was crazy. But the good kind of crazy. I think it really helped Frank out.
Then, we met up with the Memorial Springs sisters for exchanges! Sister Bonner came here with me, and that was pretty fun! Sister Bonner has a cousin, Sister Bonner, in this mission too who is actually serving in Montgomery!!
Wednesday: Anyways. I helped Sister Bonner learn some stuff about family history, and then we visited an amazing member named Britni. She is so on top of life!!
We stopped by a new move-in's house but no one was home :( So we tried to go contacting at Kohl's but everyone avoided us... so we just left some flyers for the Why I Believe fireside.
Then we exchanged back and had dinner at CiCi's with Sandra who is an investigator who just moved here from Venezuela (against all odds) and is living with her aunt who is a member, and Michelle and Jessica (who is also Venezuelan) and Courtney. Man, that was so cool!
So, Sandra. She just SHOWED UP at FHE on Monday!! We had a good talk with her, and found out she had just gotten here and is living with her aunt, and the sister missionaries in her aunt's ward were teaching her! So we arranged to have dinner with her on Thursday with some girls we thought she'd connect well with. Flash forward back to Thursday. We had a really good dinner, and then Courtney had to leave. So, Sister King and I decided to have Michelle and Jessica bear their testimonies on the Book of Mormon. They did, and then Sandra jumped in and said, "Yeah, this morning I was really nervous for my first job interview in English. I remembered what the other missionaries said and felt like I should read that book, so I did. It brought me so much comfort and peace, and I didn't feel so nervous anymore! It was amazing!"
Sister King and I were grinning like idiots. It was seriously so amazing to hear that! She feels that it is true, and really connected with Michelle and Jessica. They've been helping her so much with adjusting to everything, and they even went dancing with her on Friday night! She's so amazing and beautiful and wonderful and just fabulous. I love her!
She is a miracle.
Thursday: Weekly planning!! It was super effective. Like, one of the best planning sessions any missionaries have had ever.
After that, we went to AJ's house. The one who has the cat named Ernie ( WHO HAS THUMBS). That was pretty fun. We read in the Book of Mormon with her, the Book of Enos. We had a really good discussion about what we read and about prayer, and it just pumped me up for the rest of the day. I love AJ! I'll be sad when she has to go back to BYU-I for school :(
After AJ's we went and visited a girl named Emily. We shared that "letter" from Heavenly Father with her and invited her to our fireside that we're having.
After that we tried to contact some people but we didn't really have any luck.
Then, we had a GREAT lesson with Frank. We read about the 2,000 stripling warriors and he LOVED it. Then, the elders came in at the end because they were finalizing some things for a baptism they were having on Saturday. So Frank said, and I quote, "Man, I've got all the missionaries on me! Its like Jesus Christ is saying 'Okay, I need EVERYBODY on this guy!'" It pretty much made our night. It was soo hilarious!!! Then, the elders are like, "Hey sisters!! You gotta come see what we did today!!"
So we walk down the hall, all of us together, and there it is. Possibly the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. A HUGE A-Frame of the flyer I designed for our fireside!!! Its like 4 ft tall by 2 ft wide! At least! Sister King was so happy to see it that she almost cried. It was kinda cool to see something that I designed blown up so big and ready to be used to advertise our fireside. It was pretty legit. We took about 5 gazillion picture with it, but I'm only gonna send my favorite.
Friday: We had an AWESOME district meeting about the Word of Wisdom. Seriously, our District Leader Elder Duvall is so awesome. He has some really good spiritual insights.
After that, we ran by the mission office to get some more copies of the Book of Mormon and to get a large jumpsuit for DERRICK!!!! :D Both are really good thing to need to get.
Then, we tried to stop by an old investigator's house but no luck :( So we left a flyer for the fireside with her, and gave another flyer to these two guys playing football outside. They tried to flirt with us, which is always awkward. #missionaryproblems
Then, we went and called people about the fireside and personally invited 30 more people.
And after that, we went and helped Sister Deaver (the mom of one of the lovely sisters in our ward) move into their new house. That was actually pretty fun, and I feel like we got a lot done!
Then, we went and ate dinner with Jacque and Andrea who are amazing. Jacque has a little hair salon in her house, so I may be getting a trim and dying my hair black soon. Haha, just kidding. I won't get my hair cut on my mission! Haha, just kidding again. I'm so funny sometimes :P I promise, y'all, I will not dye my hair black. I like it the way it is. Don't have a panic attack!
Also, whilst eating dinner, we talked with Jacque and Andrea about the table they're in charge of for the fireside. There' apparently been a lot of mis-communication about the tables so we cleared things up for them, and then proceeded to leave after a good spiritual thought and have a bit of a panic attack about the fireside in the car.
After that, we went and "heart attacked" a girl named Sol (soul) and were super sneaky, and then we put hearts on our noses and took some pictures.
Then, we went to the church building because we were supposed to (possibly) meet up with Erick there. I wasn't really in the best mood, so Sister King and I had a good talk while we were waiting for Erick to show up. But he never did. So we went and got some ice cream at DQ.
Saturday: DERRICK GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it was the most rewarding moments on my mission so far! It was like a big reunion. Sister Kyles, Sister Elliott and I were all there and got to be part of the baptism. Derrick was so happy that he could finally get baptized. It was just amazing. He told me, "Thank you so much for getting me here!" So I reminded him that it was Heavenly Father was the one who actually got him there, but he said, "Yeah, but YOU really helped." So that was really good to hear.
I wasn't going to share this, but I think I will. After the baptism, because I'd been having a hard time, I got a blessing from one of the people I knew back in Montgomery. It was amazing. It comforted me about the stuff with Brasil and my visa, and gave me some peace of mind about the fireside as well. So moral of the story is: GET A BLESSING! They help, and that's what the Priesthood is for. It was seriously the best decision I made this past weekend.
After that, we went out and ate lunch at Golden Corral with Amanda and Patrice. That was super fun, and Amanda told us a bit about the Phillipines. Amanda also said that she would help us with the tables for the fireside, so that was a big relief.
When we got back, we called a bunch of people about the fireside again. Then...
WE GOT TO GO TO ANOTHER BAPTISM!! A girl named Jessica (not the one we ate dinner with) got baptized on Saturday night. It was beautiful.
TWO baptisms in one day!!! I felt truly blessed.
Sunday: We met before church about the fireside, which just made Sister King and I panic a little more about it. So we found a room and prayed before church. We were also fasting that day for the fireside, for Erick, for more people to teach, and a few other things. But we just felt pretty discouraged.
BUT! Sandra came to church! And so did Frank!! And he brought his little sister Daisy again. Super cute. He wants us to teach her the Plan of Salvation this week :)
Sister King and I were wondering what to do about dinner since we'd been fasting and as we were getting in our car to leave, Britni texted us and invited us over for dinner!! Miracle!!! So that lifted our spirits up a lot.
Then, we had some craziness to take care of. At church, the elders came up to us and told us that the magnificent A-Frame was missing! We'd left it at the church building over night, and when the Elders stopped by that building, it WASN'T THERE. It was nowhere to be found, and nobody had seen it. So, we were pretty mad. We hadn't even gotten the chance to use it at the college yet because of Spring Break!!! So, we met up with the Elders at the building to search for it. The ASL elders happened to be there too doing family history, so they offered some ideas. Elder Hillebrant (one of the elders in our ward) suggested we call the Bishops/Auxiliary leaders/missionaries in all of the wards that met in that building. When that didn't help, his companion Elder Frandsen suggested we call the top- aka the stake president. Then, Elder Frandsen rethought and said, "WAIT, why don't we pray? That's calling the top!" So we all knelt in prayer, including the ASL elders. After we looked in the dumpster and under the stage but had no luck. We called one of the counselors to the stake president. Turn out they talked about it and thought it might be too dangerous for the children so they took it down, and he put it in his truck and now its down in Magnolia forever away from us. But we found it and we were super relieved!! And one of the ASL elders signed a "thank you" prayer before we all left the church building. Miracles happen people!!! ALL THE TIME! We should be getting the A-Frame back today. Phew!
And now its St Patrick's Day!! We're having a little zone party for it, so that should be fun :)
Love y'all!!
Sister Shell
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