Ariel goes tracking with a salesman!

Hiiii! What a beautiful and wonderful week!

Some things that happened that don't matter which day of the week they were:
- Sister Summerhays and I went wild, eating Oreos with Nutella and Peanut Butter. Mmm!

- Sister Summerhays wanted to visit a member family. As we walked down the street, we OYMed a door-to-door salesman. He was walking up the driveway of the house that the member lived at, so I continued walking with him and said something like, "We can both go here!" After he knocked on the door, a woman answered and said that she wasn't interested in what he was selling. He said, "I think they have something to share with you," and walked away. So I was standing there thinking that Sister Summerhays was going to greet the woman who she already knew, but instead she looked at me, very confused and said to the lady, "Hi... We are representatives of Jesus Christ..." and I was just so confused. The lady said she wasn't interested but she knew the members across the street. Oh my gosh, we were at a different house and had just tag-team-door-approached with a salesman!! 

- Sister Summerhays and I met a couple named the "Cragheads"... Pronounced Crackheads.. Couldn't stop laughing. 

- President and Sister Eberhardt visited our apartment, and Sister Summerhays and I told them about 5 times that we didn't want either of us to get transferred. 

- We ate at Zuppas (kind of like Panera) with our High councilman over Missionary Work, Brother Passey. He asked where we wanted to go and we said, Zuppas! And he said, Yeah...That's totally a chick place.. 

- We had dinner with some members and asked for referrals and they told us about their Russian neighbors. We asked them if there was someone there named Evgyni and they said Yes!! We know where he lives now! Elder Pokrovskii is still teaching him and preparing him for baptism! Yay!

Ahhh, so many things happened that I don't even know the timeline of!!!! 

I have to tell you about two of our investigators who are progressing towards baptism! 

One investigator lives with her son (who was converted a few years ago), his wife, and their children. I will refer to her as the Grandma. She was there when he was taught by missionaries. And then the family has been on and off Less Active for a few years, so she has seen pleeenty sets of missionaries. I am assuming that they've tried to teach her before but she just hasn't been interested. Well, the first time I went to a lesson with the family, we invited her in to read the Book of Mormon with us and she said yes! The whole family was in the living room and she sat on the stairs to the side with the grandson. She read out loud with us though and even teared up!

The next time we visited, just the grandma and her son were there. They were like, Sorry the family's not home, just us. And Summerhays and I looked at eachother thinking, Well that's no problem at all!! So we went in and the son was testifying to her like crazy, telling her about his conversion. He was saying, I want to baptize you and be sealed to you in the temple (I think I told you this last week, but I need to show you the progression!) So she was lukewarm about it.

Then the NEXT time, we visited with her, we brought the Relief Society president. The kids were in the other room, so we had a really nice lesson! We asked her to be baptized on the 27th of July and she said, "That's 2 weeks away!" but didn't say No! So in my prayer, I asked for her to feel prepared for that date, and she didn't object afterward.

So the NEXT lesson, we went with the RS pres again. The son came up to us and whispered to Sister Summerhays that he had a secret for us. He told us that the grandma had been telling people that she was getting baptized on the 27th and was inviting a hundred people! So we get into the lesson and ask the grandma how she is feeling about her baptism and she says, "Oh, I haven't really thought about it." !!!!! So the son says, "Mom, stop it! That's not what you said yesterday!" hahhaha. So she is really defiant just because, but she is so excited to be baptized! She likes to pretend it's no big deal, but when we bring it up she is smiling like crazy!!

We have had a few lessons since then, and she is progressing so well!! She has read every pamphlet of all of the lessons. She is reading every chapter that we give her in the Book of Mormon. She said the closing prayer at the last lesson and was bawling. Ahhhh, I love her!! Sister Summerhays and I are going to temple square with their family on Thursday! So excited!

I will include the things that Sister Summerhays wrote about our experiences with our other investigator. I can't write anymore! haha. Here it is::

"We had a miracle lesson with [our other investigator]. She shared with us all of her concerns, and the complications with their family. The mother-in-law/mother is an alcoholic so that's why she doesn't want to get an answer that the BOM is true! It all makes sense now!!! We had a great lesson with them in the church and [the investigator] recognized how strong the Holy Ghost was in the chapel. She still hasn't gotten work off on Sundays but she is trying and praying. The ward is really embracing them and contacting them almost every day! Her husband is less active but we talked with him yesterday and he said thank you for teaching my mom and wife. You came at the perfect time in our lives. we need this, and this is re-kindling my faith. He's going to sit in on our lesson on thursday!"

I absolutely love you and hope that all is well!! Have you had any missionary experiences lately? I love hearing about those!! <33