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| Our district at the Salt Lake Temple |
There are truly angels preparing the hearts of the people in my area at this time!! I absolutely love being an instrument in the Lord's hands!! Sister Kiser is experiencing so many miracles at the beginning of her mission, that I am nervous for her next 18 months! Her expectations will be so high! But maybe that will help her keep a positive mindset!
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| Sister Kiser bought a sacrament-sized Hymn book |
Monday- Sister Kiser bought a giant hymn book from the Deseret Book (like the ones in the chapel), because it was cheaper than a mini one and she is carrying it around in her bag, looking like she robbed the church. haha.
Also, we switched houses. The Norths, who we had been living with, are moving to Escondido, CA (I told them to say "Hi" to Adam!) So now we are living with the Walkers. Sister Walker is the Relief Society Stake President. That night, we taught a lesson with an active family who has a Less-Active daughter. Afterwards, the LA's sister, about 18 years old, asked if she could walk with us to our car. She told us that she is considering going on a mission. I told her she needs to come out and teach with us, and she was so excited!
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| Our new living quarters! |
Tuesday- We had a training meeting for new missionaries and their trainers. Nothing too unique. We had dinner with the Passeys (the high councilman over missionary work) & his 4-year-old daughter kept saying, "You're a cereal killer" to everybody. She is SO stinkin' cute. That night, we had a lesson with one of our investigators. He is progressing SOOO much. Ahh. I just love him. We taught the commandments that are usually hard for people to grasp, I.E. Word of Wisdom, Law of Chastity, and Tithing. He jokingly said that he was hoping we would wait a while before we taught those lessons, but in actuality, he understood each of them. He said that it just made sense to him and he wants to live all of God's commandments! Ahhhh. I love the elect.
Wednesday- We had companion study with our district leader, Elder Ring, and his companion, Elder Hogge. Later that day, Sister Kiser and I were in the car and all of the sudden, I had the thought that we should have a lesson with 2 of our investigators together. Sister Kiser absolutely loved the idea and we knew that it was direct revelation!
Another amazingly revelatory experience happened almost immediately after... I haven't seen our Russian friend for a while. Elder Pokrovskii said that Evgyni's family is very against the church and when they found out he was going to be baptized, they wouldn't let him leave the house! Well, every time we drive by the park, I look for him, but I hadn't seen him in a week or so. Wednesday afternoon, we had absolutely no appointments and had no idea what to do. I had the thought to go to the park and look for Evgyni. I didn't tell Sister Kiser my thought, but I drove around the park, hoping to see him. When he wasn't there, I left the parking lot and kept driving and was kind of sad because I thought that I had been following a prompting. As we drove down the street, I saw Evgyni walking with his daughter and grandchildren!! Ahhhhhh, I was SO full of gratitude to Heavenly Father. I explained to Sister Kiser what had happened and so we stopped the car and got out to follow them to the park! I could tell that he was excited to see me, but his daughter was very quiet and would not talk to us, so we couldn't interact with Evgyni like I would have liked. It was fine though because just seeing him made my day complete! And before we left, he blew me a kiss behind his daughter's back!
Other things, we got a text message from a Less-Active who is trying to come back to church and he gave us permission to "hound him" and make him come! Yay!
Also, we watched the John Tanner story on DVD with our investigator. Have you seen it? It's really good!
Thursday- we had zone meeting and talked about developing Christlike attributes. We got a list of different ones and were told to choose which we wanted to work on. After pondering and praying about it, I came to a very fine conclusion that I need to develop Humility. I am so prideful! And not in the sense that I think I am the best, or that I like to boast, but prideful with leaders mostly! I am defiant! I try not to be a brat, but it just happens sometimes. I respect my leaders, but I am the first to admit that I trust my own revelation over theirs. So... what happened after we chose our attribute was that we met with our district leader, who then told us which attribute he thought that we needed to develop. (I don't know how to make this story any shorter than it is or any less confusing, because it even confused me!) Well, Elder Ring told me that he thought I needed to work on "Kindness" and I immediately felt defiant! He told me to pray about it and after praying about it, I said to him, "The reason that I KNOW I need to work on Humility is because if I choose kindness, I will be practicing Humility." So...in the end, we decided that I could use some more humility.
That night, we had our combined lesson with 2 of our investigators. It went so so well, because the 26-year-old guy is progressing far more quickly than the 30-year-old woman. When she saw that he was so willing to accept the gospel, she began to let down her guard and just listen to what we had to say. Soo gooddd!!
Also, Thursday, I think that Ellie Konzel got married!
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| Service for the Walkers |
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| Pulling weeds! |
Friday- we did service for the Walkers, weeding their garden.. That night, we had dinner with the Greenwalls (the ward mission leader). I LOVE THEM! They are this wonderful elderly couple. Sister Greenwall is so precious. They are so funny. Brother Greenwall said something like, "Dear, could you pass me the salt?" And I said, "Oh, did you mean me?" and he said, "No, I was speaking to Sister Greenwall" and Sister Greenwall said, "She isn't a deer with 4 legs. She's just a dear with 2 legs." hahah.
Friday night, we texted our investigator and told him that we had no one to teach on Saturday and said, "Who do you know?!" Immediately, he set us up a lesson with his Less-Active friend. He is so good!!
Does this email seem long? It was a long week!
Saturday- Sister Kiser and I started our 40-day-challenge. This is my second time on my mission. In the afternoon, we made cookies with a sister from the ward and dropped them off at the house of the woman who she visit teaches. She said that the last time she talked about the gospel, the woman wouldn't talk to her for months! So, we left cookies and the visiting teaching message ("anonymously") on her doorstep.
Sunday- We had a giant Plan of Salvation lesson with two of our investigators and the Amish man, who was a former investigator. Ahhhh. It went SO well! I think that it was nice for each of them to see other people learning about the church and measure themselves against each other's progress. We picked the Amish man back up as an investigator because he told us that he knows he will be baptized! He revealed to us that he is just nervous about splitting ties with his daughters who are still in the Amish community. Brother Greenwall shared a wonderful story about a Jewish convert who joined the Church and was proclaimed dead by her family, but she made the choice because she knew what was True!
Such a fulfilling and marvelous week! I love this area. It is so so amazing. Noelia's baptism is this Saturday and she is so so ready and excited!! I absolutely LOVE her and her family. We have the BEST investigators in the entire world, who I love with all of my heart! Life is so good.
LOVE YOU!
Can you believe it's almost been ONE YEAR?
Dear Ariel. You are one of the most humble people I know and you are one of the kindness. Of course the Lord with direct your steps. You are sincere in your desire to do His work. I love you so much. I'm proud of you. Sincerely. Ruby
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