Before I forget, we are NOT having Preparation day on a Monday next week - repeat, we are NOT having preparation day on a Monday next week! Next week is the last week of the transfer and so we will be having it on Wednesday (giving people who are transferring a day right before transfers to pack and tie up loose ends in their area). Just thought I'd throw that out there so you aren't all waiting on baited breath to receive an email on Monday just to be disappointed. :)
First things first, it snowed last night!!! Woohoo!!! It was actually sticking to the road last night and it was still slushy on the sides of the roads this morning when we woke up and there was a skiff on the grass and the side walks! Yay! It's mostly all melted by this point in the day though (11:30). A member was telling us last night that if it doesn't snow a lot, it means we're not going to have much of a summer either...lots of rain. Rain I can totally do - as long as it's not hot and super humid. This winter is SO weird! I heard that in Utah it was the driest December in Utah history. Is that true?
So I've been working on one of my new-years resolutions lately which has been to work on some of the Christ-like attributes. I have realized that with my companion I have gotten super critical. I think it stems from the fact that I'm still getting used to this whole 24/7 attached at the hip thing. But I am adjusting and I'm happy to report that we're doing really well as a companionship. The thing that I've really focused on the last couple of days especially is to just refrain from criticizing. Sometimes even just that is so hard! It shouldn't be though. I'm going to continue working on that.
I think I wrote a couple weeks ago about a really great tracting experience we had with this really sweet girl named Bxxxxx. I also noted that the same day we were planning to go teach her the first lesson. Well, we went and she totally wasn't there! We knocked on her door 3 or 4 times and waited before finally just writing her a note telling that we came by and to give us a call. We've called her since and left a message on her phone but nothing has come of it. Well, I was super bummed that we couldn't teach a lesson. It was the day Hermana Jardine was doing exchanges and so we were companions and it would have been really cool to try out teaching with someone different.
But...Heavenly Father had something else in store. Instead of teaching Bxxxxx, we stayed in her apartment complex in the building right next to hers and had a couple of contacts there. We set up two return appointments and sent on a couple referrals because of it. One of the appointments fell through but we had the other one. We ended up teaching the first lesson to the girl who had answered the door and her aunt. When we started into the first lesson it was a little awkward - I don't think they really knew what our purpose as missionaries was at that point (totally our own fault). But the lesson progressed and I really felt the Spirit strong and we left them with a commitment to read the Book of Mormon and pray about what they read.
Fast forward to yesterday. We've had one other lesson where we taught the first half of lesson two. We called them last night to see how their reading was going and Theannys continued to basically give us a summary of the first 2 or 3 chapters of first Nephi! We were stunned!! Getting people to read has been a real struggle for us lately. The reason she kept on reading was because she just really felt good while she was reading and thought it was really interesting. I'm SO excited for our next lesson with them this week! Missionary work is SOOOO awesome!!!
One last experience before we have to get going: Last night we had planned to drop by several less-active members and a couple investigators in Everett. While we were praying in the car before we went to go try to visit one of these members, I had the distinct thought that we should go visit another less-active member that we weren't planning to visit but was in the area. So, out of the blue, I mentioned that to my companion and she said that she actually had thought the exact same thing but hadn't said anything about it yet. We went in to visit the member where we had stopped at and we caught her at home and in a super friendly mood and so we got to talk to her and share a really great message. Then we zoomed off to visit this other less-active member we had both thought of. The last time she had set up an appointment with us she didn't show and the last 3 or 4 times we've stopped by we could tell someone was home but nobody ever answered her door. Last night, we knocked and the door opened! We got to talk to her for a few minutes and hopefully communicate to her that we love her and are planning to go back today when she is a little less busy. This is a long way of saying that I know the Spirit speaks to us if we're doing what we should and if we're really listening.
Les quiero MUCHISSIMO!!!!
-Hermana Palmer
No comments:
Post a Comment