Hi everybodeee!
You all crack me up. I'm glad you enjoyed reading about my week. It was definitely an experience. Every week we are supposed to write our mission president letters and just tell him about how the areas are and how we're doing and what not, but I get tired of writing them, so every so often I'll make it fun and write him riddles and jokes (which he'll call me and try to answer), or tell my week in story form about the princesses that live in Gretna, etc. So you can be sure he got a funny rendition of the events. Sis. Bell was telling me she actually wrote about it to her family in verse. She said she'll try to remember it so I can have a copy.
But yes, I got better from being a newt. And no, I didn’t know that GWC is now GWU! I didn’t even know they were holding classes over in Monticello. Have they done any real building over there yet? That’s exciting. I’d like to be involved with it all again, it’s a great work that is going on, but I don’t know how…
But of course, this is the greatest work of all that I’m doing now – missionary work! I actually had a really amazing day of tracting (which still is not my favorite thing to do). It was raining (Still is, in fact, it’s been raining for 5 days straight now, and I’m really getting tired of it – sometimes I think I’m solar powered), but anyway, we had our umbrellas and our boots and we decided to go for it.
Rewinding a little bit first, it all started with a completely bogus media referral. We got a referral from church headquarters that a “Mrs. Howard” ordered a copy of the Book of Mormon. So we went to the address, but nobody knew anything about the mysterious Mrs. Howard – the people that lived there were the Jeffersons. They already had a copy of the Book of Mormon that they’d ordered awhile before, but weren’t really interested. So we decided we needed to tract down that street but didn’t get to it for a couple days – until the day it was raining. For the first time my whole mission, people actually let us in then and there and were able to teach short lessons – and not just one of two people, but six or seven! Not everyone was all that interested, but we got several return appointments. It was crazy. But what was even crazier was that a lot of the people down that street that we talked to were actually relatives of one of our investigators! And then as we were walking back to the car, our investigators passed us in their car and stopped to talk to us and said they were on their way to visit his relatives. Coincidence?
And another strange “coincidence” for you – I don’t know what’s with me and foreigners but over a month ago, we ran into an Egyptian lady and gave her a Book of Mormon, but never knew what came of it. Then out of the blue yesterday a member that was coming with us to an appointment tells us about this friend of hers who knows an Egyptian woman who was given a Book of Mormon, but she had a really hard time understanding it and so she gave it to this friend. So we figured it must be the same lady that we had run into – I mean, really how many Egyptians can there be in Gretna, Virginia? Then a few hours later we go to the post office, and who happens to be sitting in the car next to us when we pull up? The Egyptian lady. We go over and talk to her and she tells us in her broken English that she is glad to see us again and how she gave away our book because she had a hard time understanding it but was still very interested in our religion and asked us a couple of question about things she’d heard and told us a little about Islam. We asked her if she’d like us to get her a copy in her language (Arabic) and she was really excited about that idea and told us where she lived so we could come give it to her when we got it. Crazy.
Isn’t it so amazing when we can start to see God’s hand in all things and how he can weave the threads of everyone’s life into one big, beautiful picture? I love being able to have the opportunity to see those things. For example, I got a card in the mail the other day from the sisters that are serving in Buena Vista right now. They sent me a picture from the baptism of a girl I’d taught while I was there a year ago. I don’t know if you remember me talking about Tabitha, but she was finally baptized! It was so cool to see that! And then I get a letter from Sister Hill, telling me about this less active, part member family that we had started visiting while we were in Christiansburg, and how the husband was getting baptized. I had never even met him because he really didn’t want much to do with the church – and look what happened!
Everything has to start somewhere, and you really just never know what seeds you are planting and what becomes of them. So it’s really fun to be able to see the fruits of some of the seeds you’ve planted every now and then. We are also teaching a part member family here in Gretna now that we are really excited about. The husband joined the church last summer I think, and the wife really didn’t want anything to do with it, but now she’s meeting with us and reading from the Book of Mormon. She’s told us that she thinks we were sent here just for her. Neat, huh? It’s been a great week.
And this next week will be awesome too. We’re having Zone Conference (my last one! I can hardly believe it!), and then Stake Conference that we have to go up to Buena Vista for, so I can see everyone from there! Anyway, I better get going! Love you all!
~Melissa
P.S. I can't send pictures until Sis. Bell finds her camera cord! I guess I could try to remember to take pictures with my camera, but it's been acting funny, so I usually just depend on hers.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Wacky Wednesday
Dear Family,
“It all began with that shoe on the wall. A shoe on the wall – shouldn’t be there at all….” That’s been the theme of the last couple weeks for me. I feel like if I can just find and count all the wacky, wrong, and out of place things, than things will go back to normal. I guess I need to start back last week since my letter got erased. Let’s see…
It all really began at 3:00 o’clock in the morning two Fridays ago. I’d developed a cough the last week or so, but that morning I woke up really feeling a lot worse and coughing up a storm. I go to use the bathroom and then flush it when the toilet starts overflowing. I try plunging it and flush it again, which only caused it to overflow more and I was only half awake and not feeling good anyway, so in despair I give up and go back to bed – leaving the bathroom floor completely soaked (and of course, to make it even better the bathroom is carpeted). So that’s funny how we both had a flooding experience about the same time! Anyway, so in the morning I hear Sister Bell getting up so I go to warn her about the bathroom, and so she decides to try to fix it and did the exact same thing I had done and it, of course, overflows again. And we don’t own any towels except our bath towels so we had nothing to soak it up with except an old blanket that we weren’t using. We can’t get a hold of any plumbers or our landlord and we have to be in Lynchburg for our interviews with our mission president, so we just put a fan on it, opened the window and left it. We ended up being gone all day because we had other appointments and what not all day long. When we get home that night our house stinks and our toilet still doesn’t work so we have to drive to our church building any time we had to go to the bathroom. In the morning we still couldn’t get a hold of a plumber or our landlord and we had a baptism we needed to prepare for that morning, so again we leave it.
The baptism went great! Satan tried really hard to mess things up and get to Will, but he didn’t let anything stop him. Once he had it in his head he was going to finally be baptized, he wanted to do it as soon as possible! We saw him everyday pretty much that week and seeing the happiness on his and his wife’s faces was amazing. I ended up giving one of the talks at the baptism even though I could barely talk and I almost boiled him and Bro. Hall in the baptismal font, but other than that it was great! You see, they told me that they had a problem with the water being too cold before, so didn’t even think to check to see if it was too hot. I just kept checking periodically to see that the water hadn’t gone cold while I filled the font, not even realizing it was a bit too hot. But they said it was fine, so all was well :)
We were able to go to the store and buy some extra towels afterwards and borrowed a shop-vac and we’re able to finally get most the water up. We plunged the toilet some more – and miraculously it started flushing again…go figure.
In the meantime I had been coughing up a lung (I think I had a bit of bronchitis) and it had been raining all day long (which was ironic because we put the rugs and blanket that we used to sop up some of the water outside to dry) but we still proceeded with our day and we had dinner with a member family and they were dropping us off that night, when I realized, we had locked ourselves out of our house. It was freezing and raining and no way to get into our house. But we remembered we’d left the window open all day hoping to help the carpet dry out, but really only succeeding in making it more wet. However the window is really high up from the back. So the members drive us back to their house to get a ladder and he climbs in our bathroom window for us and unlocks our door...
The next morning it starts snowing and after sacrament meeting they cancel the rest of church (just enough time for Will to be confirmed!) and everyone tells me to stay home the rest of the day and get better. But we have appointments that we don’t want to miss, so we go out driving in the snow and slide around a bit, but were completely safe. We ended up having a snowball fight with some people we just met at the apartment complex where our appointment was and had a great time. Then all throughout the night it snows and we have the worst snow we’ve had in a long time here – we got about 10 inches. I didn’t think it would be any big deal, since we were just able to brush it off our car in the morning and go, but most other people around here got snowed and iced in and some lost electricity for 3 days. But what it meant for us was 3 days of cancelled appointments and not being able to see anyone! Because every day it seemed to get worse, not because it snowed anymore, but some of the snow would melt and then it would freeze again in the night and make it even worse for getting around! Last p-day, was very frustrating because not only did my letter get erased, but we didn’t have time to do anything else we needed to, the dryers at the Laundromat were practically all out of order, etc., etc.
Of course, now the weather is in the 80’s and it is just mocking us…. It seems like there was a lot more that happened, but I guess it’s all not important. It just seemed like to counter the amazing experience we had with getting Will ready and baptized, that we had a really bad next couple weeks. Nothing just seemed to go right. Our other investigators all seem to be regressing and not finding many new ones.
However we did run into the funniest old ladies yesterday that just seemed to epitomize small town Virginia culture. When we walked up they were just sitting in the carport reminiscing on their lives. They invited us to sit down and talk with them and they proceed to jab our ears off – about all sorts of things! We find out they are twins, in their 80’s, named Selma and Thelma and they’ve lived in Gretna their whole lives. They sit in the 5th pew at the Baptist church on the corner (the one that the bells play church hymns throughout the day), and everyone looks forward to seeing how they will be dressed on Sunday :) They told us practically their entire life stories and their problems with their children and daughters-in-law and about how nobody keeps the law of chastity. But we did end up teaching them the entire plan of salvation, and they said we could come back whenever we wanted. So funny…
Good news, though, I’m feeling all better. And, I pretty much already knew this but, I’m staying here in Gretna for the rest of my mission with Sister Bell. I can’t believe I only have one transfer left! Just 6 more weeks! Crazy! All the elders I came out with keep giving me a hard time because I’m going home and they’re not.
Anyway, I had a really great talk with my mission president at interviews and had some good doctrinal discussion. Something I was talking to him about was faith and how to really exercise true faith. He told me something that really stood out to me. He was telling me that part of having faith and exercising it was recognizing the promptings of the Spirit, no matter how small, and having the confidence to hold on to them no matter what. So I guess I need to learn to better recognize those little answers and promptings and go forward with them and not doubt. Faith is just one of those things that even though it is so simple, I feel like I could study it for a life time and still have a ton to learn.
To answer your question, no they hadn’t started working on 52nd street when I left, so I got to miss the whole thing! Ha, ha! The pictures were great! Sounds like Kristi is having way too much fun- I’m going to have to come home and tag along after her :) Well, gotta go. All the pictures that we've taken are on Sis. Bells camera and she can't find her cord, or else I'd attach some great pictures. Oh well, you'll see them eventually.
Love you all! ~Melissa
“It all began with that shoe on the wall. A shoe on the wall – shouldn’t be there at all….” That’s been the theme of the last couple weeks for me. I feel like if I can just find and count all the wacky, wrong, and out of place things, than things will go back to normal. I guess I need to start back last week since my letter got erased. Let’s see…
It all really began at 3:00 o’clock in the morning two Fridays ago. I’d developed a cough the last week or so, but that morning I woke up really feeling a lot worse and coughing up a storm. I go to use the bathroom and then flush it when the toilet starts overflowing. I try plunging it and flush it again, which only caused it to overflow more and I was only half awake and not feeling good anyway, so in despair I give up and go back to bed – leaving the bathroom floor completely soaked (and of course, to make it even better the bathroom is carpeted). So that’s funny how we both had a flooding experience about the same time! Anyway, so in the morning I hear Sister Bell getting up so I go to warn her about the bathroom, and so she decides to try to fix it and did the exact same thing I had done and it, of course, overflows again. And we don’t own any towels except our bath towels so we had nothing to soak it up with except an old blanket that we weren’t using. We can’t get a hold of any plumbers or our landlord and we have to be in Lynchburg for our interviews with our mission president, so we just put a fan on it, opened the window and left it. We ended up being gone all day because we had other appointments and what not all day long. When we get home that night our house stinks and our toilet still doesn’t work so we have to drive to our church building any time we had to go to the bathroom. In the morning we still couldn’t get a hold of a plumber or our landlord and we had a baptism we needed to prepare for that morning, so again we leave it.
The baptism went great! Satan tried really hard to mess things up and get to Will, but he didn’t let anything stop him. Once he had it in his head he was going to finally be baptized, he wanted to do it as soon as possible! We saw him everyday pretty much that week and seeing the happiness on his and his wife’s faces was amazing. I ended up giving one of the talks at the baptism even though I could barely talk and I almost boiled him and Bro. Hall in the baptismal font, but other than that it was great! You see, they told me that they had a problem with the water being too cold before, so didn’t even think to check to see if it was too hot. I just kept checking periodically to see that the water hadn’t gone cold while I filled the font, not even realizing it was a bit too hot. But they said it was fine, so all was well :)
We were able to go to the store and buy some extra towels afterwards and borrowed a shop-vac and we’re able to finally get most the water up. We plunged the toilet some more – and miraculously it started flushing again…go figure.
In the meantime I had been coughing up a lung (I think I had a bit of bronchitis) and it had been raining all day long (which was ironic because we put the rugs and blanket that we used to sop up some of the water outside to dry) but we still proceeded with our day and we had dinner with a member family and they were dropping us off that night, when I realized, we had locked ourselves out of our house. It was freezing and raining and no way to get into our house. But we remembered we’d left the window open all day hoping to help the carpet dry out, but really only succeeding in making it more wet. However the window is really high up from the back. So the members drive us back to their house to get a ladder and he climbs in our bathroom window for us and unlocks our door...
The next morning it starts snowing and after sacrament meeting they cancel the rest of church (just enough time for Will to be confirmed!) and everyone tells me to stay home the rest of the day and get better. But we have appointments that we don’t want to miss, so we go out driving in the snow and slide around a bit, but were completely safe. We ended up having a snowball fight with some people we just met at the apartment complex where our appointment was and had a great time. Then all throughout the night it snows and we have the worst snow we’ve had in a long time here – we got about 10 inches. I didn’t think it would be any big deal, since we were just able to brush it off our car in the morning and go, but most other people around here got snowed and iced in and some lost electricity for 3 days. But what it meant for us was 3 days of cancelled appointments and not being able to see anyone! Because every day it seemed to get worse, not because it snowed anymore, but some of the snow would melt and then it would freeze again in the night and make it even worse for getting around! Last p-day, was very frustrating because not only did my letter get erased, but we didn’t have time to do anything else we needed to, the dryers at the Laundromat were practically all out of order, etc., etc.
Of course, now the weather is in the 80’s and it is just mocking us…. It seems like there was a lot more that happened, but I guess it’s all not important. It just seemed like to counter the amazing experience we had with getting Will ready and baptized, that we had a really bad next couple weeks. Nothing just seemed to go right. Our other investigators all seem to be regressing and not finding many new ones.
However we did run into the funniest old ladies yesterday that just seemed to epitomize small town Virginia culture. When we walked up they were just sitting in the carport reminiscing on their lives. They invited us to sit down and talk with them and they proceed to jab our ears off – about all sorts of things! We find out they are twins, in their 80’s, named Selma and Thelma and they’ve lived in Gretna their whole lives. They sit in the 5th pew at the Baptist church on the corner (the one that the bells play church hymns throughout the day), and everyone looks forward to seeing how they will be dressed on Sunday :) They told us practically their entire life stories and their problems with their children and daughters-in-law and about how nobody keeps the law of chastity. But we did end up teaching them the entire plan of salvation, and they said we could come back whenever we wanted. So funny…
Good news, though, I’m feeling all better. And, I pretty much already knew this but, I’m staying here in Gretna for the rest of my mission with Sister Bell. I can’t believe I only have one transfer left! Just 6 more weeks! Crazy! All the elders I came out with keep giving me a hard time because I’m going home and they’re not.
Anyway, I had a really great talk with my mission president at interviews and had some good doctrinal discussion. Something I was talking to him about was faith and how to really exercise true faith. He told me something that really stood out to me. He was telling me that part of having faith and exercising it was recognizing the promptings of the Spirit, no matter how small, and having the confidence to hold on to them no matter what. So I guess I need to learn to better recognize those little answers and promptings and go forward with them and not doubt. Faith is just one of those things that even though it is so simple, I feel like I could study it for a life time and still have a ton to learn.
To answer your question, no they hadn’t started working on 52nd street when I left, so I got to miss the whole thing! Ha, ha! The pictures were great! Sounds like Kristi is having way too much fun- I’m going to have to come home and tag along after her :) Well, gotta go. All the pictures that we've taken are on Sis. Bells camera and she can't find her cord, or else I'd attach some great pictures. Oh well, you'll see them eventually.
Love you all! ~Melissa
Friday, February 27, 2009
Caught off guard!
To Larry, Curly & Mo,Here you go... a picture of Sis. Bell and I with one of our investigators, Ray. His girlfriend, Sandra, is taking the picture and he put his arms around us before we could stop him and she took the picture... notice how we both look uncomfortable? He's a funny guy and really misses the Elders because he used to hug them all the time. They are the ones with all the funny concerns, but we love them to death. We even got to walk their dog the other day. It was so fun. Love you all!
~Melissa
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Feeling the Spirit
To my silly family:
I just don't know what I'm going to do with my family when I get home...I don't even know if I'll fit in anymore... everyone's so busy and important. The pictures you sent cracked me up! Especially Dad wearing those silly glasses. And Stetson is just SO cute! I'm glad Mylie had a good birthday; I don't think I'll recognize her at all; she's grown up so much! I agree with Rick when he said it sounds like Ethan is becoming more like Calvin all the time :) What a funny kid.
It's been another crazy week in Gretna. Oh and by the way, did I ever tell you that this town is so big it even has one stop light? And of course, I church on every corner. So it that respect, it's a lot like what Rick said Honduras was like. It's the same thing, people just don't understand why our church is really any different, it's only when they understand authority that it seems to click. But guess what? We're having a baptism!! Woohoo! It's scheduled for this Saturday as of now, but I think we might end up pushing it back a week just to make sure he's ready. His wife joined the church last year and he's been coming with her most of the time, so it was really just a matter of time. But it was the neatest experience. We were meeting with them and I was getting a little frustrated actually, because it didn't seem like any real teaching was going on. They were just talking with a question or comment every now and then from us. (That's actually a pretty common problem out here, boy do people just love to talk). They didn't seem to be really going anywhere with all their talking, but something just kept telling me to listen to him. So I tried really hard to stay focused on what he was really saying and encourage him when he spoke of his feelings about the gospel. Eventually he basically was bearing his testimony to us about how he knew it was true and he knew what he needed to do. And at one point you just knew the Holy Ghost was speaking to him confirming what he said was true. Then we basically said to him, well, what are you waiting for, and he responded "I don't know - I'm waiting for you!" And we replied that we were just waiting for him to make up his mind. And if that's the case, let's set a date! And he did. So awesome. The Spirit is so real.
The influence of the adversary is also real as we found this week as well. And one of his biggest tools is confusion. We were really disappointed when we went back to see some of our investigators this week that we thought were progressing so well, only to find that they had been confused and we had to explain a lot of things over again that they had understood before but the adversary has been working on them....arrgggghhh (shaking fist). The spirit of contention and confusion really is of the devil. The spirit speaks in plainness and peace. You know what some of the weird concerns I've encountered recently are? We were teaching the plan of salvation, but we didn't get very far, because they started insisting that Adam and Eve weren't the only people on the earth, they were just the only ones in the garden - otherwise who did their kids marry? They also insist that angels have wings and got confused when we referred to Moroni as an angel, but she understood when we explained he was a resurrected being.... people are so funny. And just for the record - I looked up every single instance where the word angel is mentioned in the Bible and never once does it say anything at all about angels having wings. Just goes to show how powerful false traditions are.
I better get going but I just love my family so much and I want you to know that!
~Melissa
P.S. Did you know that Ron Carter died (author of Prelude to Glory Series)? Somebody just told me that, but I guess he died sometime last Fall. I guess he never got to writing those books on the Mexican colonies that he was planning.... I was looking forward to those.
I just don't know what I'm going to do with my family when I get home...I don't even know if I'll fit in anymore... everyone's so busy and important. The pictures you sent cracked me up! Especially Dad wearing those silly glasses. And Stetson is just SO cute! I'm glad Mylie had a good birthday; I don't think I'll recognize her at all; she's grown up so much! I agree with Rick when he said it sounds like Ethan is becoming more like Calvin all the time :) What a funny kid.
It's been another crazy week in Gretna. Oh and by the way, did I ever tell you that this town is so big it even has one stop light? And of course, I church on every corner. So it that respect, it's a lot like what Rick said Honduras was like. It's the same thing, people just don't understand why our church is really any different, it's only when they understand authority that it seems to click. But guess what? We're having a baptism!! Woohoo! It's scheduled for this Saturday as of now, but I think we might end up pushing it back a week just to make sure he's ready. His wife joined the church last year and he's been coming with her most of the time, so it was really just a matter of time. But it was the neatest experience. We were meeting with them and I was getting a little frustrated actually, because it didn't seem like any real teaching was going on. They were just talking with a question or comment every now and then from us. (That's actually a pretty common problem out here, boy do people just love to talk). They didn't seem to be really going anywhere with all their talking, but something just kept telling me to listen to him. So I tried really hard to stay focused on what he was really saying and encourage him when he spoke of his feelings about the gospel. Eventually he basically was bearing his testimony to us about how he knew it was true and he knew what he needed to do. And at one point you just knew the Holy Ghost was speaking to him confirming what he said was true. Then we basically said to him, well, what are you waiting for, and he responded "I don't know - I'm waiting for you!" And we replied that we were just waiting for him to make up his mind. And if that's the case, let's set a date! And he did. So awesome. The Spirit is so real.
The influence of the adversary is also real as we found this week as well. And one of his biggest tools is confusion. We were really disappointed when we went back to see some of our investigators this week that we thought were progressing so well, only to find that they had been confused and we had to explain a lot of things over again that they had understood before but the adversary has been working on them....arrgggghhh (shaking fist). The spirit of contention and confusion really is of the devil. The spirit speaks in plainness and peace. You know what some of the weird concerns I've encountered recently are? We were teaching the plan of salvation, but we didn't get very far, because they started insisting that Adam and Eve weren't the only people on the earth, they were just the only ones in the garden - otherwise who did their kids marry? They also insist that angels have wings and got confused when we referred to Moroni as an angel, but she understood when we explained he was a resurrected being.... people are so funny. And just for the record - I looked up every single instance where the word angel is mentioned in the Bible and never once does it say anything at all about angels having wings. Just goes to show how powerful false traditions are.
I better get going but I just love my family so much and I want you to know that!
~Melissa
P.S. Did you know that Ron Carter died (author of Prelude to Glory Series)? Somebody just told me that, but I guess he died sometime last Fall. I guess he never got to writing those books on the Mexican colonies that he was planning.... I was looking forward to those.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Valentines & Fairies
Howdy Ho, Ranger Joe!
OK, so my accent probably isn't as bad as I made it sound... but, great-time-a-day, ya’ll'd just be tickled if ya’ll knowed what I et this week - chicken livers! I must say they ain’t my favorite. There's a little restaurant here in Gretna that everyone says is just soooo good, and one day a member took us there for lunch. It's real down home southern cookin' buffet style. All sorts of stuff like fried chicken (and fried chicken livers), stewed tomatoes, pinto beans, corn bread, mashed potatoes just oozing with butter... and of course you can't forget the souse meat. I wasn't brave enough to try that - basically it's all the parts of the pig that they didn't use all boiled down and added vinegar to and let congeal.... at least that's what I was told....
Anyway, it's been a really good week. We have a few investigators that are really making progress. One of the couples finally came to church for the first time, and they had such a good experience, and even though they've apparently been taught a lot by the Elders (but of course we didn't know that because the Elders that served here didn't quite ever get the pen to the paper in keeping records....arggghh....) they seem to be really understanding the gospel and it's finally starting to click for them. Of course they have some ridiculous concerns about things like angels having wings. They said, "It says so in the Bible and there's nothing you can say to convince me otherwise." But I've never had investigators before with such questions as they do and still are so willing to keep listening and learning. It was just amazing at church, though; everything that was said in sacrament meeting was just so perfect for them to hear. And then they participated and everything in Sunday School, Relief Society, and Priesthood, and everyone was so welcoming to them. Of course, they might have felt so comfortable in the classes because we were the ones teaching. We taught both the Gospel Principles class and the Relief Society lesson. We got a call at 6:45 in the morning asking us to teach the Relief Society lesson.... I love when that happens... but really I don't get all that nervous to teach anymore, but still speaking in church is a little different. I'm so impressed at Rick talking for 20 minutes in church all in Spanish!
I can't believe how fast I've been able to get to know and love somebody on my mission. It's crazy to think I've only known these investigators for 2 and a half weeks, but it feels like months! We also have an investigator that is from Ireland, I can't remember if I've told you about her, but she is just amazing as well. I can't believe I've only know her for that long either. She's someone I want to keep in contact with forever. So I might be picking up a wee bit of an Irish accent as well to go right along with my Southern.
I had a good Valentine’s day; it's so funny how everyone gives us food for any occasion they can think of. So we're well taken care of. I think I'll have to give up on trying to lose any weight before I come home; even our investigators feed us all the time here! But it was so funny, so Sis. Bell and I decided to buy the cheesiest little elementary school Valentine cards to send to people, so we got some with fairies and Tinkerbelle that came with stickers, and we decided to give them to the Elders in our district, too. I've never seen anyone so excited to get little Valentine cards; they crack me up. They promptly put the fairy stickers on the back of their nametags...
We were talking to one of our investigators husband who is just the nicest guy and knows everyone, and he was telling us that we may not know it, but everyone knows who we are in town and even the surrounding towns and are talking about us. I guess news travels fast when anyone new comes into town here, especially because we're two, young pretty girls, according to the man we were talking to. It was pretty funny. I don't even feel like we've talked to too many people. But of course, they know us.
Well, I'm getting kicked off the computer, so I have to end. But I love you all and thanks for the pictures and the news. I have the best family ever!
~Melissa
OK, so my accent probably isn't as bad as I made it sound... but, great-time-a-day, ya’ll'd just be tickled if ya’ll knowed what I et this week - chicken livers! I must say they ain’t my favorite. There's a little restaurant here in Gretna that everyone says is just soooo good, and one day a member took us there for lunch. It's real down home southern cookin' buffet style. All sorts of stuff like fried chicken (and fried chicken livers), stewed tomatoes, pinto beans, corn bread, mashed potatoes just oozing with butter... and of course you can't forget the souse meat. I wasn't brave enough to try that - basically it's all the parts of the pig that they didn't use all boiled down and added vinegar to and let congeal.... at least that's what I was told....
Anyway, it's been a really good week. We have a few investigators that are really making progress. One of the couples finally came to church for the first time, and they had such a good experience, and even though they've apparently been taught a lot by the Elders (but of course we didn't know that because the Elders that served here didn't quite ever get the pen to the paper in keeping records....arggghh....) they seem to be really understanding the gospel and it's finally starting to click for them. Of course they have some ridiculous concerns about things like angels having wings. They said, "It says so in the Bible and there's nothing you can say to convince me otherwise." But I've never had investigators before with such questions as they do and still are so willing to keep listening and learning. It was just amazing at church, though; everything that was said in sacrament meeting was just so perfect for them to hear. And then they participated and everything in Sunday School, Relief Society, and Priesthood, and everyone was so welcoming to them. Of course, they might have felt so comfortable in the classes because we were the ones teaching. We taught both the Gospel Principles class and the Relief Society lesson. We got a call at 6:45 in the morning asking us to teach the Relief Society lesson.... I love when that happens... but really I don't get all that nervous to teach anymore, but still speaking in church is a little different. I'm so impressed at Rick talking for 20 minutes in church all in Spanish!
I can't believe how fast I've been able to get to know and love somebody on my mission. It's crazy to think I've only known these investigators for 2 and a half weeks, but it feels like months! We also have an investigator that is from Ireland, I can't remember if I've told you about her, but she is just amazing as well. I can't believe I've only know her for that long either. She's someone I want to keep in contact with forever. So I might be picking up a wee bit of an Irish accent as well to go right along with my Southern.
I had a good Valentine’s day; it's so funny how everyone gives us food for any occasion they can think of. So we're well taken care of. I think I'll have to give up on trying to lose any weight before I come home; even our investigators feed us all the time here! But it was so funny, so Sis. Bell and I decided to buy the cheesiest little elementary school Valentine cards to send to people, so we got some with fairies and Tinkerbelle that came with stickers, and we decided to give them to the Elders in our district, too. I've never seen anyone so excited to get little Valentine cards; they crack me up. They promptly put the fairy stickers on the back of their nametags...
We were talking to one of our investigators husband who is just the nicest guy and knows everyone, and he was telling us that we may not know it, but everyone knows who we are in town and even the surrounding towns and are talking about us. I guess news travels fast when anyone new comes into town here, especially because we're two, young pretty girls, according to the man we were talking to. It was pretty funny. I don't even feel like we've talked to too many people. But of course, they know us.
Well, I'm getting kicked off the computer, so I have to end. But I love you all and thanks for the pictures and the news. I have the best family ever!
~Melissa
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Losing My Grammar
Hey, how you?
You know, as much as I hate to admit it, I think it will take awhile for my grammar to recover from being in Virginia, I really do find myself saying phrases from around here before I catch myself. I don't think I talk "TV" anymore...
But I guess you want my address before I forget again. Sorry...
P.O. Box 933
Gretna, VA 24557
So, it's been a pretty busy week, I think we've finally met most of the investigators the Elders left. And I almost have the Branch members down, but everyone's related, so it's hard to remember all the connections. You definitely never want to say anything about anyone else, because it will certainly get back to them in a couple hours. There is this one lady in the branch that wanted us to come and meet her neighbors. She was so bold, it was awesome. And because she was there, these people actually let us in and listened to us and invited us back. Now that's member missionary work!
We also had a Zone Conference on Thursday. And guess what? It was up in Buena Vista and Gay and Larry skipped their lunch to come over to the church building to see me! I felt so loved. I've kept in touch with them, and they are doing so well. I can't believe it was over a year now that they were baptized and now they're preparing to go to the temple! They're teaching in Primary and are very active. That just makes me so happy. Everyone loves them. Gay kept hugging me and didn't want to leave or let me go. I just love them. That was the highlight of my week.
And of course Zone Conference is always uplifting. One of the Elders from my MTC district is now my District Leader and that's a lot of fun. As funny as it might sound, I was just overwhelmed by the love I felt at Zone Conference for all the Elders and Sisters I've served with and my Mission President, and I realized that that's a taste of the love that my Heavenly Father's has for me. He loves me so much He let me have this opportunity to learn to love more than I ever have before. Heavenly Father's the best.
Well, I guess I don't really have much else to say except I love you all! And I love hearing all the funny stories and interesting happenings of my family. Happy Valentine’s Day!
~Melissa
You know, as much as I hate to admit it, I think it will take awhile for my grammar to recover from being in Virginia, I really do find myself saying phrases from around here before I catch myself. I don't think I talk "TV" anymore...
But I guess you want my address before I forget again. Sorry...
P.O. Box 933
Gretna, VA 24557
So, it's been a pretty busy week, I think we've finally met most of the investigators the Elders left. And I almost have the Branch members down, but everyone's related, so it's hard to remember all the connections. You definitely never want to say anything about anyone else, because it will certainly get back to them in a couple hours. There is this one lady in the branch that wanted us to come and meet her neighbors. She was so bold, it was awesome. And because she was there, these people actually let us in and listened to us and invited us back. Now that's member missionary work!
We also had a Zone Conference on Thursday. And guess what? It was up in Buena Vista and Gay and Larry skipped their lunch to come over to the church building to see me! I felt so loved. I've kept in touch with them, and they are doing so well. I can't believe it was over a year now that they were baptized and now they're preparing to go to the temple! They're teaching in Primary and are very active. That just makes me so happy. Everyone loves them. Gay kept hugging me and didn't want to leave or let me go. I just love them. That was the highlight of my week.
And of course Zone Conference is always uplifting. One of the Elders from my MTC district is now my District Leader and that's a lot of fun. As funny as it might sound, I was just overwhelmed by the love I felt at Zone Conference for all the Elders and Sisters I've served with and my Mission President, and I realized that that's a taste of the love that my Heavenly Father's has for me. He loves me so much He let me have this opportunity to learn to love more than I ever have before. Heavenly Father's the best.
Well, I guess I don't really have much else to say except I love you all! And I love hearing all the funny stories and interesting happenings of my family. Happy Valentine’s Day!
~Melissa
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Gretna
Hello Everybodee!
I have to admit, my new area, even though it's not all that far from some of my other areas, is really different. The culture is much more like I'm really in the South than before. Gretna is a very small town, and I can walk to almost everywhere in it pretty easily. Of course, our area's a lot bigger than just Gretna. And apparently, because Gretna is so small and only has a few police officers, they have a pretty bad drug problem. And the stereotype of "the other side of the tracks" is a reality here. But no worries, we have lots of people looking out for us. And there's only a branch here. My first time in a branch. There's about 40 people that come on Sundays and they're almost all old. They laugh about that themselves. They're almost all 50 and above. Absolutely no youth, so they don't have to worry about callings like YM/YW leaders. And only a small primary. Needless to say, it's very reverent during the passing of the sacrament. But the members are awesome. And they have a lot of time to do missionary work with us! I still get fed all the time and they already have an exchange schedule going to go visiting with us. They are a crack up. And the Elders that we took over for actually left us with some really good investigators who are close to baptism, and the house didn't smell near as bad as the last one. Of course, the first thing I had to do was clean and rearrange everything’ I still just don't understand Elders' sense of organization.
My companion’s name is Sister (Heather) Bell. She's from southern California and is really into the performing arts. She's a great missionary already. I probably learn more from my companions than they do from me. I just fill her in on the little things like the how of keeping paperwork, and things like that. Oh, we actually live in our own little house that we have all to ourselves, so no people that live above us that yell at their kids or smoke so you can smell it through the vents.
I've been studying a lot about faith recently, and I just don't know if I can ever really have the faith like the people in the scriptures. But I've been trying. And there really are a lot of little miracles that happen every day if you just recognize them. For instance, we had tried to meet this investigator, but had never been able to find her home. Then later on we decide to go tracting on this certain street, and at the last minute decided just to walk there instead of driving, and on the way back, we were passing this parking lot, and someone calls out to us. It was the investigator that we had tried to find earlier. She just happened to be in that parking lot and happened to see us and think to herself that we looked like missionaries and thought she'd stop us to see if we were the new ones the Elders told her were coming. It's just amazing to me, how Heavenly Father really does know every little thing and can make things work out exactly how they should be if we just trust Him. And it was funny, because we had completely forgotten about it being Super Bowl Sunday that night; no wonder no one answered their doors.... but we were at the right place at the right time to meet this investigator. Cool, huh?
Well, I'll try to take some pictures for you so I can send them next week. Love you all!
~Melissa
I have to admit, my new area, even though it's not all that far from some of my other areas, is really different. The culture is much more like I'm really in the South than before. Gretna is a very small town, and I can walk to almost everywhere in it pretty easily. Of course, our area's a lot bigger than just Gretna. And apparently, because Gretna is so small and only has a few police officers, they have a pretty bad drug problem. And the stereotype of "the other side of the tracks" is a reality here. But no worries, we have lots of people looking out for us. And there's only a branch here. My first time in a branch. There's about 40 people that come on Sundays and they're almost all old. They laugh about that themselves. They're almost all 50 and above. Absolutely no youth, so they don't have to worry about callings like YM/YW leaders. And only a small primary. Needless to say, it's very reverent during the passing of the sacrament. But the members are awesome. And they have a lot of time to do missionary work with us! I still get fed all the time and they already have an exchange schedule going to go visiting with us. They are a crack up. And the Elders that we took over for actually left us with some really good investigators who are close to baptism, and the house didn't smell near as bad as the last one. Of course, the first thing I had to do was clean and rearrange everything’ I still just don't understand Elders' sense of organization.
My companion’s name is Sister (Heather) Bell. She's from southern California and is really into the performing arts. She's a great missionary already. I probably learn more from my companions than they do from me. I just fill her in on the little things like the how of keeping paperwork, and things like that. Oh, we actually live in our own little house that we have all to ourselves, so no people that live above us that yell at their kids or smoke so you can smell it through the vents.
I've been studying a lot about faith recently, and I just don't know if I can ever really have the faith like the people in the scriptures. But I've been trying. And there really are a lot of little miracles that happen every day if you just recognize them. For instance, we had tried to meet this investigator, but had never been able to find her home. Then later on we decide to go tracting on this certain street, and at the last minute decided just to walk there instead of driving, and on the way back, we were passing this parking lot, and someone calls out to us. It was the investigator that we had tried to find earlier. She just happened to be in that parking lot and happened to see us and think to herself that we looked like missionaries and thought she'd stop us to see if we were the new ones the Elders told her were coming. It's just amazing to me, how Heavenly Father really does know every little thing and can make things work out exactly how they should be if we just trust Him. And it was funny, because we had completely forgotten about it being Super Bowl Sunday that night; no wonder no one answered their doors.... but we were at the right place at the right time to meet this investigator. Cool, huh?
Well, I'll try to take some pictures for you so I can send them next week. Love you all!
~Melissa
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