Hello FAMILY!!!!
Well this week has been a lot better than last week. I really enjoyed getting your emails on Tuesday and they were the boost I needed to get me through the rest of the week. Then I got the package on Thursday - which made my day. That tea towel of NZ is hillarious and I took it to this Less Active ladies house and she LOVED IT. She wants one, so I will just give her this one and you can send me another one when you get the chance. I also got your snail mail on Friday so I will reply to those today, and post them off.
There is this weird thing here where you can put the letters you need to post in your mail box and when the mail man comes he takes them and leaves your mail so you dont have to go find a post box. I guess its cool.
So my funny story for the week, "We were at a members home for dinner and you know they hear I'm from NZ and they are all excited and have no idea about NZ and the Dad goes to me, "So when did you learn English, was it in High School?" I just smiled and said, "Yeah, I had to learn it in High School!" And then he said, "Well I'm glad you learnt English because you speak it real good." In my mind, I was laughing the entire time. I kept thinking seriously, "NEW ZEALANDERS SPEAK ENGLISH!" But, some people! It made me laugh. I have learnt that instead of correcting people I will just go along with them as it makes it a little bit more exciting. Haha!"
Oh and Cola, I haven't met any other Polynesian's as yet. I have met an old guy named Bro. Hill who served in NZ in 1960 - 1962 and he talked about NZ so much its crazy. He doesn't remember people so there was no hope in asking if he knew either set of grandparents, but he just talked about Pat and Ken MacDonald who apparently live in Morrinsville. Don't know who they are but that is who he went on about.
Oh and they say this thing here where, instead of saying, "A couple of times" they say, "A couple three." I dunno, it is so funny. And then instead of saying, "I'm a truck driver, they always say, "I drive a truck!" Anyway's, as you can see I am getting use to Idaho.
You will be pleased to know that I finally had my first meal with potatoes on Saturday night and then again on Sunday, but most of our meals have been salads or real healthy stuff.
Let me update you on who we met this week. It has been a great week.
I met Sister Meyers who has several sons, is a bit less active but her sons are all taking the lessons so they can be baptised. Two of them are already baptised but she wanted to meet us before letting us talk to 9 year old son. She liked us enough so we have an appointment with him again tonight.
We had a referral for a family out in Sweet who have 3 kids and they want to learn more about the church so we went to visit them and wow! The place they live is so humbling. I can't get over the amount of people who do not live in real houses. They live in these mobile home/ trailer things. If I can get pictures I will but goodness some tiny, tiny, houses - honestly!
It hasn't been an easy week over all as the majority of our appointments kept falling through except for one on Friday. Every appointment we had scheduled for Friday fell through but we got to teach this young girl (21 years) called Alaina. Her dad had passed away a few months ago and she was looking for peace and comfort so we taught her the plan of salvation and she cried when we talked abot the ressurection and how people won't know pain in their perfected state. She loved knowing that, because she said her dad was always in pain. So that was a neat experience. She lived in this like deserted, warehouse and literally you would not call it a home - but that's where she lives.
Then we taught the Earl family again, and they began by saying they have talked about baptism and want to be baptised as a family but they have a 7 year old and want her to be baptized with them. So, they didn't quite understand why she had to wait till she was 8, but they weren't ready to commit to a date, and we had only taught them once. They have a lot of questions about little things. The dad was wondering about things like plural marriage and why Nephi was asked to kill Laban and little things like that and we were at a members home so we taught the plan of salvation and then we did our research on his questions and we will go back this week and sit down with him and his wife and talk about all there concerns. They are such a golden family. I hope they can endure to the end.
Then I'm not sure if I told you last week about a lady called Joanne who left her boyfriend of 2 years and just felt she needed to come closer to God and she wants to take the lessons. There is some depression problems and she is struggling from something but it was her birthday on Sunday so today we're going to bake her a cake and take it to her. She turned 45 so she might be going through a mid-life crisis I'm not sure?
And Sunday was amazing. We were sitting out the front of the church buildings and I turned to my companion and I said, "Do you feel this is where we need to be this morning? (We have the choice of 2 wards to attend every hour). We decided to pray we both felt we needed to go to the Stake Center and catch Butte Ward at 9:00 a.m. instead of East Valley Ward that we had originally planned to attend. Well, we arrived at the Stake Centre to attend Butte Ward and both y companion and I felt this overwhelming confirmation that we were in the right place. Sunday we drove between both buildings all day but it was a great day. We went to three sacramet meetings and bore our testimonies 3 times so needless to say by the end I was starving!!!! (Fast Sunday).
We got these books in Relief Society called, "Daughters in my Kingdom." It is a book that the First Presidency commissioned to be written for all the sisters in Relief Society and all the women in the church will get them soon enough. Let me know when you get yours. I think its pretty cool. I have started reading it.
Well, on Sunday night we met a lady and she had been filled with so much anti-mormon literature it was almost painful to stand and listen to the stuff coming out of her mouth. She was so mis-informed and so hardened towards the Church that my companion and I couldn't get out of her presence fast enough. When we got back to the car there was this yuck spirit, but it made me appreciate my testimony and my knowledge of the gospel, because none of what she was saying made any sense and I won't listen to junk like that. I know what I believe and attack it as Satan might, I won't give in. The gospel is my life, it's my everything so times like that make me realize how much I do know about the gospel and how much I do believe.
Then Monday, we met a lady called Heather Arnett, (I can't remember if I told you about her), anyway, she is always busy and never home. Well, it was Labour Day yesterday and she was home and so she let us in to visit with her and she is so golden. She literally described to us the church she was looking for and everything she described was the organization of our church. She is really interested and so golden but she can't committ to lesson times because she is on edge waiting for her husband to get home from Iraq any day now. He has been gone for 2 years and she has no idea of his discharge date.
Then Monday night, we finally got into visit a less active / investigators family in their home. We have been calling and stopping by for a few weeks now and they wouldn't return our calls, so last night they finally called back so we hurried over there and we had an amazing visit with them. The lady just had her left breast removed due to cancer, they are both on disability because of some neuropathy thing where they can't lift anything I think? And they have a 14 year old son who they want to hear the lessons and be taught, but you could feel the spirit in their home and they have such a strong spirit and a belief in God. It is so cool. I am learning that a lot of my mission will involve sitting in people's homes and listening to their life stories and everything that has happened to them, but I am also learning sometimes people just need you to listen. They don't want a solution they just want you to listen. So I think thats cool. So these less actives live in this like 100 year old house and the wife barely moves off the couch but they have so much faith. They aren't active but I know the Lord is softening there hearts.
Oh, and I forgot to tell you that last Saturday my companion and I did service and we learnt how to do, "Canned tomatoes!" This non-member family was canning tomatoes and called to see if we wanted to learn how to do it, so we were like yeah sure, and you could tell they just enjoyed the missionaries in their home. They invited us back to teach their daughter, and hopefully we can get the whole family to sit in on the discussion. I feel like a lot of people here use there kids as an excuse to get the missionaries into there homes because they do not want to actually admit that they want to hear the lessons. But you know whatever gets us in there is fine with me.
It has been a good week. I'm learning a lot more about the spirit and how the spirit works. And this is the Lord's work so of course He has things for us to do every day and we just need to listen to Him. So I'm learning a lot about listening and patience and humility. BTW you would be proud of me. We get paid the first of every month and I didnt spend any money till yesterday. I went 5 whole days without spending even a penny. It helps that we're not allowed to go shopping on any day other than P-day or to buy meals, but still 5 days without shopping is a new record for me. I think I now know why we are able to survive on such a small income.
Anyways I love you family. Whenever I meet a new family, or I meet a new person it reminds you of you all and I just realize how truly blessed I am to have you all for eternity, and how even though I have to be away from you it doesn't matter because turns out we will always have eternity. I think I really like teaching the plan of salvation. Oh and thanks for the pics mum/dad I loved them. Little boy is so cute his pictures make me laugh and I missed seeing my niece in pictures this week. Anyways love you all. Take care. Sister Chadderton
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