Family!!!!!
Yay for email day! It's been quite the week and maybe not as eventful in finding new investigators, but nonetheless, quite the week! I am so excited to email you as it was good to hear from you all and learn about your past week. I was excited to know that you enjoyed the NBA finals. I'm also glad that Sister McIver is off on her mission now. I think I will post her something so when anyone gets her MTC address can you please forward it to me. Anyway's, good to hear you are all alive and well. Just a quick update on my back progress, besides the Chiropractor and I becoming good friends due to my frequent visits to his clinic with my companion to sort out my back. It is almost 100% better and today I am going to play volleyball which is probably the first real physical activity I've done in a while (other then walking) so we will see how it goes, but honestly, it is coming along great.
Anyway's here goes the week. After P-Day last week we realized we didn't have a dinner appointment so we went home and told Sister Christensen that we didn't have a dinner appointment and said we should all just go out to dinner. So we did and it was cool. But, unbeknown to us, she paid for the whole meal which was wrong because we invited her to dinner. She said she didn't mind paying. Well, after dinner we went to Carol's house and helped clean out her fridge. So picture this - a loaded fridge (that is badly in need of a clean) that when I would pull out some dish or something with not even an inch of food left in it she would say, "No we need to keep that!" or like bottles of drink that were expired and I would say, "It's expired" and go to chuck it out and she would say, "So who says you can't eat or drink something after its expired?" I realized I'm pretty much a food snob because she wouldn't have had much left in her fridge after I cleaned it out if she wasn't watching me. I said, "My mum always says if its expired chuck it out!" She laughed, only because she is like that. We finished helping her to clean her fridge but in saying that, we put the majority of the food back in (expired and all) and she was so thrilled with what we did. It was crazy. I have several stories that I could share about Carol because she is possibly one of my favorite people here as she is so interesting.
Tuesday, we got to visit with Charmaine and it was awesome. We taught her about the gospel of Jesus Christ but my concern is that she thinks this gospel is good for us but not for her. She kept saying thats awesome you have seen it bless your life or whatever and I kept thinking it can bless your life too! But we will see what happens. I love that lady so much so it was good to be able to visit her. Then we decided to do what Elder Chadderton did and go member tracting around one of our Wards and it turned out to be really good. We got a few referrals and we also found a family that needed some service. They are moving soon, so we offered to come back and help them pack and stuff. Then we had dinner and then we went to visit a less active family. Oh my goodness we literally had just walked into the house and the lady had a smirk on her face that was really strange and then I felt the spirit leave the minute after we entered their home. I sat down and was thinking, "Oh no, what's going on here?" Before we even got a word in she started going on about something this and something that and how her weight loss is more important to her then coming to church, and I clearly wasn't paying enough attention to what she was saying (it was getting late) but as I tuned into what she was actually saying I said, "So you're not coming back to church?" She then said, "Well, not anytime soon I'm not!" (This lady was active up until about 3 weeks ago.) She then proceeded to tell us in a forceful kind of manner about how Joseph Smith got together and wrote the Book of Mormon and how the women should have the priesthood and how fake the members are when they share their testimonies and my goodness did her and her husband go on and on. I had the initial impression to just get up and yell at them and then walk out then I realized that it probably isn't the best representation of Christ so I sat on the couch praying that the Lord would soften my heart to know what they needed to hear, and in all honesty who knows what I said, but we ended with a prayer and got out of their as fast as we could. I honestly felt like crying walking out of that house because you could feel that Satan had wormed his way into their minds and hearts and had planted all this negative information that they were relishing in. Made me sick to see someone who knows the truth suddenly testify against it. Anyway's, it was a sad way to end an evening. It was around 9:00 p.m. so we went home and I needed to do anything to feel the spirit again after witnessing how vacant the spirit was in their home. In hind sight we shouldn't have let them continue on that long, but now we know for next time. That was such a sad experience!
Wednesday, we had an entire day of appointments booked from 10:00 a.m. right through until 7:00 p.m. but by 10:30 a.m. our first three appointments cancelled on us and so our next appointment wasn't until 2:30 p.m. which made for a long morning. So we studied, then we went member tracting again and we met this less active guy who was trimming his hedges so we offered to help him, but instead he sat down and told us about himself and his family and why he doesn't go to church anymore. Then he invited us to be his escorts to a wedding, and he said if we spoke in church he would definitely be there. Old men are funny. Then we met this lady who is less active but she pretended like she wasn't, then we met another lady who literally was in the middle of a crisis so we did her dishes and tried to help as best we could. Eventually, lunch time arrived and we had our other appointments stick the rest of the evening. Overall, Wednesday was a good day. It's interesting getting to know the members in the area. When we have 6 Wards you barely know a handful of people so in getting out and meeting the members we actually help them to get to know us more and then we build trust and we also get to see what everyone is dealing with in their lives at the present moment. We generally have some good lessons after we get to know everyone. Like I said earlier a lot happened this week but not a lot in finding new investigators.
Thursday was weekly planning and it was awesome. Over and done with in less then 2 hours. Record timing if you ask me. Then we walked to our appointment and it was with Viet who we tracted into on Sister Bishaws first day. He was studying to be a catholic priest but he stopped 3 years shy of becoming one. He had a lot of questions, a lot, a lot of questions and we barely scratched the surface but it was cool because before we left he asked how come we were so sure the LDS church was right and we got to bear our testimonies and witness how through the Holy Ghost we know the truth of all things, and then he said, "I've never felt that about the catholic church", and he said, "I know if I find anything better then the catholic church I will definitely join that church", so we are actually really excited to see what happens with him, but the cooler thing is that we found him tracting. We don't do a lot of tracting so it's cool to know we can meet interesting people when we are out tracting - DUH! Hahaha! Anyway's, then we had a lesson with Anthony and we talked about prophets because he was struggling with that a little bit, but he is awesome. To see the sincere desire he has to really know if its true or not was awesome. Then that night we had a lesson with Ashlee who is supposed to be getting baptized on June 30th. We taught her the rest of the commandments and then we planned her baptism. We just found out we couldn't get the font for the time she wanted so we are still trying to organize what would work best for her. We will see what happens.
Friday was district meeting, then we saw Craige. Please keep craige in your prayers as he is getting a lot of slack from his parents about being LDS and Satan is clearly working real hard on him. I know he will be okay but we had a long lesson with him just listening to the trials he is facing. You know its true when Satan works that hard on someone. Anyway's, then we went to see a lady who unfortunately, wasn't home and so we decided to go tracting again because we had about 30 minutes before dinner. Funny story. The 1st door we knock on there is no answer, the 2nd door we knock on, an inactive LDS guy who wants nothing to do with the church answers, the 3rd door we knock on is an atheist who also wants nothing to do with religion but had a good chat with us, and so by this time I'm thinking, "I'm done, this is getting us no where!" But, there is one more door in this apartment block and so we go to knock on the 4th door only to find a member who needs help getting permanent marker off her kitchen floor/ cupboards/ fridge because her son has just taken a permanent marker to the kitchen and she was super flustered. It was commical to me that almost every stereotype that you find tracting was all within 4 doors - the one that doesn't answer the door, the less active, the atheist and the active member. A unique experience! We went to dinner and then we went to contact a referral only to learn she is out of town for 2 weeks so we called it a night and headed home.
Saturday, we went to a baptism of the Gambino family. I have met them a couple of times but a senior couple was actually teaching them and they invited us to the baptism which was awesome. Then we had a brunch after and then we went and helped the one family that was moving to pack and my goodness their house was HUGE and they had a lot of work to do and it was only the mum and the daughter doing everything. Then we went to a Ward activity and after that we taught a lesson to a less active and then called it a night. We did alot of work with members this week.
Yesterday, was a good day. We text Taryn's Mum to see if she was going to come to church and she said she had woken up with a sore foot and she was in so much pain and she said she couldn't walk but if by 9:00 a.m. she was feeling better she may bring the kids to church. My companion and I immediately knelt down and prayed because we knew that the Lord could work miracles and get her foot feeling better and low and behold at 8:45 a.m. we get a text saying they are coming to church. Prayers really are answered. That was a cool experience. Then we went to a YSA correlation meeting, then to the YSA Ward and while we were their we were invited to dinner at this Tongan girls place because one of the recent converts was going to be their. So, we went to dinner after church and it was cool. Her brother is serving in NZ right now so it was cool to hear all the places he has served and stuff. I don't think he has been in our Ward, but who knows. Anyway's, then we attended a fireside for the YSA Ward too. Sister Christensen was telling us about this guy from the NY area who was the Director for Public and International Relations for the church in NY only to find out it was one of the Elders father. We went and it was the coolest fireside. He talked about pretty much doing missionary work but not at the same time and how different missionary work and public relations really are. He shared about all these diplomats and the connections they have been able to form and it was just cool. We got to meet him afterwards. Then it was home time.
Overall, we have done a lot of work with members this past week. This next week we have more finding to do and we probably won't be doing as much with the members but its nice to mix it up sometimes. So interesting thing I realized this week, I was studying about Moses because I've decided to start studying the Old Testament and naturally you start in Moses according to the study schedule and it gives that scripture about how Moses realizes without God man is nothing and it made me realize besides the fact that its true, it made me realize that its very obvious in less active and non-member people. They seem to have less substance and less direction when they aren't doing the things the Lord would have them do their lives become nothing without the power of God to help them. It made me realize that many of them are less likely to be motivated to achieve something or do something with their lives because they see no point, so I had an epiphany while studying about Moses and realized we need God not only to grant us and bless us with talents and abilities to do things but also to enrich and make our lives worth living. It made me realize that if we think we have a crappy life its probably because we're neglecting some part of the Saviours teachings. Anyway's, food for thought! I cannott believe this time next week we will be in July. Pretty much the year is almost over. Anyway's, I love you family! Keep enjoying the temple for me and Hinalei and Baby Joe of course. Take care, Sister Chadderton. P.s. Sorry no cool pictures this week.
