Hola Familia!
Hermana West
Friday, December 23, 2011
Javier Member Referral 12-21-2011
Hermana West
Making Progress With the Members 12-14-2011
Hola Familia!
This week has been really good! I feel like we're starting to make more progress with the members which is great. I figured out why several of them never wanted to invite us over before...it's because the old branch president scared them all about feeding Hna's Miller and Delis. There were several who were really scared about making them sick because they both has Celiacs disease. So we were able to get an appointment with a family who we'd never been able to visit before last week and it went really well! I think they trust us a lot more now after talking with them in their home and they seem willing to help. On Sunday several of the members came up to Jose (our investigator) and talked with him and the family that we visited said they'd like to go over to visit with him and his family sometime. We thought that was awesome and are hoping it's a sign that the branch is ready to really start growing. We were also able to have two members come with us to appointments this week that hadn't come with us before. So we've been really excited about that because getting the members involved with our awesome investigators will probably help them feel more comfortable coming to church. So Jose is still coming to church. He's more active than a lot of the members now but his main doubts about baptism come from his family. He says it's really hard to make that decision when he has absolutely no support and when his family has no desire to do it with him. The past few lessons now though his wife has been home during our lessons. She sits on the couch and watches TV on the other side of the room (she gets mad when Jose asks her to turn it off). Even though she still always says "NO" when we invite her to come sit with us I think she's listening to what we're teaching. So we're hoping that little by little we can help soften her heart. We're excited for Maria Mendoza this week as well! She understands really well everything that we teach and has the desire to be baptized! We weren't able to set a date yet because she says she wants to come to church first. She says she's going to get Sundays off of work so she can be with her family and come to church. We had a member come with us who lives really close to her and she invited her to follow her to church on Sunday so that was awesome! We had zone conference yesterday in one of the the Chicago buildings and it was really good as usual! Also I played the piano for a musical number put on by our zone. "O come all ye faithful" from the Hymnbook. It was a little nerve racking but it was alright. I only messed up really bad twice. haha. I think I mentioned it once before that I would probably be the one playing the piano for the branch a couple transfers ago. So I've been playing in sacrament meeting too. I ordered a simplified hymnbook from the office which helps (though some of the arrangements sound so easy and cheesy that I want to pull my hair out) so I've been doing a mixture of easy ones and normal ones. Sometimes I mess up really bad but I think I'm improving my piano skills at least. haha.Something random and cool that I heard about this week: When I was in my last area with my second comp. Hermana Rojas, we tracted into a couple from India who said they would be interested in coming to our church. They let us in for a few minutes and we explained a little bit about our church and everything. They spoke with pretty heavy accents. We told them what time the English ward started and they said they needed a ride. We told them that someone could probably bring them and took down their information. After we left I had the idea to go around the corner to this member from the English ward who we had tracted into accidentally a week or so earlier. She was really nice, let us use her bathroom and said to call her if there was anything she could ever do to help us (she loves missionaries because she served a mission too). So we went over again and she said she would love to bring them to church. So after that we gave them as a referral to the English Elders and they started teaching them. Anyways the point for telling this story is that I found out last week that they both recently got baptized! It made me really happy to know I had a small part in helping them to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Thanks Mom and Dad for all your support and for everyone else as well. I love you all and hope that you are enjoying your Christmas time! I am not sure yet about what time I'll be calling/skyping on Christmas. We'll probably try this week to find someone who has video chat options on their computer... I'm not really sure who would. Hopefully I'll know by next Wednesday and I can tell youlove,
Hermana West
Oh and P.S. I got the Christmas package. Thanks!
This week has been really good! I feel like we're starting to make more progress with the members which is great. I figured out why several of them never wanted to invite us over before...it's because the old branch president scared them all about feeding Hna's Miller and Delis. There were several who were really scared about making them sick because they both has Celiacs disease. So we were able to get an appointment with a family who we'd never been able to visit before last week and it went really well! I think they trust us a lot more now after talking with them in their home and they seem willing to help. On Sunday several of the members came up to Jose (our investigator) and talked with him and the family that we visited said they'd like to go over to visit with him and his family sometime. We thought that was awesome and are hoping it's a sign that the branch is ready to really start growing. We were also able to have two members come with us to appointments this week that hadn't come with us before. So we've been really excited about that because getting the members involved with our awesome investigators will probably help them feel more comfortable coming to church. So Jose is still coming to church. He's more active than a lot of the members now but his main doubts about baptism come from his family. He says it's really hard to make that decision when he has absolutely no support and when his family has no desire to do it with him. The past few lessons now though his wife has been home during our lessons. She sits on the couch and watches TV on the other side of the room (she gets mad when Jose asks her to turn it off). Even though she still always says "NO" when we invite her to come sit with us I think she's listening to what we're teaching. So we're hoping that little by little we can help soften her heart. We're excited for Maria Mendoza this week as well! She understands really well everything that we teach and has the desire to be baptized! We weren't able to set a date yet because she says she wants to come to church first. She says she's going to get Sundays off of work so she can be with her family and come to church. We had a member come with us who lives really close to her and she invited her to follow her to church on Sunday so that was awesome! We had zone conference yesterday in one of the the Chicago buildings and it was really good as usual! Also I played the piano for a musical number put on by our zone. "O come all ye faithful" from the Hymnbook. It was a little nerve racking but it was alright. I only messed up really bad twice. haha. I think I mentioned it once before that I would probably be the one playing the piano for the branch a couple transfers ago. So I've been playing in sacrament meeting too. I ordered a simplified hymnbook from the office which helps (though some of the arrangements sound so easy and cheesy that I want to pull my hair out) so I've been doing a mixture of easy ones and normal ones. Sometimes I mess up really bad but I think I'm improving my piano skills at least. haha.Something random and cool that I heard about this week: When I was in my last area with my second comp. Hermana Rojas, we tracted into a couple from India who said they would be interested in coming to our church. They let us in for a few minutes and we explained a little bit about our church and everything. They spoke with pretty heavy accents. We told them what time the English ward started and they said they needed a ride. We told them that someone could probably bring them and took down their information. After we left I had the idea to go around the corner to this member from the English ward who we had tracted into accidentally a week or so earlier. She was really nice, let us use her bathroom and said to call her if there was anything she could ever do to help us (she loves missionaries because she served a mission too). So we went over again and she said she would love to bring them to church. So after that we gave them as a referral to the English Elders and they started teaching them. Anyways the point for telling this story is that I found out last week that they both recently got baptized! It made me really happy to know I had a small part in helping them to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Thanks Mom and Dad for all your support and for everyone else as well. I love you all and hope that you are enjoying your Christmas time! I am not sure yet about what time I'll be calling/skyping on Christmas. We'll probably try this week to find someone who has video chat options on their computer... I'm not really sure who would. Hopefully I'll know by next Wednesday and I can tell youlove,
Hermana West
Oh and P.S. I got the Christmas package. Thanks!
Member Family Helps Rosa 12-8-2011
Hola familia!
Hermana Kristen West
"7 New Investigators" 11-30-2011
Hola Familia!
Hope you all have a great week!
love,
Hermana West
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Training Hermana Freeman 11-23-2011
Hola Familia!
Transfers were yesterday and I got a new companion. And when I say new I mean actually fresh from the MTC. So I'll be training for the next 2 transfers at least. Her name is Hermana Freeman and she's from Utah. They are testing out this new 6 week language training program at the MTC to see how missionaries do with the language in only 6 weeks compared to 9 weeks. So Hermana Freeman (and 2 of the other missionaries who came in this week) were only in the MTC for 6 weeks. She didn't have any Spanish classes before so needless to say the Spanish is going to be pretty rough...hopefully she can pick up on things quickly from here. In our first lesson yesterday with a (less-active member - Alicia) I had her share her favorite scripture and even though her Spanish was barely understandable the spirit was there really strong and the scripture was so perfect for Alicia that she started to cry. So despite whatever weaknesses and challenges we face the Lord can still use us as instruments in his hands :)
Hermana Delis got transferred to my old area! I was so excited for her and was telling her everything about the area haha. President Doll had us do something different from the usual since Carpentersville is on the way to the Naperville stake center for us he had us drive down there first drop off Hermana Delis and then Hermana Frandsen (who's going home) and I went down in their car. So lots of driving yesterday but it was fun to talk with Hermana Frandsen again before she left.
One of the families in the English ward invited us and the spanish Elders over for Thanksgiving because no one in the branch had. So we'll be going over there tomorrow.
Sorry my e-mail is a little bit shorter this week but I'm out of time. Hermana Freeman forgot her e-mail log-in info so we had to go all the way back to the apartment and come back and we're supposed to be done with everything by 12:00 today. So I hope you all have a fantastic week! I love you!
Hermana West
Transfers were yesterday and I got a new companion. And when I say new I mean actually fresh from the MTC. So I'll be training for the next 2 transfers at least. Her name is Hermana Freeman and she's from Utah. They are testing out this new 6 week language training program at the MTC to see how missionaries do with the language in only 6 weeks compared to 9 weeks. So Hermana Freeman (and 2 of the other missionaries who came in this week) were only in the MTC for 6 weeks. She didn't have any Spanish classes before so needless to say the Spanish is going to be pretty rough...hopefully she can pick up on things quickly from here. In our first lesson yesterday with a (less-active member - Alicia) I had her share her favorite scripture and even though her Spanish was barely understandable the spirit was there really strong and the scripture was so perfect for Alicia that she started to cry. So despite whatever weaknesses and challenges we face the Lord can still use us as instruments in his hands :)
Hermana Delis got transferred to my old area! I was so excited for her and was telling her everything about the area haha. President Doll had us do something different from the usual since Carpentersville is on the way to the Naperville stake center for us he had us drive down there first drop off Hermana Delis and then Hermana Frandsen (who's going home) and I went down in their car. So lots of driving yesterday but it was fun to talk with Hermana Frandsen again before she left.
One of the families in the English ward invited us and the spanish Elders over for Thanksgiving because no one in the branch had. So we'll be going over there tomorrow.
Sorry my e-mail is a little bit shorter this week but I'm out of time. Hermana Freeman forgot her e-mail log-in info so we had to go all the way back to the apartment and come back and we're supposed to be done with everything by 12:00 today. So I hope you all have a fantastic week! I love you!
Hermana West
Thursday, November 17, 2011
"High Hopes" 11-16-2011
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| Kevin Ave (you can see the church building in the background and if you look closely you can see snow on the roof!) |
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| Last P-day after lunch with my old comp at this random little restaurant with a crazy chicken painted on the outside. I think they may have picked to eat there just because of the chicken. It was good though, I had a hamburger with the biggest patty ever. |
This week was kind of slower again but we had an awesome day on Monday! we got 2 members to come with us to appointments that day which was great because it's usually really hard to get them to come with us. We also had 4 lessons total that day which was great. One of them was with Jose. On Sunday Jose came to church again for the 6th time in a row! This time he came for all 3 hours and loved it. Afterwords he said that he felt something in his chest and asked how he could become a member of the church. Hermana Delis responded that it's through baptism and he said "oh because it's different in every church right?". We had our lesson with him the next day where we talked about the importance of having a prophet and the priesthood (he's finally starting to understand the significance of Joseph smith and the restoration too!), the word of wisdom, and baptism a little. He said he wants to get baptized but is still hesitant about a date. We ran out of time to keep talking with him about it. We're glad he's finally starting to pick up on stuff now. We have investigators on both ends of the spectrum; we have a few like Jose who are really receptive to the spirit but have a harder time understanding, and then we have ones who understand really well but would rather solve things logically rather than spiritually though prayer. It's been kind of interesting planning for and teaching all these different people.
After our lesson with Jose we finally found another one of our investigators again after 3 weeks (Maria Mendoza) and we had an awesome lesson with her too! we talked about the first part of the plan of salvation and the first steps we need to take in this life to follow Christ (faith, repentance, baptism). She always has such good questions and so after we explained baptism a little bit she asked us right out if her baptism as a baby in the catholic church counted and we (cautiously) explained the important differences (authority, immersion, and making covenants). She understood completely and when I asked if she would be baptized once she knows these things are true she said yes! We also had to rush out of that lesson too to get home on time so we didn't get to talk much more about it. But we're hoping she'll be able to make it to church this week (with her family!).
We have a lot of high hopes for this area and are praying that miracles can happen in this area! We are teaching several promising families right now and we're hoping that we'll be able to (1) get them to keep their appointments (2) help them come to church and (3) get them to progress towards baptism pretty soon.
Transfers are next week on Tuesday so that the people going home can make it back before Thanksgiving. So probably hold mailing anything directly to my apartment just in case. 5 new Spanish speaking Hermanas are coming in this transfer which is a ton. That will increase the number of Hermanas in the mission to 22 which is a lot. 4 are going home so I think all lot of changes will be made this transfer. They're splitting our preparation day time between 2 days also. E-mails will still be Wednesday and Thursday they say we can spend 2 hours for Thanksgiving and some time for sports/games. I'm not sure what we'll be doing for that because I don't really think anyone is going to invite us over which is kind of sad. But oh well. We might bring it up today in our coordination meeting to see if anyone might love us enough haha. If not we'll figure something else to do by ourselves or maybe with the other missionaries.
Also Happy Birthday Kevin! 13 is so old. This week on the way to zone meeting we spotted a road called Kevin Ave and so we pulled over so I could get a picture. haha. So happy birthday Kevin, you're famous! Thanks for the pictures too. So fun to see!
Today is a really nice day, pretty crisp but it's sunny and NOT windy which helps sooo much. So we're thinking of going to this one state park with some of the other missionaries (It might be one of the last chances we have to do something outside without freezing to death). I'll bring my camera no worries.
love,
Hermana West
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Awesome Lesson with Maria Mendoza 10-26-2011
Hola familia!
This week was pretty good! Jose came to sacrament meeting again for the 3rd time in a row! This time he brought two of his granddaughters (ages 9 and 6). He's also read in the Book of Mormon through 1 Nephi 8 which is awesome! We tried to set a baptismal date this week but doesn't feel ready. We didn't have a lot of time to resolve his doubts so we'll see if we can help him feel more comfortable with it next time. Yet again another situation to remind me to have patience. It's hard, especially because I feel like my time here is going down a steep incline.
This week we also had a really awesome lesson with a woman named Maria Mendoza who we found a couple months ago but hadn't been able to find her since. She'd listened to the missionaries around 5 years ago and was interested in listening again. She understands the apostasy/restoration really well, has a desire to read the Book of Mormon, and wants come to church (when she can get work off). We had a really good discussion with her about how to gain spiritual knowledge though the Spirit because she says she gets so confused by all the different opinions out there. At the end of the lesson we asked if she would offer the prayer and she did. During the prayer she started crying and thanked God for the peace she was feeling in that moment! I think her heart is really open to this! We're so excited to teach her again and we hope that we can get her husband to sit in on the lessons too.
We had a really bold lesson with a less active member who was baptized a little over a year ago and is going through a hard time. It was really hard. She kept looking for sympathy and had all of her excuses saying things like "hermanas I don't know if I'm going to be able to come back to church because the only job I think I can get will have me work on Sundays - but I have to eat and pay rent". As sad as I felt for her I knew I couldn't tell her it was alright to not come to church. We read in 3 Nephi 13 where it talks about putting God first and everything else will be added unto us and promised her over and over again that it was true. By the end of the lesson she stopped fighting with her excuses and had decided to see if she could get an appointment with the Branch President. We hope we helped her at least a little bit.
This week, magically, we've been getting more meals from the members. One Hermana invited us over on Monday, that night another Hermana (who actually is in the English ward but still wants to help us) gave us a huge pot full of posole (sp?). It's this Mexican soup with Hominy and meat. It's pretty good - I want to try and figure out how to make it so you can all try it after I get back. ALSO, yesterday Hna Aguilar offered to send us home with some Posole. I laughed and told her that we had just gotten a huge pot full the day before. She asked us which kind and I said "rojo" (because there's different kinds) and she said oh this one is verde. Oh in that case...haha. So we're pretty much going to eat posole every day this week. But it's all good because it's delicious.
More good news! Yesterday I found out that Evila Perez, whom I was teaching the entire time I was in my last area finally got baptized this past Friday! It's a miracle because while I was there she would go back and forth all the time - I think I probably told you a lot about her. So that made me happy.
Other random comments:
1. The guy on the computer next to me had a mini-freak out session a few minutes ago. It was really confusing. He started making noises and picking up the keyboard. He also almost fell out of his chair. One of the Librarians came over to try and help and he stood up and walked away. Maybe he has some sort of mental condition. The Elders, who were also here doing e-mails, thought it was pretty funny
2. It's getting colder and I don't like it
3. We think we'll carve pumpkins today and try to figure out how to bake the seeds
4. On Halloween they want us to be home by 7 (unless we have an appointment) so that we're not out there knocking doors with the trick or treaters. haha.
Well I love you all! Have a great week!
Hermana West
This week was pretty good! Jose came to sacrament meeting again for the 3rd time in a row! This time he brought two of his granddaughters (ages 9 and 6). He's also read in the Book of Mormon through 1 Nephi 8 which is awesome! We tried to set a baptismal date this week but doesn't feel ready. We didn't have a lot of time to resolve his doubts so we'll see if we can help him feel more comfortable with it next time. Yet again another situation to remind me to have patience. It's hard, especially because I feel like my time here is going down a steep incline.
This week we also had a really awesome lesson with a woman named Maria Mendoza who we found a couple months ago but hadn't been able to find her since. She'd listened to the missionaries around 5 years ago and was interested in listening again. She understands the apostasy/restoration really well, has a desire to read the Book of Mormon, and wants come to church (when she can get work off). We had a really good discussion with her about how to gain spiritual knowledge though the Spirit because she says she gets so confused by all the different opinions out there. At the end of the lesson we asked if she would offer the prayer and she did. During the prayer she started crying and thanked God for the peace she was feeling in that moment! I think her heart is really open to this! We're so excited to teach her again and we hope that we can get her husband to sit in on the lessons too.
We had a really bold lesson with a less active member who was baptized a little over a year ago and is going through a hard time. It was really hard. She kept looking for sympathy and had all of her excuses saying things like "hermanas I don't know if I'm going to be able to come back to church because the only job I think I can get will have me work on Sundays - but I have to eat and pay rent". As sad as I felt for her I knew I couldn't tell her it was alright to not come to church. We read in 3 Nephi 13 where it talks about putting God first and everything else will be added unto us and promised her over and over again that it was true. By the end of the lesson she stopped fighting with her excuses and had decided to see if she could get an appointment with the Branch President. We hope we helped her at least a little bit.
This week, magically, we've been getting more meals from the members. One Hermana invited us over on Monday, that night another Hermana (who actually is in the English ward but still wants to help us) gave us a huge pot full of posole (sp?). It's this Mexican soup with Hominy and meat. It's pretty good - I want to try and figure out how to make it so you can all try it after I get back. ALSO, yesterday Hna Aguilar offered to send us home with some Posole. I laughed and told her that we had just gotten a huge pot full the day before. She asked us which kind and I said "rojo" (because there's different kinds) and she said oh this one is verde. Oh in that case...haha. So we're pretty much going to eat posole every day this week. But it's all good because it's delicious.
More good news! Yesterday I found out that Evila Perez, whom I was teaching the entire time I was in my last area finally got baptized this past Friday! It's a miracle because while I was there she would go back and forth all the time - I think I probably told you a lot about her. So that made me happy.
Other random comments:
1. The guy on the computer next to me had a mini-freak out session a few minutes ago. It was really confusing. He started making noises and picking up the keyboard. He also almost fell out of his chair. One of the Librarians came over to try and help and he stood up and walked away. Maybe he has some sort of mental condition. The Elders, who were also here doing e-mails, thought it was pretty funny
2. It's getting colder and I don't like it
3. We think we'll carve pumpkins today and try to figure out how to bake the seeds
4. On Halloween they want us to be home by 7 (unless we have an appointment) so that we're not out there knocking doors with the trick or treaters. haha.
Well I love you all! Have a great week!
Hermana West
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
"Special Zone Conference With Elder Ellis" 10-19-2011
Hola todos!
This week was pretty good! We were able to get more lessons this week which was awesome! We've been inviting everyone to come to invitation Sunday this week and we're hoping to get a really good turn out. We haven't been able to get many member appointments to encourage the members to invite their friends because they keep flaking out on us. But we're still trying. On Monday one of the members flaked out on us really bad last minute because she had to go "shopping" which put us in a really difficult situation because she was going to come with us to 2 appointments with men. So we've been a little bit down about that and we're not really sure how to get a woman to come with us to Jose. We haven't been able to get his wife to come listen yet. She literally ignores us. He told her last time to respond back and she said "no tengo lengua" (I don't have a tongue). She's kind of scary...in a funny way. We don't think it's just us though because she's always yelling at the other people in the house. We're excited for Jose though because he's come to sacrament meeting twice in a row now and says he plans on continuing! We want to talk to him about baptism next time we're able to have an appointment.
We're excited again for Hermana Aguilar and her daughter Bianca. We think Hna. Aguilar is thinking about coming back to church because she keeps asking us questions like "if someone hasn't come to church in a long time do they have to get re-baptized?". She's so stubborn I don't know if she wants to admit it but we are starting to see a difference and the spirit is always there in the lessons. We're trying to get the ward out to go visit them - its hard. I think they've given up on them and the Aguilars are the only members in Marengo so it's far away for most of branch members.
We had a special Zone conference yesterday with Elder Ellis from the Seventy and his wife. We we're together with the two zones in Chicago. As usually we had to go all the way down there. It took almost 2 hours with traffic both on the way there and back so It took most of the day. Afterwords I was really tired. It was a really good conference! I feel like I learned so much! I especially liked the part where Elder Ellis was talking about not limiting God with our prayers. He used the example of when Nephi prayed to have the strength to break the ropes his brothers had tied him with. He didn't just ask for someone to come along and help him him out. It kind of helped me see things from a different perspective. It really requires a lot of faith but we don't have to be like "please can we maybe just find 1 person who wants to get baptized this month?" Elder Ellis said "why just 1?" It went really well with what his wife talked to us about how faith can move mountains. The conference also got me thinking more about families and redoubling my efforts to try and teach all the members of a family.
I'm excited for one couple that we're teaching right now - Lucero y Mario. They talk A LOT in lessons and like to debate sometimes...with us and each other so sometimes it's hard to get a word in but they are both very interested in what we've shared so far especially about having a Prophet today. They say they'd like to come to church for invitation Sunday so we're really hoping they will. I can't remember If I told you already that we have connections at this one taco place in Woodstock. The manager lets us eat there for free. We walked in there to put pass along cards there one day and he told us we could have anything we wanted free of charge - he says "para que el diablo no me lleve al infierno" (so that the devil wont bring him down to hell). He's really funny, but talks so fast so I miss what he says sometimes. He and his wife are old investigators and we talked with his wife a little bit this week and went over the restoration (She also talks really fast). She says she's pretty confused because of all the different religions but she's willing to listen so we'll see how it goes!
Until next week!
Hermana West
This week was pretty good! We were able to get more lessons this week which was awesome! We've been inviting everyone to come to invitation Sunday this week and we're hoping to get a really good turn out. We haven't been able to get many member appointments to encourage the members to invite their friends because they keep flaking out on us. But we're still trying. On Monday one of the members flaked out on us really bad last minute because she had to go "shopping" which put us in a really difficult situation because she was going to come with us to 2 appointments with men. So we've been a little bit down about that and we're not really sure how to get a woman to come with us to Jose. We haven't been able to get his wife to come listen yet. She literally ignores us. He told her last time to respond back and she said "no tengo lengua" (I don't have a tongue). She's kind of scary...in a funny way. We don't think it's just us though because she's always yelling at the other people in the house. We're excited for Jose though because he's come to sacrament meeting twice in a row now and says he plans on continuing! We want to talk to him about baptism next time we're able to have an appointment.
We're excited again for Hermana Aguilar and her daughter Bianca. We think Hna. Aguilar is thinking about coming back to church because she keeps asking us questions like "if someone hasn't come to church in a long time do they have to get re-baptized?". She's so stubborn I don't know if she wants to admit it but we are starting to see a difference and the spirit is always there in the lessons. We're trying to get the ward out to go visit them - its hard. I think they've given up on them and the Aguilars are the only members in Marengo so it's far away for most of branch members.
We had a special Zone conference yesterday with Elder Ellis from the Seventy and his wife. We we're together with the two zones in Chicago. As usually we had to go all the way down there. It took almost 2 hours with traffic both on the way there and back so It took most of the day. Afterwords I was really tired. It was a really good conference! I feel like I learned so much! I especially liked the part where Elder Ellis was talking about not limiting God with our prayers. He used the example of when Nephi prayed to have the strength to break the ropes his brothers had tied him with. He didn't just ask for someone to come along and help him him out. It kind of helped me see things from a different perspective. It really requires a lot of faith but we don't have to be like "please can we maybe just find 1 person who wants to get baptized this month?" Elder Ellis said "why just 1?" It went really well with what his wife talked to us about how faith can move mountains. The conference also got me thinking more about families and redoubling my efforts to try and teach all the members of a family.
I'm excited for one couple that we're teaching right now - Lucero y Mario. They talk A LOT in lessons and like to debate sometimes...with us and each other so sometimes it's hard to get a word in but they are both very interested in what we've shared so far especially about having a Prophet today. They say they'd like to come to church for invitation Sunday so we're really hoping they will. I can't remember If I told you already that we have connections at this one taco place in Woodstock. The manager lets us eat there for free. We walked in there to put pass along cards there one day and he told us we could have anything we wanted free of charge - he says "para que el diablo no me lleve al infierno" (so that the devil wont bring him down to hell). He's really funny, but talks so fast so I miss what he says sometimes. He and his wife are old investigators and we talked with his wife a little bit this week and went over the restoration (She also talks really fast). She says she's pretty confused because of all the different religions but she's willing to listen so we'll see how it goes!
Until next week!
Hermana West
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
"Still in Woodstock" 10-12-2011
Hola Todos!
Transfers were today but nothing changed. I am still in Woodstock with Hna. Delis for the 3rd transfer in a row. We get along really well though so It's good. I'm starting to think that I might spend the rest of my mission here because I only have 3 more opportunities to change after this and next transfer I think my odds of training are pretty high because 4 Hermanas are leaving (which usually means you stay in the same area). BUT who knows? I got the Flu Shot about 30 minutes ago and my arm feels weird...though I'm sure how much of that is real and how much of that is just in my head. Hopefully it doesn't get as sore as last years though. Also it was weird today having to use my first name and hearing them call it out at the Walgreen's pharmacy. It feels sort of like hearing a bad word or something.
We had people at church this week again which was great! The Familia Lopez (who came to conference last week after talking with missionaries in a Florida Airport) and Jose. We found Jose knocking doors a couple months ago and had had a hard time getting appointments/llessons with him because his wife really has no interest in listening to us and he wouldn't ever give us a for sure time to we could stop by ("just stop by whenever") and bring a member with us. But he said he enjoyed checking out different churches and would like to come to ours. Saturday we felt like we should call him to invite him to church again and he came for sacrament meeting! He enjoyed it and said he'd like to come back next week. We were also able to have a lesson with him on Monday. There were a lot of distractions with people coming in and out and his wife making snide comments in the background but he is open to baptism and said he will read this week! I was able to get an appointment with the Familia Lopez this week too which I'm really proud of because it was hard. I had to ask like 5 times and finally they accepted "how about we just set a time aside so we don't plan anything else and we'll call you before to make sure it's Okay?". They called us on Monday saying it was still OK so we'll be visiting with them on Saturday night.
As far as stumping questions go. It's true like BMW said, one of the best things you can do in any situation is just share your testimony. Like it says in 2 Nephi 33:1 the spirit can touch the hearts of the people we talk with when we share pure testimony. Explain that we don't always know all the reasons WHY we have certain commandments, but if we follow them and pray to know we will receive confirmation that it's true and we will always receive the promised blessings from the Lord. We don't always understand the reasons why we just need to trust that God knows what's best for us. Some other good scriptures John 7:17, Ether 12:6, Mosiah 2:41, and of course Moroni 10:3-5 and James 1:5. Also it's good to try not to focus too much on the nit picky questions and just go straight into the good stuff, BoM, prophets, eternal families etc. =D
Oh here's my address for the next 6 weeks at least:
2045 Willow Brooke Dr Apt 1-A
Woodstock, IL 60098
Other Random comments:
1. There's someone nearby in the Library who smells like wet socks. bleh.
2. Now my arm really hurts
3. This week the weather has been super nice. I love it.
4. I think I may now be the branch pianist...*mini-panic*
Love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!
Hermana West
Transfers were today but nothing changed. I am still in Woodstock with Hna. Delis for the 3rd transfer in a row. We get along really well though so It's good. I'm starting to think that I might spend the rest of my mission here because I only have 3 more opportunities to change after this and next transfer I think my odds of training are pretty high because 4 Hermanas are leaving (which usually means you stay in the same area). BUT who knows? I got the Flu Shot about 30 minutes ago and my arm feels weird...though I'm sure how much of that is real and how much of that is just in my head. Hopefully it doesn't get as sore as last years though. Also it was weird today having to use my first name and hearing them call it out at the Walgreen's pharmacy. It feels sort of like hearing a bad word or something.
We had people at church this week again which was great! The Familia Lopez (who came to conference last week after talking with missionaries in a Florida Airport) and Jose. We found Jose knocking doors a couple months ago and had had a hard time getting appointments/llessons with him because his wife really has no interest in listening to us and he wouldn't ever give us a for sure time to we could stop by ("just stop by whenever") and bring a member with us. But he said he enjoyed checking out different churches and would like to come to ours. Saturday we felt like we should call him to invite him to church again and he came for sacrament meeting! He enjoyed it and said he'd like to come back next week. We were also able to have a lesson with him on Monday. There were a lot of distractions with people coming in and out and his wife making snide comments in the background but he is open to baptism and said he will read this week! I was able to get an appointment with the Familia Lopez this week too which I'm really proud of because it was hard. I had to ask like 5 times and finally they accepted "how about we just set a time aside so we don't plan anything else and we'll call you before to make sure it's Okay?". They called us on Monday saying it was still OK so we'll be visiting with them on Saturday night.
As far as stumping questions go. It's true like BMW said, one of the best things you can do in any situation is just share your testimony. Like it says in 2 Nephi 33:1 the spirit can touch the hearts of the people we talk with when we share pure testimony. Explain that we don't always know all the reasons WHY we have certain commandments, but if we follow them and pray to know we will receive confirmation that it's true and we will always receive the promised blessings from the Lord. We don't always understand the reasons why we just need to trust that God knows what's best for us. Some other good scriptures John 7:17, Ether 12:6, Mosiah 2:41, and of course Moroni 10:3-5 and James 1:5. Also it's good to try not to focus too much on the nit picky questions and just go straight into the good stuff, BoM, prophets, eternal families etc. =D
Oh here's my address for the next 6 weeks at least:
2045 Willow Brooke Dr Apt 1-A
Woodstock, IL 60098
Other Random comments:
1. There's someone nearby in the Library who smells like wet socks. bleh.
2. Now my arm really hurts
3. This week the weather has been super nice. I love it.
4. I think I may now be the branch pianist...*mini-panic*
Love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!
Hermana West
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| Corn Picture |
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| District photo with a Cat we found drawn on the board |
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| Switching back after transfers with Hermanas Brown and Summers |
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
"Conference!" 10-5-2011
Hola Todos!
Well, lots of cool things have happened this week!
1. We went on exchanges with the Hermanas in Rockford. I went to Rockford with Hermana Brown who's in her 2 transfer here so pretty new still. It was great until the car wouldn't start the next morning. We opened the hood and saw that the battery was really corroded so we spent the next few hours waiting for a member to come help us jump start it and driving around trying to find a car place that had time for us. It was fun getting to know Hermana Brown though! They actually ended up getting a new car yesterday though (they replace missionary cars after about 60,000 miles probably to avoid all the car problems that start coming).
2. General Conference! Maria Peña came to conference on Sunday, stayed for both sessions, and the potluck between sessions! She really loved it and the best part was that members were fellow-shipping her! It was awesome. Also, we had a random couple show up for conference. It's a really cool story! They talked with missionaries in an airport in Florida who were on their way to South America. They told them about conference, gave them a pass-along card, and the couple later looked up where the nearest chapel was and showed up at 10 thinking that was when it started. Luckily someone from the English ward found them before they decided to leave (because no one else was there when they arrived). In talking with them we found out that they are looking for a church for their son in Peru who's in a really bad spot in life. They want missionaries to go visit him. They enjoyed conference and stayed for the potluck the branch had between sessions and talk with some of the members. They said they want to come to church next week too! The husband is a little hesitant about us going over to teach them (he said if I'm coming to church I don't need extra classes) but they gave us their information anyway. So it was pretty much awesome and it really shows how the little things we do as missionaries really can have a big impact even if we don't see the results.
I thought conference was great! Spiritual feast for sure! I can't decide on a favorite but for now I think I might say President Uchtdorf's and President Monson's. President Monson was really funny. I especially enjoyed every time he shook his head really fast after talking about something he didn't like. haha. I got a lot of things out of conference as a whole. It's a really interesting way to look at it. My mind just pulled bits and pieces from every talk into this overall theme that I can apply to missionary work and myself personally. In summary: The moral conditions of the world are horrible, we need to be strong and we have a responsibility as members to help others (share, teach, support, correct misinformation, etc) and some of the best tools we have are scriptures and prayer (personal revelation).
3. Mission council and leadership training meeting on Monday. We drove down with the zone leaders and our district leader. Took forever with traffic. The meeting was really good! It was mostly a combination of going over zone numbers doctrinal discussion, role plays, and introducing the new missionary training program. They want everyone in the mission to go over the training program for the next 12 weeks in companion study so that everyone is familiar with it. I think it will be cool. It was a really long day but good.
4. Yesterday we had a really good lesson with Hermana Aguilar and Bianca who I told you about last week. We taught them the Gospel and the spirit was really strong again. We brought up if they'd talked about baptism for Bianca yet and the Hermana said she doesn't really have anything against it but needed to talk with her husband about it. Bianca said she was pretty sure she wanted to! I think the biggest doubt for the parents is church - because they've been inactive so long it will be a big step for them to come back. We can tell that Hermana Aguilar feels the spirit during our lessons so we're hoping with time the decision will be easier for them.
6. Transfers are next week I can't believe it. I'll get my address to you once I find out if I'm getting transferred or not.
7. I got the CD's you sent! Thanks. A few of the songs are so cheesy I want to die but a lot of them are good. Haha. Oh EFY.
8. I'll try to send some pictures next week
9. Thanks for your e-mails! It was great to here about your conference experiences. That is so awesome that some investigators came! I bet the missionaries were ecstatic.
Love you all!
Hermana West
Well, lots of cool things have happened this week!
1. We went on exchanges with the Hermanas in Rockford. I went to Rockford with Hermana Brown who's in her 2 transfer here so pretty new still. It was great until the car wouldn't start the next morning. We opened the hood and saw that the battery was really corroded so we spent the next few hours waiting for a member to come help us jump start it and driving around trying to find a car place that had time for us. It was fun getting to know Hermana Brown though! They actually ended up getting a new car yesterday though (they replace missionary cars after about 60,000 miles probably to avoid all the car problems that start coming).
2. General Conference! Maria Peña came to conference on Sunday, stayed for both sessions, and the potluck between sessions! She really loved it and the best part was that members were fellow-shipping her! It was awesome. Also, we had a random couple show up for conference. It's a really cool story! They talked with missionaries in an airport in Florida who were on their way to South America. They told them about conference, gave them a pass-along card, and the couple later looked up where the nearest chapel was and showed up at 10 thinking that was when it started. Luckily someone from the English ward found them before they decided to leave (because no one else was there when they arrived). In talking with them we found out that they are looking for a church for their son in Peru who's in a really bad spot in life. They want missionaries to go visit him. They enjoyed conference and stayed for the potluck the branch had between sessions and talk with some of the members. They said they want to come to church next week too! The husband is a little hesitant about us going over to teach them (he said if I'm coming to church I don't need extra classes) but they gave us their information anyway. So it was pretty much awesome and it really shows how the little things we do as missionaries really can have a big impact even if we don't see the results.
I thought conference was great! Spiritual feast for sure! I can't decide on a favorite but for now I think I might say President Uchtdorf's and President Monson's. President Monson was really funny. I especially enjoyed every time he shook his head really fast after talking about something he didn't like. haha. I got a lot of things out of conference as a whole. It's a really interesting way to look at it. My mind just pulled bits and pieces from every talk into this overall theme that I can apply to missionary work and myself personally. In summary: The moral conditions of the world are horrible, we need to be strong and we have a responsibility as members to help others (share, teach, support, correct misinformation, etc) and some of the best tools we have are scriptures and prayer (personal revelation).
3. Mission council and leadership training meeting on Monday. We drove down with the zone leaders and our district leader. Took forever with traffic. The meeting was really good! It was mostly a combination of going over zone numbers doctrinal discussion, role plays, and introducing the new missionary training program. They want everyone in the mission to go over the training program for the next 12 weeks in companion study so that everyone is familiar with it. I think it will be cool. It was a really long day but good.
4. Yesterday we had a really good lesson with Hermana Aguilar and Bianca who I told you about last week. We taught them the Gospel and the spirit was really strong again. We brought up if they'd talked about baptism for Bianca yet and the Hermana said she doesn't really have anything against it but needed to talk with her husband about it. Bianca said she was pretty sure she wanted to! I think the biggest doubt for the parents is church - because they've been inactive so long it will be a big step for them to come back. We can tell that Hermana Aguilar feels the spirit during our lessons so we're hoping with time the decision will be easier for them.
6. Transfers are next week I can't believe it. I'll get my address to you once I find out if I'm getting transferred or not.
7. I got the CD's you sent! Thanks. A few of the songs are so cheesy I want to die but a lot of them are good. Haha. Oh EFY.
8. I'll try to send some pictures next week
9. Thanks for your e-mails! It was great to here about your conference experiences. That is so awesome that some investigators came! I bet the missionaries were ecstatic.
Love you all!
Hermana West
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| This is all the district/zone leaders, and the sisters and a senior couple who were invited to come to the mission conference. It was neat. The other Hermanas next to Hermana Delis and I are the ones we went on exchanges with this week (Hermanas Brown and Summers) |
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
"Good Lesson With Familia Aguilar" 9-28-2011
Hi Everyone!
This week was pretty good! Better than last week. We were able to get a lot more lessons this week which was nice. Also, Randomly we were let in by two different English speaking people which doesn't happen that often. We had really good lessons. One said she was interested in learning more so we gave her as a referral to the Elders. The other one said she followed more of a pagan belief system but was open to other things. That was interesting. We left her with the phone number for the Elders because she wasn't sure about missionaries coming back. On Tuesday of last week we were able to find a lot of people who we hadn't been able to find in a while. One of them, Sylvia, we hadn't taught in about 2 months because she and her sister we never there for the appointments. We weren't too sure if they were still interested but when we stopped by on Tuesday we found Sylvia and she was so happy that we came. She kept saying it was a miracle that we came and found her again. She didn't remember much about what we taught her before and she hadn't been reading or anything but for some reason she was happy to see us. We stopped by again yesterday and reviewed lesson 1 with her. She has a little trouble understanding but I think she's getting there. On Sunday we had a really good lesson with Sandra an old investigator who we re-found and Jesús (her dad). The spirit was really strong and they both have a desire to learn more. We're excited for them and hope that it will help Laura (Sandra's sister who was baptized a little over a year ago) get more excited about coming to church again.
Also yesterday we had a really good lesson with the Familia Aguilar (I think I've mentioned them before - they have family in my last area). They've been inactive for a while. We're not sure exactly why or for how long but we think it's kind of a touchy subject. Bianca, their 12 year old daughter hasn't been baptized so we've been working with her a little bit. Hermana Aguilar has been participating more in the lessons too and we've realized that there's a lot she doesn't remember as well so we'd decided to start over and go through a lot of the basics with both of them. Yesterday we talked about the Book of Mormon and how we can gain a testimony of it through the Spirit. As we were testifying the spirit was there really strong. The Hermana is pretty stubborn but I think she felt it too. We'd been inviting them to watch conference and at the end of the lesson we invited them again and she started saying how they thought they might be able to watch the Saturday one there in the house. To see her actually considering it was progress from before. We hope we can continue to help them make progress (even if it's only small steps at a time) to help them bring the light of the gospel back in their lives.
I was able to watch Women's conference - well at least the last hour. We ended up getting lost on the way to the stake center because the GPS led us like 3-4 miles away from the actual church building and it took a while to figure out where it was. I LOVED President Uchtdorf's talk. I think it was probably perfect for a lot of the women who heard it too. He hit on a lot of points that many people struggle with internally I think. I'm really excited for general conference this weekend!
Two exciting things this week. Well, at least they're exciting to me because they're out of the usual. We're going to have exchanges tomorrow with the Hermanas in Rockford and I'll be going there for the day. The other exciting thing is that Hna. Delis and I were invited to the mission council/ training meeting this Monday. It's for the zone leaders mainly but a lot of times they invite 1 or 2 companionships of sisters to go as well to have more representation I think. It's going to take all day pretty much. It's from 9-4 and it's in Naperville which is almost an hour and a half away. I'll let you know how it goes next week.
That's really exciting about the Mormon.org campaign coming to Seattle. President Doll really wanted it to come to Chicago too because it really would bring a lot of positive attention to the church and increase media referrals but...we didn't get picked. He tells us he thinks it's because the mission as a whole is bad at reporting back on the media referrals we already get. I wish there was something I could do to help that but I've never gotten one... most of the requests that come are for English materials.
As for Megan's teachers. It's possible that I had her Spanish teacher because I had two. I don't remember their names though. One was a man from Spain, and the other a woman from Germany who spoke like 4-5 languages. I liked them both. Also that cake looked really good. Maybe you can send me a piece =D.
Oh, also I'm thinking about sending a box home with some of my summer clothes within the next few weeks so I don't have to lug as much stuff around the next 6 (cold) months. It's kind of a weird thought that I probably wont need them again here.
Well, Hope you have a great week this week! I love you all!
~Hermana West
This week was pretty good! Better than last week. We were able to get a lot more lessons this week which was nice. Also, Randomly we were let in by two different English speaking people which doesn't happen that often. We had really good lessons. One said she was interested in learning more so we gave her as a referral to the Elders. The other one said she followed more of a pagan belief system but was open to other things. That was interesting. We left her with the phone number for the Elders because she wasn't sure about missionaries coming back. On Tuesday of last week we were able to find a lot of people who we hadn't been able to find in a while. One of them, Sylvia, we hadn't taught in about 2 months because she and her sister we never there for the appointments. We weren't too sure if they were still interested but when we stopped by on Tuesday we found Sylvia and she was so happy that we came. She kept saying it was a miracle that we came and found her again. She didn't remember much about what we taught her before and she hadn't been reading or anything but for some reason she was happy to see us. We stopped by again yesterday and reviewed lesson 1 with her. She has a little trouble understanding but I think she's getting there. On Sunday we had a really good lesson with Sandra an old investigator who we re-found and Jesús (her dad). The spirit was really strong and they both have a desire to learn more. We're excited for them and hope that it will help Laura (Sandra's sister who was baptized a little over a year ago) get more excited about coming to church again.
Also yesterday we had a really good lesson with the Familia Aguilar (I think I've mentioned them before - they have family in my last area). They've been inactive for a while. We're not sure exactly why or for how long but we think it's kind of a touchy subject. Bianca, their 12 year old daughter hasn't been baptized so we've been working with her a little bit. Hermana Aguilar has been participating more in the lessons too and we've realized that there's a lot she doesn't remember as well so we'd decided to start over and go through a lot of the basics with both of them. Yesterday we talked about the Book of Mormon and how we can gain a testimony of it through the Spirit. As we were testifying the spirit was there really strong. The Hermana is pretty stubborn but I think she felt it too. We'd been inviting them to watch conference and at the end of the lesson we invited them again and she started saying how they thought they might be able to watch the Saturday one there in the house. To see her actually considering it was progress from before. We hope we can continue to help them make progress (even if it's only small steps at a time) to help them bring the light of the gospel back in their lives.
I was able to watch Women's conference - well at least the last hour. We ended up getting lost on the way to the stake center because the GPS led us like 3-4 miles away from the actual church building and it took a while to figure out where it was. I LOVED President Uchtdorf's talk. I think it was probably perfect for a lot of the women who heard it too. He hit on a lot of points that many people struggle with internally I think. I'm really excited for general conference this weekend!
Two exciting things this week. Well, at least they're exciting to me because they're out of the usual. We're going to have exchanges tomorrow with the Hermanas in Rockford and I'll be going there for the day. The other exciting thing is that Hna. Delis and I were invited to the mission council/ training meeting this Monday. It's for the zone leaders mainly but a lot of times they invite 1 or 2 companionships of sisters to go as well to have more representation I think. It's going to take all day pretty much. It's from 9-4 and it's in Naperville which is almost an hour and a half away. I'll let you know how it goes next week.
That's really exciting about the Mormon.org campaign coming to Seattle. President Doll really wanted it to come to Chicago too because it really would bring a lot of positive attention to the church and increase media referrals but...we didn't get picked. He tells us he thinks it's because the mission as a whole is bad at reporting back on the media referrals we already get. I wish there was something I could do to help that but I've never gotten one... most of the requests that come are for English materials.
As for Megan's teachers. It's possible that I had her Spanish teacher because I had two. I don't remember their names though. One was a man from Spain, and the other a woman from Germany who spoke like 4-5 languages. I liked them both. Also that cake looked really good. Maybe you can send me a piece =D.
Oh, also I'm thinking about sending a box home with some of my summer clothes within the next few weeks so I don't have to lug as much stuff around the next 6 (cold) months. It's kind of a weird thought that I probably wont need them again here.
Well, Hope you have a great week this week! I love you all!
~Hermana West
Thursday, September 22, 2011
"Branch Psychologists" 9-21-2011
Hola Todos!
Thanks for sending me a copy of the 4th missionary! Funny story. The day after I asked for it we all got copies of it to read and look over before the zone conference on Monday. So it was interesting that I'd been thinking about it. I must have secret abilities to know the future or something. Zone Conference was really good, as usual. We discussed the 4th missionary, talked about how to work with members, how to study effectively, and other various awesome topics. We had to go a long ways for zone conference because we were combined with one of the Chicago zones. Most of them are on bikes so we had to go pretty much the whole way (to one of the church buildings in Chicago). They took us all in the big van. At zone conference I was able to see some of the other hermanas and sisters who I hadn't seen in a while which was fun. It was hard to believe that one of them, Hna Mackley (who was in my zone for 5 transfers), is going home in October. It's weird how fast the time goes.
This past week was probably one of my worst as far as finding investigator lessons. Only 3 total. It was a little depressing. Hermana Delis and I couldn't think of anything huge that we were doing wrong or differently so I guess it was just one of those weeks. Everyone's deciding that they're too busy to meet with us which is sad because we've had some amazing lessons with many of them. We had kind of an interesting experience on Saturday. Kind of a "the world is working against us" moment but also funny at the same time. We did a lot of knocking that day because 2 appointments fell through. As we were finding we kept finding only men who were home alone. We had to turn down 3-4 teaching opportunities because there wasn't a woman there. Being short on lessons that week we kept joking about how that WOULD happen to us. They all told us we could come back a different day though so hopefully we can find them again (with their wives). Yesterday made up for that though because we were able to have 4 lessons, find 2 new investigators, and find 2 people who we hadn't been able to find in a long time. So it was good. Sometimes we just have to be patient.
Maria Pena who was on date last week freaked out a little bit. We called her before to confirm the appointment and told us she didn't want to get baptized because the idea of leaving Catholisism and everything her mom taught her was making her really depressed all week. Her Mom died pretty recently so she's feeling that somehow she's being disloyal or unappreciative of her Mom by following this religion. We were able to have a really good lesson with her where we helped her feel better about that but she still doesn't want to give us a for sure answer about baptism. She's really not in any hurry and she wants to be 100% sure that she's making the right choice. We think she could still get baptized soon but she's starting to slack more with her commitments and hasn't come to church in 3 weeks so we're trying to help her with that.
Thanks for the pictures and updates! That's crazy that Grant is home from his mission now (refer back to last comment at end of 1st paragraph).
Other random comments.
1. I think sometimes we are the branch psychologists. Some people tell us everything.
2. It's not cold today! yay
3. I'm a missionary!
Love you!
Hermana West
Thanks for sending me a copy of the 4th missionary! Funny story. The day after I asked for it we all got copies of it to read and look over before the zone conference on Monday. So it was interesting that I'd been thinking about it. I must have secret abilities to know the future or something. Zone Conference was really good, as usual. We discussed the 4th missionary, talked about how to work with members, how to study effectively, and other various awesome topics. We had to go a long ways for zone conference because we were combined with one of the Chicago zones. Most of them are on bikes so we had to go pretty much the whole way (to one of the church buildings in Chicago). They took us all in the big van. At zone conference I was able to see some of the other hermanas and sisters who I hadn't seen in a while which was fun. It was hard to believe that one of them, Hna Mackley (who was in my zone for 5 transfers), is going home in October. It's weird how fast the time goes.
This past week was probably one of my worst as far as finding investigator lessons. Only 3 total. It was a little depressing. Hermana Delis and I couldn't think of anything huge that we were doing wrong or differently so I guess it was just one of those weeks. Everyone's deciding that they're too busy to meet with us which is sad because we've had some amazing lessons with many of them. We had kind of an interesting experience on Saturday. Kind of a "the world is working against us" moment but also funny at the same time. We did a lot of knocking that day because 2 appointments fell through. As we were finding we kept finding only men who were home alone. We had to turn down 3-4 teaching opportunities because there wasn't a woman there. Being short on lessons that week we kept joking about how that WOULD happen to us. They all told us we could come back a different day though so hopefully we can find them again (with their wives). Yesterday made up for that though because we were able to have 4 lessons, find 2 new investigators, and find 2 people who we hadn't been able to find in a long time. So it was good. Sometimes we just have to be patient.
Maria Pena who was on date last week freaked out a little bit. We called her before to confirm the appointment and told us she didn't want to get baptized because the idea of leaving Catholisism and everything her mom taught her was making her really depressed all week. Her Mom died pretty recently so she's feeling that somehow she's being disloyal or unappreciative of her Mom by following this religion. We were able to have a really good lesson with her where we helped her feel better about that but she still doesn't want to give us a for sure answer about baptism. She's really not in any hurry and she wants to be 100% sure that she's making the right choice. We think she could still get baptized soon but she's starting to slack more with her commitments and hasn't come to church in 3 weeks so we're trying to help her with that.
Thanks for the pictures and updates! That's crazy that Grant is home from his mission now (refer back to last comment at end of 1st paragraph).
Other random comments.
1. I think sometimes we are the branch psychologists. Some people tell us everything.
2. It's not cold today! yay
3. I'm a missionary!
Love you!
Hermana West
Thursday, September 15, 2011
New Investigator, Juan 9-14-2011
Hola todos!
Thanks for all the pictures! I like seeing them. The weather is starting to get cold again. I'm NOT excited. I would be ok if it stayed hot for a few more months. Today is around 60 though yesterday was in the 80s. It's doing that jumping back and forth from hot to cold thing again like it did in April and May. I'm really hoping I don't get sick this time...lots of people are. I've also been slowly pulling out my cold-weather clothes from my suitcase which is depressing not only because it's colder but because some of them are looking a little too worn out. I think I'll be fine though..I'll do an assessment once it reallystarts getting cold. Also I still haven't figured out how to clean the salt off my boots from last winter - does anyone want to google ways to get salt stains out of suede and send me the info?
This week was pretty good. Still more of the same as far as people being really wishy washy with their appointments but we were able to have some really cool lessons. We really only have one investigator (Maria Peña) right now who's reliable with keeping her appointments but she's awesome. She's the one who came to church 2 weeks ago. On Saturday we had a great lesson with her and she accepted October 8th as a goal for baptism! She still tells us she wants to be more sure before she actually takes the decision but she said she would pray about it. The spirit was so strong when we asked her to prepare for the 8th that I'm positive that's the right day for her and that she can be ready by then. The ward mission leader came with us and was able to bear strong testimony about baptism and the word of wisdom which is one of the obstacles to her getting baptized. It was perfect. We set a goal with her to quit drinking coffee by the 24th. She also needs to start coming to church. So we're going to keep working with her to help her progress.
We had a really awesome lesson with two new investigators on Friday. We contacted Juan the day before and told us to come back the next day. Turns out he's kind of been studying and searching through religions for a while and hasn't really found his place yet. When we got to the point in the lesson where we explained how the Apostles led the church after Christ left he turned to his wife and said "now this is where it gets interesting" I asked him why and he said "well this is basically where we get the birthplace of religion" and he went on for a while about that ending with the question "so what makes you different from all the other churches?" after he asked that question I felt the spirit so strongly that I could barely speak but explained to him how we have a prophet today and taught him about Joseph Smith. He really liked James 1:5 - he turned to his wife after reading it and said "wow - ME" pointing to himself. When we ended the lesson and they both said they'd be interested to learn more. So I'd say it went well. Something neat that I learned from was that when people really ask sincere questions like Juan did it really creates the perfect atmosphere for the spirit to testify. I know that as we do our part as missionaries we can be led into situations where we can help others to feel the spirit and learn about the restored Gospel.
This week the Municipal band from Guadelupe Zacatexas (Mexico) that was came to Woodstock. Apparently they're sister cities (Not really sure why but I think it might have something to do with the opera house). It was pretty cool - a lot of Hispanic people ended up coming. We were able to talk with a lot of people and we got some addresses from people who were interested in learning more. We're excited to follow up on those this week. Also I think it helped us to gain the trust of the member who suggested the idea to us so that was good. It was a different kind of contacting experience for me because it's kind of rare to find large groups of Hispanic people around here. It was fun.
Well I hope that everyone has a great week. Hopefully Parker gets betters soon - thats kind of scary. One more thing - You have a copy of the 4th missionary right? Can you e-mail it to me so I can print it out? Thanks!
Love you all!
Hermana West
Thanks for all the pictures! I like seeing them. The weather is starting to get cold again. I'm NOT excited. I would be ok if it stayed hot for a few more months. Today is around 60 though yesterday was in the 80s. It's doing that jumping back and forth from hot to cold thing again like it did in April and May. I'm really hoping I don't get sick this time...lots of people are. I've also been slowly pulling out my cold-weather clothes from my suitcase which is depressing not only because it's colder but because some of them are looking a little too worn out. I think I'll be fine though..I'll do an assessment once it reallystarts getting cold. Also I still haven't figured out how to clean the salt off my boots from last winter - does anyone want to google ways to get salt stains out of suede and send me the info?
This week was pretty good. Still more of the same as far as people being really wishy washy with their appointments but we were able to have some really cool lessons. We really only have one investigator (Maria Peña) right now who's reliable with keeping her appointments but she's awesome. She's the one who came to church 2 weeks ago. On Saturday we had a great lesson with her and she accepted October 8th as a goal for baptism! She still tells us she wants to be more sure before she actually takes the decision but she said she would pray about it. The spirit was so strong when we asked her to prepare for the 8th that I'm positive that's the right day for her and that she can be ready by then. The ward mission leader came with us and was able to bear strong testimony about baptism and the word of wisdom which is one of the obstacles to her getting baptized. It was perfect. We set a goal with her to quit drinking coffee by the 24th. She also needs to start coming to church. So we're going to keep working with her to help her progress.
We had a really awesome lesson with two new investigators on Friday. We contacted Juan the day before and told us to come back the next day. Turns out he's kind of been studying and searching through religions for a while and hasn't really found his place yet. When we got to the point in the lesson where we explained how the Apostles led the church after Christ left he turned to his wife and said "now this is where it gets interesting" I asked him why and he said "well this is basically where we get the birthplace of religion" and he went on for a while about that ending with the question "so what makes you different from all the other churches?" after he asked that question I felt the spirit so strongly that I could barely speak but explained to him how we have a prophet today and taught him about Joseph Smith. He really liked James 1:5 - he turned to his wife after reading it and said "wow - ME" pointing to himself. When we ended the lesson and they both said they'd be interested to learn more. So I'd say it went well. Something neat that I learned from was that when people really ask sincere questions like Juan did it really creates the perfect atmosphere for the spirit to testify. I know that as we do our part as missionaries we can be led into situations where we can help others to feel the spirit and learn about the restored Gospel.
This week the Municipal band from Guadelupe Zacatexas (Mexico) that was came to Woodstock. Apparently they're sister cities (Not really sure why but I think it might have something to do with the opera house). It was pretty cool - a lot of Hispanic people ended up coming. We were able to talk with a lot of people and we got some addresses from people who were interested in learning more. We're excited to follow up on those this week. Also I think it helped us to gain the trust of the member who suggested the idea to us so that was good. It was a different kind of contacting experience for me because it's kind of rare to find large groups of Hispanic people around here. It was fun.
Well I hope that everyone has a great week. Hopefully Parker gets betters soon - thats kind of scary. One more thing - You have a copy of the 4th missionary right? Can you e-mail it to me so I can print it out? Thanks!
Love you all!
Hermana West
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Increased Lessons 9-7-2011
Hola Familia!
Well it's Wednesday again so I'm e-mailing. So it's a little weird to think about this but tomorrow is my one year mark. It's hard to believe that I've been gone for a year and also that I only have 6 months left (well a little more because I get 3 extra weeks). I try not to think about it. Yesterday I got a letter from my old comp who's still in Carpentersville. She said they have 4 people with a baptismal date and that Maria Pineda, the one who came to church my last Sunday there, had a bap date for the 3rd of Sept (her letter was dated the end of august). So it made me happy to hear that the people I taught are making progress even though I'm not there to see it!
This week we were finally able to increase the number of lessons we had with investigators! We were also able to have some cool finding experiences. One cool experience was finding Ariadna. She's 18 and here visiting from Mexico for a few months (staying with some relatives). We found her on Monday last week and taught her the restoration it went pretty well but it was hard to get her to talk because she's kind of a quiet person. So we left not really knowing how well it went. Later that week we had our second appointment. She'd read part of the pamphlet we left her, had talked to her family in Mexico about it, and told us she really wants to know if this is true. At the end of the lesson she asked us what she would have to do to become a part of this if she decides she wanted this to be her religion! I could feel the spirit testifying as we explained about baptism and she said she would be baptized once she knows its true!
Another cool finding experience happened on Monday while we were working in Harvard. We had the impression that we should go knock these apartments a few streets over from where we were. So we went over to them. They're the type of apartments where you have to ring the doorbells on the outside of the building. I wasn't too excited about it because it's usually a little bit harder to find people who will talk to us, but the second button we tried buzzed us in, then let us in to share a lesson! she said she's excited to read the Book of Mormon because she loves to read! She said we could come back but told us flat out she's hard to find at home...so hopefully we can find her again to see how she likes the Book of Mormon.
Ups and downs: These last few weeks have been full of cool finding experiences and we've been meeting lots of people with so much potential. But every single one of them is flaky with their appointments whether we call them before or not which kind of makes me want to pull my hair out and bang my head against the wall at the same time. We only have one investigator who's reliable with her appointments right now. But it's all good. I just have to be patient I guess.
Thanks for sending the pictures from the trip it was great to see! That's exciting about Chelsea getting married this week. I still don't know anything other than that his name is Seth though. Can I get a picture or announcement or something?
Love you all!
Hermana West
Well it's Wednesday again so I'm e-mailing. So it's a little weird to think about this but tomorrow is my one year mark. It's hard to believe that I've been gone for a year and also that I only have 6 months left (well a little more because I get 3 extra weeks). I try not to think about it. Yesterday I got a letter from my old comp who's still in Carpentersville. She said they have 4 people with a baptismal date and that Maria Pineda, the one who came to church my last Sunday there, had a bap date for the 3rd of Sept (her letter was dated the end of august). So it made me happy to hear that the people I taught are making progress even though I'm not there to see it!
This week we were finally able to increase the number of lessons we had with investigators! We were also able to have some cool finding experiences. One cool experience was finding Ariadna. She's 18 and here visiting from Mexico for a few months (staying with some relatives). We found her on Monday last week and taught her the restoration it went pretty well but it was hard to get her to talk because she's kind of a quiet person. So we left not really knowing how well it went. Later that week we had our second appointment. She'd read part of the pamphlet we left her, had talked to her family in Mexico about it, and told us she really wants to know if this is true. At the end of the lesson she asked us what she would have to do to become a part of this if she decides she wanted this to be her religion! I could feel the spirit testifying as we explained about baptism and she said she would be baptized once she knows its true!
Another cool finding experience happened on Monday while we were working in Harvard. We had the impression that we should go knock these apartments a few streets over from where we were. So we went over to them. They're the type of apartments where you have to ring the doorbells on the outside of the building. I wasn't too excited about it because it's usually a little bit harder to find people who will talk to us, but the second button we tried buzzed us in, then let us in to share a lesson! she said she's excited to read the Book of Mormon because she loves to read! She said we could come back but told us flat out she's hard to find at home...so hopefully we can find her again to see how she likes the Book of Mormon.
Ups and downs: These last few weeks have been full of cool finding experiences and we've been meeting lots of people with so much potential. But every single one of them is flaky with their appointments whether we call them before or not which kind of makes me want to pull my hair out and bang my head against the wall at the same time. We only have one investigator who's reliable with her appointments right now. But it's all good. I just have to be patient I guess.
Thanks for sending the pictures from the trip it was great to see! That's exciting about Chelsea getting married this week. I still don't know anything other than that his name is Seth though. Can I get a picture or announcement or something?
Love you all!
Hermana West
Thursday, September 1, 2011
English Sister Referrals - 8-31-11
Hola Todos!
So transfer calls were yesterday and nothings changing. So I'll be here in Woodstock for at least another 6 weeks! It'll be good, despite how stressful it is here sometimes. It's crazy to hear about all the fun weather you had in the Virginia area. I heard about the earthquake last Wednesday but I figured it didn't cause too much damage at 5.8.
This week was good again. More ups and downs but I I think I'm getting more used to that here. We finally had an investigator at church! Her name is Maria and she's been listening to the missionaries for a few months and had listened when she was younger too in Mexico. She enjoyed church. She said she felt a lot of peace and she enjoyed all 3 hours saying its good to put so much time into learning and hearing the word of God. We had a lesson with her yesterday and it went really well. She's been reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning. She's in 1 Nephi 18 now and said that she wanted to read more to find out what happens with Nephi and the boat but something came up. She said she would probably read more tonight though (without us even asking her!). We taught her the Word of Wisdom and she agreed with everything! She says it will be hard to give up the coffee but that she knows it's bad. We're really excited for her.
Monday of this week was also a really good day. The English sisters have been giving us a lot of referrals for Spanish which is awesome. On Monday we stopped by 4 or 5 of them and we got 3 lessons and 3 new investigators from it (almost 4)! One of them, Maria (a different one) is so ready! She had listened to the Missionaries like 5 years ago and still has her Book of Mormon. She has strong desire to find the right path. She doesn't agree with some things in the catholic church so she's been worried that she's in the wrong place with her religion. She has a desire to learn and a LOT of questions. We're excited to teach her again. That night Hna Delis and I were joking that we should just let the sisters do all the finding for us since that seems to be more successful than our own finding efforts. Sister Nardoni can get along pretty well in contacting in Spanish which is awesome...but now she's not going to be here anymore because they're switching their area to Elders. Oh well. Maybe one of the Elders will be able to speak Spanish a little.
We were able to find some of the less active members this week too which was good except that we found another family who stopped coming because they were offended. This is the most common reason we've found in this area which is sad. It's hard for people to work past that I think...
Other random experience this week:
1. We were knocking this door a few days ago that had spider webs all over it. One was really quite huge and we could see the legs of the spider peeking out of the little tunnel it made in its web (which is creepy). While we were standing there it decided to reveal itself and crawled out. It was HUGE. Probably the biggest spider I've seen here. Hna. Delis and I both screamed silently in horror then left (because no one was home).
Oh I realized I never sent the address to my apartment here...I forgot to bring it today too so just send mail to the mission office for now which is (in case you need it again):
1319 Butterfield Rd. Suite 522
Downers Grove, Il 60515
(Anyone who wants can send me a letter and it will be received here with much rejoicing and thanksgiving.)
Love you all!
Hermana West
Pictures!
So transfer calls were yesterday and nothings changing. So I'll be here in Woodstock for at least another 6 weeks! It'll be good, despite how stressful it is here sometimes. It's crazy to hear about all the fun weather you had in the Virginia area. I heard about the earthquake last Wednesday but I figured it didn't cause too much damage at 5.8.
This week was good again. More ups and downs but I I think I'm getting more used to that here. We finally had an investigator at church! Her name is Maria and she's been listening to the missionaries for a few months and had listened when she was younger too in Mexico. She enjoyed church. She said she felt a lot of peace and she enjoyed all 3 hours saying its good to put so much time into learning and hearing the word of God. We had a lesson with her yesterday and it went really well. She's been reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning. She's in 1 Nephi 18 now and said that she wanted to read more to find out what happens with Nephi and the boat but something came up. She said she would probably read more tonight though (without us even asking her!). We taught her the Word of Wisdom and she agreed with everything! She says it will be hard to give up the coffee but that she knows it's bad. We're really excited for her.
Monday of this week was also a really good day. The English sisters have been giving us a lot of referrals for Spanish which is awesome. On Monday we stopped by 4 or 5 of them and we got 3 lessons and 3 new investigators from it (almost 4)! One of them, Maria (a different one) is so ready! She had listened to the Missionaries like 5 years ago and still has her Book of Mormon. She has strong desire to find the right path. She doesn't agree with some things in the catholic church so she's been worried that she's in the wrong place with her religion. She has a desire to learn and a LOT of questions. We're excited to teach her again. That night Hna Delis and I were joking that we should just let the sisters do all the finding for us since that seems to be more successful than our own finding efforts. Sister Nardoni can get along pretty well in contacting in Spanish which is awesome...but now she's not going to be here anymore because they're switching their area to Elders. Oh well. Maybe one of the Elders will be able to speak Spanish a little.
We were able to find some of the less active members this week too which was good except that we found another family who stopped coming because they were offended. This is the most common reason we've found in this area which is sad. It's hard for people to work past that I think...
Other random experience this week:
1. We were knocking this door a few days ago that had spider webs all over it. One was really quite huge and we could see the legs of the spider peeking out of the little tunnel it made in its web (which is creepy). While we were standing there it decided to reveal itself and crawled out. It was HUGE. Probably the biggest spider I've seen here. Hna. Delis and I both screamed silently in horror then left (because no one was home).
Oh I realized I never sent the address to my apartment here...I forgot to bring it today too so just send mail to the mission office for now which is (in case you need it again):
1319 Butterfield Rd. Suite 522
Downers Grove, Il 60515
(Anyone who wants can send me a letter and it will be received here with much rejoicing and thanksgiving.)
Love you all!
Hermana West
Pictures!
 |
| Last P-day we went to the church to play basketball with some other missionaries. This one is of us and the other sisters in the district. Left to right: Sister Stewart, Hna Delis, ME, and Sister Nardoni |
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| District photo! |
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| Corn picture. A must have for anyone serving here |
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
"I tried Goat" 8-24-2011
Hola Familia!
Wow it sounds like you're having fun on your trip (without me *sniff*). I heard there was a 5.9 earthquake in Washington D.C. yesterday. Did you feel it where you were? It's funny, Hermana Delis says her family spent a few days in New York too. So maybe you saw them. Though even if you did you'd probably never know because I hear there are a lot of people in New York (but I wouldn't know for sure because I've never been). They're from Vienna, VA so if you drive past it maybe you can wave or something. Haha.
This week has been pretty good and interesting since so many of our numbers are 0 (sadly) but we had an amazing number of new investigators - 9! Last week I told you about how we had found 6 on Monday. Since then we were able to find three more! One from stopping by an another old investigator in Harvard, one from inviting someone to listen in a lesson with a member, and one from having another person join us in our second lesson with 2 of the new investigators we found on Monday! So hopefully with these 9 new investigators we'll be able to start increasing some of our other numbers.
Sunday was kind of sad because, though we had 3 people tell us they were coming when we talked with them the day before, and none of them came. And also not very many of the members came. We were combined with the English ward for ward and branch conference and I don't know if they just thought they meant they could take a break from coming or what. When sacrament meeting started there were only 2 people there from the branch (besides the branch presidency), luckily a few more trickled in, but it was still a little sad. Hopefully next week they'll all be back... I'm also starting to realize just how much of a gossip problem the branch has...we had a little confusion with a member coming with us to an appointment and us not having his phone number. We tried for almost an hour to contact him, calling other branch members and trying about 4 or 5 wrong numbers that were in the ward directory and that people had given us but were never able to contact him before the appointment. I'm pretty sure he told the whole branch about it in a way that reflects badly on us. Well at least I heard him telling people so...yeah.There's so much gossip and such a lack of love between the members. I'm still a little afraid to bring investigators in.
On Saturday we had an awesome lesson with Rosa who I talked about last week. She knows the Book of Mormon is true but is so conflicted within herself because she's had so much opposition from her family (she wants to believe that it doesn't matter what church you go to). So we shared Luke 5: 1-11 with her where it talks about Jesus telling the fishermen to launch out into the deep and cast out their nets. She understood exactly what we wanted her to get out of it. In fact I don't think I've ever had an investigator understand anything so well. We would start to say something and then she would finish explaining it for us and automatically apply it to herself. So she understood without us really saying much that sometimes we need to exercise faith and take a step outside our comfort zone. She told us that she knows she needs to move forward with this and that she'd keep fighting for this. She told us she would talk to her husband (Salvador), and would give us an answer about baptism next week. So that lesson went just about as perfectly as we could have hoped. Yay for not having to do anything and letting the spirit do it all!
Some of the cool/interesting/weird things that I've seen/experienced recently out here in the middle of nowhere:
1. Lots and lots of corn
2. I tried goat on Sunday. One of the hermanos in the branch lives on a farm that has goats so he cooked one up and had everyone over after church. It wasn't overly gross or anything...just weird - especially because the big platter with the goat meat had the skull of the goat sitting right on top (and I'm pretty sure all the other goat parts were there too). I tried to pick out some pieces that didn't look like intestines, liver, kidney or anything like that. At one point one of the Hermanos (who was really excited about this whole thing) held up a piece and asked "Does anyone want some tongue?" I'll add that to the list of things I never heard anyone say until I came on my mission. Also there were live goats behind us the whole time which was strange.
3. In Harvard there's a life-size cow statue that we drive past all the time. It's in honor of the "milk days festival". It seems that everything in the whole town is centered around this festival that they hold every year.
Well I hope that you all have a fantastic time this week! I have transfers next week already which is weird so we'll see if anything happens. I don't really think so but you never know.
Love,
Hermana West
Wow it sounds like you're having fun on your trip (without me *sniff*). I heard there was a 5.9 earthquake in Washington D.C. yesterday. Did you feel it where you were? It's funny, Hermana Delis says her family spent a few days in New York too. So maybe you saw them. Though even if you did you'd probably never know because I hear there are a lot of people in New York (but I wouldn't know for sure because I've never been). They're from Vienna, VA so if you drive past it maybe you can wave or something. Haha.
This week has been pretty good and interesting since so many of our numbers are 0 (sadly) but we had an amazing number of new investigators - 9! Last week I told you about how we had found 6 on Monday. Since then we were able to find three more! One from stopping by an another old investigator in Harvard, one from inviting someone to listen in a lesson with a member, and one from having another person join us in our second lesson with 2 of the new investigators we found on Monday! So hopefully with these 9 new investigators we'll be able to start increasing some of our other numbers.
Sunday was kind of sad because, though we had 3 people tell us they were coming when we talked with them the day before, and none of them came. And also not very many of the members came. We were combined with the English ward for ward and branch conference and I don't know if they just thought they meant they could take a break from coming or what. When sacrament meeting started there were only 2 people there from the branch (besides the branch presidency), luckily a few more trickled in, but it was still a little sad. Hopefully next week they'll all be back... I'm also starting to realize just how much of a gossip problem the branch has...we had a little confusion with a member coming with us to an appointment and us not having his phone number. We tried for almost an hour to contact him, calling other branch members and trying about 4 or 5 wrong numbers that were in the ward directory and that people had given us but were never able to contact him before the appointment. I'm pretty sure he told the whole branch about it in a way that reflects badly on us. Well at least I heard him telling people so...yeah.There's so much gossip and such a lack of love between the members. I'm still a little afraid to bring investigators in.
On Saturday we had an awesome lesson with Rosa who I talked about last week. She knows the Book of Mormon is true but is so conflicted within herself because she's had so much opposition from her family (she wants to believe that it doesn't matter what church you go to). So we shared Luke 5: 1-11 with her where it talks about Jesus telling the fishermen to launch out into the deep and cast out their nets. She understood exactly what we wanted her to get out of it. In fact I don't think I've ever had an investigator understand anything so well. We would start to say something and then she would finish explaining it for us and automatically apply it to herself. So she understood without us really saying much that sometimes we need to exercise faith and take a step outside our comfort zone. She told us that she knows she needs to move forward with this and that she'd keep fighting for this. She told us she would talk to her husband (Salvador), and would give us an answer about baptism next week. So that lesson went just about as perfectly as we could have hoped. Yay for not having to do anything and letting the spirit do it all!
Some of the cool/interesting/weird things that I've seen/experienced recently out here in the middle of nowhere:
1. Lots and lots of corn
2. I tried goat on Sunday. One of the hermanos in the branch lives on a farm that has goats so he cooked one up and had everyone over after church. It wasn't overly gross or anything...just weird - especially because the big platter with the goat meat had the skull of the goat sitting right on top (and I'm pretty sure all the other goat parts were there too). I tried to pick out some pieces that didn't look like intestines, liver, kidney or anything like that. At one point one of the Hermanos (who was really excited about this whole thing) held up a piece and asked "Does anyone want some tongue?" I'll add that to the list of things I never heard anyone say until I came on my mission. Also there were live goats behind us the whole time which was strange.
3. In Harvard there's a life-size cow statue that we drive past all the time. It's in honor of the "milk days festival". It seems that everything in the whole town is centered around this festival that they hold every year.
Well I hope that you all have a fantastic time this week! I have transfers next week already which is weird so we'll see if anything happens. I don't really think so but you never know.
Love,
Hermana West
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