"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

 
      

40 People In Sacrament Meeting 8-17-2011

Hola Familia!

     I feel like I'm still pushing harder than the work in the area will move forward but I think we're seeing some progress (slowly). The biggest disappointments of the week were our investigators not coming to church again (even though they told us 2 hours before that they we're planning on coming)and one of our promising (recently found) investigators (Olaya) missed her appointment 2 weeks in a row along with 12,384,762 or so other lessons that fell through. I feel like I really have to learn patience. The missionary work in this branch (both for the Elders' area and our area) has been pretty stagnate for a while now. I want the work to move forward so badly that every little disappointment seems magnified like x10...and missionary disappointments are pretty painful. So I decided I need to work on being more patient. 
      Sunday was a good day. Church was really good again! There were a little more than 40 people there in sacrament meeting which was awesome. After church all of our appointments fell through but we were able to find some new investigators though our finding efforts. One, named Marisol, we found while knocking doors and she just let us in. We taught her the restoration and the spirit was really strong. She was really interested by what we shared and we set an appointment to come back! The other new investigator (Salvador) was the husband of another investigator (Rosa) who we hadn't been able to have an appointment with in over a month. We stopped by to see if she was home and she was! We had a lesson with them where Rosa expressed both her testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon (awesome) and then why she didn't think she actually needed to get baptized because it doesn't matter what church you go to (not so awesome). We think she's trying to justify it in her mind because she's received some pretty harsh opposition from her family in Mexico (i.e. her mom said it would kill her faster if she left the catholic church). After explaining authority and trying very hard to follow the spirit to say the right thing they agreed to pray about it. So hopefully they can find the confidence that they need to move forward with this.
       We've seen some miracles already this week as well! On Monday all of 4 of our appointments fell through (again), but we were able to find 6 new investigators! We found one family knocking doors and they just let us in! We taught the first lesson and felt the spirit really strong. One of the greatest things about the lesson was that both the husband and the wife seemed equally interested and open to the spirit which doesn't happen a lot - they also said they would get baptized once they know these things are true. They gladly accepted the invitation to read and pray and told us we were welcome to come back again the next week. Later that night we stopped by one of the appointments that had fallen through earlier that day and found them at home! They had listened to the missionaries before but had been dropped a while back. The wife, Imelda, said she liked what the missionaries taught them but that she would always get confused because it wasn't always exactly the same as what the catholic church taught. We talked about prayer and read Moroni 10: 3-5. We asked her what she understood from those verses and she said "Well I guess if you have a question you should ask God and he'll answer you". The spirit was really talking to her! We asked if she would be baptized once she gets her answer and she said "well, yes". So all in all it was a pretty awesome day. I feel like I'm getting better at following the Spirit in lessons which is awesome. It's an interesting feeling walking out of a lesson that ended well and not even knowing how you we're able to resolve those particular doubts or how you came up with the things you said and then knowing that it's really the Spirit that does all the work.
      Yesterday was pretty good too, though 2 of our appointments fell through (I still can't figure out why there's such a problem with that right now). We stopped by a less active family (Familia Aguilar) as a back up plan and they let us in. They haven't been to church in years I think (their 12 year old daughter hasn't been baptized). It's kind of interesting because Hna. Aguilar is the daughter of Hna. Montelongo from my last area. I also knew/met all of her siblings because they also live in Carpentersville. Its interesting because for some reason I think me knowing her family has made her more open to us (Hna. Delis said she'd always been kind of evasive of lessons). We we're able to share a scripture with her and her daughter Bianca about Christ. Afterwards Hna. Aguilar brought up her doubts about the importance of church without us even asking her. We both bore our testimonies about church and the importance of the sacrament and it ended with her saying they would try to come to church this Sunday. So hopefully they do and she wasn't just saying that just to say that. Bianca also asked some really good questions about baptism so hopefully she can motivate her family to come back to church.
       Well I hope that you all have a great week! Sometimes I think you forget to tell us certain things because you talk about them like we already know haha. So apparently you're going to Virginia again? That sounds fun - for how long? and Apparently Parker is going on a mission. That's awesome he'll do great!

I love you all and thanks for your support!

Hermana West
      

"FindingFaith in Christ" cards 8-10-2011

Hi Everyone!

       This week was good. We still are having problems with our investigators (and especially potential investigators) keeping their appointments. If we show up they aren't there, or if they are there they say they're about to leave or are having a fiesta (we've gotten that one a lot actually), if we call them before they cancel...though one good difference this week is the lessons we were able to have we had with members present! We were actually able to more than double the number of member presents that the hermanas had the whole month of July in just this week! I'd say that's a good sign. We had 2 part member family lessons and 3 other members come with us to lessons. Presidente Childers came with us to one which was really nice of him because he lives so far away. In the lessons we brought members to we can really tell the difference. In one lesson a member bore his testimony of the importance of church which was perfect for Maria (who didn't come to church because it's her only day to "rest"...). So we hope that once she gets back from vacation she'll come to church. One of the other great lessons we had this week was with Olaya who we stopped by as a back up plan for a come-back appointment that fell through. We got to her house right as she did (perfect timing) and we were able to have an awesome lesson with her! It turns out she had read and enjoyed the restoration pamphlet that we left her and she told us that it made her feel full and actually want to keep reading (which she said was different than her usual experience with other religious pamphlets). After a great discussion about the Book of Mormon and the Holy Ghost we asked her if she would be baptized once she receives her answer that this is true and she said yes! The member who came with us was so excited afterward that she asked if there were any other people we were going to stop by. 
     This week at church was SO much better than the past few weeks. People were actually there for the first hour! We also had relief society finally and the spirit in that little room was so strong. We also had an awesome testimony meeting. Hermana Delis said it was the best Sunday she's seen here and that usually for testimony meeting not many people get up. This time though there wasn't a problem. We're hoping that continues to be that way. They're still a lot to do but At least it seems to be moving in the right direction. Thanks Sister Morton for the ideas about how to help the branch out! We're hoping we can help get some sort of activity planned out in the branch soon because that would for sure help.
      Embarrassing moment of the week: I ran over a big rock pulling away from the edge of the road and it got stuck under the car.  We could spin the rock around in circles but couldn't move it forward or backward. Some kids who were playing outside saw/heard what happened and pulled their wagon over a little close to watch as we tried helplessly to get the rock out. Also other people were peeking out the windows..so awkward. I just wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. Luckily I had the brilliant idea to get the jack out of the trunk to lift the car up a little bit, so we did and it worked! We were able to get it out. I bet it looked pretty funny seeing two girls in skirts working on a car... I don't think it caused any damage to the car but the vehicle coordinator (a really nice senior missionary) said he would check it out at the zone conference just in case.
     Random funny story of the week: I think I've mentioned this before but people really love the picture on the back of the "Finding Faith in Christ" cards that we pass out. At one door we were talking to this lady with her two young daughters standing beside her and she wasn't really interested but said she'd take a card. After we handed it to her one of her daughters snatched it and declared "that one's for my room!" ...well at least we're helping them to remember Christ more by supplying them with little pictures of Christ. I wonder how many they've acquired... Oh and recently we also had a man request a finding faith in Christ card after giving him a different one.
      Yesterday while out finding in Marengo (one of the towns we work in) we spotted these apartments that were a little bit hidden and we figured out how to get to them. After knocking a few doors we found this woman named Janet (probably in her 20's) and we had a little conversation with her about prayer after which she said she would pray for us because we'd found ourselves in the "ghetto of Marengo" according to her. And she proceeded to tell us about all the crimes that have happened, all the weird drug addicts that live around her, and telling us which doors we should avoid because of this reason or another. We weren't too excited about continuing to knock around there. Luckily we had an appointment to go to anyways so we left.

Well everyone I hope you have a fantastic week and that you get some nice summer weather soon!

Love, 

Hermana West

"Celestial Parking" 8-3-2011

Hola Familia!

      This week has been probably one of the most depressing weeks (in finding lessons) that I've had in a long time. We had plenty of lessons set up including some with a member present but the majority either canceled or didn't show up for the appointment. It happens a lot in missionary work but it just happened a lot more than usual this week. Hermana Delis and I have been brainstorming ways to make our lessons more set. We had 3 people say they would come to church but none of them actually came (and they didn't answer the phone calls either). There were less members at church this week which was a little bit depressing as well probably only between 15 and 20...and 2 of the speakers (who are normally very active) didn't show up... poor branch president. As missionaries we were able to talk with the branch president before church. We think he's going to be really great. I'm sure he feels a little bit overwhelmed as well. He had only been in the stake for about a week when they called him as branch president a month or so ago. So he doesn't really know anyone. He has a lot of work on his hands 
      After more digging into the branch (or rather 'twig'). It really seems like one of the really core problems is lack of genuine love and charity between the branch members. That realization has been a little bit overwhelming because not only will it be challenging to try and change (for the leaders and for us) but it also makes us more nervous than usual for our investigators to come to church. Especially since a huge chunk of the more recent converts are less active. Also the majority of the less active members have been offended in some way. But Hna. Delis and I have been brainstorming ideas for how to help and how to support the new branch presidency and recently called relief society presidency. So we're excited to try and put some of our ideas into practice. But we're still looking for more ideas. Any suggestions for how to change the culture of a ward or branch from a missionary standpoint? 
     We think the new relief society president will be really good. They live out of the area (and the mission) about 3 miles into Wisconsin though so we can't visit them though.
      We are excited for our two new investigators that we found this week Juan and Emilia. The English Sisters actually knocked into them and gave them to us as a referral to us a week or two before. On Sunday we were able to teach them finally and we had a really great lesson with them! The wife Emilia had just had surgery so she was laying on the couch in pain but we had a really great discussion with them about the Holy Ghost and how the gospel really brings more peace and joy to the soul than anything else can. They seem happy to learn more and we have another appointment with them this Sunday. 
     Despite all the challenges that this area holds I know that it has a lot of potential. I can feel that the branch is ready to progress forward and expand. It's just my hope that I can be an instrument in the Lords hands to do what he would have me do in this area.
     Two days ago was like attack of the mosquitoes. I think I have 21 mosquito bites the majority of which are on my legs particularly around my ankles. That area must be particularly tasty for them or something.
     Chelsea's engaged!? Thats crazy. I feel like I need more information about this since that's pretty much all I know... Can I get a copy of an announcement or something?  Maybe a picture?

Well I hope that you all have a fantastic week, thanks for the pictures!

love,

Hermana West

pictures from me!
     

 The first one is of me (obviously) pointing to a sign that says "West" on it. Not usually too hard to find but this one just happened to be where we were walking. 

The second one is Hermana Delis in front of our car. The story behind the photo: Missionaries generally refer to parking spots that you can park and pull out without backing up as "missionary spots" or also "celestial parking". We found the only potential missionary spot in the parking lot at church and figured that by the time church was over we'd be able to just pull out forward because the parking lot would be practically empty. But because the world is always looking for ways to work against us one of the only cars in the parking lot was right there blocking us...so we had to back up anyways.