Hi everyone!
Well I got in to George Washington University too! man now that means I have to make a decision... still waiting on the UW
This week has been full of miracles! It's so amazing, after so many weeks of coming up short on new investigators we found 9 this week! All from knocking doors. Saturday both Hermana Stuart and I felt impressed to knock in a certain area so we did. The first door we knocked let us in and we taught a quick lesson. The second door we knocked also let us in. Turns out they were an old investigator family who I'd tried stopping by before but had discovered they'd moved. They told us they are happy where they're at still...but we must have found them again for a reason so we taught about faith in Alma 32 and felt the spirit really strong, They said we could come back and that they are opening to listening. Sunday we didn't have much to do except one appointment that ended up falling through. So we went tracting. We'd felt impressed during planning to knock a certain street that I hadn't knocked before and again the first door let us in. We talked to Fransisco while his wife busied around in the Kitchen. He has so much faith and told us he has a strong desire to lead his family in the correct path. It was a really short lesson but we're going back next week. Later 2 other families let us in. The first was a younger couple who just barely started focusing on God in their lives. They told us they would really like to know if what we shared was true. The second family let us in and we shared the restoration again. The spirit was strong and they also said they would love to learn more. So 6 new investigators just in one day.
Another miracle, Jose told us that he is thinking about getting baptized in March. So that's progress. When he told me that I asked how about this Saturday and he said it was too soon. But hopefully we can bring a calendar and have him pick a date in our appointment this week.
Today is a really nice day out. We might actually do something. haha. I still can't believe I'm almost done with my mission. I'm freaking out a little bit. The time is going way to fast. Someone should find a job for me or something otherwise I wont know what to do with myself when I get back haha.
Happy Birthday Dad! I hope it's great
I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Hermana West
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Accepted to Grad School! 2-21-2012
Hola Todos!
First off, some exciting non-missionary related news: I got accepted into the BYU graduate school! No word on the other schools yet. Ok now on to more important things. I know this is going to be an awesome transfer! Hermana Stuart is my new companion and she's from Bountiful. She has brought so much faith to this area and it's really helping me to find more motivation as well! We're working hard to see miracles here. This week we were able to find 3 new investigators which was great. All of them by knocking doors. One of them was this couple with 6 kids. They told us they thought it was so amazing that we came to their door. "why our door?", they asked. We told them that we pray all the time to be guided to the people who need our message. They seem pretty legit except for one thing that was a little bit weird. When I asked them if we could come back a different day they asked if they could ask their spiritual guide first...basically they trust this guide on all spiritual matters. I testified about the importance of asking God directly versus any other person...but I don't know if it really clicked for them. So we'll see what happens when we go back. We're hoping to be able to keep teaching them and helping them to feel the spirit.
Our investigators with a baptismal date didn't come to church because they wanted to go car shopping. That was a sad moment. Especially because we had a really good and bold lesson with them two days earlier. They were starting to get doubts but we promised them that if they read, prayed, and came to church they would see miracles in their lives. They said they would but for some reason will never give us a for sure answer about church. We think they're shy about coming. I hope we don't lose them because they wont come to church.
Saturday was a really interesting day. The first part of the day we went back to Hna Stuart's old area to go to a baptism (President Doll let missionaries go back if it's within the first week of being transferred). That ended up taking a really long time. When we got back to our area we headed over to the ward activity for a bit. The Branch President was teaching how to make homemade bread (sooo good!). Since bread making is not exactly a quick process we decided to leave to do some missionary work and then come back later to help clean up and stuff. While we were out we went to stop by Rosa (the one we ran into at McDonald's last week). As we were walking up she came out and told us that her 15 year old daughter was missing and asked if we could help translate for her at the Police Department. She was so worried. Before going in we offered a prayer with her. It turned out to be fine. She and a friend had taken the train to Chicago and weren't answering their phones (probably because they knew they were doing something they shouldn't). They ended up being able to contact her while we were at the Police Station and the officer really gave them a scare I think. Lesson learned hopefully. But I think Rosa was really grateful for our help that day. Hopefully we'll be able to keep visiting with them and her to better understand the importance of the gospel.
Love you and hope you have a great week!
Hermana West
First off, some exciting non-missionary related news: I got accepted into the BYU graduate school! No word on the other schools yet. Ok now on to more important things. I know this is going to be an awesome transfer! Hermana Stuart is my new companion and she's from Bountiful. She has brought so much faith to this area and it's really helping me to find more motivation as well! We're working hard to see miracles here. This week we were able to find 3 new investigators which was great. All of them by knocking doors. One of them was this couple with 6 kids. They told us they thought it was so amazing that we came to their door. "why our door?", they asked. We told them that we pray all the time to be guided to the people who need our message. They seem pretty legit except for one thing that was a little bit weird. When I asked them if we could come back a different day they asked if they could ask their spiritual guide first...basically they trust this guide on all spiritual matters. I testified about the importance of asking God directly versus any other person...but I don't know if it really clicked for them. So we'll see what happens when we go back. We're hoping to be able to keep teaching them and helping them to feel the spirit.
Our investigators with a baptismal date didn't come to church because they wanted to go car shopping. That was a sad moment. Especially because we had a really good and bold lesson with them two days earlier. They were starting to get doubts but we promised them that if they read, prayed, and came to church they would see miracles in their lives. They said they would but for some reason will never give us a for sure answer about church. We think they're shy about coming. I hope we don't lose them because they wont come to church.
Saturday was a really interesting day. The first part of the day we went back to Hna Stuart's old area to go to a baptism (President Doll let missionaries go back if it's within the first week of being transferred). That ended up taking a really long time. When we got back to our area we headed over to the ward activity for a bit. The Branch President was teaching how to make homemade bread (sooo good!). Since bread making is not exactly a quick process we decided to leave to do some missionary work and then come back later to help clean up and stuff. While we were out we went to stop by Rosa (the one we ran into at McDonald's last week). As we were walking up she came out and told us that her 15 year old daughter was missing and asked if we could help translate for her at the Police Department. She was so worried. Before going in we offered a prayer with her. It turned out to be fine. She and a friend had taken the train to Chicago and weren't answering their phones (probably because they knew they were doing something they shouldn't). They ended up being able to contact her while we were at the Police Station and the officer really gave them a scare I think. Lesson learned hopefully. But I think Rosa was really grateful for our help that day. Hopefully we'll be able to keep visiting with them and her to better understand the importance of the gospel.
Love you and hope you have a great week!
Hermana West
Last Transfer 2/13/2012
Hola Familia!
So the news of transfers is in! Hermana Freeman will be transferred the the Chicago 3rd ward (which is the area that includes "the loop" - the main tourist area of Chicago). It's going to be a night and day difference from here. Especially because it's the only area for Hermanas that doesn't have a car which means they use bikes and the bus (only while it's cold). She's excited. My new companion will be Hermana Stuart who has the same time in the mission as Hermana Freeman. We'll make the switch tomorrow. Oh also next week my e-mail will be coming on Tuesday because Monday is Presidents day.
On Tuesday and Wednesday we had exchanges again and Hermana De Leon came with me for the day. She's from Guatemala! She's from a different part from where Barry is serving but she said that his mission is the nicest. She just barely started her mission. It was really nice to be able to speak Spanish with her for a day. Really helpful. It's just not the same trying to speak Spanish with other people who are learning. I hope I'll be able to find a way to keep improving my Spanish after my mission.
This week we had several of our promising investigators start avoiding us - really avoiding us - like we could see them and they still didn't open the door or answer the phone when we called afterwards. It was really sad. We're not really sure why...well other than the fact that we are pretty sure they are not reading or praying. With losing more promising investigators than gaining them it's been harder to get lessons. We're going to focus a lot more on finding new investigators this coming week. I'm really hoping we can get some through member referrals because knocking doors hasn't been very fruitful lately and we're running out of old investigators that I haven't stopped by. Getting referrals though is still a challenge. They keep saying things like they have no friends, or they aren't allowed to talk about religion at work, that their friends aren't interested...the usual excuses I guess. There have been a few little miracles this week. Like finding one of our more elusive investigators at McDonalds and then her inviting us to come over afterwards, and yesterday the father-in-law of one of our investigators let us in and even though our investigators were too busy to talk to us we were able to have a nice chat with him and leave him a pamphlet that he said he would read.
Ruben and Rosa are still on with the goal of March 24th. Ruben expressed concerns about leaving behind alcohol and coffee in our last lesson. Her asked us if just a little was ok and we said no. Afterwards he said "yeah I know it's probably better if it's not at all...I feel really bad every time I give in, but I've been trying to stop." We thought that was a really good sign since it was probably about a year ago that the missionaries taught him the word of wisdom and we haven't reviewed it with him yet. The progress record says that when they taught it before he said he wouldn't follow it but apparently it stuck with him maybe a little more than even he wanted it to. haha. So the spirit has been working on him which is good! We just hope we can help him find the confidence he needs to actually break the habit!
Jose brought two of his 9 -year old granddaughters to church again. Even though we aren't able to teach them for now I think Jose bringing them to church is going to have a big positive impact on them especially because their families aren't particularly religious. They seem to like it enough to come back, so that's good!
That's great to hear the Grandma's surgery went really well. I hope the recovery process goes really smoothly!
I love you all and hope this week goes well!
Hermana West
So the news of transfers is in! Hermana Freeman will be transferred the the Chicago 3rd ward (which is the area that includes "the loop" - the main tourist area of Chicago). It's going to be a night and day difference from here. Especially because it's the only area for Hermanas that doesn't have a car which means they use bikes and the bus (only while it's cold). She's excited. My new companion will be Hermana Stuart who has the same time in the mission as Hermana Freeman. We'll make the switch tomorrow. Oh also next week my e-mail will be coming on Tuesday because Monday is Presidents day.
On Tuesday and Wednesday we had exchanges again and Hermana De Leon came with me for the day. She's from Guatemala! She's from a different part from where Barry is serving but she said that his mission is the nicest. She just barely started her mission. It was really nice to be able to speak Spanish with her for a day. Really helpful. It's just not the same trying to speak Spanish with other people who are learning. I hope I'll be able to find a way to keep improving my Spanish after my mission.
This week we had several of our promising investigators start avoiding us - really avoiding us - like we could see them and they still didn't open the door or answer the phone when we called afterwards. It was really sad. We're not really sure why...well other than the fact that we are pretty sure they are not reading or praying. With losing more promising investigators than gaining them it's been harder to get lessons. We're going to focus a lot more on finding new investigators this coming week. I'm really hoping we can get some through member referrals because knocking doors hasn't been very fruitful lately and we're running out of old investigators that I haven't stopped by. Getting referrals though is still a challenge. They keep saying things like they have no friends, or they aren't allowed to talk about religion at work, that their friends aren't interested...the usual excuses I guess. There have been a few little miracles this week. Like finding one of our more elusive investigators at McDonalds and then her inviting us to come over afterwards, and yesterday the father-in-law of one of our investigators let us in and even though our investigators were too busy to talk to us we were able to have a nice chat with him and leave him a pamphlet that he said he would read.
Ruben and Rosa are still on with the goal of March 24th. Ruben expressed concerns about leaving behind alcohol and coffee in our last lesson. Her asked us if just a little was ok and we said no. Afterwards he said "yeah I know it's probably better if it's not at all...I feel really bad every time I give in, but I've been trying to stop." We thought that was a really good sign since it was probably about a year ago that the missionaries taught him the word of wisdom and we haven't reviewed it with him yet. The progress record says that when they taught it before he said he wouldn't follow it but apparently it stuck with him maybe a little more than even he wanted it to. haha. So the spirit has been working on him which is good! We just hope we can help him find the confidence he needs to actually break the habit!
Jose brought two of his 9 -year old granddaughters to church again. Even though we aren't able to teach them for now I think Jose bringing them to church is going to have a big positive impact on them especially because their families aren't particularly religious. They seem to like it enough to come back, so that's good!
That's great to hear the Grandma's surgery went really well. I hope the recovery process goes really smoothly!
I love you all and hope this week goes well!
Hermana West
Pictures!
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| Me in front of the cornfield next to the church. It snowed again this week (just a little) so I was able to get one with the snow. This winter has been nothing compared to last winter |
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| After exchanges this week |
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Two Baptism Dates! 2-6-12
Hola familia!
This week was pretty interesting! First off the most exciting thing is that two of our investigators accepted a baptismal date! It's the first time in like 4 or 5 months that anyone has actually accepted a date (they've said yes before but would never put a date). It's Ruben and Rosa who were found more than a year ago knocking doors. It was the first lesson we'd been able to have with both Ruben and Rosa together for almost 2 months because Ruben has been back and forth from Mexico. But it was awesome, the spirit was really strong when I was asking them and they accepted the 24th of March as a goal because they're "not ready yet". I could tell Rosa felt the spirit (she's always been more in tune with it) and it looked like Ruben was too. The challenge will be getting them to church. Over a year and they still haven't come to church once. They let everything else take priority and so there is always something they consider more important (practically life or death important) to do than church every week.
Friday after going back to our car after knocking a little we realized it wouldn't start. Problem. I didn't leave the lights on or anything and it was literally only 10 minutes since we'd left it. So we had the English Elders come try to jump start us and...nothing. We ended up needing a tow truck to come take it away! Turns out it was the alternator and they told us they wouldn't be able to get a new one from the dealer until tuesday! So we've been car-less for almost 4 days now which makes missionary work in this area a lot more difficult and slow. Also it's cold. In Woodstock we live near the crossing of 2 busy highways and most of the people live on the other side of Woodstock, so walking isn't much of an option. Harvard is easier to walk around because it's smaller so the Elders were able to bring us up there on Saturday and we'll be going there again tonight. We're hoping the car will be done sooner rather than later tomorrow because if it's later we'll have to cancel a lot of our plans (in particular exchanges with the Hermanas in Rockford).
We went out with the relief society president (Hna Camacho) Tuesday night to visit less-actives and didn't find any of them (even though we had a regular appointment with one family at 7:30). Even though we didn't find anyone I thought it was really good to spend that time with Hna Camacho and give her updates on all the less-active sisters we'd been visiting. I think she trusts us a lot.
President Doll called me last night to ask me if I would rather go to another area for my last 6 weeks or stay put. I said I'd be good staying here but if they needed me somewhere else that would be fine. So it sounds like I'll be staying here probably. We'll find out about changes this week and transfers are a week from tomorrow.
I think it's weird that people who are younger than me are getting married. Marriage is for old people. haha...kidding...That's cool that Dad get's to perform the ceremony! Kevin: That's gross you threw up. bleh. haha. Elder West: That's awesome about getting to be zone leader! It'll probably keep you super busy.
I love you all hope everything goes great this week!
Hermana West
This week was pretty interesting! First off the most exciting thing is that two of our investigators accepted a baptismal date! It's the first time in like 4 or 5 months that anyone has actually accepted a date (they've said yes before but would never put a date). It's Ruben and Rosa who were found more than a year ago knocking doors. It was the first lesson we'd been able to have with both Ruben and Rosa together for almost 2 months because Ruben has been back and forth from Mexico. But it was awesome, the spirit was really strong when I was asking them and they accepted the 24th of March as a goal because they're "not ready yet". I could tell Rosa felt the spirit (she's always been more in tune with it) and it looked like Ruben was too. The challenge will be getting them to church. Over a year and they still haven't come to church once. They let everything else take priority and so there is always something they consider more important (practically life or death important) to do than church every week.
Friday after going back to our car after knocking a little we realized it wouldn't start. Problem. I didn't leave the lights on or anything and it was literally only 10 minutes since we'd left it. So we had the English Elders come try to jump start us and...nothing. We ended up needing a tow truck to come take it away! Turns out it was the alternator and they told us they wouldn't be able to get a new one from the dealer until tuesday! So we've been car-less for almost 4 days now which makes missionary work in this area a lot more difficult and slow. Also it's cold. In Woodstock we live near the crossing of 2 busy highways and most of the people live on the other side of Woodstock, so walking isn't much of an option. Harvard is easier to walk around because it's smaller so the Elders were able to bring us up there on Saturday and we'll be going there again tonight. We're hoping the car will be done sooner rather than later tomorrow because if it's later we'll have to cancel a lot of our plans (in particular exchanges with the Hermanas in Rockford).
We went out with the relief society president (Hna Camacho) Tuesday night to visit less-actives and didn't find any of them (even though we had a regular appointment with one family at 7:30). Even though we didn't find anyone I thought it was really good to spend that time with Hna Camacho and give her updates on all the less-active sisters we'd been visiting. I think she trusts us a lot.
President Doll called me last night to ask me if I would rather go to another area for my last 6 weeks or stay put. I said I'd be good staying here but if they needed me somewhere else that would be fine. So it sounds like I'll be staying here probably. We'll find out about changes this week and transfers are a week from tomorrow.
I think it's weird that people who are younger than me are getting married. Marriage is for old people. haha...kidding...That's cool that Dad get's to perform the ceremony! Kevin: That's gross you threw up. bleh. haha. Elder West: That's awesome about getting to be zone leader! It'll probably keep you super busy.
I love you all hope everything goes great this week!
Hermana West
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