Hola familia!
Last week was a good one for teaching less actives. This week was a good one for organizing the area and making calls all day in the apartment. My companion got strep and tried to die on me, but I didn't let her. One of the senior couples gave me about a million vitamins to take, so I didn't get sick: goldenseal, E, echinacea, iron, and C. I think I OD'd. But I feel fine, so that's good. I even made chicken soup from SCRATCH! I had to look at the back of the can to figure it out, but I felt very accomplished and my companion ate it.
Sunday was cool. It was my companion's first one and she started to freak out a little when I told her we would be playing the piano in Sacrament, conducting, doing a special musical number, teaching a gospel principles lesson in Spanish or English, playing and conducting in Relief Society, and translating. Then she got a phone call Saturday night asking her to speak in Spanish sacrament meeting. “Argh! They should call it the Churchof Jesus Christ of Latter-day SISTER MISSIONARIES!” Anyway, she had a sore throat, so I canceled the musical number and convinced the Utahn in the ward to stay an hour after English church to play in Spanish sacrament for us. It was a fun day and it was just getting started!
Our appointment after church called and canceled (called--that's a miracle). And as we were driving to go see a less active member I recognized a house Sister Werrett and I had knocked on once, no one was home at that time, but I remember her telling me to go back sometime. There was red truck in the driveway that wasn't there before. So I did a semi-legal u turn and we knocked on this stranger's door. A young father, named Gilberto, answered and he was just open and prepared. It was great. He said he believed there could only be one true church and the one he was in wasn't it, but he was looking. He believed in a need for authority. He studies the Bible a lot, but he'd received a copy of 'our book' as well as the religious texts of some other religions. He's talked to a lot of Jehovah's witnesses, used to be a Catholic, currently attends a nondenominational Christian church, and was really excited because he's wanted to meet with Mormons before and ordered a book, but the representatives never caught him at home, and so the book went in the mail. He talked to a guy from Brazil/Utah installing a security system once, but that was it. He had great questions and I almost wanted to say “Blessed art thou Gilberto, for no man hath told you, yet ye have believed!” But I don't know how to say that in Spanish. He's figured out so much, just by living and studying the gospel in the Bible. Somehow he's stayed humble and open and teachable. I don't know how. I'm anxious to find out. We have a return with him and his wife tonight.
After that was hurried to the Visitor Center, where the Elder and Sister Tedrow (Chelsea Tedrow's uncle) picked us up and took us the the fireside and Liberty Jail where my companion and her old companion from Kaw River would be doing a duet for President's friend/guest speaker. They sang perfectly despite sore throats. I so impressed. The guest speaker is the religion correspondent for KSL TV and he's met, traveled with and interviewed every prophet since President Mckay. He had some good stories. What I really liked though is how he kept relating the huge amount of missionary work that's been done to the prophecies given toJoseph Smith in Liberty Jail -- “How long can rolling water remain impure?” “What power can stay the hand of God?” Brother Cardell said, “This Church is a revolution; not of war or arms, but a revolution of truth, a revolution of the Spirit. Come join this Revolution of Righteousness.”
Viva la revolucion de rectitud! It's been a good week and the next one will be even better. Love you all!
Hermana Deb
p.s. HAPPY BDAY LISA!
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
HI!
It has been a great week. Last Saturday was interesting because we've begun having “Full Proselyting Days” again. Meaning it's so slow in theVisitor Center that they only have 4 sisters in shift instead of 6 and the extras stay in their area all day. It's great. What was odd about it though, was that despite having 6 extra hours to proselyte. We only taught 3 lessons. We taught 3 lessons on Sunday between church and going to the visitor in just a 2.5 hour period. So the Lord really blesses us to find people at home and find people in our path at the visitor center. And it's a testimony to me of the difference between being busy and being effective and the difference is really Heavenly Father's help. The 2nd divider wall was opened during church on Sunday because so many less-actives and nonmembers attended. The bishopric was beaming.
We had a fun lesson yesterday with a less active family. We gave them stickie notes with the names of BOM characters, descriptions and a scripture that talks about them. The goal was to guess who it was. One of the descriptions was about Abish. Ammon performed a miracle, taught one lesson and took a nap while Abish (a previously less active member) ran around and testified to everybody she knew to come see him and as a result, thousands were converted. Ammon was a very effective missionary. He saw opportunities, was diligent in serving, testified when he could, didn't run faster than he had strength and everything fell into place. He was just a tool.
I can see how those same principles are working in this ward with this bishop. All the lessons in all the auxiliaries since I've been here have focused on 3 things: Missionary work, Prayer and Scripture study. And the ward is doing great. Wonderful. There's a story in the Ensign this month that talks about another bishop who had similar experience.
We're teaching a lot of Liberians right now. It's really neat. Saturday, we went to go see a less active Liberian lady and we saw Peter Slober anda friend out in front. He's a recent convert from Liberia. We invited his friend to church. Then we went to go contact a referral, guess what...Peter was there too! The referral was from some Elders in Kansas who had tracted into one of the young men of the family doing construction, and they happened to be some refugee friends. We taught them all the restoration and it went great. We asked him to pray to know if the things we taught were true. He told us he already thought Joseph Smith was a prophet. He said it just made sense, but he'd still pray about it if he wanted us to. Then we had an appointment with Peter Slober's son that night, so we went over there and he was there, too! It was so funny. His nonmember friend was there at church on Sunday, along with the other less active Liberian sister we'd taught and her 3 kids and 3 of their friends!
We've been really blessed. So cool. The Lord has lined it up and it feels good to be where He needs us. I love my family. Thanks for being the example for me and being so supportive. People aren't always there when we go by, they change their minds a lot and often listen to the world more than the Spirit, but the worth of souls is GREAT in the sight ofGod. They're great. I'm loving serving the people here.
Love you.
Blessings,
Hermana Deb
It has been a great week. Last Saturday was interesting because we've begun having “Full Proselyting Days” again. Meaning it's so slow in theVisitor Center that they only have 4 sisters in shift instead of 6 and the extras stay in their area all day. It's great. What was odd about it though, was that despite having 6 extra hours to proselyte. We only taught 3 lessons. We taught 3 lessons on Sunday between church and going to the visitor in just a 2.5 hour period. So the Lord really blesses us to find people at home and find people in our path at the visitor center. And it's a testimony to me of the difference between being busy and being effective and the difference is really Heavenly Father's help. The 2nd divider wall was opened during church on Sunday because so many less-actives and nonmembers attended. The bishopric was beaming.
We had a fun lesson yesterday with a less active family. We gave them stickie notes with the names of BOM characters, descriptions and a scripture that talks about them. The goal was to guess who it was. One of the descriptions was about Abish. Ammon performed a miracle, taught one lesson and took a nap while Abish (a previously less active member) ran around and testified to everybody she knew to come see him and as a result, thousands were converted. Ammon was a very effective missionary. He saw opportunities, was diligent in serving, testified when he could, didn't run faster than he had strength and everything fell into place. He was just a tool.
I can see how those same principles are working in this ward with this bishop. All the lessons in all the auxiliaries since I've been here have focused on 3 things: Missionary work, Prayer and Scripture study. And the ward is doing great. Wonderful. There's a story in the Ensign this month that talks about another bishop who had similar experience.
We're teaching a lot of Liberians right now. It's really neat. Saturday, we went to go see a less active Liberian lady and we saw Peter Slober anda friend out in front. He's a recent convert from Liberia. We invited his friend to church. Then we went to go contact a referral, guess what...Peter was there too! The referral was from some Elders in Kansas who had tracted into one of the young men of the family doing construction, and they happened to be some refugee friends. We taught them all the restoration and it went great. We asked him to pray to know if the things we taught were true. He told us he already thought Joseph Smith was a prophet. He said it just made sense, but he'd still pray about it if he wanted us to. Then we had an appointment with Peter Slober's son that night, so we went over there and he was there, too! It was so funny. His nonmember friend was there at church on Sunday, along with the other less active Liberian sister we'd taught and her 3 kids and 3 of their friends!
We've been really blessed. So cool. The Lord has lined it up and it feels good to be where He needs us. I love my family. Thanks for being the example for me and being so supportive. People aren't always there when we go by, they change their minds a lot and often listen to the world more than the Spirit, but the worth of souls is GREAT in the sight ofGod. They're great. I'm loving serving the people here.
Love you.
Blessings,
Hermana Deb
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Querida Familia,
I've been blessed with lots of things to write about in my journal this week. Really UNIQUE experiences.
10 And because of the intercession for all, all men come unto God; wherefore, they stand in the presence of him, to be judged of him according to the truth and holiness which is in him. Wherefore, the ends of the law which the Holy One hath given, unto the inflicting of the punishment which is affixed, which punishment that is affixed is in opposition to that of the happiness which is affixed, to answer the ends of the atonement—
11 For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my first-born in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility. (2 Nephi 2:10-11)
Let me tell you about last Friday. We've been doing our best to make time to contact a couple referrals and some bishop assignments for two weeks and it just hadn't happened. So we were really excited last Friday because we had the morning free to get what needed to be done. Done. We go to our one appointment that morning and she peeks out the window, but doesn't open the door, so we do our best to talk to some Tanzanian children in the street and tell their dad we'll drop off a Swahili BOM for them. I love Kansas City. The next stop is to deliver a Nauvoo
Pageant CD. We go to the address and it's a bus station. Apparently the person it's for is a driver and so we just drop it off. Then we make a driving adventure to the far off regions of our area our by the airport to deliver a Finding Faith in Christ DVD. “Umm...Sister, is that a prison?” Apparently prisoners aren't allowed to have DVDs, so we gave it to a lady out front taking a break from the cafeteria. She was nice.
We took a reverse driving adventure back to downtown Kansas City. To meet new move-ins (and to find a restroom as quickly as possible). The first member lived in a NICE big marble building. We go in the front and are very confused as we enter a large poorly lit multi-pillared room that the sign on front said used to be a public library. The receptionist informed us that this was a life insurance firm. I KNEW I felt a dark presence as we entered the doors. So this was a wrong address and No, we couldn't use the bathroom. The next move-in was just a few blocks away. I could hold it. We slowly pass by the next address, “Restart Homeless Shelter.” We stopped at the gas station next door to use a restroom (that's another story), and gave the gas station attendant and his son pass-a-long cards. We sat in front of the gas station for awhile eating Cheetos and contemplating the probabilities of making it through the crowd of hobos (our spirit brothers and sisters) in front of Restart Inc. to find out about the new move in. We decide better of it and are off to see our last referral. He was tracted out by an RM selling pest control.
Next driving adventure. As we pull up to the house there are 3 small vicious looking chihuahuas hopping up and down behind the 4 foot tall fence. We say a prayer in the car. The yipping temporarily subsides and go to meet the harmonica playing neighbors. They kindly brave the
chihuahuas for us. And the man we were referred was a former Utah resident that doesn't think much of the church. He had some interesting misconceptions, that he wasn't willing to have us clear up. But we asked if he needed service and if he knew anyone who could benefit from a
missionary visit. Surprisingly, he referred a man and wife down the street who were having some sort of difficulties. We go see the neighbor (quickly since a husky/bear with big teeth also shows up behind the 4 foot fence—not gonna cut it).
The referral's referral is 6'5”, has a big beard, is dressed as a traditional Jew and comes out smiling offering us orange juice. I wasn't sure what to think about the situation, but wasn't feeling great about it, so I stated our purpose tried to give him a pamphlet and get gone. But, we got stuck answering questions for awhile and came to discover he wasn't just not interested but really really really crazy. I'm glad we didn't accept the orange juice. We went to the visitor center to find everyone else on shift that afternoon had similar experiences that day.
So that was last Friday... Yeah, it was a little crazy. Kinda difficult. But do you realize what this means?!? We're going to have a million baptisms next month! That's what it means! We're still teaching our little family of 5 and after watching the Joseph Smith movie with them the dad prayed. But in his prayer admitted he was afraid to do the wrong thing for his family and he didn't really pray to know if what we were teaching was true. So that was exciting that we know what his concern is now and after they came to church on Sunday (despite leaving a sick teen
at home), he told me he wanted us to keep teaching him. Not just his family, but him. We just prayed about and set a goal for our baptisms next month this morning and I'm excited about the work here.
I love serving people and talking to everyone. And Elder Bednar's right. A missionary's purpose is to be a full-time teacher. It's what we're set apart to do. But it feels good knowing, even though I'm back in Utah in December. I can still give pass a long cards to the people at gas stations. And fellowship and find and visiting teach and testify to everyone. The fans can cheer just as loud if not louder than the mascots. The representatives. And I think once people realize that, the
prophecy of President Gordon B Hinckley willed be fulfilled and the 13 million this year, will be 26 million next year.
Love you all. Be the light unto the nations that you are and share what you have with everyone. Trust me, it doesn't matter where you are. Love you.
Con carino,
Hermana Deb
I've been blessed with lots of things to write about in my journal this week. Really UNIQUE experiences.
10 And because of the intercession for all, all men come unto God; wherefore, they stand in the presence of him, to be judged of him according to the truth and holiness which is in him. Wherefore, the ends of the law which the Holy One hath given, unto the inflicting of the punishment which is affixed, which punishment that is affixed is in opposition to that of the happiness which is affixed, to answer the ends of the atonement—
11 For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my first-born in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility. (2 Nephi 2:10-11)
Let me tell you about last Friday. We've been doing our best to make time to contact a couple referrals and some bishop assignments for two weeks and it just hadn't happened. So we were really excited last Friday because we had the morning free to get what needed to be done. Done. We go to our one appointment that morning and she peeks out the window, but doesn't open the door, so we do our best to talk to some Tanzanian children in the street and tell their dad we'll drop off a Swahili BOM for them. I love Kansas City. The next stop is to deliver a Nauvoo
Pageant CD. We go to the address and it's a bus station. Apparently the person it's for is a driver and so we just drop it off. Then we make a driving adventure to the far off regions of our area our by the airport to deliver a Finding Faith in Christ DVD. “Umm...Sister, is that a prison?” Apparently prisoners aren't allowed to have DVDs, so we gave it to a lady out front taking a break from the cafeteria. She was nice.
We took a reverse driving adventure back to downtown Kansas City. To meet new move-ins (and to find a restroom as quickly as possible). The first member lived in a NICE big marble building. We go in the front and are very confused as we enter a large poorly lit multi-pillared room that the sign on front said used to be a public library. The receptionist informed us that this was a life insurance firm. I KNEW I felt a dark presence as we entered the doors. So this was a wrong address and No, we couldn't use the bathroom. The next move-in was just a few blocks away. I could hold it. We slowly pass by the next address, “Restart Homeless Shelter.” We stopped at the gas station next door to use a restroom (that's another story), and gave the gas station attendant and his son pass-a-long cards. We sat in front of the gas station for awhile eating Cheetos and contemplating the probabilities of making it through the crowd of hobos (our spirit brothers and sisters) in front of Restart Inc. to find out about the new move in. We decide better of it and are off to see our last referral. He was tracted out by an RM selling pest control.
Next driving adventure. As we pull up to the house there are 3 small vicious looking chihuahuas hopping up and down behind the 4 foot tall fence. We say a prayer in the car. The yipping temporarily subsides and go to meet the harmonica playing neighbors. They kindly brave the
chihuahuas for us. And the man we were referred was a former Utah resident that doesn't think much of the church. He had some interesting misconceptions, that he wasn't willing to have us clear up. But we asked if he needed service and if he knew anyone who could benefit from a
missionary visit. Surprisingly, he referred a man and wife down the street who were having some sort of difficulties. We go see the neighbor (quickly since a husky/bear with big teeth also shows up behind the 4 foot fence—not gonna cut it).
The referral's referral is 6'5”, has a big beard, is dressed as a traditional Jew and comes out smiling offering us orange juice. I wasn't sure what to think about the situation, but wasn't feeling great about it, so I stated our purpose tried to give him a pamphlet and get gone. But, we got stuck answering questions for awhile and came to discover he wasn't just not interested but really really really crazy. I'm glad we didn't accept the orange juice. We went to the visitor center to find everyone else on shift that afternoon had similar experiences that day.
So that was last Friday... Yeah, it was a little crazy. Kinda difficult. But do you realize what this means?!? We're going to have a million baptisms next month! That's what it means! We're still teaching our little family of 5 and after watching the Joseph Smith movie with them the dad prayed. But in his prayer admitted he was afraid to do the wrong thing for his family and he didn't really pray to know if what we were teaching was true. So that was exciting that we know what his concern is now and after they came to church on Sunday (despite leaving a sick teen
at home), he told me he wanted us to keep teaching him. Not just his family, but him. We just prayed about and set a goal for our baptisms next month this morning and I'm excited about the work here.
I love serving people and talking to everyone. And Elder Bednar's right. A missionary's purpose is to be a full-time teacher. It's what we're set apart to do. But it feels good knowing, even though I'm back in Utah in December. I can still give pass a long cards to the people at gas stations. And fellowship and find and visiting teach and testify to everyone. The fans can cheer just as loud if not louder than the mascots. The representatives. And I think once people realize that, the
prophecy of President Gordon B Hinckley willed be fulfilled and the 13 million this year, will be 26 million next year.
Love you all. Be the light unto the nations that you are and share what you have with everyone. Trust me, it doesn't matter where you are. Love you.
Con carino,
Hermana Deb
"I can't feel my lip"
Hi Parents -
Just got my lst shot in the mouth. Yowch! I told the punk he needed to get a wand.
I appreciate your office a lot more now. Scented candles, Steel drums, nice warm fuzzy posters, sunglasses, DisneyCartoons.
I was stressed out. I didn't realize a REAL shot has to stay in for 10 seconds. It felt like more. Anyway, I'll get over it. He was nice, but I'm not a fan. I study in the same Bio classrooms at BYU as the dental students. When I get home I'm telling them what for ... Greenies. No radio advertising during dental work. That should be a law.
Thanks for paying Dr. King. The work will go forward. I wonder if missionaries like Parley P. Pratt and Orson Hyde had to get dental work done. Sigh.
Love you both, Hermana Durazna
Hi Parents -
Just got my lst shot in the mouth. Yowch! I told the punk he needed to get a wand.
I appreciate your office a lot more now. Scented candles, Steel drums, nice warm fuzzy posters, sunglasses, DisneyCartoons.
I was stressed out. I didn't realize a REAL shot has to stay in for 10 seconds. It felt like more. Anyway, I'll get over it. He was nice, but I'm not a fan. I study in the same Bio classrooms at BYU as the dental students. When I get home I'm telling them what for ... Greenies. No radio advertising during dental work. That should be a law.
Thanks for paying Dr. King. The work will go forward. I wonder if missionaries like Parley P. Pratt and Orson Hyde had to get dental work done. Sigh.
Love you both, Hermana Durazna
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