And buenos dias, familia!
This was a great week, I'm just gonna jump right in. We started it off with preparation day, which ended with a great lesson with a new investigator and another lesson with the legendary CC (He is just a stud. He is so solid.). We will be passing them both off to the Terryville English elders next lesson.
Tuesday we had district meeting. Anyway, throughout the day we were able to get in a few member presents and concluded with a lesson...outside. We carried on the remainder of the week with our 80+ bug bites --61 of which were mine. It was great. (We woke up Wednesday and Hermana Mejía looked at my legs and goes, "Oh my gosh, you look like you have a disease" haha! It was bad.)
Wednesday we did deep clean! Yay for a clean house! 👌🏻 We then had two awesome lessons, one with a lady we have been teaching and one with a new investigator we found last week. The first lesson was great, but also a little...a lot...awkward cause her husband was sitting there staring us down the whole time while drinking his beer in the other room. Needless to say, the family relationship has been strained since she's started meeting with us. Even though the immediate effects might be really really hard to deal with, we know the greater reward that awaits --one of the many many things I learned with the whole going home/coming back process that I've been able to apply to my investigators. Hold fast. Endure faithfully. All will be well. That's been our message for her and I know it applies to all of us, no matter what our circumstances.
Our new investigator's lesson was also great. We had Estefania (return missionary --of about a month-- from our branch) there as a member present and the Spirit was so strong! He has a new pit puppy so he wanted to have the lesson outside just to be safe. Right there on his driveway we had one of the most powerful gospel of Christ lessons ever! We invited him to be baptized and to pray to know if what we taught was true. He prayed and asked right then in the closing prayer. We'll be seeing him Wednesday for a pass off lesson most likely with the English southshore elders (we always find such awesome people, but a lot are English speaking that we find so we end up passing them off pretty quickly).
Thursday we had a lot of success in finding. We went on splits and both teams had crazy success! Me and Hermana Mejía knocked our first door and were invited in within seconds. We showed the Because of Him video and talked with the family a bit. They loved us and insisted we come back again next week. We also found several more people afterwards who we were able to teach. Hermana Spencer and the yw who went with her had equal success and we've already revisited one of the people they found. He seems really solid. It's just another testament to me that when you work the Lord blesses you. We don't always have days like that, we've had several where we don't get a single person who will listen, or a single lesson taught. But we see the Lord's hand always in the work --especially on those days. This is His work, and He will make sure it is done if we give our all to Him.
Speaking of His work and the glory it is that He is in charge of it.... One word: Facebook. We had our zone training meeting Friday and it has begun! We all downloaded Facebook and will be now using it in our proselyting efforts. We were being trained and instructed by all of our leaders --even President was there-- on how we can use this tool for the Lords work. Personally I've never been a big social media person, so I was a little intimidated by the idea. It has been a comfort to me though to know that the Lord gives us these tools to fulfill His purposes and as long as we consecrate our efforts to His purpose --which is our purpose-- and follow the guidelines we've been given, that this will be a great way through which the spreading of the gospel will be hastened. I'm so excited. There are so many possibilities and ways to use Facebook to share the gospel. It's gonna
be great.
Oh! I also got my package Friday. Thanks mom :) haha, we have enjoyed the cookies which are now gone and all had a good laugh at the brownie pan and tartar stuff haha 😂
I also saw Hermana Bugingo at the training because their zone was being trained in the same building in the other room. We had some fun with Elder Broadhead being all reunited haha :)
We carpooled with Elders Cahan and Peters for zone meeting, so the drive home was a party. We were blasting our primary music and just having a crazy time with the three of us squished together in the back haha. (We got some great videos for another time 😜)
Friday was just not a day for proselyting I guess cause we got back at six fifteen and had to book it over to the church to set up for the missionary Noche de Hogar (FHE) that started at seven. We got all the food, pulled in every couch and soft chair we could find and set up our little movie theatre for the playing of The Other Side of Heaven, Spanish edition! (Don't worry mom, we had permission from President.) The activity was awesome. Everyone loved the movie and were thanking us after and expressing how much they'd felt the Spirit. I'd say it was a success! We ended with a quick little testimony meeting and telling the members we now were authorized to use Facebook. The friend requests have been coming in by the dozens. (Also, side note: the law of chastity. That lesson, along with many others, is taught very well in this movie, and right after that part my favorite member goes, "When you gotta teach the law of chastity..." and everyone just busted up laughing. We may use that next time 😜😂)
Saturday we had the opportunity to kick some service butt. Our district and a few other members of our stake (and our stake president) spent six hours moving a family out and then in to their new house. It was great! We had a lot of fun and were able to help them out a lot. Also, where they were moving into there are lots of kids, so when we first got there I saw two little boys sitting together playing a game. One was wearing a Star Wars shirt so we stared talking about Star Wars and then they ran off to get their bikes and a few more friends. They showed me all their little tricks and kept making sure I was watching while I passed boxes down the assembly line into the house. They were so cute. When we had to leave the first boy I had talked to asked if I'd be back tomorrow. Sadly the answer was no (they actually live outside our area but in our stake boundaries so we were allowed to help with the move) but if nothing else, that was a happy couple hours with my mini biker gang :)
We wrapped Saturday up with an FHE for a family on aliens! Well, kinda. Basically they are less active and love deep doctrine. They had questions about the other worlds thing and lots of stuff along those lines so we did a little deep doctrine lesson for them. They really liked it though and all participated way more than usual. The husband wants us to come back this week for another lesson (that's a first)! (Side note, again: during the lesson we were hearing lots of loud noises and the mom goes, "please tell me those are fireworks". Thankfully that time they were. When we were in Coram a few days before...not so much, haha)
Sunday we had church! Oh I love church. It was the fifth Sunday so we were all combined for the end (basically sacrament meeting again). We had a few investigators and less actives there so it was great! We had a pre-pass off pass off lesson scheduled with the Terryville elders and CC for after church, but he ended up canceling on us after we all had arrived at his house. Before the elders left they told us not to stay in that area ....we're there almost every day but, haha. Where we are is definitely not the safest but it's definitely not the most dangerous either. We've got the Spirit with us, we will be told to leave when the Spirit prompts. I'm not worried :)
We also had a finding scheduled Sunday night. He was home and was more than happy to see us again. We went and sat on a porch on the side of the house for the lesson where the weird part comes in. He was totally fine, but his housemate (an old white dude) was a little...odd. Let's just leave it with this title for our new book, "What to do when your potential begins to serenade you while reciting romantic poetry they've written: Missionary 101". Anyway, we had to go by the time we could finally get a word in. We shared a very brief intro to the Book of Mormon with them and left them both one. He began to read it right there and insisted we come back Wednesday and teach just him. We will be doing that :)
Y estamos aquí. I'm excited to see what will come this week. I love you lots. Have a great week!! :)
Mucho amor,
Hermana Karra Gourley
We have a bunch of random pictures and then some haha :)
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