Thursday, December 19, 2013

December 9, 2013


Hey mom and paps :)
      
This week has been good. Our numbers were not good, but like I said before I don't care about numbers. I feel like our mission is very revolved around numbers lately and I don't really care haha. My week was amazing because of a couple of different things. 1st off it was great because we saw the Karikers, they are the ones who made us pillowcases. Well they love missionaries but are not too interested in the church, but anyways Brother Kariker started asking questions! We have dinner with them tonight and hopefully we will be able to teach the restoration. They are so amazing! So their house is all decked out with Christmas and they have a ton of nut crackers and I was saying how great they all were. Then Bother Kariker says "Which one is your favorite?" and I told him and he said "it's yours."  I would not take it but then they made me take it before I left. Sister Austin got one too. It's just a little nut cracker but it's cute and I love it!  It reminds me of home.
       
The 2nd thing was that we met Cody Joy, she is about 26 and has a daughter, and her and her boyfriend  have a son, and her boyfriend has a daughter. Cody Joy has been taking lessons for about a year, but she didn't feel comfortable with elders so the sisters were teaching her, and now since we are here and she is in our boundaries the sisters gave her to us. They thought she was married so she had a baptismal date, but during our lesson with her we found out she is not. Cody Joy is so sweet and just amazing. Her boyfriend is less active but his family is active and that is how she was introduced. She is so excited to be baptized.
      
3rd I had a really cool experience with the less active Max Twitchell. We got into the appointment and Sister Austin decided to share D&C 18:10-17, well I had no idea why she shared that and then I realized she was going to tell him to repent, and come to church, but I didn't know how to really do it. Well I opened my mouth and it was not me speaking, like I had no idea what I was going to say, but words came. I explained how every soul is important, how he is a brother, husband, son...etc and we called him to repentance but out of pure love!!!! I really don't know how it, worked but it did, and it was sincere. He committed to reading with his mom everyday for 10 minutes. This was the first real commitment we got out of him ever! It was so amazing.
       
This week we had some good appointments, but we also had some interesting ones. On Wednesday we went to see Jody and Dan, and we were able to teach the plan of salvation, because Dan had so many questions, but Jody kept in interrupting, so I pulled her aside and distracted her while Sister Austin taught. They invited us over for breakfast the next day. Well we went over Thursday morning, and I swear Dan was just a little tipsy in the beginning but by the time breakfast was cooked he was all out drunk..I swear I didn't even see him take a swig..but he must of, because he was drunk! We tried to teach the restoration, but he was out, he went off on how the wise men followed Venus, how it actually was not a special star...then at one point he said "You probably think I am a drunk..well I am...but I have a heart of gold...." We were so ready to get out of there...haha. He is not at work in the oil fields for two weeks..hopefully we can sober him up when we come back. Jody's son Charlie came home on Wednesday from his mission in Texas, I really hope we can meet him because I would love to talk to him about his mom. After breakfast we went to help the native lady Charlie move. She was stressing and we were able to help her, we got some guys in the ward, and the elders to help us move her. There was this really scary guy though in her apartment who was not helping and all he did was hit a baseball bat against his hand. When we went outside to load some stuff up, Brother Ringer who was helping said, "Sisters that man in there is very dangerous and the only reason I am staying is because you sister are here." Brother Ringer is an ex cop from here...he knows all the bad people...that really scared us, we ended up leaving about half an hour later. That guy was scary, he must of been part of a gang, cause of certain tattoos.
         
A couple days ago we had dinner with the Nielsons who are pretty much the best family ever. They are so cute. They have two little girls and are so bubbly and energetic. After dinner and the lesson Sister Nielson asked, can you stay 5 minutes, because she had us paint some ornaments, it was so fun! The 5 minutes turned into 45 min, because Sister Austin is very slow. I love her to pieces, but when it comes to anything, talking, cleaning, walking...and painting ornaments she takes FOR-EV-ER!  Haha but it was ok that time because we had the funnest time. 
       
Yesterday was awesome! 1st we had meetings then church, and at church, Sister Wignington, who is Daceys (who is getting baptized on Saturday) mom spoke in church and it was great! Except that no one came to church today :( sad, like we had a couple but not our normal amount. Sister Wignington gave us Dacey's announcement, which was darling, but she only gave us one. After church we had an hour before dinner so we booked it around to Some people's houses to talk to them. We then went to dinner which was yummmy, and then booked it to the church to watch the devotional! WOW IT WAS AMAZING! I did not cry, but my eyes were watering during Elder Nelsons talk, wow that was powerful! Then we went caroling after which was so freaking fun! We went with the other missionaries in our district. We then got transfer calls..and our district is staying the same..except Elder Linton is leaving...such a bummer..he's so great. Yesterday was nice!
     
Oh I forgot that on Tuesday we taught the book of Mormon study class we have started with the other missionaries. Brenda, Renee, Anthony and Bro Jaure showed up! Then 4 of the elders investigators showed up! The elders could not make it but the sisters came. The class was so good.  We read the intro and the witnesses. We got off on some random things like why is Christ called Christ, and were the plates gold or brass. The class did really well at figuring out he answers, but after the class was over we found out the other sisters were really frustrated cause they got off topic and decided they wanted to shorten it to half and hour. Sister Austin and I said no, because either way the will get off topic, and at least the questions they have are being answered. Plus I figure they didn't have anyone show up so they have no say...haha!  Aren't I nice? haha. Anyways it was amazing! I loved it. Well that was my week! I love you all and I hope you are safe! I will see all your faces on Christmas!!!
              
  -love  Andrea
 

No comments:

Post a Comment