June 23, 2014

Dearest Family!
         This last week started off with a grand adventure..and believe me it went in my journal. So at the end of preparation day last Monday, we took a nap, but got up at 5:50 to make it to our appointment that was at 6. Well we wake up and of course are only half awake. We leave the apartment and go to get in the car when I realize we locked the keys in the apartment, then Sister DeBry realizes the phone was  left in the apartment also. Well we had no idea what to do and were in a panic, because we had an appointment that we would miss or be really late to and we could not even let the people know. Since we serve in a YSA ward, our ward members live all over, and no one was close to us. The closest and best option was to talk to the mission home about a mile and a half away. We start walking thinking it will take 15 minutes..it took half an hour! We knock on President and Sister Mechams door and President answers in his pajamas haha. That was pretty funny already cause well...President is just always dressed up..like it kinda surprised me to learn he did not sleep in a suit haha. Just kidding, it was just different seeing him in pajamas. Well we explained the whole situation to him and he chuckled a little, and then opened the office and started to help us out. He asked "Do you have an appointment?" We explain how we did, but we are half an hour late now and next thing I know is he is saying" Well you can take my car and come back right after and we will figure everything out after" I seriously was freaking out in my head thinking that he was going to let me drive his car! He took us to the garage and has me pull it out and Sister Debry is backing me out. I could not have been more nervous having president watch me back his car out of the garage, because well this garage is so tiny and this SUV/jeep thing is HUGE!  Literally I had maybe 4 inches on each side between the garage door and the jeep thing! Luckily I did a pretty smooth job haha. He went inside and we were on our way to the appointment! We felt pretty legit driving president's car...just saying haha. 

          The appointment was not nearly as cool as the story...because well it was suppose to be a first lesson and they ended up deciding to bash with us on homosexuality, and we really just listened and tried to be nice, but we did defend our beliefs. Then they told us they heard we got paid for every baptism we had, we corrected that lie immediately, and it ended with them trying to convince us to read the satanic bible...ummm heck no! We talked about that for a little bit and at the end when we were walking away from the apartment they kinda were really trying to push it, and how after our missions we have to read. Ummm no never. Anyways the appointment was awful! So we went back to the mission home and were a little down, but president opened the door with a smile on his face and the spare keys to our apartment in his hand! He made some calls and tracked down the spare keys. That just made me so happy :) He then drove us back to our apartment in his pajamas. It was pretty great hahahahaha.

         Ready for story number 2. So this guy in the ward signed up to feed us dinner, which is totally fine, cause we were going to be in town..well when we got to dinner there was another guy from the ward....the one who took us is a little awkward ..and doesn't think sometimes...so we had dinner at red lobster and it looked like we were on a date....awful! The waitresses thought it was funny, until we pulled out scriptures and started teaching a lesson to the members and then they did not think it was funny anymore. Hahaha..So we won that battle.

          Oh my  goodness....honestly that is what my week has consisted of...just funny stuff...Oh but one really fun thing is we got to volunteer for this "run for the cure" for cancer event and it was fun! We were crossing guards and stopped traffic for  the runners to cross. That was really fun! The very last person who needed us as the crossing guard was a mother and her 4 year old daughter. The 4 year old was not happy at all.. but it was so cute because we walked back with her and her mom and we talked about her favorite movies and princesses and cheered her on and  loved it. We found out that 2 years ago they used to take discussions from Elders which was cool, it did not go anywhere, but the mom said she loved it and we asked if she would want to meet with them again and she said yes. Sadly with all the people after the race we lost track of her, but I know that God has a plan for everyone and so he will get missionaries over there, after all there are a good 15+ sets of missionaries in Billings. That was a fun and cool experience.

           We went on exchanges this week? That was fun. Oh a couple days ago we went to the West Park elder's ward bbq because they have a YSA age investigator in this family they are teaching. They wanted us to meet her.  Her name is Krista and super nice. But very shy and she did not really want to talk to us cause she is super shy, and already comfortable with the elders, so last night we had her and the elders come to Bishops for ward prayer/dessert night. In the beginning she was super shy, and then warmed up a little, and by the end she was pretty open and comfortable! So that was cool. We invited her to FHE in the beginning and she said no..then at the end we invited her again and she said Yes! So that is awesome!

     Oh yesterday Hong came to church! We didn't get to teach him this last week so we were bummed out, but he came to church! and he has started reading the book of Mormon in Chinese and he was telling us about the Joseph smith story in the beginning haha! So that is cool and half way through sacrament meeting he asked his friend Nate if he could see the baptismal font! So we did, show him the font! That was cool. It is so cool how his interest is growing. On my mission I have had so many missionaries say "If they just read the Book of Mormon they will progress and make it to baptism." And I thought that was cool, but It really hit me this last week as I was looking back on past experiences and I realized it is so true! Every single person I have taught, this applied to and was true of. If they read the book of Mormon, than they continued to grow and learn in the gospel, if they did not, then their desire left, or remained stag-net. This applies to any commitment we leave with people, whether it is praying, or reading the book or Mormon, or coming to church, if they keep the commitment they grow closer to Heavenly Father and Christ and their desire grows. This applies to me also, and to all of us. I notice if I don't pray with as much purpose, I don't grow, If i don't listen to talks in sacrament and try to get something out of them, then I just find it boring. We have to actively be doing everything we can to grow closer to our Savior, or we just won't and it is as simple as that. Commitment to our Heavenly Father, to Christ, to our families is everything! If we want to have eternal life with Heavenly Father and our Savior we better do something about it or it won't happen.  Making out covenants is not enough, we have to keep them . Same with our families, if we want to have an eternal family, well we better keep the commitments we make in the temple. Commitment is everything :)

        Ok I have another little tangent but it ties into commitments also. What we put into things is what we get out. Like with Sacrament, if we listen and try to get something out of the talks, we can, but if we don't try it is boring, therefor we get out of it what we put in. This is something I have really had to think about on my mission with partaking the sacrament. The sacrament really helps me get through the week and brings so much light to my week if I really ponder and take it seriously, how ever if there is a time where I don't really pay attention and my mind wanders, then I really don't' notice a difference, or if just me....The sacrament is so sacred and it breaks my heart when I see people playing games on their phone during it. So I just really want to invite anyone who is reading this email to keep commitments and to really take the sacrament seriously.  Ok to end this I have to end with one of my favorite scriptures. So this is Jacob quoting Zenos, cause he just went off and teaching his people all of this stuff and at the very end he just says "O be wise, what can I say more" and I love that, cause that is really what it is..just be smart haha. I love it

        I know I just went off on a rant, but that is what has hit me this week and what I have learned.  Anyways...really not too much happened this week, but hopefully I will have more to write next week haha. I love you all so much!

                    -Andrea