FYI- this is the email from last week. I haven't had internet so I wasn't able to post this until today. :) -Anne
Hello familia.
Today is the first day of my second transfer woo
hoo. We actually normally do our emails at the mat-su college and today
all the stinkin elders took the computers so I am on a dinky laptop.
hahah sighh.
So I just read two of Nick's emails you guys forward
to me and he is hilarious. Talkin about thunderstorms in georgia. Wow.
And just the way he talks, he is so funny. And it's cool to read about
another missionary's exploits cuz now I can totally understand and
relate and stuff.
Life is good, staying really happy, I am gonna
be speakin in my ward in a few weeks, the topic is "finding joy in the
gospel" and sister brown was like, "well that is a perfect topic for
her." (to the 2nd counselor in the bishopric who asked me to speak) And I
tried to be all sarcastic and say I am never happy but it didn't really
work.
No more wind :)
We asked our investigator to be
baptized a week ago and she has set a baptismal date for this sunday,
the 5th. It was really cool cuz sis brown prayed that morning and then
looked at the calendar and february 5th looked like a really good date,
she said it felt right. To fulfill one of the requirements in the
training program, I asked the question to our investigator to be
baptized and i was all nervous but it just felt really good and she
kinda squirmed with a big grin and said "yes..." hahah. And then she
asked, "Do I have to pick a date?" ;and I said, "Well, actually, that
would be so cool, and sis brown came to me this morning and said
february 5th felt good." And our investigator cried, "No that's not a
good date! It's my daughter's birthday and we have all these plans and
she has an ROTC competition thing." And then it got out of her she
thought it was a saturday and we said, "Well it's really a sunday!" and
she heaved a sigh of relief and said, "Oh, well then yes, february 5th
will be great."
Then the next day she texted and said her
daughter wants to know if she can get baptized the 5th as well cuz the
church she goes to doesn't do baptism by immersion and she knows that
since that's the way Jesus Christ was baptized, it's the right way to do
it. Man we were like OHH MY GOODNESS. But we don't know if it's gonna
happen QUITE so soon cuz this daughter HAS taken some lessons, but a few
months ago, and we need to make sure she receives all the lessons and
really believes this gospel before she makes such a step, and we even
talked to the mission pres about it, and he said that waiting for the
daughter sounds good. And so our investigator understood when we talked
to her about it and she will talk to her daughter.
Oh my word, so
we have a week to teach her the commandments. She is trying to quit
smoking and got a blessing and says the urges have been down by half
since the blessing, and the things that were said were exactly what she
needed to hear and "really hit home." We are gonna teach her the
commandments of obedience, word of wisdom, tithing, and fasting/fast
offerings today. Hopefully. It's our p-day but she wanted day-time but
we have a barbecue today with all the elders in the zone for all those
who are leaving the mission to go home tomorrow and so time management
really comes into play here. Haha.
We keep getting smoked salmon
from people who are amazing angel people and sis brown is not TOO fond
of it so it's all mine but I must buy cream cheese and crackers today so
I can eat it with something. hahaha.
Transfers are tomorrow and I
am singing an efy song called "take it home" with an elder on piano and
singin harmony. Efy stands for "especially for youth" and it's these
big conferences for the youth with speakers and stuff, i never went to
one growing up, and they release a cd with "fun" music on it, that i
usually thing is cheesy cheese mc cheesey pants, and have never liked
listening to efy music and any of the breathy voiced females who pop
every note and it's just not my cup of tea. But the singer for this song
is actually really good, they really are getting music that matches
what is actually "hip" music to listen too, it's totally stylized and
all, but so much better than the whiney ones. So anyway this latest efy
cd is SLIGHTLY better than previous ones, this song is really cool, and
elder calk learned it and taught it to me and I am gonna bust it out at
transfers tomorrow somehow.
The investigator we are teaching who
is a delightful hispanic woman came to church yesterday--i feel it is a
miracle every time investigators show up, it is totally not because
anything we have done has merited it--and we got a translator for her,
and she is so cute, and we are teaching her the rest of the restoration
tonight, and we'll have a translator then as well. The last lesson we
had with her she opened up a lot to our translator about her anger with
God when her mother died, but that she knows she has been blessed by God
so much in her life. We shared with her a few thoughts about why bad
things sometimes happen to good people and both the translator and our
investigator had tears comin out their eyes. The spirit is always so
strong there, I love the hispanic people. I have seen a lot of openness
and love come from the hispanic people. I feel so comfortable at that
home.
We got our investigator that we met caroling on Christmas
Eve to pray for the first time with us--he was a lil embarrassed and he
cried out "Why do you make me do these embarrassing things?" and "Don't
look at me!!!!" as we all got on our knees to pray. And we had him
follow the steps to prayer in the pamphlet and he prayed and it was just
awesome. It helped that he'd just spoken to his dad on the phone real
fast, and I said to him, "You just talked with your dad on the phone.
Praying is like talking to your heavenly father on the phone. It should
be JUST as natural."
Man.
I love being a missionary. I
have gone into SO many different people's houses. Met so many dogs.
Shaken so many hands. I have probably entered into as many or more
different people's houses this past month than I have the entire year of
2011. And then these people that we meet--when they pray, when they
come to church, when they want to get baptized--it is all them. I don't
even feel like I deserve it. Sis Brown reminds me of those scriptures
that talk about how the missionaries are simply "gathering the Lord's
elect." There are amazing, amazing people out there. Some of them don't
listen to us--they are still awesome. But the ones that do listen and
they act on what we say, they are the Lord's elect, because they are
making these choices that bring them closer to Christ, and the fact they
make these choices show what kind of person they are. They are amazing!
They are my examples.
Anyway that is cool that you had a rad
party at Lily's, I wish I could have seen all of you. Tell Danny &
Tiana and the kids I say hello, and Laura and the kids.
Mom, what
color am I? The son of the man who invented the color scheme is on a
mission here. Hahah. Sis Brown thinks I am a yellow white. I said yeah
that sounds good but mama I am curious, what did you say I am?
Trivial
fact: you get used to the feeling of numb toes, did you know that? At
first it is so painful. Then it is just a way of life. Solution: wear
wool socks. Ha.
So I sent a package it should take a few weeks to
get there sorry for my run on sentence. The memory card is in it. The
letter I wrote to you is also in it. SO, the memory card---i said maybe
develop some pictures and mail them? Well scratch that. Can you copy the
memory card onto your computer but don't delete them off it and then
just mail the memory card back? Sis Brown wants some of my pictures
that's why. ha. Hopefully that will be all right? Then I can delete the
pictures after I am done with them.
LOVE YOU!!!!
I am starting to read the old testament with my study guide. It is fascinating.
KAY THE END
sister ash.
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