Thanks for watching the fireside. They made a DVD of it, too, I will probably get a copy and send it home at one point. Yay. Hahah Mommy, that would be fun to do it every month. I'll tell Sister Beesley. Hahah. Not a new sweater. I've had it for a long long time. Hee hee. The shirt is the one that used to be Anne's dress but my rats chewed the hem of it.
TRANSFER CALLS ARE THIS SATURDAY...so crazy. I love serving with Sister Rivera. And I love Colony Ward. I love the Bishop and all the members and I love the work, we just picked up two new investigators, really nice people. Baptist and non-denominational, with Chock-taw (spelling??) and Cherokee ancestry. He's a Truck Driver, and she is His Wife. He was on a potential's list and a while ago and I called and he gladly scheduled a time to meet with us---that RARELY happens, usually they can barely even remember that two missionaries knocked on their door anyway. UMM, and you have to figure out a reason to tell 'em why you're calling. Usually I say this: "A couple of boy missionaries knocked on your door about a year ago, right? Well, they took the boy missionaries out and put us girl missionaries in, and we have a list of all the people they contacted and were teaching, and we're just trying to meet all the people they knew." (I don't say we've been here for seven months and we're only just contacting them---sometimes I wonder why it's hard to get around to contacting certain people, who knows. I hope it's not laziness.)
We finally saw our Mexicana Investigadora that I haven't seen since Sister Brown went home. She came back from California about a week ago, according to her boyfriend/husband whom I called wanting to know if her number had changed cuz she STILL never calls or texts back, so we showed up and saw her van there and were like, YAYY! And went and knocked on the door, and she opened it, and we could hear voices inside, and she was like, "Oh, it's just the missionaries." Bahaha. She's a funny woman. She seemed happy (but not overjoyed) to see us, we sang to her in Spanish, we set up another time to see her, at 8 in the morning this thursday. It was cool, there was a Mexican woman who is a member there sitting at the table, and we introduced her to our Mexicana Investigadora like in February when she came to church. When we had introduced them, they only spoke to each other in Spanish for a minute or so and then the member excused herself and I remember thinking, "Darn it, I wish they would have talked more" (there are not that many Hispanics around, and they are both Mexican, so they have that in common). And now, here she was, sitting there at the kitchen table, somehow since February they've become friends, and the member told us she taking our Investigadora to church with her this Sunday. Which is awesome. Our Mexicana Investigadora still speaks really really fast and when her Friend tried to translate, la Investigadora barked, "En espanol, en espanol!!" and so her Friend just repeated what la Investigadora said, in Spanish, just a lot slower. She again told us that she doesn't want translators at any future lessons. I don't get it. I just shake my head and hope my Spanish will be good enough. I am thinking I am just gonna get the Spanish elders up here from Anchorage and stick 'em on her. We'll be there, too, but we'll tell her that it would be just a bit better if they teach her. I don't think she's super attached to us, anyway, my word. Hahah. Sighhh.
We've spent a lot of time in Anchorage, rehearsing for the fireside, helping Sister beesley prepare for the fireside, and being at the fireside. We've slept at the mission home twice this week. We love having comp study in the mornings there. There have been other missionaries both times. I love having comp study with like six or eight of us gathered around the table, especially when Pres and Sister Beesley were there. Everyone always has these good insights and they all blow my mind with how focused they are on the gospel. I learn awesome things from other missionaries. I love all of them in this mission and enjoyed performing with them over the weekend---there are several going home this next transfer that I'm really gonna miss.
Sister Rivera and I have really tried honing our teaching style and she has been teaching me a lot about the importance of silence in a lesson so that I can wait for what the Spirit has to say. I dunno how good I am at it yet, but I know it's important. She says that miracles happen when we listen for the Spirit to speak to us.
OH, we met with the Quakers twice this week. Have I told you about them? We're not sure they should technically be called Quakers, but for the purpose of my emails I will refer to them that way. In their church, all the women wear their hair in a bun, no makeup, wear long plain skirts, high-collared shirts, and vests. The men wear vests, pretty much all have beards. Wear plain, non-flashy clothing. Follow the bible exactly. They know the bible so well, and really really love it, and we feel the Spirit when they are there. We don't teach the same with them as we do with others. We ask a lot of questions, and then they ask US about questions. They fed us dinner on Saturday, they are so sweet. They play Bible trivia at the dinner table. then they asked us about hte book of mormon and we shared a really good testimony about it----since they understand the Old Testament so well, I just said, "The book of mormon is a fulfillment of Joseph's blessing that his posterity would go over the wall, or, more literally, over the ocean. The people in the Book of Mormon are Joseph's descendants, and it proves God loves all his children. He speaks to all of them and they all write, not just one nation." They just nodded and listened and I felt the Spirit while speaking so I knew they weren't putting up their defenses (AKA walls full of barbed wire with machine guns ready and pointed at us....JUST KIDDING, they really are sweet Christlike people).
Anyway, I gotta go. Love you all.
Christy (Gayla's sister) showed up to church on Sunday. I almost burst into tears giving her a huge hug. I loved seeing her! She was happy and bright-eyed. She is living with the daughter of the Millers who used to be in the laguna niguel stake presidency. Hee hee. She is going to England and Scotland after working in Alaska for the summer, no big deal.
YAY.
I love the gospel! I know it's true!
Love, sister ashbrook
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| Sister Ashbrook, her companion Sister Rivera, and a couple Elders singing at the fireside |
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