A Week of Adventures

With MTC instructor, Sister Mitchell

 

This week was quite an adventure!

Joey, the one who thinks he is God, dropped us this past week. He left a nice note on the door so when we showed up for our appointment we didn't even have a chance to talk. We haven't seen him since but he has a copy of the Book of Mormon and president likes us to get them back if they don't want to meet with us anymore. It shows them how important it is to us.

But the same day Joey dropped us we had something awesome happen. We tracted into Samantha the second day in the area. She told us she has been looking for the truth and has been studying with different churches. When we first met her she was studying with the Jehovah's Witnesses and so she wasn't giving us much thought. But after Joey dropped us we felt we should go visit her. So we stopped by and she was not having the best day. She had gone to her study class that morning and they talked about how if you have a blood transfusion you have dirty blood and can no longer be saved. This really hurt Sammy because she was in the service and has had three blood transfusions.  She didn't understand how that could be true. She hadn't done anything wrong. So we told her we don't believe that and shared a message of hope and that we can all be forgiven and return to live with our loving Heavenly Father again. She was so excited and decided that she is going to stop studying with the Jehovah's Witnesses and start studying with us! She committed to come to church and  we were all excited!!! and then she got food poisoning. Sooo she didn't come to church yesterday but will be this up coming week! We are hoping to set her with a baptism date later this week!

Another miracle for the day! Last Sunday was fast Sunday and me and Sister Brog fasted to be able to find and family to teach. While Sister Brog was closing her fast she had the thought that we needed to tract Pine St. She didn't know if there was a Pine St. in New Boston so the next day we looked it up on my GPS! There is one! So we decided that we were going to tract that street until we have talked to everyone that lives on it. So we get to Pine St. and there is only one house on that street... So we go and knock. No answer. We knock again. No answer. We ring the door bell. No answer. As we began walking away a 18 year old boy opens the door. He grew up Jewish with his mom but his mom died when he was 7. He agreed to meet with us but he is in college now so we didn't set up an appointment. We are calling tomorrow to do so.

Wednesday we had zone meeting. President wants us to have 300 baptisms by the end of this year. Right now we have 170 so we need 33 every month for the rest of the year to reach that goal. This mission has never had that many baptisms and so it is a really big goal! Me and sister Brog really want to help contribute and we are getting so close. This month the mission has already had 11 so we are on our way! Anyway we have to share the car with some elders in another area so after the meeting we had to give up the car. It was very sad! We had a member from the ward pick us up and take us home. They were really nice. Biking in a skirt is kind of difficult haha i am definitely figuring out which skirts work and which do NOT. 

Another miracle! Wednesday night we had dinner with a member that lives right around the corner from the church. She is the sweetest old lady! I think she said she was 84. She (and her house) reminded me a lot of grandma Rose :) after dinner we went over to the church. Every Wednesday night they have family history. When we walk into the building one of the youth leaders comes up to us and says this: "There is a couple working on family history. Their family has been inactive and wants to start coming to church. Oh and by the way, they have three kids that want to be baptized." WHAT?? We were so excited! So we go in and meet this couple. They are so nice! They came to church on Sunday with their whole family. (Plus a cousin who would also like to be baptized) Their kids are sooo excited to be baptized. We talked to the whole family after church and set a baptism date! We are working to have them baptized by October 19th. YAY!!!!

Thursday we went over to a members house for breakfast and it was soo good! We had scrambled eggs, biscuits and gravy, and sausage. After when we were talking with them she was telling us about her daughter and grandson. He was born deaf but still manages to be successful. Well the longer we talk to her we realize there is a Mormon message about them! So you have to look up Sherri Patterson McRae on mormon.org. We might get to meet her at the end of October! 

When we got back from breakfast it started raining. Not just sprinkling but pouring rain! We didn't have a car so we were just waiting for it to let up. It finally did and so we decided to go out tracting. Bad idea! It started pouring again. Thankfully we had umbrellas but by the time we got home we were drenched. We were almost home and there was a tree that had fallen down on a power line. There were people there cutting it down but they wouldn't let us just go by. Our house was just on the other side of the tree and we would have had to go all the way back around the neighborhood so we just sat and waited in the rain till we were done. By the time we got home all my clothes were wet and my mascara was running down my face haha

 

 Drenched!

Friday it rained all morning again and so we didn't do much running this week haha But finally it let up after studies so we went out tracting. The rest of the day it was pretty nice out. 

Once a transfer we have apartment checks and ours were on Saturday. So Friday night we spent really cleaning the house which lead to rearranging the furniture. Sister Brog's bed was really squeaky and so she likes sleeping on the couch better but we are suppose to sleep in the same room sooo we decided to move it. We moved her bed into our study room. The nasty couch that was in the study room into the living room. and the nice big couch that was in the living room into our room. First of all the hall way connecting all of these rooms is NOT large. It took some serious work to get everything through. It didn't help that the nasty couch had a pull out bed so when we tilted it to get through the door, the bed just fell out! at one point I thought it was going to be stuck there! But the hardest part was getting the nice couch into our room. We tried for thirty minutes! and still didn't have success. But when decided to try one last way we got it in to the room in less then a minute. Frustrating!! 

Saturday we had the cleaning inspection and I'm sure you got the picture with the golden mop! We passed haha 

While we were tracting Saturday afternoon we met a kid named Gagan. He is from India and studies the Sick religion. We didn't even know what that was and he really didn't explain much but we talked to him for about twenty minutes. One of our goals this week was to have more faith when we hand out copies of the Book of Mormon. We haven't been giving them out unless we felt like the people were actually interested but we decided to try something different! We had faith and challenged him to read a chapter in the Book of Mormon and we got a return appointment out of it! We have been praying that he recognizes the Holy Ghost testifying of truth while he reads. 

On Sunday bishop surprised us had us say the opening and closing prayers in sacrament. We didn't know until he announced that sister Brog would be giving the opening prayer. You never know what to expect on a mission! At least that is what the bishop told me when I was walking off the stand. 

That afternoon we were out tracting again and found another amazing family. There is a mom and three kids. The kids are 12, 11, and 9 and they all have testimonies of Jesus Christ. We gave them a copy of the Book of Mormon and are returning on Friday to teach them about the restoration. They were so excited to start reading and learning more. Their family has been through a lot and I know they have been prepared to hear the words we have to teach! 

The last story I have to tell is quite comical. We were riding our bikes home last night after stopping by Sammy's and a bug flew in my eye! Sister Brog described me like I was swerving my bike in every directions and then i ran into the curb, and threw my helmet to the ground. It hurt sooo bad! and i couldn't get the stupid thing out of my eye!! She came over and was able to tell me where it was so i could pull it out. My eye water the rest of the night and i have been wearing my glasses since then! We think it might have scratched my eye a little bit because it still was bugging me this morning. But it will heal soon enough :)

 

 

Clothes Lines

Smashed Armadillo

Sister Brog decorated my planner

 

 I love you all and am so thankful for you examples! Your Heavenly Father loves you and the more you align yourself with his commandments the more He blesses you!

Love, 

Sister Erika Kelly