Okay first I'm going to start with some random information.
President gives us two hours every week to use Mormon.org and LDS.org so we can
be familiar with it and help investigators if needed. On LDS.org I can look up
the ward directories for our stake in Las Vegas and you can see all the
missionaries that are out. Not only from our stake but you can see the
missionaries that are assigned to each ward. So I was looking at all of those
as well seeing if I knew any of them from the MTC and I do! Elder Cook was in
my district and he is assigned to our home ward! So you have to tell everyone
there that I know him. Sister Brog also had people in her district in the MTC
and so she was looking at them with me. Elder Patterson is in the Arbor View
ward and knows sister Brog so you have to tell Allison! Here is the list of all
the Elders in Las Vegas right now: Elder Walker, Elder Schlesinger, Elder
Peterson, Elder Browning,and Elder Cook. Lastly, you can look at a map of all
the mission boundaries on a map and my mission borders Blake Truman's.
Depending on what area he is in right now we could be like 30 miles away from
each other.. kind of crazy!
Last week I told you how President really wants us to take
time to get to know the ward. So we have been trying to visit families every
night and I love being in their homes. It is so nice to feel the sweet spirit
in the members homes but it also a cool experience when we teach them. Everyday
we make choice that determine if we are going to move toward God or away from him
and as we talk with these members we help them find ways where they can improve
each day. We commit them to doing things that will help them improve and then
one of my favorite parts about being a missionary is promising blessings. We
give a challenge and then always testify of the truth and blessings that will
come from being obedient. And the spirit is always backing us up as we make
those promises. It is the Best!
Tuesday we were driving to a small town, Hooks, that is in
our area and about 10 minutes away from home I realized I didn't have my name
tag!!! I felt so stupid, but we were already so far away we didn't want to turn
back and waste that time so for half the day I didn't have my name tag on.
Anyway we went and saw an older lady in the ward who hadn't been coming to
church. She was the sweetest lady ever and the reason she hadn't been coming is
because she had been with her daughter in North Carolina all summer. And then
she also had to find a ride because she can't drive anymore. So we called Bishop
and let him know. They found someone to pick her up but didn't get a hold of
her soon enough so she wasn't ready Sunday morning. But now she has a ride
every Sunday and she will be coming! We visited with her for a while and then
took her little dog on a walk. It was a good time and she was so thankful we
offered because she can't do it herself anymore.
We also started running this week. I hate running! and
sister Brog loves it so at first I wasn't so sure but we found out that the
high school keeps it's track open to the public so we go there and she can run
at her pace and for as long as she desires and I can do what I want. It is
really nice. I am soooo out of shape though! I thought I was going to die on
Tuesday. And running in the humidity is the strangest thing hahaha In the
mornings when we run it is so humid we have to drive with our windshield wipers
on so we can see. By the time I'm finished with my first lap every part of my
body is dripping wet. Gross!
This week we started doing this thing we call Chalk Talk. It
is so fun! There is a park we go to that has a walking path and we bring chalk
and write inspiring things. The first night we didn't see anyone but we have
gone a total of three times and have talked to people about what we are doing!
It's pretty cool.
Tracting this week was rough and there weren't a ton of
people interested. But we tracted into one of the members and she has been
awesome! Her name is Sister Ward. She is an older lady and her 20 year old
daughter was over. Her daughter isn't active and I made a total fool of myself!
We left them with a scripture and sister Brog asked me if i wanted to shard
one. I was all excited because I had one to share from my study that morning.
As I began to share it I realized how bad of an idea this was. I had read in
Alma chapter 41 I believe. And it is all about how Alma is calling his son to
repentance and that he needs to remember the things he was taught as a child. I
had already started sharing the scripture and so i just kept going with it. Her
daughter didn't say anything but hopefully she doesn't hate me now and
hopefully it was what she needed to hear and will start coming to church again.
Sister Brog after was like that was a brave scripture to share.. hahaha
Wednesday night was went over to a families home for dinner.
Our GPS got us lost so we had to call her and ask for directions. Before she
hung up she said, "See you soon, I have dinner ready on the stove."
When we get there we see that she has boxes of pizza on the stove, we were
laughing pretty hard! But their family is awesome. The wife is a convert and
she has got a crazy background, I never would have guessed. But we enjoyed
visiting with them! They have two little kids. A 7 year old boy and a 5 month
old girl. She is a ward missionary and we are excited to work with
her.
Friday we did "Thirsty Thursday" again and I now
know that my blue skirt is not a biking skirt! It was such a bad idea!! Sister
Brog kept laughing at me. And then it started raining, that made things even
worse!
Saturday night we had a ward ice cream social. We show up
and they have removed everything from the chapel and set up chairs like a gym.
Well it isn't actually a chapel, it is called a multipurpose room. Me and
sister Brog were a little skeptical at first but there isn't any where else to
do it. The young women sponsored the activity but because there are so little
youth me and Sister Brog helped scoop ice cream. My fingers were so numb by the
end. When everyone had finished eating they
had minute to win it games. It was a really good activity and the ward seemed
to all enjoy it. One of the games was to keep a balloon of the ground but you
could only use your head. They did a group of adults and one of the men in the
ward was trying to be funny, jumped really high, and came down and sprained his
ankle... It was one of those things I probably shouldn't laugh at but it was
funny. Later that night they did the cookie challenge where you have to place
it on your forehead and then try and get it into your mouth. They did a couple
rounds of that and so there were random cookies all over the room. The wife of
the man who sprained his ankle got up toward the end of the party and started
walking to the back of the room. She then stopped, took two steps back to a
random table, broke one of these random cookies in half (she has no idea where
that cookie has been), and ate it! Me and sister Brog just stared at each
other. The only other weird thing that happened at the party was that one of
the primary aged kids was having a birthday party that night so the mom just
brought all the kids from the birthday party to the ward party. Our ward is
definitely one of a kind and I love it.
At the end of the party we had to set up for church service
the next day. Our bishop is so particular on how he wants the chairs. He steps
off how far apart each row is and he had this laser pointer thing he puts on
the ground and lines up each chair just perfect.. It was stressing me out. I
couldn't help or I would do it wrong.
Sunday was a little more normal this week. The only strange
thing they do here in the south is that you don't have to go to the pulpit to
share your testimony. You can if you want but a lot of people just stand where
they are and give their testimony from the
congregation.
The last thing I want to talk about today is the
investigator we found while tracting. His name is Joey. He is a single man and
so we have to find a woman to go with us
when we teach which has been nice because it allows us to work with the
members. But Joey is this really depressed
guy. He says he has been looking for the truth in all things and hasn't been
able to find it. He has created this theory that God hates us and that agency
is a curse instead of a blessing. At the end of his first lesson he asked what
we wanted him to do so he could get these answers. So we challenged him to
start reading the BOM. We scheduled an appointment for the next day. We came
back and he had listened to it and read all the way to 2 Nephi 16. We were so excited!!
We kept talking to him and he had kept all his commitments and had lots of
questions. But the more we talked he gave us his theory. He has mental problem
called solipsism. Basically he thinks he is the only thing that truly exists in
this world. And he thinks he is God.. Yeah me and sister Brog were like....
uhhh you aren't God. we didn't say that but we have a return appointment on
Tuesday and we are going to say it.. in a nice way. So please pray for us. He
is really sad and depressed and we feel like we can really help him be happy in
this life. We are meant to be there!
I love you all so much! Thanks for the prayers and
support!
Love, Sister Erika Kelly
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