May 6, 2013

Hello all!

This last week has been very interesting. So here's the basics of what happened:

Tuesday: Tuesday was a lot of finding. We were supposed to have an appointment with a potential named J, but he wasn't home. So we went and did some potential work instead. We ran into a potential named B, who said he comes to church, at our church, every Sunday at 9:30, which is when our meetings start. So we may have had an investigator there for a while that we don't know about. He wasn't there yesterday, because he was sick, but we are meeting with him this week, so we will see how things go. We also visited the H’s, Brother H is inactive and Sister H is not a member. Brother H had surgery the previous Tuesday to remove a tumor, but they couldn't because it was wrapped around a main vein. So he was open for about 4 days so the swelling could subside. So we went to see how Sister H was doing. She is a very nice woman, but not really religious. She does like visiting with the missionaries though. So there's still hope. We wanted to do a lot of finding, but it didn't really happen, because we had to pick up a sister who was supposed to come to J's lesson and drop her off.

Wednesday: Much more busy. We taught Y that morning, because of some conflicts on Friday. She is so sweet. I absolutely love meeting with her. She has talked a little to her family about what she is learning! Baby steps, but important ones. Hopefully she will be able to come to church soon. She could probably be baptized tomorrow if she were able to come to church. And I. I get the feeling that he doesn't know what he is looking for right now. I think if he would come to church, it would be easier to figure out. But he is beginning to open up more to us and we are learning a lot more about him, which makes it easier to teach him. Funny how that works.

Thursday: Thursday was absolutely amazing. We had our multi-zone conference, and we talked about the one thing that I feel like has really been lacking: time management. We were taught how to plan more effectively and to plan with back up plans. So basically to use the planner the way it was designed. Funny how that works. Definitely a little bit of chastisement there, but it was good for us. I also got to have another interview with President T and received a blessing from him. I learned a lot from that blessing and was promised some marvelous things. I just wish I knew when these things would happen. But I guess that is what patience is about.

Friday: Friday was the first day we applied what we learned. It started out a little rough, but ended well. We tried to get a hold of some less actives the relief society asked us to visit, but none of them were home. We did find a less active named D that we were able to have a good conversation with. Technically, we shouldn't have been teaching him because there was no female present, but we were outside and I couldn't get Sister C to leave, because it would have seemed rude. So that was awkward. He is very interested in family history, so we gave him the info of the family history center, and then let the elders know so they can teach him. We had a mini missionary come that night, named Sister O. She stayed with us until Sunday afternoon and it was really great. She is just waiting for her mission call. It's been assigned and everything. We also visited a less active named R. She very sweet, but I'm not quite sure she is all there. I didn't understand half of what she was telling us, but she refuses to go to a Spanish ward. She's been here since November and no one knew about her until now. She loves coming to church, but she does need constant help, so it's going to be a challenge for now, especially once we have investigators coming. We won't be able to help them and watch R, so she needs visiting teachers. But she is a great woman. Just has had some crazy things happen.

Saturday: Saturday was a good day. We did quite a bit of tracting and we got to meet with I. However, he's not interested in learning, just debating. So that was a bust. But he does have a Book of Mormon now. There was a baptism that afternoon, but we weren't going to go, because we didn't have an investigator to come with us, and we could have used the time to teach or find. But just as the baptism was about to start, the elders called and said they needed someone to play the piano. So we went, and I played. So many things went wrong that day for the elders in connection with the baptism, that they completely forgot about the piano. So we ended up going. We also made a lot of phone calls to potentials. A lot of the people who didn't answer ended up calling us back, which almost never happens. So it was really good.

Sunday: A little bit of a crazy day. I've never been so tired, but I don't care. I'm glad I'm finally working hard enough to be tired. We visited with a couple less actives and did a lot of tracting. We found a potential and we almost taught him the restoration, but he had to leave, so we will try again later. We also set up several appointments. So it was a very good day.

All in all, this week was good and next week is really looking up. If none of the appointments fall through, and this is just counting the ones that we have been able to confirm, we will be teaching 8 different investigators. That's not counting the ones we are going to just drop by. I'm tired and I have a little baby blister, but I've been asking for it, and I am so glad it's finally happening.

I love you all,

Sister Peterson