First of all…I forgot the most exciting part of last week! Haha…Sunday afternoon, we are out walking and start talking to a girl who sends us a few houses down to a home where members used to live…we go and knock on the door and this older woman comes out. She immediately says, “I know who you are…” and then proceeds to curse us. Haha. Literally curses us, the church, Joseph Smith, Moroni, the Book of Mormon; then tells us to never come back again and slams the door behind her. Sister Rogers and I just looked at each other and said, “You know, I always thought getting cursed would feel different…” haha. Anyways, that was fun!
Monday: A fun P-day complete with a birthday party at pizza hut for one of the young women and then a full day chillin at the Brumbles playing games and makin crazy videos!...note to self: never play Mad Gab Mormon Version with Sister Rogers ever again. My brain just doesn’t work that way. We had way too much fun!
Tuesday: We had a chuck-full day of great lessons! Started with meeting with Patti, who is more interested in just learning about what we believe and not really willing to change. Then we went to follow up with Linda…on Sunday we were walking past her getting in a car and she looked super familiar (but I didn’t know where from); so we just started talking to her and she says, oh hey girls!...do you have more books for me to read?!? Haha…uhhh….we asked if we could just come over and teach her and she told us when and where, not really expecting her to really be there…but come Tuesday morning she sure was there at home and welcomed us in to meet with her, and her 2 daughters as well! We had a really cool restoration lesson and the 3 of them accepted the baptismal invite. Apparently Linda knows quite a few members of the branch and had been given a Book of Mormon a few years ago which she reads once in awhile. One of her daughters, Shalece, is 21 and was soaking in the whole lesson…she even helped her mom understand some of the info she was confused on. It was cool to feel and see the spirit working within them. I love this gospel so much! Tuesday night we had dinner with our new neighbor, Morgan who had invited us over. She is 19 years old, from Georgia…and is awesome! We were also able to teach her a little of the restoration which she thought was “absolutely beautiful”. We are grateful Heavenly Father let us live there to find her!
Wednesday: Interviews with President Jensen! I love interviews! …except he asked me what my plans are for after the mission, and uhhhh… haha… good question president! I don’t want to think of that right now! So I’m not! Haha. No…it was good to hear his advice and talk to him about the options. He’s so great. After interviews, I went on exchanges in Hamilton with Sister Lindgren. The first person we saw was their recent convert Pattie. She had planned on showing her a mormon message or something, but it wouldn’t work….we end up having an inspired lesson on the power of the Book of Mormon and saw Pattie’s testimony of it strengthened. My testimony was strengthened as well, knowing that Heavenly Father really does put into our mouths the words we need when we need them. Following up with a potential the sisters had met on the street, we are welcomed into Nicole’s apartment and teach her the restoration. She was excited about it, but then her mom called and when she said she was with the mormon girls, pretty much freaked out. Opposition in all things, right? Wow, Satan is working really hard; which means we have to work even harder. I do know that the light always wins. Even though people have their agency…as long as we are doing our part and teaching them the truth and helping them feel the spirit, we are doing what we are supposed to be doing.
Thursday: we end up being stuck inside most of the day because of weather conditions and the president apparently not wanting us to get frostbite. We end up going to the temple for a session and having a wonderful day. I love the temple!!!
Friday: Weekly planning days are always fun… haha. Really though, I love planning and discussing the progress of those we are working with. Now if the plans we made actually went through most of the time! Haha. Oh the joys of crazy missionary work! It’s the best! We had planned on seeing Christi and kids, but when we got there we felt like we needed to be somewhere else. We end up at Charley Scudders…who we hadn’t seen in a couple weeks. We talk to him about the many sets of missionaries he’s seen and how the Lord has shaped him and tested him in multiple ways. He told us how he has a goal of living the word of wisdom 100% by March 2nd…we then invited him to set a baptismal goal of March 15th, and after helping resolve his concerns about setting that goal he ended up even praying to be able to achieve that goal.
Well…I’m out of time, and I’m sure you are too…haha. But I am just so grateful to be a missionary here at this time and be able to share my experiences with you. Even though they most likely make little to no sense whatsoever because I just blabber on half the time, I’m happy I get to share them with you. The church is true. Jesus Christ lives, and He loves us…more than we will ever comprehend.
Love you all!
Sister Natalia Alston
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