From One Washington to the Other: January 22, 2013

YO.

First of all, I have permission to be emailing right now because Monday was MLK day, so all the public libraries were closed and yesterday we had the worst snow storm of my life and we weren't allowed to drive anywhere.

Mom, it would have been AMAZING to go visit the Lincoln memorial on Monday. I would have loved that. I really do love being in Virginia. I still do not understand politics, but I have always loved our country's history. It might sound weird, but I feel a lot closer to our founding fathers and all those inspired men that played roles in the independence of our country. I feel very patriotic and I love it!

Monday night on our way to an appointment to teach on of our members our first lesson, our gps got us lost. The roads here are insane. INSANE. I strongly dislike the freeways around here. We were in Alexandria one minute, and then our gps told me to take a slight right turn without specifying exactly where to go. There were 500000 freeway exits all in a row, so I had to make a quick guess so I wouldn't get run over by the crazy DC drivers behind me. The next thing I know, the road is taking us higher and higher off the ground... I looked over at Sister Hansen and asked, "Are we still in Virginia??" And she looked out her window and said, "Nope. We're right over the Potomac River." Great. So much for staying within mission boundaries. A minute later, I saw the "WELCOME TO MARYLAND" sign. Hahaha. We got off the freeway and headed back to VA as soon as we could! Yikes! The roads here are super sneaky!!!

Sister Hansen and Sister Anderson--It's snowing!

Yesterday we had a pretty big snow storm. Pretty big for out here you could say. All of our ward members who used to live in Utah say that it was nothing. But it was a pretty big deal! We weren't allowed to drive, for safety purposes, so we decided to walk. We had a dinner with one of our members who lives in our neighborhood a few blocks away. Right before we got there, Sister Hansen biffed it. I mean, she BIFFED it. I was just a few steps ahead of her and I heard this huge THUD. I turned around to see her on her stomach. She didn't get up right away, so I booked it over to help her out. She got up and said that she landed on her wrist pretty good, and that nothing else hurt. So I made sure that she held onto my arm the rest of the way. When we got to our dinner appointment, she took off her gloves, looked at her wrist and almost passed out. She had a bump on her right wrist the size of a golf ball. We got her to sit down, take some pain meds and put ice on it right away. It didn't look like normal swelling to me at all, so I asked our member to take us to urgent care. I waited in the waiting room for TWO WHOLE HOURS. (I mean, I've been praying to have more patience...God answers prayers, right?) So now we're goign to another doctor tomorrow for her to get a cast. It's crazy. Although, she's been really positive about it. She's left handed, and very grateful she landed on her right hand rather than her left. Haha. Poor Sister Hansen. (The good thing that I'm taking from this experience is that I have more opportunities to serve my companion! Yay!! haha.)

Sister Hansen's poor wrist!

On Saturday, our roommates, Sisters Lindmeir and Gray, had a baptism for one of their investigators!!! Sister Hansen and I invited our investigator, Chad, to come so that he could feel the spirit. The spirit is just so strong at baptismal services, so we were very excited for him to finally recognize that. So the guy who performed the baptism bonked the guy's head on the wall....he had to be rebaptized. Oops. That was so sad! And Chad just snorted. He really has a hard heart! Oh my. We had a lesson with him after the service and he had a temper tantrum! I am really bold with him. I know it's about being bold with love, and I feel like I do a pretty good job. It's also about teaching and saying things simply so the Holy Ghost can testify and so that he could understand. Chad said something like, "Oh I could never be a mormon so I don't think I would get baptized because I don't want to give up coffee, tea, alcohol...the list went on" ANd so I stopped him and said, "You know Chad, that list is full of things and worries of the world. You are not going to understand anything we say until you put those things aside and put God first." I said that because I KNOW that the Church of Jesus Christ is a TON more than just giving up coffee, tea and everything else that we choose not to partake. It's about coming closer to our Savior, Jesus Christ. It's about love. It's about being a better person. It's about a WHOLE lot more than doing things that everyone else does. I think there's a scripture somewhere in 2 Nephi that says that the wicked take the truth to be hard. And that is exactly what happened in this case. I finished talking and he cussed at me and said that it was easy for me to say because I've been living it my entire life. Oh myyy. He sounded so silly. I mean, sure. It is easier for me to live it because I have been living it for a long time. But I still need to make choices every single day. I still need to decide for myself if this really is something that I WANT to live. I didn't even try to explain that to Chad because he was not in a place to listen. He started talking about how he KNOWS the Bible to be true because there are facts that support it, whereas the Book of Mormon has NO fact to support that Joseph Smith didn't just make it up. It totally makes me crazy when people say that, no matter who they are! We talked to him about how he knows that the Bible is the word of God. He said that he had to go on faith first, but then the facts followed. So wouldn't it make sense if that was how it worked with the Book of Mormon as well? I guess it doesn' tmake sense in his mind. We tried explaining that to him, and he cut us off and yelled out, "FACTS FACTS FACTS PEOPLE! COME ON!" while slapping his lap. It was one of those moments where I wish I had been recording him, it was ridiculous. He just doesn't let the spirit work within him. It's so sad!!! Thankfully, I was prompted to share a story from the Bible that I had been prompted by the spirit to study just that morning! Miracle! It was in Joshua ch 3. I told Chad about how the Lord split the waters of the River Jordan for Joshua and his people to cross, just like how the Red Sea was split for Moses and the Israelites to cross! However, in Joshua's case, the waters weren't split UNTIL AFTER they put their feet in the water. I related this to Chad's life and how he needs to take a literally step of faith FIRST before everything else makes sense. He like that a lot. He loves his Bible stories. :) So he's no longer progressing...but we have three strong potential investigators!!! All three came to church all on their own without even meeting with missionaries before! We got their phone numbers to set up appointments with them this weekend! SO EXCITED! :D

I can't even remember everything else that's been happening. Life is so crazy..

Oh! One of our members was watching one of her friends' daughters and her three friends. Our member invited us to come to dinner with them! All four girls are in 7th grade and they are so cute!!! It made me totally miss being in Young Womens. We shared a quick message with them about how important it is to doubt not and be believing. They soaked everything up like sponges! They were just so cute! I really really hope I get to go to a family ward next.

We had interviews with President Riggs. In my interview, he told me that I will most likely be leaving this area because I've been here for so long. He also said that he wants to get me training a new missionary. Yikes. Transfers are the first Thursday in February. Comin up quick!

This weekend, Elder Gifford Nielson of the seventy is coming to our mission to speak to us. He's the guy at this last general conference that said EXCAMATION POINT every two seconds. His talk is called Hastening the Lord's Game Plan, if you want to look it up on lds.org. He's got a nice football announcer voice. I'm pretty excited to meet him nad hear him speak in person! :)

That's it for this week! I hope you are all doing well! I loved the pictures from Belana's birthday! GO HAWKS! hahaha!