From One Washington to the Other: April 28, 2014

This week was good but it went by way too fast. This is the last week of the transfer. I can't believe it. I would be the one to be transferred, but I really hope I stay. If I get switched out, I will be heart broken. This area has come so far since I've been here and I love it so much! So I've been having mini anxiety attacks just thinking about transfer calls. We'll be getting them tonight ugh.

I'm glad you liked the picture sent from our members! We had family home evening with them on Monday night. They have a son serving in Arizona right now and they always LOVE it when members send them pictures of him- I guess they just wanted to pay it forward. :) They're so sweet. They're some of my favorite people here!

I had a trial of faith this week. We met with Mercedes again. She's the lady who was baptized 20 years ago and went inactive as soon as she joined the church. She's very strong in her church that she goes to now, but she lets us come over every week and study with her. This week she asked about the differences between her belief in the trinity and our belief in the godhead. Okay, so I KNOW with all my heart that God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are three separate distinct beings. But man! The way that she was explaining the trinity fit really well with the Bible. She has scriptures to back it up and everything. Both Sister Udall and I just sat there and listen to her arguments that the trinity is the way it is...and when we didn't respond right away she commented with a huge smile on her face, "You can just join MY church!!!!" My heart just sank. There was NO way that I was going to Bible bash her. I didn't want to argue. But I felt like I had to at least defend the true nature of the godhead. Mercedes is a lot like me- stubborn. :) We always talk about how we have a lot in common. And we're good friends because of it!! Anyway. We wound up sharing Joseph Smith's first vision experience with her. Right when we started talking about it, her non member husband, Mike, walked in the door early from work. So he listened in too! I don't know what he was thinking, but I know he's not a fan of us coming over and trying to bring Mercedes back to our church. Oh well. Haha! My mind was just troubled all week over the fact that so many people don't even know the true nature of God. We know about the godhead because of modern revelation, but without it, it's no wonder people believe so strongly in the trinity.

We've been trading off with the Elders every week in teaching a Book of Mormon study class. Our ward missionary, Brother Mercer, has started it up again and it's great. We taught this last week and the spirit was so strong. I actually like teaching in a class setting like that! We used the seminary manual :) Brother Mercer is such a funny old man!!!!!! He just says things as they are and sometimes he's really sarcastic.

Haha- one time we were having a missionary correlation meeting with the ward missionaries. Our ward mission leader, Brother Stark, saw a chipmunk outside on his back porch and said, "Oh look! A chipmunk!" hahahahaha. Everyone turned to look except for Brother Mercer who said, "Oh really? I've never seen a chipmunk before." I tried really hard to hold back my laughter but then Brother Stark innocently replied, "Really? Well there's one right outside, if you just turned around you could see it!" And Brother Mercer goes, "It was a JOKE!" It was so hilarious! Brother Stark and Brother Mercer are just two really funny old men who always go back and forth. I told Sister Udall yesterday that if their friendship was recorded in a movie, it would be one of my favorites. They're just too funny. I wish you could all know them.

We had another lesson with Donna!! We went by the apartment to teach her with Chris and Kendall, but Chris was at the hospital because he has a blood clot in his leg and Kendall was out with her sister getting a tan. Haha. So we just taught Donna by herself! We taught her the plan of salvation and she totally soaked it right up! We made it halfway through the lesson up to the part where we talk about our life on earth and the atonement and she said, "Keep going! I'm totally engrossed in this!" It made me smile. This was the very first time I'd taught the plan of salvation to an investigator before, so I was a teeeeny bit nervous about teaching the part about the kingdoms of glory. I think i was just afraid that she wouldn't believe it and that she would make fun of it. But at the end of the lesson Heavenly Father taught me that I needed to have more faith in Him! Because at the end, Sister Udall asked Donna if she believed this was true, and Donna said a firm, "Oh YES! God definitely has a plan for each of us!" She has a lot of faith. She just takes things as we say them. Which is great, but we want her to know everything for herself. We almost put her on date for baptism, but we decided she wasn't there quite yet. We asked her if she had prayed about everything that we've taught her up to this point and she said she hadn't. We invited her to take it to the source of all truth, aka God, and ask to know for herself if it really is true!

We got to help out the youth this week!!!!! It was SO MUCH FUN! They did a bit young men and young women activity about missionary work! The leaders invited us to come and to be "investigators" while the youth paired up and were the missionaries. We went into a classroom and they knocked on the door, trying to teach us about the Book of Mormon and the restoration of the gospel. They did so well!!! Holy cow the youth in this ward are going to be great missionaries! It was so much fun. I LOVE being around the youth.

Right after that we got a text from a VERY pregnant lady in the ward who couldn't even bring in her own groceries. She is going through a divorce and has two little girls who do not help her at all and she's due on Memorial Day. Her situation breaks my heart!! I wish there was more we could do for her! We brought in her groceries and said a prayer with them and had to leave so we could be home by 9pm. Poor lady. We're going to go over and clean her car and her kitchen for her this week.

Ah!! AND we got to do another service project!!!!!!!! We are allowed up to 4 hours of service every week, and we have been doing 0. Laaaaaaaaame!! The members have it in their minds that since we're sisters, we're weak or afraid to get dirty or something. They just never invite us to help people move or to do any hard work. But this time, we pretty much invited ourselves. It was Sister Udall and I and the entire high priests group working together to clean up a less active lady's back yard! It was the best thing ever. This lady had a HUGE pile of old rotten lumber, old tangled wire fences everywhere, old swing sets... everything. But we loaded up trucks and took it all to the dump. After a couple of hours, her yard was perfect! I got so muddy and a little sunburnt (oops) but I loved it. I made sure I worked harder than the elders did. Brother Hilton came up to Sister Udall and I at the end and called us his heroes. hahahaha!! And then in the third hour of ward conference yesterday, Brother Stark made an announcement to the ward that the ward needs to use us more for service. :)

AHHH THIS JUST IN FROM MY MISSION PRESIDENT

From 2:00 - 4:00 pm on May 17, we will have the opportunity to have a 3-mission conference where we will be taught by Elder M. Russell Ballard (Quorum of Twelve Apostles), Elder Whitney Clayton (Presidency of the Seventy), and Elder Wong (recently called to the First Quorum of the Seventy). The meeting will be held at the stake center next to the temple.

Okay. How cool is that?!

Oh I almost forgot my favorite miracle of the week!! Sister Udall had served in the Great Falls ward when she was a new missionary. One of the members in that ward that had just returned home from his mission sent her the name and phone number of one of his good friends who just moved into the Centreville area and who just got married!! His name is John Kim! And he is so great! He took us to a little bakery and bought us goodies to much on while we taught him. He had so many great questions about missionaries and Mormons and what makes us different. At first it was all small talk, but then the spirit put an inspired question into my mind and I asked, "What do you expect from meeting with us?" And he then went into how he was not satisfied with his church and he wanted to find the source of all truth. He loves Mormons and he thinks our church meetings are run the right way. (He went to church once before with his friend in Great Falls). Holy cow! This was such a great member referral miracle!!! John Kim is so prepared! We gave him a copy of the book of Mormon in Korean- he was born and raised in Korea. He was so excited at the end of our lesson!!!

So I think that's all for this week folks! :) Have a great week!

Do you study Preach My Gospel as a family? I bet you totally are, but if not, I invite you to do so for Family Home Evening!! Chapter 3 has all the missionary lessons, and Chapter 5 is all about the Book of Mormon and it's importance in our lives. I'd start with those chapters first. As you study together, the Lord WILL give you even more great opportunities to share the gospel with everyone around you! He puts prepared people in the paths of his prepared servants- I've experienced it for myself and I KNOW that's true!

Love you all!!!
Love,
Sister Anderson