September 29, 2014 -What a Week

What a week!

On Sister Williams' first week here, she accidentally called someone in our phone named Ron Ryan. It was really funny. She was falling asleep and as she was nodding off, her hand bumped Ron's contact and called him! She realized what had happened, freaked out and hung up as quickly as she could! She asked me who Ron Ryan was, and I told her that I had no idea. We looked him up in the area book, and realized that he was a potential investigator that Sister Lamborn had contacted last spring. We decided to send him a message to see if we could set up an appointment. He actually got back to us!!! This week was the first time that worked out for the all us to meet up for a lesson. It was pretty cool. Ron told us that he had previously dated a girl who was Mormon and she never told him anything about it. He was curious!! (Man, that girlfriend missed out on a golden missionary opportunity. That was evidence to me of the importance of ALWAYS opening our mouths!) We had a great lesson with Ron and set up a return appointment for two weeks out... He's a busy guy with work.

We have still been meeting with Lei. Lei's friend, Nick, had just moved in to help Lei and his mom pay for rent, so we invited Nick to join us in a lesson. He willingly came out and asked a ton of questions, but he is SO incredibly closed off. It came to the point where I just stopped talking because teaching a wall would have been more effective. Sister Williams has a lot of fun trying to teach Nick because he is really analytical, just like she is. I feel bad for Nick. He has no faith. He doesn't even have a desire to believe. It's really hard for me to see how he's okay with where he's at. I know that some day he will remember my testimony and my promise to him that the Book of Mormon really does contain the answers to all of his questions.

We have an investigator named Rahfi. Rahfi is Muslim. I have never had a Muslim listen to the message of the Restored gospel before. Aparently, we were supopsed to have Rahfi meet with President Riggs' 1st or 2nd counselor right after the first lesson. But I didn't know that until after the third or fourth lesson with him!!! I felt sooo bad! But hopefully we're going to set something up this week before we teach him again. Teaching Rahfi has been cool because we have all of his lessons in a member's home. Rahfi knew one of our members from when he played on the church basketball team. And that coach so happnes to be one of the best member missionaries in the universe!!! It's soooo much better to have lessons in members homes. You should definitely offer to have missionaries and their investigators have lessons in our home!!! That's one of the number one things I'm looking forward to doing when I'm a member missionary.

We had a misison wide Sisters Conference on Friday. I sang a musical number with Sister Jorgensen, Sister Savage, and Sister Richardsen. Our accompanist, Sister Herring- who was in Women's Chorus with me at BYU, took an arrangement of I Know that My Redeemer Lives and added four part harmony to it. It was really fun. I love bearing my testimony through music. It's my favorite.

The women's broadcast was this week too!!... We missed a huge chunk of it. I was a little bummed, but I was definitly okay with it. My number one responsibility is to preach the gospel, and that's what we did. I really had to go to the bathroom, so we stopped at a gas station. There was a man there who said that he knows all the missionaries who come through to use the bathroom. Haha. (I was surprised when he said that he didn't know me...after all, I am the queen of the throne!! :) hahahahaha I have just been drinking a ton of water, okay?!!) But he said he was a non-practicing Muslim! He's the second Muslim who wanted to know more!!! My jaw dropped! He has a lot of soul searching questions. He lives in Manassas, so I can't wait to refer him to the missionaries that serve there...we walked into the broadcast right when President Uchtdorf was speaking. I'm grateful that the talks are printed in next month's Ensign!!!

GUESS WHO I SAW THIS WEEK!!!?!?!?!????!!!! My old investigator, Donna Woods!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh it was such a huge tender mercy!!!!!!! A couple of weeks ago, Donna messaged me on facebook, well she commented on my profile picture actually, but she told me that she had moved and gave me her address so that I could come over again. She's not in my area, but since my area was just up the road from where she lives, I was able to go on a mini exchange with the sisters who are serving in the area that Donna lives in so that I could introduce them to her!!! We went to her house, and I before I could reach up my hand to knock my musical knock on her door, she ripped the door open and rushed forward to give us a HUGE hug!!!! Oh my gosh, I love Donna Woods with all my heart!!! She is seriously the sweetest. It was even cooler because while I was in Centreville, the first thing I would do would be to follow up with her to see if she had read the Book of Mormon. I haven't seen her in over three months, and the very first thing she tells me is that she hasn't been reading because she's been so stressed out and busy with her move. Eventhough she didn't read, it made me happy to see that she knows that I expect her to read the Book of Mormon! :) She updated me on everything about her life as if we were life long best friends and then told us that the reason why she didn't get baptized is because she want to be a godmother to her sister's little girl. Which is the same concern that she told me when I was in Centreville. But she said that she just has to go to the Catholic church for a year to become a godmother, and then after that, she will get baptized. Oh Donna. At least she didn't completely close the door to baptism. But I know her new sister missionaries will do a good job clearing that up with her. I just know that Donna is meant to be baptized. What are the chancecs of her inviting me over when I was so close to where she now lives?? The pass off from me to her new missionaries was so smooth! Miracles DO happen!!!

Ashleigh's back on date!!!! She's the one who showed us her special spot in the woods. She's facing a  TON of opposition from her family about learning about the Mormon church. We met with her just last night and had a GREAT lesson with her. We started teaching her about the Plan of Salvation, and as soon as we started and I pulled out my visual for her (She's the most visual person I've ever met), she just satrted smiling and quietly giggling. It was so funny! It was awesome to tell her that that feeling was coming directly from God through His Spirit. We didn't teach through to the end of the lesson because we taught to her needs. We got to the Atonement, and Sister Williams pulled out her iPad out of the blue and asked Ashleigh to seek God's will to choose a date for her baptism. My jaw dropped a little, but I quickly caught myself. Man, from my perspective it seemed to come out of nowhere, but it seemed okay to Ashleigh. She looked down for like 2 seconds and picked January 24th. It was so fast. We had her kneel in prayer and ask God out loud if that date was the date He intended for her to be baptized. The spirit was so strong. She was so sincere. It was the greatest feeling to be a part of that moment. I was in awe! Ashleigh Fisher is back on date. It's amazing. I think it went so well because right at the beginning before I prayed, Ashleigh said, "I'm so excited to learn!" She came with the expectation for God to teach her, and she was edified. Personally, I think that she will end up being baptized before January 24th, but we'll see how everything works out. It's all in God's hands!

I love my mission. In the past few weeks, I have been so incredibly humbled. God truly is shaping me. He's changing my perspective on life, eventhough I'm not always the most shapeable person. I'm so grateful that he's patient with me and my endless cries for help.

I love you all so much. It's funny to me that eventhough we're miles apart and I only get to catch a glimpse of your lives, I've never felt closer to my family. Weird huh? It's all God's fault! :) The gospel is designed to bring families together.

Keep reading the Book of Mormon! Or listen to it! That's one way God helps me feel closer to you guys! It's cool to be reading the same words and feeling the same spirit that you are!

Love you,
Sister Anderson