So it's been a long week fully of long days, as always, but it's felt so long because it's been packed full of amazing experiences.
Like I said I'm sort of adjusting. It's still a little weird to get up every morning and put on a dress and a name tag, then go talk to a bunch of strangers and tell them about the gospel. But I'm slowly getting into the swing of it. I've taken the lead in asking people to come to conference, accept a Book of Mormon, and asking for a return appointment. It's the small talk that gets that all going that still has me confused. How do you go from Hi and talking about how you like someones hat to teaching them about the restoration? (true story) I just don't get it yet.
But on the bright side once we get into a lesson I can teach... by the spirit. That's the key thing I've learned this week you can't teach a single truth without the spirit. I can't even find any words to say without the spirit being there directing me. I'm so grateful for the spirit.
We have been going to this one house everyday looking for our only listed "progressing investigator". His name is Isaac, and every time we went he wasn't there. Something important to know about this house, it's a half way house so its got 13 or more guys living in it, all rough and tumble and a bull dog and a sweet little girl who is one of the guys daughter.
Whenever we go up to the house there is always someone sitting on the porch smoking. We've actually had some pretty good discussions with the people there just on the porch. We met a man who is really supportive of us and knows what we share is important (he calls us "fishers of men"), but it's just not for him. He's already saved in his church. ITS SO FRUSTRATING!
but we'll get to him, we were thinking of starting a Book of Mormon reading night with the whole household... probably not... I think it would be fun...
Anyway we finally got to meet Isaac this Saturday. He is still interested and he said he would come to conference and bring his grandma. (sadly he didn't do either.) We are still going to keep meeting with him though. He's a good guy.
The biggest part of the week was working with Amanda. She has had a hard life. Every time we meet with her we learn something new that has happened to her and how that has affected her. Its just super painful to hear about. I won't go into details because trust and privacy, but she is having identity issues and it's all become a very delicate balance of helping her understand gospel truths while also not trying to make her feel awkward or alienated.
She came to the Sunday afternoon session of conference and loved it, and we immediately went into a lesson after. The entire Bridgewater family (the members who are her friends) were in the lesson with us. Because of the delicate nature of the situation and just because of the number of people commenting our lesson went two hours long. Normally lessons aren't supposed to be more then 45 minutes long, so we are afraid we over loaded her and she isn't going to remember anything we taught.
At the end of her lesson I got to take the lead and invite her to be baptized. She said yes! BUT... turns out she might already be a member... yup. So her biological dad who she doesn't want anything to do with anymore was a Mormon and she may have been baptized when she was eight. We were so shocked and had no idea how this hadn't come up before. So we are figuring that out with the bishopric.
CONFERENCE!! I loved conference so much! Sister Quinton and I both agree its just like Christmas morning. I actually wrote down my questions this year and it worked so much better then just keeping it all inside my head. I got so many answers, some direct but some were simply answered with the thought that I don't need to know everything right now and I will know when it matters.
Some of the common threads I saw throughout conference were the themes of divine nature and eternal destiny. These talks really helped me and my companion who have both been struggling with self criticism. They were also a really great boost for going into the lesson with Amanda. The other common thread I saw was of the scripture Proverbs 3:5-6. I love this scripture and was using it before conference, but i'm going to use it even more now. It was used in three different talks directly and the themes within it were talked about in a lot more. It says; "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct they paths."
A couple short stories...
THERE ARE CATS EVERYWHERE!! On the streets, in every house, in our own backyard!! We've gotten to play with kittens in three different houses (in one of them 5 kittens at once), We have started shouting "CAT!" every time we see a cat and we really need to start counting because we see one almost every block. We also have a Siamese cat that lives with us now. We found it napping in the bushes and when we have the door open it tries to walk in so we are feeding it a little tuna every once in awhile and are going to put out an extra blanket for it to sleep on. (pics included)
We've been fixing up our apartment with simple decor so pics included.
Had some yummy shakes at a sketchy burger joint. We were the only ones in the restaurant and it was run by a little Asian lady who we could hardly understand.
We also got force fed almond milk by another little Asian lady we went to visit. Super sweet and almost impossible to understand.
We met and are teaching Peter a super enthusiastic recent convert who is just such a strong spirit. He now has the calling to lead the Addiction Recovery classes run by the church, so we went to that to support him and met some cool people.
We've been living off of Nutella so that's pretty great.
We've met lots of sweet people, and just a few not so sweet slam the door in your face people.
We visited a young part member family who just had their first baby a couple days ago. They are both theater people and actually met doing a production of Les Miserables. He was playing Jean Val Jean and she was working backstage. He says he is introverted but being on the stage allows him to be himself. My thoughts exactly! I love when other people understand!!
I'm super grateful for my companion, Sister Quinton. She has helped me through the hard days and we have grown so much together being thrown into this new area together. She is a great trainer!
Remember you are a child of a Heavenly Father who loves you! Negative and self degrading thinking is from the devil! and have hope because YOU ARE NOT ALONE, Jesus Christ knows your sins, sicknesses, and sorrows perfectly and he is always there for you!!
I love you all so much! Have a great week!
BYE!!
-Sister Peterson :)
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