Dear friends and family,
OVERVIEW
So this week was my first entire week "taking over the area" and at first it was pretty hard. I'd gotten to know where everybody was relatively well, but what had basically happened is that the work had been moving forward pretty quickly until about two weeks before I had to take it over and so now what we are mostly doing is finding. (people to teach) At first I found this frustrating because no matter how long we spent planning (and sometimes it was more than an hour) for the next day, it just seemed like everybody was either not home or they didn't want to hear from us. Everything started going up though after about Wednesday, because as we focused more on talking with everyone we came into contact with rather than just contacting our older potentials and formers that basically aren't going anywhere anytime soon-- we found more potentials, and I think God blessed us for making that decision/doing that work because we randomly started getting a bunch of referrals when we've been getting NONE. Get this-- my favorite moment of the week was that we got a referral from a lady named Sandra that literally has 10 pages of teaching records because she's been investigating the church for so long. She said "no tengo tiempo para bautizarme este ano" (I don't have time to get baptized this year) but we asked if there was anyone she knew that might want to know our message (which like, of course, we're expecting her to say no right?) and at first she said no but then after the prayer she said "You know what actually, I do have someone. My mom. She's in a wheelchair and she can't move so she's perfect. She can't run away from you guys!" I thought that was SO funny. haha :P Anyways, we visited her yesterday and she's awesome. She doesn't process things very well so if we want her to get baptized sooner rather than later we will probably have to see her a lot because we have to explain everything at least twice but she is AWESOME. Super funny, super sweet. Potentially my favorite investigator thus far (although I know I shouldn't pick favorites). As for my new companion- Hna Spencer is AWESOME. She's super driven and super focused, but also knows how to have fun. We have a lot of the same strengths and weaknesses so we can learn and grow together which is awesome. It's nice though that we're on the same page about how hard we want to work because we can just go at it like we're taking spiritual finals or something. It's AWESOME.
GOLDEN MOMENTS
So besides the one I already described above, here are some of my favorites
1. The Mom of the boy that got baptized last week got her knee fractured/shattered (I think I may have mentioned that?) and this week she had surgery. We sent some of the elders over there to give her a blessing the day before and then the day of the surgery we dropped by in the evening to check on her and show her our love. We planned a little lesson too but she was way too drugged out to understand anything so we mostly just made small talk and gave her some big hugs. Once she fell back asleep, we were heading out to go see someone else but I felt like we should say bye to everyone else. As we did so, I found the girlfriend of Hna Martin's son in the kitchen and in I think one of the bravest moments I personally have had on my mission I just straight up asked her when we could come by and teach her more (cause I asked her how she liked the baptism and everything). Haha so I was super just like...myself awkward and dorky and way too excited to have an apt with her, but I made her laugh and we had a nice little encounter and then later this week we came back and taught her lesson 1 so that was awesome. Always act on promptings even if you don't know why you think you should do them!
2. Ok so, in talking with everyone, my companion and I have decided to park far away from whoever we're trying and then we walk like 15 min to them and along the way pick up some new potential investigators. The first few times we did it it was totally ineffective because no one was outside! But this one time, we picked up like 4 potential investigators doing that and it was actually so fun because the new way we contact people is instead of just contacting them like salespeople and saying "Hi we're missionaries from..." We instead have to make some kind of clever conversation with them first, try to tie it into a gospel principle, then introduce ourselves/exchange information and try to set up an apt. It's really difficult and requires a lot more social skills than EITHER me or my companion have haha :P. But it was actually so fun because we started getting super creative. Examples-- Me: "Is that your plant? (signifying to the plant in their car"....; My companion (standing right next to the sign for Gamma St.): "Hey, um, we were just wondering where Gamma St. is because...oh wait hey, the sign is right here...but..."; My companion: "Do you restore cars as a hobby?.." (the transition here was very difficult. Ok, now but our favorite one, which resulted in absolutely nothing, which makes it even funnier was when there was this very tall kind of suave African American man walking towards us the other way on the street wearing a polo shirt and some sunglasses, because he was walking at a relatively fast pace and because I had like no time to think of something (he'd just come from around the corner and my companion had said "You've got this one!)....I said "Hey man those are some cool shades!" After which, he proceeded to smile/laugh, say thanks and WALK RIGHT PAST US LIKE WE DIDN'T HAVE ANYTHING SPECIAL TO SHARE WITH HIM. hahaha but we laughed super duper hard. And then after that, my companion said... "You know, I think in some cases, it probably is ok to just ask someone how they're doing." But hey, now that guy will always remember the super white mormon missionary that made him laugh by telling him he had cool shades. Right? Right.
3. On Sunday, two of the women in less active families that we visit regularly bore their testimonies in sacrament meeting. I like practically cried I was so happy!
4. Ok so sometimes if you listen to the spirit timing just works out crazy good. I'd been putting off visiting this recent convert because last time we visited him he made me cry because he was basically saying that God was Big Brother invented by the government to make us obey rules and after sharing my testifying and sharing scriptures and personal experiences and everything for like an hour (him and I back and forthing), he said "I'm sorry, I've been taught to listen to older men" and after that I just had to get in the car and blow off steam for like the next 15 minutes because I was so upset. I mean REALLY???? But anyways, we had a bunch of other back ups planned for a certain time when one of our potentials wasn't home and I went.."You know what, O. lives here. We should go visit him." And when we drove up, he was literally just getting home from Las Vegas (suitcase and everything) and we were able to have a good lesson with him and my companion was not taking any funny business from him so that was awesome.
5. So another little tender mercy. My absolute DREAM is to get in with Gloria's husband (meaning to be able to start teaching him). So after praying pretty much EVERY SINGLE DAY AT LEAST 3 TIMES that we would be able to get in with him, he randomly emerged when we were over there. We didn't get him to commit to a time to be taught but he was there and he shook our hands and he was fully conscious and so that was super awesome. He's had a lot of trouble and I just have this dream of helping him out. Also he's been obnoxiously impeding Gloria from going to church so we really want to put an end to that. We've determined the best thing to do is to make him breakfast (I've been learning to make a mad good chocolate chip pancake) and bring it over before church because his excuse is ALWAYS that he's hungry and he needs her to make him food (but he never tells her until right as she is leaving....UGH) So yeah, we'll be making some pancakes and bringing them over with whipped cream and everything and then if he does anything to stop her from going, he'll just know that it's wrong cause we will have been so nice. That's the goal anyways...Hna Pfiel (an STL)'s idea, not mine. Just to give credit where credit is due.
6. We had a lesson with a super catholic former that isn't willing to really look into our religion at all, BUT she really loved our testimonies about how faith and the atonement help us to overcome our trials. It's funny how much I've been thanking God for all the crazy stuff that happened to me the past couple years because on my mission, my testimony of how God helps us overcome all things is probably the most useful tool I have besides the scriptures.
7. So we haven't been able to get in with one of our investigators this week. He's been avoiding us ever since our word of wisdom lesson so we think he probably has a problem with it, which is totally fine because we love helping people overcome hard things!!! But if he NEVER OPENS THE DOOR, WE CAN'T HELP HIM! So that's a little frustrating. BUT the GOOD PART is that because we've been trying so much and he hasn't been home, we finally picked up his Mom as a new investigator so that was cool!
8. There's this recent convert that is a little bit crazy who reads A TON A TON A TON and is sometimes reading things that lead him religiously in a completely different direction and after he went to Mexico for Christmas he hasn't been back to church and so after visiting him this week we were SUPER DUPER DUPER HAPPY to see him in church and even MORE awesome he gave us two new referrals which was awesome. We've had a really hard time getting referrals pretty much my whole time in CA so this week we've been on a roll (in comparison)! Tender mercies of the Lord!
9. haha so this is mostly just funny. These formers we had been visiting a lot aparently moved, but we just found that out and the way we found it out was hilarious. So we went over to their house (PRAYING THAT SOMEONE WOULD ANSWER THE DOOR) and low and behold this 20 something year old lady opened the door and after talking to her for a minute or so she took out the sticky note (in spanish) that I'd written on and stuck on their door a few days before and said "People just don't get that he doesn't live here anymore!" and I shyfully took the note and explained that was us. Unfortunately she wasn't interested in our message, but it was just funny to think that I left a note in spanish for someone that didn't live there anymore and so there is no way she could have understood even what it said....
10. We taught the wife of a member that has been taught for a long time. She's also catholic. My like WINNING THE OLYMPICS dream is baptizing her...but she's really stubborn. But we brought over a member and so then, she let us in even though she was expecting visitors because believe it or not-- people have a harder time slamming the door on regular members of the church than us with the tags! haha....so it was awesome that we got in with her and had a good lesson and set up a return appointment. She is stubborn at the level of ridiculously stubborn and she hasn't even read the bible...but....we're having faith to try (out of like millions of other missionaries that have tried....) and see what happens! She's got to be ready SOMEDAY, right?
SPIRITUAL MESSAGE
So my spiritual message today is gonna be kind of simple but it's about goals. In Preach My Gospel it talks about how setting goals is an act of our faith. I know that it's not the first week of January and I probably should have given this message then, but here it is anyways-- and it's never too late. My companion and I in our weekly planning made a goal to contact 4 referrals next week. At that point in time we had NO RECEIVED referrals and we'd received two in the entire 3 months that I had been training. I at first thought it was a RIDICULOUSLY UNREALISTIC goal, and so therefore I didn't really have the faith to make that goal. But as my companion and I talked it out, we determined it would be a good act of faith and that as we worked towards it and prayed for it, God would help us accomplish our goal-- and he HAS! We have gotten 3 referrals already (and only contacted one) and I'm sure that we will be able to get the 2 we need to meet our goal next week. There's this song on one of my companion's cool CD's that is entitled "Believe" and it's the kind of thing I probably would have DESPISED as a freshman in college, but I love it now. It says "Believe that traffic lights are sometimes green when you need to be, that sometimes wedding days are clear and sometimes rain comes right on time to wipe away your tears...." basically the gyst of the song is that even though it might be "stylish" to be cynical, being optimistic is way more fun; and I really enjoy it. I think that's what faith is sometimes-- in terms of faith in ourselves and our work. We have to believe that we can reach our goals in order to work towards them as fully as we possibly can. My mission is my olympics and I am going to "WIN"---not in that I'm going to baptize everybody or that I'm going to reach "standard" every week but just in that I'm going to give every day my absolute best shot and go to sleep exhausted every night and I'm going to plant as many seeds of happiness and hope as I possibly can while here in CA-- and while doing so I am going to learn that working hard and having fun are not mutually exclusive things, and that God actually wants us to have fun.
Yeah, so it's awesome here. I'm loving it. I'm so happy. I really can't imagine what my life would have been like on the mission and while I've definitely had some hard times, things are looking UP! :)
Love you all,
Hna Lindsey