This week happened. And I'm glad it's over. But here are some wonderful things that happened (also known as miracles):
So--This one happened a week ago but I forgot to tell you I think??
We were finding in Birdsboro and it was not going well. No one wanted to talk to us, lots of slammed doors and the normal stuff. So, feeling a little defeated- I said a very hard prayer in my heart as we walked down the street to the next potential. "Heavenly Father, PLEASE send us a media referral!!! I promise that we will go and contact them the moment we get it!" That was my simple prayer and we trekked on. We finished out day without much outward success and that night when we were in the apartment planning for the next day and guess what happened--We got a media referral!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so so excited I wanted to go contact them right then!…but then I read where they lived…not in our area, still pleased with the media referral--we sent it over to the first ward elders. Then the next day, we got another media referral!!!!! WHooooo hooooop! so happy again….but then it was for a potential investigator that we already had in our area book (how incidentally doesn't want to talk to us) How unfortunate, but I LEARNED SOMETHING! and that's what counts: When praying--pray with such specificity, that the Lord know's exactly what you stand in need of. So next time I pray for referrals, you can bet my prayer will included me asking for a referral that lives in our area that we have never met before that actually wants to hear a message from us :).
Another miracle: This one is more silly and whatnot but still a miracle indeed! (I may have told you this one already too…) We were going to do Facebook and I needed my handy dandy iPad card reader (i got one to prevent another mishap with virused computers resulting in 100 missing pictures) to upload and edit some pictures for a really nice post. But I couldn't find my card reader! I searched everywhere! I frantically turned our apartment upside-down searching for it! At this point I could have just got my other one for computers and edited it on the mac in the clubhouse but I was so worried that I had lost it forever so I kept searching.--eventually I reluctantly gave up. We went to the club house and I did it on the computers. still saddened about my loss. But on the way back to the apartment, I had an inner dialog that went like this:
Rational Me: "Will not having your iPad card reader change your life forever?"
Irrational Me: "No…probably not."
Rational Me: "Then surely it will be ok"
Irrational Me turned into Rational Me: "ok"
I accepted my loss and was happy again. When we got to the apartment, I picked up a paper that was sitting on my desk for an unknown reason, and guess what was sitting pretty underneath it: My iPad card reader!!! Lesson: The Lord didn't let me find it until I had realized that I don't need it. I actually don't need much of the stuff I cart around with me in the mission field--sometimes it's just fun to have trinkets and things that make you happy..as long as you know you don't need them. :)
Miracle 3: Tuesday.
Tuesday was a seemingly very bad day. It was another finding day: when we make a list of potentials (in this case less actives that no one had ever heard about) and go and find them. It was also not very fun and we weren't having a very good time. No one wanted to talk to us. Lot's of them pretended they didn't know who we were (nice try, we didn't just tract into you by accident) We were, again, pretty defeated and just wanted to go home. We had one more on the list. We looked up her record and found that she wasn't nice to missionaries. Apparently the Elders had stopped by last week and she and her husband (super anti) chatted with them on the porch for a little (were pretty cold) and refused to let them pray before they left. What a discouraging report. We decided to try our luck anyways, we had enough time before our dinner appointment that was just up the street, so we knocked on her door. She opened it and smiled at us. "hey. we're the sister missionaries!" I exclaimed as heartily as I could muster. "Well come on in!" She said in reply. Unexpected thing #1. So we sat on her couch (next to apparently evil kitty) and she got us some wooder (that's water incase you didn't know). Sister Casey picked up the evil kitty and it LOVED her. Super puzzled, Catherine (that's the LA's name) called in her sons to witness this miracle! They thought it was amazing that this evil little kitty was sitting calmly allowing my companion to pet him. Ice Broken. We were a bit hesitant to bring up church at all because of the Elders report so we just talked with her for a little bit and got to know her. She was wonderful! She is a prison guard and had been in the shooting rang all day. cool. But then the most wonderful thing happened: She brought up the church! Asked about what ward she was in and we gave her the down low on the brand new ward she is now apart of! how exciting! Then SHE BROUGHT UP THE TEMPLE. The DC one and told us a story about how she and some coworkers were going to DC for some training and saw the temple from the freeway! She was able to tell them all about it! How cool is that when a LA is sharing with you a MISSIONARY EXPERIENCE!? way too cool. From there we told her all about the Philly Temple and showed her pictures of how far along it is. She wants to go see it with her husband (he is into construction and would supposablly love it) We told her about Brother and Sister Carr (the ones who oversee the sight) and their little visitor center--they have pictures drawn up of what the inside will look like (super colonial) and stuff. Then she brought the conversation back to church and asked when our church was, She can come! Even though she works on sundays, she can come because we have the latest church on planet earth! So she is going to come and bring her daughter who subsequently is looking for a church to join. Bam. Miracle. Oh and our day had a mega turn around (ear to ear smiles!) and we went to our dinner appointment and the Palacios! She fed us Fish and rice. yum. a smoothie. yum. fruit dosed in lemon juice (it was actually lime juice but dominicans call both lemons and limes, lemons) and covered in Tajin. <it is this spicy spice stuff that they put on all fruit…good. yum. And spanish cinnamon tea. yum. Bad Tuesday turned into a GoodTuesday just like that :)
The rest of our week was a bit…downhill from there. Sister Casey met with the Mission Psychologist and she diagnosed her with severe depression and anxiety. So we are dealing with that.
We fed homeless people with the ward in Pottstown on Thursday!! It was really fun! you would love it. Go try it. I KNOW there are homeless people in Salt Lake for sure.
So that's how the week went. I'm going on exchanges with Sister Pickett tonight and tomorrow. I'm reallllly glad. It will be good. and Sister Casey needs to learn that she CAN do things with out me. Cause she can, she just won't at this point. We read "Like a Broken Vessel" This morning in Comp study and it worked like magic! She was having a bad bad morning. Being rather mean and refused to role play with me. So we read that talk, she cried, and has been happier so far today. Thanks Elder Holland!!!!!!! So today is looking up already.
Have a Joyful one yourselves! Love you to next October and back.
Sister Bailey.
No comments:
Post a Comment