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| Area Training |
In response to last Monday's adventures. Didn't
actually kill any myself, but a shot at them, and that is what was fun.
The elders and the member we were with did most of the actual hunting
part. The blond elder is Elder Thomas and he has been in my district
since I got out and my district leader since my 2nd transfer, so that is
probably why he looks familiar.
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| Sisters in Area |
This week was super crazy!!!! So much stuff packed
into one week. On Wednesday we had interviews and specialized training.
It was really good. We have a new AP (assistant to the president) and he
is hilarious. He served in our zone so he was able to make lots of jokes
and they kept it lively. We did an exercise where we switched area books
with another companionship and planned our day. It was good because we
got to see how other missionaries keep records and if we are keeping our
records up to date enough that if we both left someone else would know what is
going on.
In my interview with President I almost cried. That man
is amazing, we just has the Spirit with him so strongly and he always knows
just what to say. I have been reflecting on my missionary work the past few
weeks because I am coming up on half way, and I have had feelings of doubt as
to what I have actually been able to accomplish. I haven't had any
baptisms or reactivations. No one I have taught has progressed and I have felt
like I haven't done much. I know numbers don't matter, but it is hard to
not look at them. I know I have worked a lot with members and have helped
build and strengthen the kingdom of God that way, but that is not what I
expected as a missionary.
Someone has to plant seeds, and I don't mind,
but I wouldn't mind reaping every now and then!! I expressed my concern
to President Pingree and he just said that he feels like the Lord is pleased
with what I am doing here. I almost cried. He then thanked me for
being a low-maintenance missionary. Guess I don't cause a lot of
problems. I am grateful for President though. Even though our
interviews have to be kept to 5 minutes, I am always happy at the end of them.
After Interviews we had dinner at our ward mission leader's
house. His wife said could update Sister Davis' GPS so we left it
with her. We needed it updated because half of our area doesn't show up
and it is really annoying. We thought we would be ok without it, but
turns out we don't know the area as well as we thought. We wandered
around lost for probably 20 minutes looking for a house we needed to stop at,
finding it becoming all the more urgent since Sister Davis really need to find
a bathroom. We were about to give up when thankfully we found it.
We will not get lost going there again!!!
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| Car within a car! |
On Thursday we went to pick up some toys at this woman's,
Teri, house. She is the neighbor of one of our members who recently
moved, the Atkinsons and before she left, they gave her a Book of Mormon.
Only thing is, we didn't know exactly which house was hers and we had
never been introduced. We had been looking for a reason to stop by when
we were told that the Atkinsons had left some toys there and that we could pick
them up and bring them to another member's house. So we went and
unfortunately she wasn't home. So then we began the difficult process of
trying to shove a little slide, plastic red and yellow car, and a chair into
our little Chevy Cruze. Made me miss my truck. We looked quite ridiculous
trying to shove everything into the car and looked all the more when Teri
drove up as we were trying to maneuver the slide into the back of our car.
We told her that it was not all going to fit and that we would be back
for the rest. We just had to laugh about the whole thing.
On Friday we knocked on a member's door, the first one all
day, and Sister Davis broke/ chipped/ bruised/messed up her knuckle. We
have no idea what happened and she didn't even knock that hard. It was
pretty funny though. We just kept saying that she punched me. It is all better
now though, so don't worry about it.
Saturday was the Katy Music Extravaganza II, a celebration
of music from members of the Katy community, not just the LDS community.
It was pretty cool and we had two artists display their work before the
show started. One was a member from the Sealy branch, Ken Turner.
He has got some amazing stuff. The other was a neighbor of one of
our members, Miguel Rubio. He has some really good stuff too. We stood at
the entrance and handed out programs and then got to sit back and enjoy the
music. One of our investigators came so it was good. Not many others
though. I had fun though so that is good!
Sunday was the most amazing day of my mission so far!!
So many miracles!!!!!! We got to meet with everyone of our
investigators yesterday. We taught Joe and Julia, our Chinese
investigators, during Gospel Principles. We taught them the Plan of
Salvation and they were asking just the right questions!! It was amazing
and we didn't have time to get through the whole lesson because there was so much and Brother Ong had to stop us and explain a bit in Chinese. Julia
was on the edge of her seat the whole time.
After church we taught
Rucker, our 17 year old investigator. We taught him the Plan of Salvation
as well and he asked lots of questions and I can tell that he and his friend
who introduced him to the gospel learned a lot. After Rucker, we headed to
have our first teaching appointment with Lori Jackson and her daughter Madeline. Lori is a member of the Katy Mills ward recently returning to
activity and wants her daughter to have the lessons. She also wants to
hear them again since it has been so long. They were both completely
engrossed in what we were saying. When we asked Madeline what she felt
when she went to church she described it has a happy, warm, peaceful feeling.
It was so great to hear that. I have high hope for her!!!
Then we went to dinner with the Hartz family. They are so good to
us. We were low on miles so after dinner we decided to walk to various
members that lived in the area. That is when we met Christopher from Nigeria.
We were walking because we were low on miles and we see this guy walking
around talking on the phone. Sister Davis looks over and says, "He
looks lost", and then the next thing he says is "I am lost".
We
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| Companionship |
immediately cross the street and offer our assistance. We look
up the address he is looking for and introduce ourselves. He sees the
name of Christ on our tags and asks, "You believe in Christ?"
Of course! We talk in the street for the next half hour and share
three Book of Mormon stories that relate to him and his problems.
He
asked why bad things happen to good people, we share the burning of the saints
in Ammonihah; he asks what he can do when he feels like he is being forced to
hide his light, we share the people of Alma being oppressed by Amulon and their
prayers to receive strength to change their situation rather than having their
situation changed; he complains about the corruptness of his country's
government, we share how the Gadianton robbers took over the Nephite
government. It was amazing, and at the end he said he felt like he had
met two angels. He wouldn't take a Book of Mormon or accept an invitation
to go to church, but he said he would look at momon.org and asked if he could call us
again. I hope he does!!
This
has been a week just jam packed full of miracles!! It makes me so happy
:)
Hope all is well back home!!!
Sister
Hudgens
