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| We decided on pasta salad for lunch this week! |
So I most likely will be coming home on the 25th/26th of February because that is how the transfer cycle works out. I asked someone in my
ward to help me find music, so we will see how it will work.
I love you
mom and I think you are great :) I feel like I have appreciated you and
all the things you have done more and more on my mission. So thank you
for everything!
This was a really crazy week and we had so many
appointments, it was great! Monday wasn't super exciting, but it was
nice. On Monday night we went on exchanges, so I went to Imperial Oaks
with Sister Murphy.
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| Sis Murphy amd me! |
Tuesday was one of my favorite exchanges so far. We
had a lot of fun together!! Sister Murphy was trained in Katy 4th and
opened it up for sisters, so we already had that connection. On Tuesday, Imperial Oaks and a few other companionships go to this nature preserve and do
service. We pulled grapevine weeds off of trees and it was funny to see
the elders grab the thicker vines and act like they were swinging from tree to
tree. It was fun to be with different missionaries than usual and in the
words of Sister Goodrich, "That district is full of a bunch of
nerds". This was illustrated as they walked into the woods singing
the opening song from Beauty in the Beast and the elders all joined in at the
different parts. It was hilarious.
After service we had some lunch
and then went out. These sisters are on bikes, but one bike is getting
fixed so we walked instead. We walked over the tracks into a trailer park
to teach a lesson to their recent convert. We met a very jumpy dog along
the way. It was a little dog and kept jumping up really high and evening
spring boarding off our hips and doing flips. It was pretty funny!
We then searched for a trailer and thought we located it. We then checked
the phone and realized we had missed some calls. Our dinner appointment
had canceled and someone else offered to take us out. Funny thing was,
she is not even in that ward, but she took us to dinner anyway. After
dinner we went to the trailer we thought a less active lived in, only to
discover it was not. But the guy that lives there had a Book of Mormon he
was reading, so that was cool.
We continued walking on our way and met
one of their potential investigators and talked to him outside for a
while. We then walked to a member's house, one that was going to take us
to exchange back. Her name is Diana Hoelscher and she is a super awesome
speaker on member missionary work. Look her up on YouTube or something.
She is great. We then switched back and it is always nice to be home.
Wednesday was fun. We went to the horse ranch and
after picking some paddocks we dug a hole. We are digging partway under a
bridge so they can get jacks under and do some stuff. They other
missionaries had done it last week, but it rained a lot and so we had to start
back at square one. At least the dirt was soft! Then we had lunch,
watched some videos for district meeting on Friday, and then tried to visit a
less active. They weren't available so we tracted and found a lady who
wants someone from our church to talk to her cub scouts about family
history. That was neat.
We then went to dinner with this couple
that went really long. As we were returning to their home, I mentioned a
car that was parked really close to ours. He then mentioned that his neighbors
were having bible study and we should go too. So we went over. They
weren't doing the study that day, it was their social, so we talked with them
for a little bit. They were nice, but a little standoffish at us
missionaries. We are a scary bunch! We then went tracting and
returned home.
On Thursday we had a great opportunity to watch Meet the
Mormons. It was awesome!!!!!! When it comes out wherever you are,
go watch it. Invite a friend to go with you, it was great. The
Church is really good at making movies now. So....go see it!!!!!!
Then we did weekly planning and that took forever so we were rushing out the
door to dinner. We had dinner with a convert of about two years and her
daughter. Her husband wants to join the church too, but he is in China
right now and they want him to get baptized here. I really am not
entirely sure what is going on there.
We then went to go see a referral
that Sister Heaps' mom had sent us. I guess a friend of her's had moved
here a few years ago, so she looked her up and sent us her address. It
was one street outside our area, but the mission president didn't hesitate in
telling us to go. That was a very interesting experience. Really
cool.
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| At the dragon boat
races in our yellow mission T-shirts! |
Friday was a crazy day!! The zone leaders had sent us
a text the day before saying the district was going to do some service at a
park the next day helping some old people play games. Sounded like
fun! We get there and there and there are lots of EZ ups and a big sign
that says "YMCA Dragonboat Team Challenge" and no old people.
We then promptly called the elders and asked what the heck was going on and
what did they sign us up for. They didn't have much details, one of the
mission president's councilor's wives had told them about the service activity
and signed us up. We soon discover that we are not there to help run the
games or anything, but to be part of the Regent Care Center "Wild
Hogs" team.
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| Sis Heaps & I at the Races! |
We got signed up to play with them because they needed
more people to be on their team. We were already there and couldn't
exactly tell them no, so we played games! We did minute to win it,
dodgeball, obstacle courses, sumo soccer, and human fuseball. We had to
break it to the team that we weren't allowed to do the dragonboat, but it
looked like fun! It was the craziest morning ever, but it was lots of fun
and we got to interact with the community.
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| Our team on the dragon boat |
Afterwards we had district
meeting in the lounge of our apartment office since we were closer than the
church building. We had a quick lunch and a quick change and then went to
go see an investigator, but she wasn't there. We saw a less active sister
instead and it was a really great lesson. We showed her the "Because
of Him" video and talked about the Atonement and she cried. She still
has a testimony and still believes, but her husband isn't a member so it
is easier to just not go. She is a great lady though and even though I
hardly know her I love her so much!! We ate our dinner of PB & J
(the first time all week) for the third Friday in a row. Don't know why,
but apparently no one wants to feed us on Fridays. We have a dinner
appointment next Friday though, so yay!
After our dinner tried by some
potentials. We parked our car and decided to walk. As we are
walking Sister Heaps asked if I had tracted the street. I told her we
only tracted one side, so she looks at the house we are walking by, sees a
little boy in the window, and says "Let's knock on this one, might as
well". A man answers the door and we spend the next half hour
talking to him about the Book of Mormon and our beliefs. It was a
miracle!!! That was the only house we knocked on and we found a new
investigator. I am so glad we were able to listen to the subtle promptings of
the Spirit, even though we didn't recognize them as that in the
beginning. We then had a lesson with a recent convert and it was a great
way to end the night.
Saturday was jam packed with appointments. We tried
less actives in the morning, tracted, had some lunch, and from then on we were
bouncing from appointment to appointment. We went to an apartment complex
where we have 4 investigators. We saw one outside and talked to her
briefly. She had an incident with fire and sprinklers in her apartment so
she is moving everything out. She just seemed so heavy, so I shared one
of my favorite scriptures on hope, Ether 12:4. We then left her with a
prayer and she was crying. Oh how I pray for her!
We then tried by
a few other people and were able to get in and see our investigator Bob.
It was little miracle because he said he was supposed to go out of town,
but didn't. We were able to answer a few of his questions and then invite
him to a church tour. We then saw a member and a then had an appointment
with a family we are teaching. It was great!! They have had some concerns
about the 10 year old not being able to sit through church, but those where
gone. As we talked about the Holy Ghost, the boy kept saying, "I
want the Holy Ghost" We invited him to be baptized in December and
he said yes! It was amazing how the Spirit had softened their
hearts! We then rushed to another appointment with a member and then to
dinner with a hilarious family and then it was off to the broadcast! It
was really amazing there and one of our investigators was able to come as
well. Made it doubly good! When Sister Marriot spoke and her
Southern accent came out, everyone in the room just gasped and there was a lot
of chit chat for a while.
Sunday was good, very calm which was nice. We were
able to go out and contact a few people before we went to the church to make a
ton of copies. The meetings were all good. I don't think I have
heard the same person teach in Relief Society since I got here. They have
all been great teachers though and I have really enjoyed hearing from
them. We were able to contact our 14 year old investigator finally and
set up an appointment, then we went to the church to eat our dinner and then
went to Autumn Leaves to sing with the old people. We didn't go last week
and so it was really nice to be there! We then met with two member
families and they are awesome. We have been trying to met every member of
the ward and share brief powerful messages and it has been going really
well. I love being a missionary!!!!!!!!!!!
Sister Hudgens
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| Really creepy window we saw! |
