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| Sisters Liljenquist & Hudgens |
I was a little worried about telling you about the area, but
it is not all like that. We have nice neighborhoods and it is only this
one street of apartments that is a little sketchy. We do take care of
ourselves though and we aren't stupid. We don't feel afraid either.
We know that if we are on the Lord's errand and we are being careful and
cautious, He will protect us (the Lord can't protect you if you are being
stupid. He expects you to use your brain). It is funny that you
have a cold right now, I think I am getting one too. As for Christmas....that's hard. I am coming home
soon so I don't really want too much because I don't want to have to
pack. I would very much consider getting my bike shipped home a Christmas
present. I think the mission office knows how to do that. Puzzles are
nice too. Otherwise it is hard to think of anything. Sorry, I am
not any help at all.
Monday we dropped off Oreo balls at the mission office (we
are super close to it) for the APs and President since they survived transfers
and Sister Liljenquist is super nice like that. We also got there as
secret combinations (the Christmas conference kind) were going on and we were
sworn to secrecy to not tell anyone. It was fun. Then we emailed and
hung out at the Hafer building with our district. We had dinner and then
we tried to see people and saw a member who is really funny and told us all
about how her son is working on being a full fledged mortician and all the
stuff that goes along with that. Very interesting.
On Tuesday I finished the Cinderella puzzle. We also
went to see one of our investigators before coming in to do some much needed
weekly planning. We ended up just doing some serious reorganization and
updating which took all the time we had before meeting with our boys in the
apartments. They weren't there at the scheduled time so we went looking
for them. It wasn't hard as they gave us their apartment number. We start
for one of them, and before we are even up the stairs a door opens and one of
them pops his head out. He sees us, smiles, and says, "Hey guys,
guess you is here". They all came out one by one. "How
did you find us?" one of them asked. Sister Liljenquist immediately
responded with "The Spirit" while I said, "You gave your
address". I ruined her story, oh well. We then had them all
come to the parking lot to teach the next lesson. One by one, most of
them wandered off, but we were able to teach two of them. It was really
good. We talked about changing our lives and how the gospel of Jesus
Christ can help. They just need to let the Atonement help them and make some
positive changes in their lives! We challenged them to read the Book of
Mormon and said they weren't allowed to smoke anything funny while they were
reading it. He said he only smoked weed, so we had to clarify that that
was not allowed either. We then went to dinner and set up a time to bake
Christmas treats for our investigators.
Wednesday we met with a less active and afterwards we had
lunch and then went to a recent converts house to help her with her family
history. We started looking for her grandfather and were having the
hardest time. Then we realized we hadn't prayed. We did so and we
immediately found the information we were looking for. Miracle! We
then went to work trying to get her membership record number on her account and
three different live chats with missionaries from Salt Lake and two hours
later, we finally got it all fixed. She then invited us to stay for
dinner and it was delicious. She used the same taco seasoning that we use
at home, so it was like having home cooked tacos. It was great.
Then we read from the Book of Mormon with another family and went home.
Thursday was a super crazy day. We had an appointment every
hour it seemed like. We met with an investigator in the morning, then a
referral from the Klein Oak elders. Back when they had sisters, this lady
was investigating, but now they have elders and her husband doesn't want them
coming over when he isn't there. So we are teaching her now. She is
awesome and brought out her Book of Mormon that the sisters had given
her. We taught her the Restoration and she believed all of it, it was
awesome. We then went to go visit a less active member with her visiting
teacher and she bore great testimony of Christ. Then it was off to our 3
o'clock appointment. We pull up and call to get let into her apartment and
she cancels. She feels really bad, but we tell her not to worry.
Because she canceled we got to eat lunch! We then went to go see a less
active and introduced her new home teacher to her. We then had to rush
off to dinner, accidentally leaving our phone behind. We had to come back
and get it after dinner before going home.
On Friday we had district meeting and then we went to return
a phone we had found to the Cricket store so they could find the owner.
The guy was really friendly and since he wasn't busy, he talked to us for a
while. He said that the missionaries had really helped him out one time.
He had some customers that were being unruly when the missionaries came
by. They calmed everyone down and left a peaceful feeling there.
Went home to weekly plan. It was long overdue since we
hadn't been able to the whole time I have been here. We did that until we had dinner with a woman and her less active son. We had a good discussion
about Christ that wandered a little, but was good none the less. We were
then able to stop by a referral the Klein Oak elders had given us. The
elders live in our area and the referral was for one of their neighbors. We
went to meet her and had a most amazing experience! We were really able to
connect with her. She said that she just felt like there was something missing
and was looking for something to fill it. We shared our testimonies of the
gospel and the Atonement, cried a little with her, and it was great. We
then coordinated with the elders and got delicious leftovers from a member.
On Saturday we met with some investigators and recent
converts. We went to a baptism that another set of sisters was
having. We went to dinner and watched a video of his glory days as a
roller figure skater. We tried by some less actives and then returned
home. Nothing too exciting.
On Sunday we had ward council. It is interesting to see how
the different ward councils work. They are all quite different.
Church was great. A few people that hadn't been to church for a while
came, so that was good. We had dinner with a fun family and their kids
are all a big bunch of nerds like us, it was fun. We then were able to
talk to this less active lady for a while and had a really good experience with
her.
Life is going well and the weather has been absolutely
beautiful the last week. All in the 70s. I have loved it.
Have a great week and a very Merry Christmas!
Sister Hudgens
