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| My last zone conference |
Sounds like a really crazy week. Now the strawberries
are behind you, so you can relax, right? I would love to sub for you
Mom. Anything to help!! And it will help me keep up my teaching
skills. I think it will be much easier to teach a lesson when I don't
have to worry about balancing it with my companion.
There is always a lot that happens, and so little time to
write it all!!
Last Monday we went to see Dr./Brother Hayden (he was in my
ward in Parkway) to get Sister Liljenquist fixed. He worked his magic and
she was a lot better this week. I think she is just exhausted from the
work this last 18 months and it is taking it's toll. We then went on a
road trip to The Woodlands with one of Sister Liljenquist's recent converts
from her last ward and a few other girls. She really wanted to go to the
Texas store and get a bunch of stuff. I found a children's book about Tex
R Masaurus, the dinodillo. It was hilarious. One day I will read it
to you. We got frozen yogurt and then came home.
Sister Liljenquist
was doing a song for zone conference on Wednesday and the mission president
fireside on Sunday, so she needed to practice with the elders that were
accompanying her. Elder Griffith played for zone conference. He is
hilarious. Fun guy to work with. Then we practiced the other song
with Elder Yanzon, he is so nice. He keeps saying he needs to practice so he
doesn't distract from Sister Liljenquist's beautiful singing with his horrible
playing. Not true, he is great. Then we had an enjoyable afternoon
with the district and did some finding. We met some cool people, and even
one who says she believes in the Greek gods. That was interesting.
Then we had a late dinner with some members and went home.
On Tuesday we had all these appointments set up and had two
members coming with us and they all fell through. Even plan z fell
through. We even had a cute baby to use as bait to talk to people, but no
one was around so that didn't work. It was rough. We did some more
contacting before dinner, which was very delicious, before going out again and
meeting with a recent convert for the first new member lesson.
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| Can you find Sis Hudgens? |
Wednesday we had zone conference in The Woodlands (but not
with The Woodlands zone). We all got Tiwis installed in our cars and
Brother Ott from Church Headquarters came to talk about them. Tiwi is
this little black box that goes in our car that tells us if we are going too
fast, don't have our seat belt on, if we hit a bump too fast, and a bunch of
other stuff. Brother Ott was so funny though, that it made our whole
outlook of the Tiwi change. Goes to show, that it really is how you
present something. Sister Liljenquist filled up a few pages in her quote
book, just from his presentation. It was awesome. I also had to give my
dying testimony since I am going home, and lucky me got to go first.
President said we had less than five minutes and that was fine with me. I
always get so nervous to speak in front of so many people like that. I
knew I was going to give me testimony though, so I had thought a lot about it
this week. I decided to read a poem that I heard at the beginning of my
mission, "The Touch of the Master's Hand"
The Touch of the Masters Hand
'Twas battered and scarred,
And the auctioneer thought it
hardly worth his while
To waste his time on the old violin,
but he held it up with a smile.
"What am I bid, good people", he cried,
"Who starts the bidding for me?"
"One dollar, one dollar, Do I hear two?"
"Two dollars, who makes it three?"
"Three dollars once, three dollars twice, going for
three,"
But, No,
From the room far back a gray bearded man
Came forward and picked up the bow,
Then wiping the dust from the old violin
And tightening up the strings,
He played a melody, pure and sweet
As sweet as the angel sings.
The music ceased and the auctioneer
With a voice that was quiet and low,
Said "What now am I bid for this old violin?"
As he held it aloft with its' bow.
"One thousand, one thousand, Do I hear two?"
"Two thousand, Who makes it three?"
"Three thousand once, three thousand twice,
Going and gone", said he.
The audience cheered,
But some of them cried,
"We just don't understand."
"What changed its' worth?"
Swift came the reply.
"The Touch of the Masters Hand."
"And many a man with life out of tune
All battered and bruised with hardship
Is auctioned cheap to a thoughtless crowd
Much like that old violin
A mess of pottage, a glass of wine,
A game and he travels on.
He is going once, he is going twice,
He is going and almost gone.
But the Master comes,
And the foolish crowd never can quite understand,
The worth of a soul and the change that is wrought
By the Touch of the Masters' Hand.
- by Myra Brooks Welch
So basically I read this, said a few words and sat
down. It was great :) People said they liked it, so that must mean
I did something right! On the way home from the conference we stopped at
the restaurant that one of my investigators from The Woodlands opened up, The
Tamale Pot. It was good, and she chatted with us and gave us our food for
free!! So nice. Hopefully once she gets used to running her shop,
she will have time to meet with the sisters again. We then went tracting
and we met a rude lady and the nicest atheist I have ever come in contact
with. Good day.
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| Pacie & Me |
Thursday was super busy. We went to the Arboretum in
the morning and pulled some more weeds, always good. Then we changed at the
mission office, got some lunch and saw a semi active family. I planned
with their 4 year old daughter while Sister Liljenquist spoke with the
parents. Fun times. Then we saw Betty. She is progressing!!
She is reading her scriptures and she even edited her language. She is trying really hard, we could tell. Our goal is to get her to church
before we leave.
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| No cigarettes for Jeremiah |
We then went to dinner and then met the district for a
finding blitz. Everyone in the district met in our area to go
finding. We gave instructions, said a prayer and went off!! We were not
having much luck and Sister Liljenquist was almost crying because her head hurt
so bad, so we said a prayer. In my head I heard, "Go, she needs
you", so I thought that meant go home. We go to exit the
neighborhood and I look to the right and I think I see someone we know, so I
turn. It is one of the recent converts we have been working with to go to the
temple. We pull over to talk to him and see a cigarette in his hand.
Sister Liljenquist takes it and stomps it out, we demand the rest and then we
ask for his wallet so he can't buy more. We ended up leaving him with his
wallet after he pinkie promised to not smoke anymore. It was a miracle we
found him. I realize now that the Spirit was saying HE needs you, not
she. It is awesome when you can see the Spirit work through you :)
Friday was great. We had district meeting in the
morning and then we met with Jeremiah again to talk about why he is smoking
when he wants to go to the temple. He brought another member with him,
one of his friends. Sister Liljenquist and I ended up having two separate
conversations because they both are going through things and needed some help.
We then went to a members house to try and make scripture flashcards for
two people we are trying to get to quit smoking and go to the temple. It didn't
go very well, I ended up just being mad at the computer. We then went to
dinner, getting lost and driving up and down the street 3 times before we found
the complex. Fun stuff.
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| Random Holly-ness random message she saw on a mailbox |
Saturday Sister Liljenquist wasn't feeling well in the
morning, so I watched Book of Mormon seminary videos. Our noon
appointment canceled, so I called out lunch appointment and she said we could come
earlier. She then texted back, "Would u like 2 be witness @ a noon
wedding in Bishop Lynes office & maybe teach 1st discussion after? Phone me
4 details" Sister Liljenquist and I both looked at each other and
her like, "What?!?!?!?" So of course we called her back.
We ended up going to a wedding on Valentines day for people we didn't know,
showed them around the chapel afterwards, had some lunch, and they said they
loved our church and would love to look into it. It was super
awesome.
We then had a great lesson with the Mirandas, a ward missionary,
and the elders so we could start transitioning them over since the elders will
be teaching Sarah when we leave. It was a good lesson and I thought it
went well until Sarah didn't come to church (she wanted to take the day off)
right after we taught her to keep the Sabbath day holy!!! Come on
Sarah! We then went to a members house and finally got our flash cards
done. Plus we had red velvet Oreo balls. Soooo good. We had a
delicious dinner and played with a puppy and went finding. Good day.
On Sunday we had ward correlation, scared Sister Miranda
half to death when we came over to drop off all the extra clothes in our
apartment (two trash bags full) so she could have church clothes, did some
studying, and went to church. Brother Rucker says that we are speaking
next Sunday, but hasn't cleared it with the Bishop yet and so doesn't have a
topic for us. He did ask how many people we would call to repentance if we
spoke though. We said as many as you want, we don't care, we are
leaving. He seemed pretty happy about that.
After church we
practiced the song for the fireside one more time, had lunch and a conversation
about life with a 15 year old boy, and then went to the fireside to be in the
missionary choir. I played the flute while Sister Liljenquist sang and
Elder Yanzon played the piano. It is a good thing my part wasn't that important
because I totally messed up. The mouth piece wasn't on right when I went
to play so I missed the first part, and then I kind of struggled at another
part, but I got the last part right and that is all anyone remembers
anyway. Everyone is nice anyway and no one would say I did a terrible
job. People came up later and told me it was great, while Elder Griffith was
like, "I saw you were struggling, so I prayed for you." thanks
Elder, thanks for knowing that I messed up. The intent was good
though. Then we went home and I fell asleep exhausted.
So I guess I am coming home next Wednesday, that doesn't
seem right. I still don't feel like it will actually happen, but I guess
it will. So...see y'all soon!
Sister Hudgens
