This may be obsessively long compiled of two weeks. Saturday and Sunday of this week way at the bottom is the most important read.
Monday:
Had some good finding until gun shots.
Tuesday:
Had a little doctor's appointment and got to drive through Solon to get to it. So tender to be in that area for a minute. Had district council which was amazing as always and then interviews. Interviews are either really good or very bad. I enjoyed being able to talk with our mission president! We did some knocking until we heard gunshots down the road and decided it was time to go but we met an awesome guy right in time before the gun shots. Had some good member visits and finished the night with ice cream
Wednesday:
As we're knocking a car drives by and yells hey baby about 10 minutes later they come back around and ask what we're selling haha only your salvation anywho they proceed to get very excited about church. Wait till they find out we're 19 and basically nuns right now. We went ham clearing out our area book and going through people that are not interested anymore. We still have a ton of people to visit to see if they're still interested. Had an awesome member meal and got to play card games! A super sunny beautiful warm day.
Thursday:
We spent a good chunk of time at the library today doing calls, texts, social media, online lessons, all that good stuff. We did a ton of knocking and met a lady named Tamie. Her dad was a member but never went to church. She wanted to learn more and so did her mom. We spent a good chunk of time there teaching. Did some more finding and then headed to visit some members. We met the cutest old couple. They are the funniest old people I've ever met, super sarcastic, reminded me of my grandparents a little.
Friday:
A humbling day. Had a fantastic personal study and felt God was calling me out lovingly through the scriptures. Pahorans' calm reaction to Moroni's accusations is quite the example for us that we have control over what we take offense over and how we react to situations. Alma 60 and 61 are a good read. We had a busy day with a Friday morning training we got to participate in and then weekly planning mixed with our lunch at the same. Sprinted over to a member's house who is pretty inactive but a sweetheart. Hearing her story of what's been going on was so heart wrenching. Lots of tears from both sides and I just hugged that sweet woman and loved her to death. We had to run to institute which was fantastic and of course I always have to share and help teach because I have no self control. The spirit always has me sharing. We taught a new friend on campus levi right after. He is a baller guy who met with missionaries awhile back but never really made any effort to come to church or learn more but now he is ready. We did some humbling Kent State finding after. It will never get easier talking to people my age and being absolutely humiliated but it's so good for me. We finally met an awesome lady who was super interested but was getting on a bus so we had no time to grab her number…. So what did we do…. Jump on the bus with her… yes we jumped onto a random bus going who knows where to get a girls number so we could teach her. It's one of those stories you look back on and think oh wow that could have been really bad, but also how exciting. It was quite the adventure getting back to our car, but worth it. Thrill of the moment… follow the spirit in all things. A cute senior missionary took us out for Phad Thai and it was so unbelievably good. It was like a reward for enduring the long day we had. We ended the night meeting up with the stls for training visits.
Saturday:
I stayed in Tallmadge with Sister Reynolds for training visits. We had a chaotic morning with texts, calls and social media sync up with the leaders. Followed with a scary call about two sisters going home and that the stls are now double covering the area next to them. That makes 6 people that went home this week. So crazy. Anywho we ended up going to visit Rudra who wasn't home but I saw a lady behind a fence and decided to yell at her turns out she was so excited to come to church and to hear more about the restoration. Random spiritual promptings are my favorite. We then went to visit a friend Zeddy who wasn't home but his wife was and she was SO interested. We gave her a Book of Mormon and invited her to read it with her family. Well since we were in my favorite area we did some knocking and found some interested people but a few promising people who were actually interested. One guy was super creepy and wanted our number for the wrong reasons but then we knocked into Jalisa. She immediately let us in and said she didn't know why because she never lets strangers in, but felt like she really needed to aka the holy ghost. We taught her the restoration and at the end of it we were randomly prompted to invite her to live the Word of Wisdom. To our shock she actually said yes, and that she wants to do it for her health and her son. She's a cute single mom.
Anywho it was a great time and then we about got attacked by a dog and had a mini heart attack. We zoom to do a few referall stop bys and as we're leaving we see two cute girls in a car so of course we have to go up and make them unroll the window. THEY WERE SO INTERESTED!!!!! Basically threw themselves into the water of baptism. We rushed to a member meal and had the best time ever. Then met up early with the sisters so they could go learn their new area.
Sunday:
Sundays are always a Rollercoaster. We had three friends come to church which was so awesome. We taught a powerful powerful lesson with Kailyn. She had some great questions. At this point I can't even explain the rest of the days but basically we found some beautiful friends.
Beginning of miracle week this is what you should really read….
Monday:
Sooo a day. Our thermostat was out of batteries so guess what the house was freezing. We found two wonderful new friends by pure divine intervention God really steered our day in a whole different direction so we could find two Beautiful people. Moral of the story God is once again all knowing. At about 9:30 we finally got some batteries delivered to warm our apartment back up!!!!
Tuesday:
So we were so exhausted in the morning due to our late night Monday, but we powered through. Had a protein powder energy shake for breakfast, which was a lifesaver. I had a profound personal study followed with a trip to the library. While doing our studies this lady walks by and the little feeling to invite her to church comes and on the inside I was like noooo I can't in the library…. But I got up startled the lady to death and invited her. Turns out she was super interested and gave us her number. Approximately 10 minutes later I text her and she tells me she's been praying to know where to go to church at… does this remind you of anyone… how cool. Moving on we finish a hefty block of contacting and we decide to head out. We'll of course we can't make it out of the library without yet another impression, so what do we do invite the lady helping people register to vote to church, and what does she say…… yes….. huh??? So at this point we haven't even made it to lunch and the day is amazing.
Well we eat pizza while watching the chosen for lunch and then scury off to our lesson with reatha. Well sweet lady forgot and Apologized 100x but reschedule for tomorrow. Soooo we decided to head, but then I'm like huh let's just pull down a random road and do companion study so we do. Well in the middle of it some lady is walking on the side walk and I'm like uhhhh we have to invite her well guess what…. She says yes and that she's been looking for a church…. ???? Okay okay then guess what a dude comes waltzing down and what do we do… snipe him out the Window with a church invite and guess what…. He says yes and the same exact thing….
Yes Heavenly Father I see you. At this point I'm screaming, throwing up inside with excitement( all figuratively) at this point we have 4 new friends, and we haven't even begun our finding Block. What if I hadn't pulled off to that exact street… well those two friends would still be looking for the truth and not feeling seen and heard from God. I am intensely aware of God's power and mindfulness of ALL of us. Anywho we go to our next lesson with two members who were randomly available this morning when we texted them to join us. Well our couple we found brought a friend to the lesson so we teach all three of them…. And the friend was sooooo locked in not breaking eye contact, teary eyes, all the good stuff. The member that joined us were absolutely perfect so again not a coincidence they happened to be free for our last minute lesson. Brother Peugh is a convert and he was super into his church, and when he met his soon to be wife she challenged him to just read the Book of Mormon. So he tells his story of how he was going to read and write down every wrong thing because he knew the Bible so well…. Well what he found was his heart was so touched, he felt so much peace, and knew it was true. He had a powerful testimony and the lesson was beautiful, absolutely fabulous. By the end were they talking about baptism?… yes, yes they were. At this point I'm like so stunned about our day. Speechless and absolutely in awe of our Heavenly all knowing Father. Anyhwo this is getting long so basically we have a great member dinner and go to institute. A returned missionary from Albania is home and volunteered to go to two lessons we had lined up!!!! He said he was trunky for his mission. Funny how we get trunky for home and then eventually get trunky for the Mission. Turned tables.
Wednesday:
We had a super good district council and had a nice surprise with some alpacas we got to pet. Sister Perry the senior missionary made muffins for us even though she has shingles and made her husband bring them. I don't enjoy blueberry muffins but these were so phenomenal and gluten free. Literally left me in awe. The perry's also got us some chocolates and a gift card. I about cried. After district council we went out to eat as a district. We then rushed to teach reatha who wasn't home but told us to wait 5 minutes well 40 minute go by and she finally came. Luckily we had no lessons so we were able to adjust our schedule and do social media and studies during our wait. The wait was worth it because Reatha needed that lesson and once again the spirit changed our original plan of what to teach. Did all of us cry? yes, yes we did. We dashed to Judiths and did some service for her and she made my heart so tender! I'm once again so emotional about everyone out here.
Thursday:
Had to be a big girl today and get a car estimate. Was it the scariest thing ever… yes yes it was. Did I need my dad… yes yes I did. We taught an amazing social media call with our friends lexi. She is such a miracle. We found a friend from Israel and from Africa!!! Taught a friend named Gabe who we found on Kent State and it was an awesome lesson. We ended the night with painting book of mormons for a relief society activity.
Friday:
At the start of our morning we zoom called my friend from Africa because our times zones are so off that's the only time that would work. It was so powerful and he has been prepared by God for the gospel. I found a church near him and missionaries!! We then had our normal Friday morning training and weekly planning. We zoomed to Kent State and attended institute and then taught levi! It was awesome. He's committed to coming to church and institute. We taught our friend Jeremy outside in the snow because he has two huge super mean dogs and long story short it was worth it to freeze because we invited him to be baptized and he said yes!!! Highlight of the day. I then ended up teaching someone on social media from Utah who knows my bestie malorie, kind of fun. I taught a Muslim who's so so so interested in meeting more with us. He's ready to convert after one lesson. The spirit is powerful. He was originally not interested but I felt strongly to ask him some questions and one thing lead to another!
Saturday: everything and more- best day so far?
We started the morning with some pure chaos and a leadership call about social media work that we have to lead. I would have to say it was entertaining, I'm certain my zone thinks I'm the wackiest person, but they're probably right. We will jump into the important stuff… Micheals lesson at the library with the elders was out of this world. A solid hour long all about the restoration. Michael had a million good questions and kept repeating things back to make sure he was understanding. He has such a desire to learn. We went into depth about our living prophet, apostles, bishop… he wanted to see how it all worked and asked really good questions. He loved everything. I feel so connected to him like I am meant to teach him every time we meet. We walked away feeling so good. The spirit was so present and he is so awesome. We then visited Jupe'a our cute friend whos 8 that's getting baptized. It's been such a treat to teach him and reactivate his mom. I had some crazy social media miracles. I found some super ready people and one of them posted about wanting to be baptized and join our church after we called. We taught our friend Franchelsa the plan of salvation and she loved it, she felt like it really answered some questions that has been on her mind. The lord has really been working hard on her she is so ready. We called about 30ish people and invited then to church and found a time to meet!!
As we get home and are unlocking the door the AP's call and my heart drops a little. They let us know a lady from our ward reached out because she didn't have our number and was close with one of the Elders. She had just gotten news her 8 year old daughter has cancer and was headed to the liquor store. The Elder convinced her to drive to the church where we would meet her. So I ran and zoomed to the church with a few check your speeds from tewei, to arrive just as she was getting out of the car. I ran and just embraced this sweet lady as she hysterically cried. It was so gut wrenching as she told us everything. The sweet Napoli elders showed up to give her a blessing but she was not in the right mind for it yet. We talked for about 50 minutes and it felt like the whole time Jesus Christ was literally just speaking through me, like he was physically opening my mouth. The spirit was so strong and the love God has for her was so apparent. She was ready now for the blessing and it was a one of a kind experience. The feeling in that room was unexplainable. The pure love and power was undesirable. The words that were said were so Heavenly. By the end of it we were all in tears. She said she felt completely different and that she felt more prepared to handle this. She said she had this intense headache and weight around her head and neck and it was just gone. My whole heart was absolutely touched. As gut wrenching as her whole situation was, that experience was the most beautiful thing I've ever witnessed. She went on her way and we thanked the elders for being obedient and worthy to have done that. I don't think men hear it enough, but we're so fortunate they live worthy so everyone can have that priesthood blessing when needed. It was also so cool to see the rule woman have. No we could not have given her that blessing but in the elders words there's no way they would have been able to help her calm down like we did. God works through us all in different ways, but we all have a role to play. We arrived home at about 10 and decided dinner was not worth it at this point. This is a day I never want to forget.
Sunday: yet another wonderful, maybe second best day of my mission.
We had 8 friends come to church. Hmhm yes 8. I about threw up and passed away. The lady I invited to church at the library literally came. If I wouldn't of had followed that impression that queen never would of had this opportunity. God is good. Well anywho it was the best sacrament of my entire life. Quite literally so powerful and so special to see all our friends. The spirit was then killed when I had to give a talk in the next ward… only joking but it was stressful. We then jumped back to the first ward to talk to all our friends and set up times to come teach them and then be witnesses for Jupeas baptism. It was so tender and our friend Jermey who we put on date stayed to watch it. All of me screamed with joy. It was the best Sunday of my life. After we went to talk to him and for weeks he had been mentioning shoulder pain. The first thing he told us was his pain was completely gone. Did I cry…. Seriously, the realness of the gospel gets me good every time. Miracles happen. We went crazy on social media and taught so many people. It's crazy we're teaching people from Iceland to Africa to you name it. We then had two sync up calls that were super long about our friends and Area. Followed up with some stop by and lessons. Visited the cutest old lady who has the best conversion story and is such an amazing woman. Topped the night off with another sync up call for social media. I'm about to start slacking I'm terrified because of the work going on one of us might just get our butts called to be a social media leader. That's my worst nightmare apart from being called to OSU.
Friends:
Jermey- getting baptized finished bom
Kailyn- basically a member
Michael- coolest man alive
Mike and michele- couple that wants to be baptized
Rodney- so hooked
Gabe- a Kent state king student
Reatha- basically on date
Franchelsa and Manning: basically on date
Desiree- found at library came to church queen
Levi- also Kent state king
Tiffany- amazing miracle woman
About 9 solid friends on social media
So basically we're teaching an unreal amount of people and these are only the progressing people who have attended church and kept commitments. God's work is quickening through the most imperfect people. Sometimes all I can do is sit back and laugh at myself and the idea that I'm 19 with no idea what I'm doing and so incredibly unqualified to teach anyone anything but somehow God makes it work.
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