I AM REALLY GOING TO MISS PRESIDENT AND SISTER CRAVEN
My week was soooo much
better than the last couple! I think I am finally
getting the hang of Danville! Let's start with some experiences... Shall
we? So since P-Day was Tuesday, we'll start from there.
Experience
#1
We had
Zone Conference this last week. It was so good! President and Sister
Craven each did about 3 trainings. Many of which were relating to
missionary conduct and being obedient. We did a "Ho-Hum"
training by Sister Craven which I will have to show you sometime. It is basically
pointing out things that people do in their talks at church and elsewhere that
we really just don't even notice. But it's pretty funny now when I see
those things. I think my favorite training though, was one Sister Craven
did about having our visions grow bigger.
She told a story of a woman who was out on a lake fishing. All day long she would have her line in the
water, but catch no fish. To her dismay,
she looked to her right and saw a man catching many, many fish. She
noticed that the man would keep the small fish he caught, but let all the big
fish go. In her frustration she yelled to him, "Why are you letting
all the big fish go?" The man simply smiled and held up his small
frying pan. She related that to missionary work. Many times, we
will work with those who are "easier," but will eventually
fall away. We need to focus our efforts on the bigger picture and hold up
our large frying pans. It was pretty funny. I also got asked to
sing in the musical number again. It wouldn't have been so bad, but we
didn't have sufficient time to practice and Sister D and I had to start the
song with soprano and I think we both came in flat because of the
accompaniment. But it's okay. We got it back. :)
Experience
#2
On
Friday night, we were invited to attend a wedding reception of two of the
members in the ward. It was so sweet. Her family aren't members of
the church, so the initial reason we were going was to be able to talk to
them about the day. But it turns out that her family is Italian and doesn't really
approve of her marrying a Mormon. Her immediate family showed up to
everything - that was really cool, but she didn't have any extended family there. So we
ended up being there to help set up, support, and help things run
smoothly. They had a little ring ceremony at the reception because her
parents couldn't go into the temple. They are the
cutest and their family is one of the families that I have become closest to so
far. It was well worth it. Except, they kept playing some of my
favorite love songs on the stereo system.
Haha But I really enjoyed it.
Experience
#3
On
Saturday, we had just enough miles to go contact a referral we got from church
headquarters who wanted a bible. We had to travel about 20-30 minutes to
get to her house, only to find out that it was a trailer park with no lot
number. After we had knocked on about four trailers, we were about to
give up. But as we were walking toward the car, I kept getting a stronger
and stronger impression to say a prayer so that we could find her. So I
stopped Sister T and we said a prayer
right by our car. I told Heavenly Father that something felt as though we were supposed
to contact this woman, but we needed his help.
As we closed the prayer and looked around, we both felt like we needed
to go down another row of houses and ask someone for help. As we drove down the next row, there
was a man standing outside his house looking rather bored and confused. I
rolled down the window and asked if he knew of the woman we were looking
for. He said he did. We had been looking down the middle row of
trailers, but he said that she lived down the first row of trailers. So we thanked him and wished him a good day and
headed that way. Not only did we find it, but she was home, let us in, and started talking to
us. She said that she had received our phone calls, but wouldn't call us
back because she was not feeling well. We set up a time to come back, but
she continued to mention that she swears she has seen me before.
Considering that I have only been in Danville for 2 1/2 weeks, we were pretty
sure that I may have known her before this life. (If you know what I
mean). ;) I know that it was inspired to go that day and to take
all the steps that we did in order to contact this woman. Sister T even
admitted that she was ready to give up and go home at that point. But I
kept getting a little voice in my head that said, "Don't give up.
Try a little harder." It was simply amazing!
So, I can't remember
right now if I mentioned it above... but we have a BAPTISM THIS SATURDAY!
We weren't sure if he was completely ready, but we did an "understanding
lesson" where we challenged him to really read the Book of Mormon and to
pray about his baptism date. When we went back, he said that once he
started reading, he couldn't stop! He read 16 chapters in one day! And he
really felt like this should be his baptism date! So we are having to
meet with him every single day in order to make it happen! But we are
going to make it happen! I will let you know on Monday how it goes!
But he is really excited, and we are really excited!
Also, I didn't mention
it above, but President and Sister Craven did a THROW DOWN on the fact that
they aren't going to be here anymore. They told us that the principles
and doctrines taught are going to stay the same, but the mechanics of it all
ARE GOING TO CHANGE. They talked about how we are not allowed to quote
them or say, "President and Sister Craven did it this way..." I
personally, am excited for the change, but I am really sad to see the Craven's
go. They have done so much for this
mission and no one that served under them will ever forget them! :)
As for the answers to
your questions:
I am not getting as much
time as we had planned to email today because we are going to finish making
knives at that member's house tonight. But I will be sure to answer them
in a separate email along with any questions I may have.
I love you to Heaven and
back! Hugs and Kisses from NC!
ASH
