Happy 4th of July! We found out that islanders really, really like fireworks. We have been listening to them shoot them off every single day of the last week. Yesterday, we were walking around at our apartment complex and we saw one of our neighbors light a firework. It made this really loud popping sound but you couldn't see anything.
Me: Wait, is that a firework? I didn't even see it go off.
Danny: You don't see them, they just make that popping noise.
Me: So...you just light those off for the noise? Is that entertaining to you?
Danny: Well...yeah. Islanders like making noise.
Because of the holiday, we really struggled to reach our goal for lessons taught since everyone was out of town. We ended up walking around our apartment complex trying to share scriptures with the people who were sitting outside lighting fireworks. It was really fun. We didn't reach our goal, but we did teach 20 lessons which is the mission standard.
We have actually started making some progress with Donna! Donna has been meeting with the missionaries for about 2 months, but it wasn't going anywhere because she likes hearing the missionaries out but doesn't really intend to do anything about what we teach. But we found out a couple weeks ago that she doesn't believe that there's a life after this and thinks we just go back into the ground when we die. Obviously she isn't going to make changes in her life if she doesn't think there will be a lasting consequence. So yesterday, we talked about Heavenly Father's plan for us and how we have a specific reason for being here on earth. We told her that we are all here to grow and learn. She agreed with that for the most part, but asked, "What about this girl I know, she went through some really really hard trials when she was younger and now she's completely messed up emotionally? How is she supposed to learn and grow when she can't get over what happened to her?" We were so glad she asked that question because we were able to bear testimony of the healing power of the atonement. I shared with Donna how the atonement of Jesus Christ has been able to help me overcome some major obstacles in my life and she said that she believes that that is possible. She wants to have the missionaries come and teach her friend now. It has been so amazing to see how Donna has opened up to us and we think that as she comes to understand our purpose for being here, she'll be more willing to do the things we invite her to do.
We also had the opportunity to go to two fourth of July parties this weekend. So much fun. The first one was hosted by the friends of some ward members, and had probably the best fireworks show I've ever seen. The second one was a party for the ward thrown by a lady named Sammie Roark, who is dying of cancer. She thinks this will be her last fourth of July. We spend most of the party wheeling an older lady named Helen around in her wheelchair which was a blast. Helen thinks she's a witch. I was running around pushing her wheelchair as fast as I could and she was like, "if you tip me out of this chair I'm going to shoot you in front of everyone!" hahaha. She is great.
Transfer calls this Saturday!
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