January 5, 2015

The taylors!

out to dennys before transfers.

I ran into some of my mtc district! elder colley and elder paventy.

a little late, but CHRISTMAS!

So I think it's safe to say this has been the best week ever, to start off the best transfer ever. Leaving Fayetteville was really hard, but not as hard as I thought it would be. We left the elders there with just two investigators (Carsten and Aaron) that I'm confident will get baptized at some point, even if it takes a long time. The last day in Fayetteville, we met them for a lesson and Aaron told us that he had read the chapter we gave him! He still has a long way to go as far as learning that God really does love him, but he is definitely on the right track. He said that Alma 14 gave him a lot of peace concerning the trials he went through in the past.

 

When I got to St. Robert I realized that it's probably a good 20 degrees colder here than in Arkansas at all times. So that's fun. The first thing Sister Preston told me when we met up was that we're actually shotgunning this area. (My third time...) What happened was that Sister Preston was already serving in St. Robert in the 1st ward, but every year on January 1st they switch 1st and 2nd ward missionaries due to some really weird scheduling conflicts so we're now in the 2nd ward and the elders are in the 1st ward. Is that confusing enough? So even though Sister Preston has already been in this town for 3 months, we're in a ward and teaching investigators that are brand new to us. Also, the first thing we did when we got here was trade apartments with the elders. Which is really unfortunate when you know how elders take care of their living space. (Update: we've already steam cleaned the carpets, rearranged our furniture, gotten rid of a bunch of junk including 10 golf clubs, a skateboard, and 5 pairs of men's dress shoes, and started picking out new paint for the walls.) Not to mention the apartment the sisters were previously living in was REALLY nice. It's a 3 story townhouse with a garage. But the bright side is that we still have their garage door opener, which they don't know exists, so stay tuned for the fun stories that come with that.

 

On Friday we had a meeting with President Blau, the stake president who is also in our ward, to discuss how we can make this the Best Transfer Ever. One of the elders here is also going home next month so we came up with some good goals to help us know that we're working the hardest we've ever worked in our lives.

 

1. Talk to 5 new people every day, and place at least one Book of Mormon with someone we actually think will read it.

 

2. Reach the Standard of Excellence every single week. (20 lessons taught, 12 with a member present, 2 new investigators, and 1 investigator at church)

 

3. Make every day "journal worthy". This one started out with me committing to write in my journal every day just for personal benefits, but I realized that the days I don't really feel like writing in my journal are the days that I didn't really do my best, or that I didn't really have a good attitude. So I decided that if I work really really hard every day and look for the miracles that come with that, I'll have no reason to NOT journal about it.

 

So those are a few of the goals/resolutions I have for the rest of my mission. I also want to read the Book of Mormon one more time before I go home.

 

Anyways, we've spent most of the last few days just meeting all of the people we are working with, and they are all amazing.

 

Kaye

 

Sister Preston and her last companion met Kaye through a member of our ward. The member is totally crazy and kept talking about his "girlfriend" that he wanted the missionaries to teach, but never ended up giving them her information. Finally they just took his phone and got her number and called her. It was Kaye, and she accepted the invitation to have the sisters come and talk to her. She has been really against opening up the Book of Mormon, but is interested in what we taught about God's plan for her and how she lived with him before she was born. We've been trying to invite her to church as well but she said she didn't have a dress to wear and refused to come in pants. Well yesterday morning she called us and I was really concerned because she started off with something along the lines of "we need to talk about this Book of Mormon thing." I thought she was going to tell us she didn't want to meet anymore, but then she immediately launched into this question she came up with while reading 1 Nephi 3. By the time we got over to her trailer yesterday night she was in 1 Nephi 7 and said that her blood pressure has been normal for the first time in 2 years since she started reading. She teared up as she told us that after we left on Thursday one of her friends called her and said "hey Kaye, I'm getting rid of a bunch of old dresses I don't need anymore, do you want them?" She knew that it was Heavenly Father leading her in the right direction.

 

Richard

 

Richard isn't a member, but his wife is. They have a little baby girl and the three of them attend church every week. Richard knows he needs to be baptized and somewhat knows that the church is true, but he doesn't have enough faith to pay tithing when his family is tight on money. We're just going to keep working with him and see what happens.

 

Wasu

 

Wasu is a 16 year old foreign exchange student from India who is living with the bishop and his family. He's Hindu, but his parents are very open to all religions and educated him on Christianity while he is growing up. He is a spiritual GIANT. When we first went over to their house for dinner, we just assumed he was a member because he gave this amazing prayer where he mentioned the atonement, and the gospel. He's curious about the church and wants to meet with us, and we have really high hopes for him because he's so in tune with the Spirit. He just doesn't know what it is yet. Last night when we were over there he said "I feel....something strong." but couldn't really put into words what it felt like. As soon as he gets permission from his parents we are going to start teaching him.

 

I am so excited for this last transfer. I was thinking last night about how grateful I was for how many miracles and blessings I saw that day, and then it occurred to me that Heavenly Father wasn't doing anything different; it was me. He's always ready to bless us if we will just put in a little bit of work.

 

I love being a missionary!

 

Sister Boll