A Voice From the Vineyard: 05 August 2013

Missionary Facebook Photo

Hola,

So I am Staying in Davis. I know you were all worried, but now you know where I will be for the next 6 weeks. There is now a bit of change in my zone and just in the area in general. Almost half of the missionaries are leaving. Hermana Kaiser and I are staying put. It would have been fun to have a little change but I am excited to see what happens in the next six weeks here in Davis. On Monday we didn't have anything too exciting, but we did get 12 contacts which was nice.

Tuesday we had our district meeting and we bore our testimonies on the 12 contacts. It was fun to share the joy and blessings we have felt when we do the 10 contacts. It isn't just that there are awesome blessings, but if you meet 10 people a day then you at least find one that has a high potential of being a potential investigator. It is awesome and it has also made us just a little bit busier. We had a lesson with one of our 10 contacts. His name is Martin. He has a basic belief in God and isn't attached to a religion. It just makes it a lot easier to really build him up for the first time. I had my first "Church Tour" EVER! It was really good. I also think it was really effective. We did one with Gabriel and Maria - a long time investigator family. They loved the Church Tour, We really felt the spirit. We hope that this will help them to come to church soon. We had a lesson with Audelia. She is an older women whose mother lives with her and we teach them both. They are very sweet and kind and she gave us corn on the cob. We hope to seem them start progressing soon because we don't see it yet. We finally got the 10-3-1. - we actually got 11-3-3. It was such a great feeling, but it was exhausting. It makes for a really full day. It also means a lot of paper work, Needless to say, I was happy to plop into bed.

Wednesday we had an average day. (First we went on facebook and didn't do too much.. I still really don't know how it will be effective. I know that it will come with time and when I settle in. It sounds like we are having even more training upcoming this week. I am excited to see where it all leads!) The cool thing that we did was to take a Preach My Gospel survey to assess how well we are using it. It is for an upcoming speaker we will have in September. I felt like I am using it pretty well. W we will see what he will teach us in a few months. We did some follow-up on some of our previous contacts. Because we meet so many people it is hard to find to them time to go back and see them again. This isn't a bad thing but it keeps us busy. We had a our coordination meeting. Instead of muffins we had home grown tomatoes with onions and balsamic vineagar on pita chips. Needless to say, it felt a little homey and it tasted so good. Don't get me wrong, I love the Mexican food but I don't mind getting a few extra vegetables here or there. I started my first exchange. Now I call it my first exchange because it was the first time I was paired up with the Sister Training Leader.

It was an awesome exchange because it was an opportunity for me to learn from an older and wiser missionary. The scary part was that we were in Davis and she doesn't speak Spanish. For the lesson we had, it was taught by only me. It was kind of nice to have my Spanish be tested. Usually I can just defer to my companion or at least have a break to think. It was a fun day and I learned and grew in confidence a lot. We had a blitz in Winters (yes, this is a name of a town). A blitz is when all the missionaries in the zone go to one area and contact. This one had a special purpose because the church building there was renovated and so we were inviting people to an open house that they were having. It was really fun to see peoples faces when we weren't there to give them religion but to personally invite them to come see what our church is about and have light refreshments. I haven't heard how it went but I hope it went well. The set-up they had was gorgeous and the renovations were nice but I think pretty minimal.

On Friday we had a lot of csnceled lessons which was a bummer. It is just part of the work. We got to have a good weekly planning session and fun dinner with the missionaries at the church. Then we had a nice chat with one of the less actives in Davis. And we got our 11 contacts. The crazy part about the day was finding out about transfers. The zone leaders call you to tell you where you are going. It is super intense to just hear that you will be moving in a few days or getting a new companion or just to hear who else is coming and going but I survived it without any change.

Then Saturday we had a nice chat with Yolanda, the less active that we found and then we went to an appointment that fell through. Then we saw Martin again, so that was good. Our other planned lesson fell through. We got to continue our planning from the day before so it all worked out. We had a nice dinner with Celia and had a pretty simple night of finishing our planning. (The funny thing about facebook is that we have to put it in as part of our weekly planning and set goals of what we want to accomplish. We hope to accomplish them soon).

On Sunday we had our regular meetings. The missionaries that are leaving from the branch bore their testimony which was a little sad. We are excited for them to continue the work wherever they will be. We had our Hour Of Prayer. It has become my new favorite thing. It is really a pleasant experience. We had our night of studies because we didn't have time earlier in the day.

So my first 12 weeks on a mission have been wonderful! I love being a missionary even though it is really hard most of the time. I thought of a few things that I have seen my six weeks here in Davis. Number one - it is a bike town. I have heard that I haven't seen anything yet because school isn't in full swing. We will see. It is such a bike town that they have the crosswalk buttons for bikers to make sure that the light changes for them. They are cool and seemingly useful. Number two - the Sprouts [grocery store] equivalent here is Nugget Market. I have grown to love it and it has become my grocery store of choice. Number three - There are a lot of Asians here. Which is awesome! We have so many that we are getting a Mandarin speaking greenie here this next week! We are excited to see what happens with the work.

Well I love you all. I know your lives are exciting and wonderful and I am so grateful that I get to share a lot of what happens in mine every week. So here is to another transfer in the mission, even here in Davis!

Love ya,

Hermana Cornwall