So this weekend was a crazy one, but it has
helped me to see why the Lord wants me here. It was especially crazy
because I may or may not have chopped off a significant amount of my
hair to donate it to Locks of Love, but you will have to wait to hear
the stories!
Last Monday was awesome! We started teaching a
couple, the Nunez Family! The have friends in the Church already. They
have a lot of curiosity and they aren't very satisfied with the
church they are attending now. We had a pretty good lesson and they seem
committed to at least satisfy there curiosity. They don't know
is that the spirit will definitely work on them and then they will know
that it is all true. We have another lesson with them tonight and we
are taking Brother Southwick (assistant ward mission leader/future
temple president) so we will see how it all turns out!
Then as always we had our lovely district meeting,
but this time it was a little different because some of the missionaries
invited a member to come and so it created a different feeling in our
meeting and it turned out really well. She was so nice and supportive
and totally into missionary work. It was cool to have her there to
share and so that we could all learn together! Then at dinner there was a
fire near where we were eating. It was more out in the country so there
were planes and helicopters flying around waiting to drop retardant and
stuff! In the evening we started our exchange. I was with Sister
Becker! This is her last transfer. She is still going strong!
We were together all of Wednesday in my
area. The nice part was that we went to go see this less-active that I
didn't know very well, but Sister Becker knew her and so it was nice to
have someone that knew what was going on. She told us that she wasn't
having a good day and that we were exactly what she needed. I got to
know her a little bit better and we taught a short lesson. She was
committed to come to church and to really do better and take in all the
happiness that the Church brings!
Thursday we tried a new finding idea of
talking about family history at the local farmers market! It went pretty
well. We often had to draw people's interest into it, since it isn't
something your would normally see there. It was really fun and
people usually like to talk about their families so it is a good
attention grabber.Oh and I forgot earlier in the day, we drove down to
Cloverdale were our district leader serves, to return Elder Hardmann's
glasses and to have a companionship study. It was a little bit of a long
drive! Then in the evening we had a house blessing with
Juliana and I invited her to baptism and she said yes! SO then we
started to teach her a little bit about the Restoration and so now she
is our newest investigator. She felt the Spirit so strongly during the
prayer. She loved the feeling it gave her. It was so cool to just see
her light up with that happiness!
On Friday we got a last minute call to do
service for a member. We helped her clean out her shelves for ants! Then
she decided to do a bug bomb so we proceeded to take everything out of
the house, well not everything, so that they could set off the spray! It
was fun to help out.Then we did weekly planning! A little later than
planned, but we got it done!
Saturday was the beginning of the crazy awesomeness.
SO we live next to a park and when we went out on Friday there was a
fence around the whole park and people were setting some stuff up. So we
were all very curious what was going on. The Sisters found out
that it was all for the Relay for Life event. SO being they good
missionaries that they were they offered to help. On Saturday morning
we all show up. At first we helped decorating a little bit and then
we were at the registering tent! They started with a cancer survivor
ceremony, which was very special and then the survivors that were in
attendance did the first lap all together! It was a sweet experience. We remained at the registering table and helped people sign in and
saw everyone participating, walking or running around this track! It was
all very sweet. I was kind of in a tender mood myself, knowing how
recently cancer has affected our family. I was wishing I could do more,
but we only had a small window of time when we were volunteering so that
wasn't much we could do. Then they announced that someone was there to
cut hair and donate it to Locks of Love. I didn't think much of it until
the other sister missionaries decided to do it. I decided to do
it too! It was kind of a crazy decision and I had just enough hair do
it. The best part was that it is for a really good cause! Now some
little girl will have a lovely wig thanks to a little sacrifice on my
part!
All the people at Relay for Life were amazed by our service and
were very very grateful. It was a great opportunity to have positive
exposure for the Church and it was really fun! Then we planted
sunflowers for a random contact which was fun! We had our Ward
Pioneer Day party which was a great success! It was just all around a
wonderful, but yet crazy day, with a lot of touching my missing hair!
Also, I got my pink slip, which is where I write the information of my
plans to travel home. (The first step to the end of your mission!)
Then Sunday was the day I realized why I was here. SO we
went to a regular church sunday and the first thing that happened was
that they called a new ward mission leader, which we are very excited
about and then, during the sacrament I hear someone call "Sister,
Sister". I turn my head and the bishop's wife nudges her head at
someone on the back row who looked hispanic. Both Sister Hooton and I
assumed it was the Guatemalan member that we had heard so much about and
had talked to on the phone. We went back after the sacrament had
ended and invited him to come sit with us. It was Jose, this member, so
we translated the rest of the meeting for him, even though one talk was
really hard! We asked if he wanted us to translate for him in Sunday
School, or for us to have our own class, he said he wanted his own
class. We decided to get to know him a little more. We started with
some good question and answer. He is a convert to the church, we was
sealed in the temple a year after being baptized with his wife, they are
now divorced. He moved to the United States in 2007, and he has 3 kids
who live in Utah. His brother is also a member who lives in the ward
boundaries. We started to talk about our vision of Willits and
spanish members and we told him how important he was in that and
that with hard word it would grow. He shared a story of when he was
working with the young men in Guatemala and how they had 6 of them and
after working hard to find more they ended having almost 50 young men
and then he got emotional thinking of these boys and the hard work and
everything. With the spirit so strong Sister Hooton and I started
getting a little choked up and I think we could all see that there is a
future here in Willits. The 3 of us are the start of it! I
think that all of us will be great friends and we will all work hard
together! It all just made us so excited and ready to put it all in the
Lord's hands, because it usually works out better that way! We also
had to go into Elder's quorum to translate, which was an interesting
experience, especially because the new ward mission leader, was the
Elder's president and so they had to call a new Elder's quorum
president, so it was an exciting day to be there!
Anyway, I have just been so amazed and happy with my
expereince this weekend! I did some crazy things and also had some
amazing blessings! It was amazing! I am so happy to be in the service of
the lord! I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week!
Les quiero,
Hermana Cornwall
No comments:
Post a Comment