16 September 2013

Sister Kaiser's last Sunday in Davis

 Hola,

It has been an amazing week this week! I graduated from being a greenie! I am Staying in Davis and I am getting a new companion named Hermana Brighton! It is so funny how change just becomes part of us as missionaries. This change brings wonderful blessings and opportunities and I am excited to see what mine will become!

.

So nothing too very exciting this week. Last Monday I bought new shoes (pictures below). Tuesday it was also kind of a slow day. (the cool part was using our 8873 devices. I don't know if I explained this too much, but one of our apps. is the Area Book! In this app it takes all of the paper work we used to have and makes it digital.  We have had to input everything from the old [system]. It has been a long, but fun process. It has taken a few hours out of our day, but it has been really fun.) 

.

On Wednesday we had a fun experience because we went to lunch at a restaurant where an investigator works and he gave us free food. It was fun to have a fun, free lunch and to see him! Then we visited Yolanda, our 83 year-old, home-bound less active. She is wonderful and I always enjoy her visits. Then later in the day I taught a less-active on Facebook, trying to encourage her to go back to church and to not let her fear and worry overcome her relationship with her Heavenly Father. We had a just-sisters dinner at the Stapps, my American home away from home. Not that I am not in America, but it is nice to have a place where you recognize things and you feel comfortable. It felt like a pretty normal missionary dinner, for once. 

.

Thursday we had another lesson with Roberto and reset his baptismal date for the 28th of September. I think that he is actually taking it seriously now, so we really hope that he can come to church in order to be baptized.  We had some finding time. Recently with the addition of facebook and having pretty regular investigators we have been busy but we finally had some extra time to go and find people. So we went to one apartment complex that had a few formers.  The amazing part was everyone actually opened the door! We don't have that happen very often. We set up a few more return appointments.  We will see how that goes. Later in the evening we just did straight finding at a different complex.  The miracle then was that people opened their doors and were willing for a house blessing. I don't know if I have explained it before but we are a test mission for 5 key phrases when contacting people. They are:

• " I am a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ" (instead of "missionary"), 
• "Can we leave a blessing on your home?", 
• "Who do you know that needs this message?", 
•  "Will you come to sacrament meeting?"
• "I testify in the name of Jesus Christ..." 

We have found that they are very effective when talking with others. With the blessing - we offer the blessing to bring the Spirit into their home and also to offer things that they need. It feels a little weird sometimes to say " can we leave a blessing on your home?" but it really is a small and effective way to get in. We just say a prayer and then hopefully set up another appointment/ I like it because it makes it less we are missionaries and then people slam the door in your face. On Thursday night everyone was willing to let us in, which was really nice. Most of these contacts are in English, but my favorite part is when we get to someone that speaks Spanish and they say "no hablo ingles" and we say "Esta bien Hablamos espanol." It usually surprises them a little but it makes me feel really effective. 

.

Friday we did weekly planning, and for the first time in a long time we finished it all in one sitting of like 4 -5 hours! Then I had a facebook idea. Well actually I stole it from another missionary, but I like it. On our Mission facebook page an Elder posted that he had asked to be part of Ward facebook pages and then asked for referrals, so I decided to try it. It has been really effective to just post a message about what I do and that I would like referrals.  People are truly interested. I have gotten a handful of referrals so far.  I am excited to see how it goes. The fun part is that these referrals can be all over and that is great! Then we found out about transfers. So, as said in the beginning, I am staying in Davis, but my companion Sister Kaiser, is going to Eureka. That is the farthest you can go up in our mission for Spanish speakers so I am very excited for her!

.

Saturday was kind of an end and continuation of a falling through week. A lot of our plans didn't always work out, but it worked out. We went to visit Brenda, but she wasn't home.  We looked for formers. (The cool thing about the app is that we are able to have our area book right at our finger tips. One nice feature is the formers and potentials are all just right there too. The problem is, in order to see where they live on the map we have to have internet. One day we will have an iphone and it will be all in there too!) On Saturday I was still trying to carry out all that I needed to for my facebook idea so that was fun and takes quite a bit of time! 

.

Sunday was an amazing day for our branch. We got new counselors in the Relief Society and Elders Quorum. It was awesome 1 of the new counselors is a woman who has only attended sacrament meeting for a long time and the 2 new elders quorum counselors just got the Melchizedek Priesthood this week! It is so exciting and they both were wearing suits too. I love to see the branch progress right before my eyes. Then for dinner we have Sopes. They were amazing! They are a fired and thick dough patty and then you put beans, meat, lettuce, cheese etc. on top. It was really good!

.

Well it was a crazy week, but this is truly a  wonderful work that I am a part of and I am grateful for it everyday. I love each of you so much and hope the best for you as you go forward and strong members of this church!

Love,

Hermana Cornwall

.

Sister Kaiser's photo of the Sacramento Temple