Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Hello There (October 28)

Hi, everyone!

First of all, no one told me that the Red Sox were in the world series! Since when?!

Anywho...

Quick funny story: We are so blessed to get such wonderful dinners from members of the ward! Because the members are so kind and generous and want to give the very best meals for the missionaries, they almost always have dessert! It's delicious and also terrible because we have ridiculous desserts every day! Anyways, we thought it might be a good idea to write "no dessert for the sisters" on the top of the meal calendar that members sign up to feed us on. Everyone in the ward was absolutely scandalized! They couldn't believe that we wouldn't eat dessert. Every single member we've seen this week expressed their concern for us in not having dessert at the member's homes. Sister Monteirth made muffins because she wanted to get around the no dessert thing, but also to feed us dessert. We went and saw sister Dods (the adorable old lady I mentioned in my first e-mail home who receives inspiration on the toilet) and she had the saddest look on her face and said, "I know you said no dessert, but I made you all bags of treats!" So we went home with bags full of treats. Yesterday we crossed that out on the meal calendar and wrote "never mind" life is just easier when you let the members feed you dessert :)

Highlight, we had a zone conference where Elder Coorbride of the Quorum of the 70 came and did a training. It was so awesome! He talked about what "the most important thing" we want our investigators to know is. He explained it as taking our investigators on a road trip. First we need to determine the destination, and then we need to establish the route and then execute it. Within the context of missionary work (or life) the destination we want to reach is being endowed with God's power and partaking of the blessings of eternal life. The route we take to get there is The Gospel (or doctrine) of Jesus Christ, or faith in Christ and His sacrifice for our sins, repentance, baptism, receiving he gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end. Therefore, the most important thing we need to teach to our investigators is The Gospel of Jesus Christ, namely faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end. No matter what we're teaching to our investigators, whether it be the restoration, or the plan of salvation, or any of the commandments, if we're not focusing them on the The Gospel, then we're not fulfilling our purpose as missionaries. That opened my eyes up a little bit, because I'm not sure I had been focusing on "the most important thing", and I think as I implement that in my teaching, I'll be able to help people understand the importance of the message.

We had a miracle happen yesterday,
About a month ago, we were tracting and we had a member of the ward, Angela Pinkam, with us who is now in the MTC on her way to the Phillipines. Because there were 4 of us, we did a split, and I went with Sister Jacobsen while Angela went with Sister Goates. Sister Goates and Angela met this awesome couple, Adam and Tiffany, who seemed just golden. They were so excited when we got back together, and we made plans to see them the following week. When we went back, it turns out that they moved! We had no idea where they'd gone, and we had no way of finding their new address. We were pretty bummed, because Sister Goates had been so excited and felt so good about them, and now we wouldn't be able to teach them. Yesterday, however, we were contacting some of our potentials in an apartment complex. We tried a few doors, and none of them were there. We drove away, and I realized I'd forgotten a name on the list who lived in the apartment complex. We went and tried to contact them, but they weren't there. As we drove away, this happened a second time, and so we went back. I am a forgetful person, but not usually to this extent. None of  the people we tried to contact were there, but just as we were about to leave for the third time, guess who we saw? Adam! Coincidence? I think not! We didn't have time to teach him right then, but we'll have an opportunity to go back sometime this week and now we know where we can find him! And, he seemed really excited to see us and talk with us! 1 Nephi 1:20 says that the tender mercies of the Lord are over us so that we can be strengthened. So true, Nephi!

Love you all so much and hope that you have a great week!

Sister Pennington

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