Hello everyone!!
So... I've decided I really really dislike weather. Especially the days that are warm and perfect, because that means the next day there's just going to be a tornado or some crazy storm. So boo urns to the warm days because they just trick you!!! haha!
Yesterday we had Mission Tour, which is where a General Authority comes to speak to all the missionaries. The Elder that came to talk to us is Elder Madsen. He's in the First Quorum of the Seventy, and he was amazing!!! He gave us a pretty terrifying "fire and brimstone" talk, but made us all feel better by reading 1 Nephi 22 and told us to highlight every time it says "the righteous". It worked. I felt better. haha. He talked to us for like 2 hours. So then he transitioned into the Atonement, and how everything is made possible through it. He asked us how many of us could define what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is... It's actually kind of a difficult question when you first hear it, but the answer he gave us was along the lines of "The Gospel of Jesus Christ IS the Atonement." You cant have one without the other. Because of the Atonement, we HAVE the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Its more simple than I realized. So he went on from there about how since the Atonement is central to the gospel, that we are able to repent, to be baptized, to complete other ordinances like the endowment and temple marriage, and on and on. Everything he taught us all came back to the Atonement. It was pretty cool, and totally helped us all understand how incredibly important the Atonement it. It was really humbling truthfully.
So that was yesterday. Oh yeah. We also met up with a former investigator, that was getting taught in 2006, and for some reason after a transfer, the next sisters that came to Cabot never kept in touch with her. That was silly. So since we have a teaching record for every investigator that's every been taught here, we whipped out the former investigator pile and started calling everyone to see if they'd like to give us another chance, and of all the calls, only one of them said yes. We were really excited, and she's really awesome. Her name is Jessica, and she has 3 kids. She's really open, and that's essential. In the teaching record it says that she never kept a committment, but we'll change that. haha. The missionaries already became her friends, and i think they got too close which made Jessica feel like the things that were being asked of her weren't as serious as they actually were. So we're still gonna be her friend, but always bring it back to the gospel, and we're pretty confident that it'll work.
We dont really have many other serious investigators... So we're trying our hardest to get member referrals and see what they can come up with. The Bishop is amazing though. We always go to ward council and the bishop this last council meeting was telling all the leaders how they're supposed to get their auxileries all excited for missionary work and to give us people to teach. He told them how we tract, but the members we get from tracting are statistically never as solid as the converts we get from referrals. Amen. When we go over to members homes, we read them Jacob 4:4 and tell them that the reason the Book of Mormon was written was so that they know that we knew they had a testimony of Christ. They knew that we would know of their testimonies because they wrote them down. So we've gotta let other people know!! Then we give them a Book of Mormon and tell them to write their testimonies on the cover and pray for someone to give it to or to pray to know a street for us to tract on, and once they give us that street, we HAVE to give that Book of Mormon with that family's testimony inside it to someone on that street. Pretty cool eh?
So today we got to go with the Elders in our district and we went BOWLING!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE BOWLING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Elders decided Sis Blake's bowling name should be "coconut" because she's from Tonga, and I got to be "the kinook"... haha.. Because I'm from Canada.. haha... 14 Canada... We only played one game though... Missionaries are cheap and don't wanna play 5 games... sigh... so i never really found my "groove" and only got 104. However... it used to be a huge feat for me to break 100 so i guess i didn't do that bad.. Man... Have I mentioned how much i love bowling? haha...
I tried to teach Sis Blake how to ride a bike this morning. haha... I realized that teaching someone how to ride a bike is difficult.... I cant figure out how to explain to someone how its done! It was funny to watch her try to figure it out though. This week we dont have the car, so we have to walk everywhere, and since there's no sidewalks here and maybe a foot on each side of the road, the whole riding a bike thing freaks her out. I dont blame her. Seriously!!! I dont understand what the people here have against sidewalks!!!!
I really can't keep track of what happens each week... It's hard to keep the days straight, because it seems like we do so much, which i supposeis a good thing. We are definitely keeping busy, mostly with tracting, and getting to know all the members.
We actually are trying to mostly get to know the part-member families. When we set up appointments with them, we always ask for the non-member to be there so we can teach them. Usually the non-member ends up not showing up, because i think they see our intentions.. haha. I feel kindasneaky going to a person's house with the intention of teaching thenon-member specifically.. I think it's funny but at the same time it feels kinda weird... you know what i mean?
Yeah.. So its a good thing i'm keeping a journal. Speaking of which... Monie.. The pink skull journal you gave me is almost full. haha. I can remember what happened in a day, but i can't seem to recap a whole week at once. So I'll just have to go through my journal with everyone when i come home.... in 16 months... haha... Hey!!! HOLY MOLY!!!! I"VE ALREADY BEEN GONE FOR TWO MONTHS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously... Time is flying!!!!
Yeesh... anyways... That shall be all for today. Thank you so much for your support and love. I think of everyone a lot, and i definitely pray for you often. Love you lots!!!!!
-Sister Alison J. Dyer
Oh and also.... The Church is True. :)
