This week has been so crazy and really fast

This week has been so crazy and really fast. We have had about 7 or 8 lesson this week! And we put 3 people of date for baptism. I am so excited. Tomorrow is Transfers and I get a new trainer/ companion. I think that it will be Sister Patten who serves in the Crystal City area. I do not know her very well but she is a convert and is 26 years old. That is pretty cool I think.

 

We had a sleep over on Tuesday night (Sister Patten and her companion Sister Hansen) to say goodbye to Sister Olsen. Wednesday night they found out that their car was towed! How crazy. We spent three hourst trying to get their car out. Since Tuesday I have not been feeling very well. Sister Olsen is not feeling well either so Wednesday and Thursday we spent a lot of time at home planning, cleaning, and sleeping. So sad but we feel much better today.

 

Friday was the departing fireside for President and Sister Albright. They leave on Tuesday (along with my companion). I am so sad to see them go but I know that President and Sister Riggs will be wonderful. I am sad to see old mission presidents and companions go but I am happy to see new mission presidents and companions come in. 

The Assistants to the President gave the Albrights a photo of the DC Temple (made out of pictures of all of the missionaries and converts that have happened in the 3 years that the Albrights have been here). It was so beautiful.

 

 

Yesterday was the departing fireside for the missionaries. The Stake Center was packed with people! It was so wonderful. Both overflows and a room was full of people who came to support the missionaries and President and Sister Albright. It was such a wonderful experience.

 

There is a Sister in the Potomac (mid-singles ward) who served in Detroit back in 1998. Her name is Sister Pilington. She served in the Palmer Park Branch for about 8 months. She said that they worked mostly with older people.

Things Are Getting Much Better

The exchange was not that great. The person that I went on an exchange with would not let me or Sister Meier (mini missionary) talk during any of the lessons and when we did door approaches she would cut us off mid sentence. In the car rides and the apartment she would only talk to the mini missionary. It was so frustrating but it was only for a day so I got through it.

After that though things picked up. We met tons of people and now have 14 potentials for this week! I am so excited. Hopefully they will still be interested as we teach them this week.

Me and my companion have been getting along very well this week. We finally talk to eachother and it has been wonderful. She has been through some tough times so we have been able to share experiences and help eachother. It will be so sad to say goodbye next week. I think that I will stay in this area because I just got here and we are the first female missionaries in this area. I will let you know if things change but just in case I do switch out, you should send mail to the mission home for next week.

Oh one of our investigators, Annette, came to church and brought her 3 grandchildren and they had a great time. They want to do boy scouts and activity days (for the girl) so hopefully we will baptize 4 people. Annette though has a lot of problems that will not let her get baptized real soon. We think that she will get a blessing from the Elders (addiction to smoking and drinking) but she does want to quit so I know that soon she will.

We also did another exchange but this was only for a few hours. Sister Jeppsen (my MTC companion who is now in my zone here) and I had to go to return and report together so Sister Olsen and Sister Rozsa, Sister Jeppsen's companion, went on exchanges together. It was so much fun to see our MTC district back together- minus Sister Owens and Elder Case who are in Minnesota- and we were all able to bear our testimonies again. When we first came to the mission home we bore our testimonies about what we know, Thursday we bore our testimonies on our investigators and having the Holy Spirit to help us. There were 20 of us who came to the mission home and being all together learning from each other and sharing experiences was just fantastic! We all have had so many spiritual experiences that there is no way that people can say that there is not a God. So many tender mercies and miracles!

On Thursday evening we were tracting the Arlington Drice Apartments and we literally only had 30 minutes to tract because we had Bible Study with our investigators and recent concerts. Our morning was spent (me at Return and Report and Sister Olsen with Sister Rozsa in Sister Rozsa's area) so we did not have any time to find new people. We pulled over the car and prayed telling Heavenly Father that we really needed his help because there were like 10 apartment buildings and we only had time for maybe 3. We felt that we needed to go to the far left 3 building. We tracted the first two and found either no one home or no one interested. We looked at our watch and we only had maybe 5 minutes before we needed to leave. We said another prayer and in those last 5 minutes we found 3 people who had been prepared by Heavenly Father: JoAnn has been taking discussions while living in Maryland and did not know how to find missionaries again; Sharita and her husband were looking for a church to raise their kids in, and Musa knew a little about the church and wants to know more. It was just perfect.

 

Here are some pics!

Me and my Trainer, Sis. Katie Olsen

With my MTC companion and two MTC teachers

Saying goodbye to my district

Saying goodbye to my Cebuano district

Teacher Bro. Scoresby: Short and Strong & always happy :)

Saying goodbye

Saying goodbye to Sister Flake, my SVU friend

 

This Week

This week is kind of crazy! We put three people on (baptism) date this week. Annette is African American and takes care of her three grandchildren. She smokes and drinks so we have to work with her. John works for the Department of Defense and is super busy. He has been taking discussions for nine months, and we were finally able to put him on date yesterday. Carolina is Hispanic and is so cute. She is a junior in high school. She asks a lot of questions and smiles a ton. We put her on date on our first visit. But she has a lot that she needs to work through and she speaks more Spanish than English so we are going to pass her to the Hermanas.

 

My companion is leaving this coming transfer (in like 2 1/2 weeks) so she decided that she wants to be companions with another sister so tomorrow I will be in a threesome with two girls I do not know! Maybe this is what we need.

 

Anyway enough of complaining. It really is great here. The people are crazy and great. But does this remind you of anything?:

 

Potomac Mid-singles Ward. Most people work for the government and have MBAs. Our investigators are mostly from Richmond Highway apartments (less education and works at low scale places). There are a few people who talk to our investigators (those that have gone on missions- which tends to be the gospel principles teachers); otherwise, they do not mix.

 

Okay, for real this time- enough complaining. I really do like it here. I had dinner with Sister and Brother Maygren on Saturday. It was so much fun. There were elders from our zone there and we just had a ball. I totally wanted to hold Chance- he is so cute and bashful. I just love them. Sister Maygren said that we will have Thanksgiving dinner with her when I finish. Are you coming to my farewell? If you can, can you come and pick me up from my mission? Brother Maygren gave me a wonderful blessing. He is seriously awesome.

Craziness!!!

My preparation day is actually on Monday; however, because of Memorial Day weekend last week our preparation day was Wednesday. Anyway life is crazy here. We are always so busy- which is a good thing- and never have time to eat! We always eat snacks to get by. Our area is so big that in one day we drive 50 miles to our appointments, etc. We have to visit members in both of our wards each day (our wards are huge) and our wards are on polar opposite areas of our mission (Mount Vernon family ward and Potomac mid-singles ward). But it is okay because we usually get referrals from them. Today, our preparation day, my companion loves to hang out with our zone- which has zone sports on p-day- but we have some sisters that bike in our zone so we had to take them to and from our sports. So when you get your letter and the writing is awful it's because I wrote everyone while I was either in the car riding or in between games.

 

We are having a hard time with investigators (the good people usually have to go for weeks at a time on business trips and when they get back they are no longer interested in listening to our message and the other people that we teach DO NOT like to keep commitments and cancel appointments). It is so frustrating. However, the most amazing thing happened to us while teaching. We felt prompted to go to this specific apartment building and apartment number so we did. There was a man and his son actually leaving so we thought that maybe we should come back later. But we felt that we needed to talk to them. Well, they are from Africa and ONLY speak French! Sister Olsen insisted that I speak to them even though I do not speak French well and I do not know how to speak French very well. But I opened up the scriptures- we just so happen to have one French copy of the Book of Mormon- to Mosiah 18 8-11 (weird) and I read it to them as best as I could. I bore my testimony and now they want to meet with the missionaries! Unfortunately, the apartment is not in our area so we had to pass them off to the senior couple missionaries who speak French. But it was a wonderful experience. Heavenly Father really does prepare people to hear His message.

 

Oh another awesome thing happened today. Me and my companion were in Wal-mart stocking up on food- that we will never have time to eat- and this man walks write up to us and tells us that he is a member of our church (using sign language that my companion knows) and then he tells us that he will pay for our food! He is the Branch President of the D.C. Hearing Impaired Ward. He is a convert of 5 years and loves missionary work. That is just awesome.

 

I have to go but I love you and miss you all. Thanks for helping out and also for being awesome. If you have a chance can you let Elders Lara, Buckley, and Stubbs know how amazing they are and how grateful I am for having this gospel in my life and how much it has changed/ helped me. Thanks.