Hello! Hello!
We had SUCH a good week!
So many awesome things happened! Hopefully I can remember it all and not
get too crazy. Ok to begin, Monday we
went with Sister Francis, her Husband, and adopted daughter (granddaughter)
Kelsey to Callibash! Which is on the
border of South Carolina and North Carolina. We actually went into South Carolina because
they wanted to buy gas cause it is SO cheap there! Now I can say I've been to South Carolina! Don't tell my mission president :) Callibash is apparently known for their sea
food so they took us to an awesome restaurant! Everything was fried and delicious. I had the shrimp, flounder, and hush puppies! So good. They actually have the shrimp boats right next
to the restaurant! So you know it is fresh.
We also got a new investigator! Her name is Darlene and she is African
American, single, and has 5 kids. We
were trying to contact a referral, but got the wrong house. But she had met with missionaries before! I'm really excited for her.
Tuesday was Sister West's
Birthday!! Yay! So Sister Kandare being
the wonderful angel that she is took us to the beach bright and early! It was amazing. We collected shells and waded into the water. The water is so warm. We definitely need to come back here when I
can actually put on a swimsuit! It was a
ton of fun and hopefully we will get to go back soon. We also had another lesson with Leslie and
Kenny on Tuesday. Oh boy do they just
talk and talk and talk. We finally got
to our lesson on the Plan of salvation. They are both very receptive and open
to everything we say, we're just not sure how much understanding is taking
place. We ask very direct questions that
we think will produce and answer and instead they just talk about some other
thing that has nothing to do with what we asked. They are still fixated on becoming
missionaries hahaha. So yeah there's
that. Thankfully we had a wonderful
dinner at the Kandare's with strawberry shortcake. Then we went and picked up Janiya (Marquita's
daughter) and played some soccer at the church and had a short lesson! We talked about repentance and baptism. She told us that she wants to get baptized and
she was like "maybe on Friday?" And we were like "umm... We need
a little more notice and we need to teach you a little more, how about
October?" haha. She is super sweet
and we are excited to keep working with her!
Wednesday was my first
exchange! We had absolutely no notice
until the day before, so that was a little stressful, cause I didn't really
understand what an exchange even was haha. I went with Sister Wilcock who is one of the
Sister Training Leaders in the Wilmington 2nd area (we are Wilimington 1st),
and Sister Bauer went with Sister West. It was really fun! When you are with the same person everyday
24/7 it is nice to have a change sometimes. We had two appointments with recent converts
who are preparing to go to the temple! That
was really good for me to see that there is an end result, that people really
do get baptized, continue to keep their covenants and go to the temple! All in
all it was a good day and a nice change.
Thursday was weekly
planning day! (boo) It really is necessary it just takes so long! But we had a lesson with Cari again! She has a hard life. She divorced about a year ago, but we don't
really know the details of it. We do
know that her two children don't live with her though and it's really hard for
her. We talked about temples with her
and forever families. She was really
emotional about that subject of course. But I feel like we did offer her some comfort.
She is progressing, slowly, but surely. She has great faith in God and says the BEST
prayers. I love meeting with her. We had a dinner with Sister Francis and it was
awesome. Authentic Carolina barbecue,
coleslaw, and homemade hush puppies!
We had a lesson with
Jennifer (lady with the crazy messy house and wild wrestling children) who we
hadn't seen since then. This time went
over a little bit better, but she constantly finds things to be distracted by
so it is very difficult to feel the spirit. I want to drop her, but Sister West says no. Oh well. We also went and did Bingo at the nursing
home, haha Oh boy. At the end they all
want to do a cover-all so I basically read every single ping-pong ball and it
took like an hour. Not my finest hour. But they really need the help!
SATURDAY= BAPTISM DAY. Oh
this was a happy day! It was Rachel's
Baptism. It was super stressful of
course, because we are in charge of everything because our Ward Mission Leader
is MIA. But thankfully it all worked
out! She was actually late to her own
baptism. There was a car accident, so
when she came in she was really stressed and started crying when we were with
her :( but those tears were soon replaced with happy ones! It was great, her dad actually came! We weren't sure if he was. You could just feel the love and happiness
from everyone in that room! It was
amazing. She is such a great girl. Afterwards, we had a birthday party for
Janiya! Why we thought it was a good
idea to both organize a baptism and birthday party in one day, I don't know. But we did it! We had hot dogs and cake and then we took
Janiya to buy a dress! (So she could wear it to church he he), I actually
bought it for her. She was so excited!! She had one that she had picked out a while
ago so it was a lot of fun for her. I
was so glad that we could make her day special for her! We also had a lesson with both her and
Marquita and we set a baptismal date! Second week in December, it is kind of far
away, but Marquita has a lot ahead of her and needs her mental health to
improve, but we are feeling hopeful!
SUNDAY= THE DAY WHERE
LESLIE AND KENNY COME TO CHURCH
Just as I said Leslie and
Kenny came to church!!! haha it was crazy. They came in late, but they just made it to
see Rachel get confirmed. After that and
all through the sacrament I was just praying and praying that Heavenly Father
would help them understand and that they would feel the spirit and that we
would know how to help them do that! It
was so nerve racking. But it is so darn
cool because almost the entire meeting was about missionary work! haha Heavenly
Father sure knows what He is doing. The
lesson in gospel principles, (which the Elders and Sisters take turns teaching
cause once again Ward Mission leader MIA), was on missionary work! I hope that they gained some more
understanding about what it means to be a missionary and how they can be member
missionaries! I don't know. Hopefully something got through to them haha
but the best part was the Elders gave Leslie a blessing after church. Her grandma is 94 years old and is very close
to passing away. We actually went with
them and visited her earlier this week. She
is having a hard time with it. The Elders
gave her a beautiful blessing and you could really feel the spirit. Afterwards, she really opened up to us and was
crying, and of course I was crying. I
shared D&C 121:7-9 with her and talked about Grandma Ann and how difficult
that trial was for me. They said that
Church was really different and it would take some getting used to, I think
Leslie was a little overwhelmed cause she is little bit more shy. But I think they had a good experience! Funny story, later on Sunday we got a call
from them and they asked us if we needed any food. (Leslie had seen our dinner
calendar at church) long story short, they ended up giving us like 30 loaves of
frozen homemade bread! hahaha But we are
sharing it with the other missionaries! And
will probably give them to random strangers on the street. Who knows.
We totaled up our numbers
last night and (drum roll please) WE TAUGHT 18 LESSONS LAST WEEK! Which is actually like the goal for our
mission! You have to understand that that
is really difficult to do, but we did it! We took a bunch of celebratory pictures haha
we were so proud! Sister West said that
she had never done that much in a week. I am so so grateful to my Heavenly
Father for making it all possible. We
would be no where without His help. He
makes it all possible. I have truly been able to see the hand of the Lord
in each day and I know that He is aware of each of His children.
Have a great Labor Day
everyone!
Love, Sister Dearden
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