Hey!
Well
first things first... I'm the realist. hahaha no. Hope ya'll had a good thanksgiving! I celebrated by getting yet another cold this
week! It was the worst. But thankfully I am feeling much better now!
Monday
we went tracting and had some miracles!
We walked down to an apartment complex near where we lived and we ran
into this lady. She was very interested
in us, and what we were doing. She is
very religious and believes in God and Jesus Christ. She had questions for us about how to talk to
people who don't have that belief. She
told us how she has breast cancer and is going through radiation right now. She then had us say a prayer right there! She was very happy and positive, so much so
that I think she might have been on some type of painkiller. Nevertheless, we were able to give her a card
and restoration pamphlet and found out where she lived. We said our goodbyes and started walking away,
but then she came back to us and said, "I don't even know why I was
walking that way, I was going to get my mail and that's this way, must be one
of those God things!" She just
thought we were the best thing since sliced bread and even wanted to take a
picture of us and called us "earth angels," haha Craziness and all, I
know we were supposed to find her! Later
that evening as we were tracting the apartment buildings, we found a couple and
their young son, Justin, Corrine, and Warren, who invited us to come back and
meet with them! We had been praying so
hard to find and we finally found!
Wednesday
we had our District Meeting and we had a great instruction from Elder Eyere
about how nothing we do in Missionary Work is about US. We should be doing everything for our Heavenly
Father. He used the talk "Truly
Good and without Guile" and talked about how we shouldn't be concerned
with the positions we acquire on the mission or the numbers we make. Only that we are consciously and diligently
striving to bring people to Christ and doing it for the right reasons. After District Meeting we went and saw Eunice
again in the Nursing Home with Leslie and Kenny. This time she had moved rooms and was sharing
a room with a little old Cuban Lady who was talking very loudly to herself in
Spanish. Little did I know, but Sister
Michael can speak Spanish a little bit and understand it even better! So Sister Michael visited with her, but
couldn't pull away so I just went ahead and taught a very brief restoration to
Eunice! She seemed to understand it and
we are supposed to see her again so we will see! It was just a funny situation, me over here teaching
a lady in a hospital bed and Sister Michael over there speaking with a crazy
old lady in Spanish.
Thursday.
TURKEY DAY. Man holidays are weird. We
had plans to do a turkey trot in the morning, but I took a turkey walk and Sis
Michael trotted along ahead since I woke up in the morning feeling like dirt. Sis Kandare picked us up and we went to her
house to help her peel potatoes. We then
went over to Sister Hill's son Randy's house for Thanksgiving. It was a little bit awkward, feeling like you
were intruding on someone's family event, but sister Hill is a champ and made
sure to introduce us to everyone and made us feel very welcome. We met a guy there, named Mike, who was very
friendly and interested in missionary work. He serves missions for his church in Mexico
and Nicaragua and places like that. He
asked a lot of questions, but we could barely get a word in cause he didn't
really wait for responses, haha. I told
him how much longer I had left on my mission and he said that Jesus will have
come by then, hahah he said, "No man knows the day or the hour, but it
doesn't say no man knows the year!" So according to this guy, 2017 is the
year!
Friday
was a pretty mellow day since I was feeling not so good. We did a lot of
planning and I took a lot of naps. I finally felt well enough and was like
"Let's go tract!" which we di d.
We encountered a lot of Catholics, but
very nice Catholics. Lots of "I
know Jesus, I'm gooders,” and just plain "not interested’ers.” It's always hard when you don't find ANYONE, but
hopefully we planted some seeds.
Best
news of the week, BABBS GOT BAPTIZED! It was just wonderful. She was SO happy! You could tell that she had found that peace
she was looking for with herself and with God. She had truly been healed by the atonement and
her sins were washed away. I know that
they are in good hands and Leland will take care of them for me. I will not forget the miracles that Heavenly
Father wrought in their lives! I love
those people so much. I came across 3
Nephi 18:32 which says, "Nevertheless, ye shall not cast him out of your
synagogues, or your places of worship, for unto such shall ye continue to
minister; for ye know not but what they will return and repent, and come unto
me with full purpose of heart, and I shall heal them; and ye shall be the means
of bringing salvation unto them." It
made me think of Babbs. She was
homeless, a felon, and fairly rough around the edges if you were just to look
at her. There were plenty of reasons to
not continue meeting with her, but here the Savior commands us to
"continue to minister" because we know not whether they will "return
and repent" and come unto Christ. I
feel so blessed to have taken a small part on her path to salvation! Funniest part about the baptism: the Elders
forgot to tell her to bring a towel and extra underwear! psh. Elders. Oh well she was so happy she didn't even mind!
I
have learned so much this week and I am totally out of time to tell you all! All I can say is that the Book of Mormon is so
true and it changes lives, including mine. Study it! Read it! Ponder it!
Love,
Sister Dearden
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