January 18th

Hello!

Well, the Lord has blessed us this week with all of our tracting, by giving us media referrals!!  We have gotten like 11 in the past couple weeks. We received a Book of Mormon referral and set up a time to meet with them on Tuesday morning.  Her name is Paige and her roommate Charlotte was there as well.  Get this.  They saw "The Book of Mormon Musical" and that made them interested in learning more!! Hahaha, I thought I was being punked.  They told us about the musical and the facts in it are true! haha  They talk about Nephites and Lamanites, and Mormon and Moroni and the golden plates and Joseph Smith.  Of course they mentioned it's pretty vulgar in language.  But hey, it brought them to the gospel!  We gave them a quick Restoration and committed them to start reading the Book of Mormon.  They said they were excited to read! Unfortunately, we think they are YSA age, so we'll have to turn them over to the YSA.  But that's okay! 

Zone Training was also this week.  It was great as always.  My favorite instruction was by Elder Neilson who is one of the Spanish Elders in my District.  He reminds me of Keith, haha He talked about the 4 basic motivators that motivate humans, #1 Love #2 Want #3 Appraisal and #4 Fear.  He then had two elders do a role play where they invited someone to be baptized being motivated by these 4 different things.  You can guess that Love was the best.  There was an immediate change and the spirit was there.  He challenged us to think about why we decided to serve a mission and why we are STILL serving a mission.  Is it because we love the Lord and love the people? 

D&C 112:10-11

"Be not partial towards them in love above many others, but let thy love be for them as for thyself; and let thy love abound unto all men." 

It was a really good reminder to me.  I can definitely do a whole lot better in being motivated by love.  Love for these people.  Loving them enough to invite them to repent and make changes.  Loving them enough to recognize when it's time to let them go for a little while. 

Wednesday we were out tracting in our normal apartment complex that is inside so we can stay warm.  We have tracted out almost every building so we decided to try out another compex that is just across the street.  While there we had a woman who, very nicely, told us she worked for the office and there was no soliciting.  We were just kinda like "uhh.. ok" and went back to our usual apartment complex.  There, which is a totally different complex, we had ANOTHER woman tell us she worked for the office and there was no soliciting.  We then were like "Even missionary work??" And she said Yeah, and that we had to leave.  She was also still very nice about it at least.  It was so weird!!  We have been tracting that complex for 2 and a half months and nothing.  And then in the same night, not once, but TWICE!  We took that as a sign that apparently we need to be seeking elsewhere! 

Thursday we had a great lesson with Therese!  She actually read the chapter we left her with!  It was great.  We had a bunch of other appointments lined up, but they all fell through.  We were with Sister McGill so she took us out to dinner.  Sister Kandare's daughter Chloe was coming home late Thursday night and she has such a crazy schedule and life that her house was a disaster and she had been at work all day.  So we went over and helped them get ready for her to come home! 

We had a super neat experience on Saturday.  So I can't remember if I ever talked about Rick.  He is someone we tracted into and his wife initially said "No thank you" but then he called us back?  Well with our first visit with him he told us that he was going on vacation to Utah and would get back on the 15th.  So we decided to stop by the 16th.  Perfect time to pounce. We had Sister Ball with us who is just the most wonderful southern lady and a convert of about 30 years.  They let us right in and were just so nice!  His wife joined us this time and they told us about their trip to Utah.  They even attended the Mormon Tabernacle Choir!  And toured the temple grounds.  We were able to answer questions that they had.  Rick asked us, "So what am I missing?  What would make me leave my church and join yours?" haha wellll A LOT. Sister Ball brought up eternal families and Sister Michael the priesthood.  Those are some of the 2 main things that set us apart.  They were very grateful for us stopping by, but aren't interested in converting.  They are comfortable and happy in their church now.  Which is totally okay!  Down the road who knows what will happen.  A really good seed was planted.   They have a copy of the Book of Mormon, we told them about conference, they have our number and the address to the church. It was a really good experience and they are just the nicest people! 

Well this may be my last week in Wilmington (gulp) Transfers are on the 26th and we still have yet to receive the news.  But I'm thinking I'm getting the boot.  I have LOVED Wilmington so much, I can't really bear the thought of leaving some of the people here, but I know I will see them again soon.  This week was a really good one to refocus and strengthen my consecration to this work.  It gets sooo hard sometimes.  Missions are hard.  That is the simple fact.  It is hard to wake up every morning with the same enthusiasm and love as you did yesterday, but I am determined to do so.  I blinked and 6 months of my mission have almost passed.  I really don't want to waste another second and truly do all I can to fulfill my part.  I love my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and I love being a missionary.  Even when taking a nap seems like the better option than knocking one more door. I love you North Carolina! 

Love, Sister Dearden

PS. Prayers for Mary Brown! In a very difficult situation right now.