Family,
First things first,
neither I nor Sister Mendoza are being transferred! So go ahead and send those
packages and letters I know you've all been waiting to send 😉
This week was a week
full of miracles. The first being, BISCUIT HAS BEEN FOUND! Last Monday, while we were in our room getting
ready for bed I hear a tapping sound like someone tapping on a glass door. S. Mendoza goes out to investigator and it is
none other than Biscuit inside of a glass cabinet where the Winkley's keep
their DVD player, games, etc. No wonder
we never found him anywhere in the house. He had made himself a nice little home inside
the cabinet. How he got in there, no
idea, but he was trying to get out so we heard him knocking! We were screaming
in delight, "He's alive! He's alive!" all the way up the stairs to
Grandma Pat. She said it compared to how
the people must of shouted after Christ's resurrection "He's alive!"
haha
(I'll be using bullet
points for everything else, it saves time)
- We
found a part member/less active family. One day we were going through
calling all the part member families in the ward. One of them, Sister
Galford, answered and said we could come by! We met with them Monday night
and she told us how she had just been thinking of coming back to church
when we called. She has two children
who are not baptized and a non-member husband. We'll now be teaching the whole
family.
- Right
after finishing a prayer for weekly planning, S. Mendoza says we should
call Antoinette, a less active we've been trying to get a hold of for
forever. We do. She answers. She's home. We go see her. She wants to come back to church.
- After
dinner on Friday all of our plans cancelled so we were just driving to
figure out what to do. We passed
Goodwill and S. Mendoza remembered that she had a bag of clothes in the
back to give away. We go in and we
run into Melinda!! Tom's wife. She
had just had a stressful thing happened and was in there just mulling over
her thoughts. We were able to talk
to her and give her peace and reassurance. There are no coincidences.
- SATURDAY.
Was one of the BEST days of my entire mission, and it goes like this. Friday night we plan out our day. By the next morning everyone has canceled
on us. So we come up with new
plans. First on the list was to
visit an old investigator who we haven't seen forever because of her
health, we planned to discontinue her. We pull up to the house and this
investigator's daughter and family pull up behind us! The daughter, Melissa, was there for our
first lesson with her mom. We teach
Melissa, her husband John, and their three kids the Restoration. It's always hectic teaching kids, but
when we recited the first vision we had everyone close their eyes. The spirit was there. We set up a return appointment and they
want to come to church. We then
asked them if they knew of any one else we could visit. They directed us
to their neighbor, Dottie. Dottie
was home but didn't have time to meet so we set up a time to come back. We
then asked her "Who do you know?". She directed us to Panda.
- PANDA.
This ladies name is legit Panda. She
is awesome!!! She invited us in and as we were talking she told us about
how she wants to find a way to get closer to Heavenly Father. Well lady do we have a way for you!! We taught
her the Restoration and invited her to read the Book of Mormon. It was cool because she had actually been
to the church before for a funeral for one of her friends mom's. She was so excited! She told us how she had been having a
really hard day and had just been praying for help and we showed up with
this message. She told us that we
had such a light, that we had "the glow.” She was just so appreciative for us
coming by. She is golden. We then asked Panda, "Who do you
know?" She directed us to two of her neighbors. We stopped by the first, not interested.
The second was another story!
- Carla
and Robert King + their friend Mr. Smith. Robert and his friend Mr. Smith were
outside their home when we drove up. We got talking to them and Robert invited
his wife Carla out. Carla told us that their old neighbor was a member and
that the missionaries would stop by sometimes and they had given her a
"Mormon bible.” Mr. Smith then
told us that he had worked for a member of our ward here in Pinehurst!
They were all very kind people and wanted to come check out our church
sometime. We then asked them "Who do you know?" They then
directed us to two more of their neighbors!! By this point it was dinner
so we had no more time, but we will be coming back next week.
- In
total that day we received 8 referrals, contacted 5, and had 5 new
investigators. Those numbers are more like what you receive on a weekly
basis not a daily one! I am not telling ya'll this to brag about what
great missionaries we are, I'm telling you this because I know that God is
a God of miracles. He led us to
these individuals specifically and the linking thread between them all was
that they knew Mormons somehow or another. This is the Lord's work.
I just received some
tragic news that a good friend of mine from Junior High took his life. I got to know Jaret really well during 9th
grade. He was in Theater with me,
Footloose, and my love interest in "The Three Musketeers,” a show that
never actually made it to the stage. We
had to practice that kissing scene over and over again in front of everyone.
haha He played the part of "Slightly" in Peter Pan while I was Tiger
Lily. We got to play like Lost Boys and
Indians. He was my first heart break, he had a string of them :) He was a great
kid and had a contagious sense of humor. He knew how to be a friend. I know that
Christ's Atonement is real and it applies to all men, living or beyond the
veil. Because Christ suffered, we no
longer have to. He took upon Himself the “pains and afflictions and
temptations of every kind” for “every living creature, both men, women, and
children” Heavenly Father loves us. "That love never changes. … It is
there for you when you are sad or happy, discouraged or hopeful. God’s love is
there for you whether or not you feel you deserve it. It is simply always there.”
Love, Sister
Dearden
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