Hello everybody!!
So a disclaimer about this email... It was written
by both me and the lovely Sister Pasko because I spent the whole time
writing novels to people!!! Hooray! :)
Onto the week!
We are doing a 90 day book of Mormon read and
I decided that Isaiah is comparable to Shakespeare in the scriptures. I
am absolutely loving the fast read- I am finally beginning to understand where
stuff is at! And I love cracking book of Mormon jokes all over the place, it’s
the greatest. I used to think missionary humor was stupid, now it’s the
funniest stuff on the planet! Anyways...
So we are biking! And we both look super-duper cute in our dorky
helmets! Yay!!!
Tuesday we of course did a ton of biking and tracting. Oh man, I
am going to kill myself on those bikes. The first day after I started biking my
legs were so embarrassingly sore... it could barely walk and it was really
pathetic , but the sidewalks are terrible, and it takes skill to get your skirt
onto the bike, and even more not to hop/fall off of it! I used to try and
pretend I wasn't clumsy in public, now I just embrace the awkwardness. EMBRACE
IT. I wear bike shorts anyways...we did teach quite a few people though.
Jason is a YSA and it rather interested in coming to church, so the Elders got
a fabulous referral. We then biked over to Camri Green apartments where all our
appointments fell through. We decided to go into the office and steal their Wi-Fi
for a little to re-evaluate our situation (and to get water and apples) only to
have this lady not be very nice to us. Turns out, she did that in front of the
manager, who is Mormon, and he came and found us later. His name is David, and
he is a single 40 year old dad who really wants to get married, to put it
nicely, but he did say that we aren't causing any harm, so as long as we came
and found him first, he doesn't care what we do at the apartments! And he told
us that if we are ever hungry, he will go get us a pizza. hahahaha, we ran into
him a couple times this week, and every time he brightened our day because
every time our appointments fell through. Later that night, we taught Kym and
Paul F. We managed to get a member present, Sister F! YES!! That is hard for
us, and it went beautifully. Members always make the lessons 100% better. Kym
is funny, she always makes sure to point out that she is an armed security
guard for the inmates at the hospital and she used to be in the navy and stuff,
and she is not afraid to take you out. After that, she is sweet as sugar, but
not before. Definitely not before.
Wednesday we dropped sweet old Alice (cry) because she just doesn’t
want to "switch sides." She still loves the pamphlets and such, but
her health is her number one worry, so we told her she can call us, but we
can't come by anymore. We managed to catch an inactive at home. Her name is
Tina, and she only wanted to talk for 10 minutes so we shared an Easter message
and promised her we would come back (hehehe). We tried to give a French book of
Mormon to this man who asked for one and then he learned that the book of Mormon
wasn’t the bible and things got awkward. I quickly changed the subject and
asked him if he could sing and he continued to sing us "You are my
sunshine" in a Jamaican accent. It was so great! We then found yet
another YSA named Kyle who I am sure will make a lovely Mormon so we gave him
to the Elders, and in an attempt to catch one of our investigators at home we
ran into his friendly neighbor...literally. We have seen Joel around before and
he talked to us a little bit, but didn't really seem interested. Well, he
peppered us with questions about everything from the restoration to why are we
in Jacksonville without pepper spray? After he was satisfied with our gospel
related answers, he took a fatherly stance over us and taught us some self-defense,
told us where to buy pepper spray, how to use it, what it does, and to run away
after using it because it doesn't work on 7% of the population. Needless to
say, we are coming back to teach him soon. It’s hard to catch him home. We also
managed to talk to sweet 17 year old Caitlyn. She is still really interested
and trying to read the book of Mormon, she is just always working or in sports
or something. Then we went home to the greatest sleep of our lives.
Thursday was fun....We ran into David again (bless his heart)
Tracked forever, and found all the angry Baptists in this one neighborhood. It
was glorious, and my companion (Sister Chamberlain) convinced me it’s okay and
still professional to just walk away while they are talking/yelling at you
because Jesus did it (Matt. 12:14-15) We also ran into a man who told us all
about the bees who build nests with their spit and mud from his backyard. Then
he shooed us away because he is saved and there are lots of heathens on his
street. I love people :) We also managed to talk to Christine J’s boyfriend
again, and WE MADE IT INTO THE HOUSE!!!!! It was only for 5 minutes, but still.
She had really low hemoglobin at the time, and he couldn't get her to wake up,
but he told us to keep trying because he really wants to come to church, she
has just been so sick.
Friday we did so much planning it was pure
craziness and moved some people out of their house (I am such a wimp!) We then
accidentally ran into Ron!! Golden investigator? I think YES!! His friend just
got married in the temple, and he is so happy with her that he wants to know
why and how he can have that same happiness. Ron’s wife passed away 3 years ago,
leaving him all alone with his 27 year old Down syndrome daughter. He loves his
girl so much, it’s the sweetest thing. He would do anything for her. We taught
him the restoration, which he said makes complete sense, and then wanted us to
teach him the next lesson right then, but we had to go to our next appointment.
He said he will read the book of Mormon before we come back tonight (WHOA!) and
will look up Mormon.org. He is so solid. We then went to
surprise visit Ben W with Sister Aniel. We hadn't heard from him in
forever...turns out he had a heart attack and has been out of sorts! So we
taught his wife what we had been teaching him. She loved our spirit, and she
was pretty much bawling the whole time, but she said she is very firmly rooted
in her religion. We just reminded her of how much she loves the Lord and she
remembers when she did missionary work as well. She left us with her blessing
and told us it’s okay to come back, but to wait a month for Ben to feel better.
That was a cool experience for me. That night my brain decided it wasn't going
to work so teaching was a struggle. Sis P led most of the lesson and I
just sat there and tried to think of something semi intelligent to say. Sis P nudged me to start talking while she tried to find a video and I stammered
out a ... I love the Book of Mormon.. And just simply bore my testimony of it.
I don’t remember what I said at all but whatever it was it impacted her a lot!
The Lord qualifies those he calls. I have a testimony of that! It was a very
cool experience!
Saturday pretty much all our potentials dropped us upon the
second visit, so that was sad... Jackie who used to be a prostitute, drug
addict, and an alcoholic has been harassing us, so we took her tracting. Because
obviously that’s a great solution! We thiiiink she liked it. She didn’t say
much though. She just followed us around with her adorable little girl named
Alyssa. ;) Basically, she has taken a billion steps backward, so we're going
to have to drop her again because she is too much to work with, and we
seriously don't have time for that. We taught Kym again. She feels the spirit
when we come over! She committed to go to church, but that didn't happen, and
she is moving soon! Lucky us, she will still be in our area. Muahaha!
Sunday mornings are always sad; you invite
half the universe to church, a quarter of them say yes, and no one shows.
DEPRESSING! I have decided that working with investigators is more hard work,
stress, and butterflies than having a boyfriend ever was or ever will be! All
emotions are intensified a TON as a missionary! What’s up with that?! . We then
went and saw Rick T. He basically taught us this time, and tried to get us to
his church, and we said only if he comes to ours. Then he said yes! So, we are
going to Life Church in 2 weeks, and then he will come to the true church, feel
the spirit, and want to be baptized. Tada! Good plan. We tracted into the
craziest boy I have ever met. His name is Alex C. He doesn't know what he
believes, mostly atheist, and he kept somehow correlating "pretty
girls" into our conversation. His family is looking for a church though,
so they are totally into coming and checking it out! We will see how that goes.
We also had the Elders come over and bless our apartment. It feels much better,
I love the priesthood.
This week I learned all about the wonderful
tender mercies of the Lord. Whenever we were having a moment where we felt
super discouraged or we talked to someone not very nice the Lord always did
something to make up for it. We met so many wonderful people who weren't
interested but all they said was "don't get discouraged! You are doing
great! Keep spreadin’ the word!" We had so many people tell us that and it
was always after we had run into a bible basher! I know that the Lord is aware
of his missionaries. I am so thankful for his tender mercies that are
everywhere!!!!
It's been a stressful week for me, I am still trying to get used
to the area and I could probably use more patience with myself. Haha. Buuuut
what can ya do! I am loving this area though! Love it love it love it! :D
Overall, good week. I'm glad it's over. But it
was good! :) Thanks for everything! I love you all very much!!! Have a blessed
week! ;)
Love,
Sister Chamberlain :)
(and Sister Pasko)
 |
| A direct result of Bible Bashers |
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