Hey Y'all :)
This week was kinda a rough one... We
had three conferences technically... Haha so our numbers weren't very
high this week :/ but it was still good in a lot of ways! Monday night
we had a lesson with our investigator Monica who is coming to church but
not keeping her commitments. Me and Sis. Perrins felt really strongly
to make baptism and receiving the gift of the holy Ghost more important
than we have been with her. We wanted her to really commit to it,
especially cuz it would be an awesome Christmas gift to get this
Christmas! :) So we watched The Restoration video with her and she
really felt the spirit and then we talked about the holy ghost and she
really opened up about some things and felt like she knew for a while
that this path she is on is what Heavenly Father wants her to do and He
is helping her turn her life around for the better and for her daughters
so that they don't have to go through the same things she has gone
through. So she got emotional and the spirit was so strong and we
invited her to pray with us there to ask Heavenly Father if her getting
baptized is right for her to do in the next month. We said we wanted her
to continue to do that and then hopefully by next time we visit her and
teach her we'll have her on a date to be baptized!! :) So that went
really well!
Tuesday we tracted a lot! Our
teaching pool is really small right now so we're trying to go find those
people that are prepared to hear the gospel! Tracting is not my
favorite and it's hard for me to teach and testify someone right on
their doorstep, but I'm still trying to get better at it and I'm
learning to love it! Except.... that day was rough. I got my first real
bash with this one man and I felt very overwhelmed and felt like I
wanted to cry when we were done. Haha everyone is so knowledgeable with
the Bible and so when people start to argue you immediately feel the
spirit leave and it's just awful. Ha While we were out though on Tuesday
during the day we visited a member but then went out and were walking
out of the neighborhood and saw this one lady who was going on a walk
when it was pretty cold out! We stopped and talked with her and she was
super friendly, her name was Suzanne, and she knew about the
missionaries cuz she's had some come by before and talk with her. She
lives alone but she is from Montreal Canada and is going to a Methodist
church. And she is French-Canadian and was a hoot! I was pretty
impressed with myself because after talking with her a bit she then
brought up, "All of the missionaries I meet are so gorgeous! Even the
boys! But you ladies... ahhh you are so gorgeous! I want to know what
you eat?!" So I set myself up for a good comeback.... I held up my Book
of Mormon and said, "Suzanne... We 'feast' upon the words of Christ." ;)
and Sister Perrins busted up laughing and Suzanne was laughing and was
like yeah I have one of those books but I'll have to read it again. So I
felt pretty great after that visit ;) haha
Wednesday
during the afternoon we helped a member who just recently got home from
her mission in Italy actually make some real Italian pasta for a young
women activity that we actually got invited to speak at as well. Then
after we helped her we went to a members home to do a practice lesson,
or role-play with her. Doing that with the members is really great! I've
gained a greater appreciation for role-playing and member visits cuz it
prepares me for when I actually get to teach investigators or go
tracting! :) So then we had Young Womens that night and talked about the
day in the life of a missionary again kinda like what we did with the
activity day girls. But we had other members come and talk about their
missions and stuff so it was fun! One member served in the Utah Temple
Square mission and brought all types of Jello with her for the girls to
eat ;) haha I hadn't had Jello since I got here! So it was yummy and I
miss Utah Jello... haha Everyone in this ward is either from Utah, has
family in Utah, went to BYU, or are BYU fans and so I really feel like
Heavenly Father knew I would love Suwanee because of all the members and
the connection I have with them! ;)
Thursday I
had my first zone conference! It was a long day but it was great and
really inspiring! I always learn a lot from these conferences and so I'm
really grateful for them :) But just a heads up there is something that
the church is bringing up and doing for Christmas... I literally had
tears in my eyes when they introduced it to us. It takes effect on the
28th of November so look up christmas.mormon.org
when you have the chance... ;) It's incredible, I'm so excited for it!!
But anyway then the rest of the day was kinda basic. Btw... we had
fried chicken/some kind of chicken dish for 4 nights in a row... if that
doesn't explain the south, I don't know what does y'all.
Friday
I had another meeting! It was the one month follow up meeting with
everyone that I came out with! I got to see all my MTC friends!! :D It
was awesome, I missed all of them and they are all doing great! so once
again, the meeting was just inspiring as always and I learn so much so I
can't wait to put the things that I've learned into affect this next
week! Then we had lunch and then we tracted and we actually might have a
couple potentials from our tracting on Friday... We met a 32 year old
named Sabrina who happened to be at her mother's house helping her paint
when we knocked on the door and she was a major Baptist church
minister/ into ministry or something but left her church feeling as if
God was calling her into doing something else. We barely met her but she
started opening up to us and started crying and kept saying "I don't
know why I'm crying, I barely know you, does this happen to you guys
often?" And we just sit there saying "It's okay, you're fine" but
thinking in our heads "It's the spirit, this does happen a lot" haha so
we gave her a Book of Mormon and told her to read a chapter and pray to
ask God if this was something He wanted her to look into and then give
us a call. It was awesome!! She is really spiritual and has great faith
:) so we hope for the best! And then of course weekly planning finished
our day off!
Saturday we had to finish some
weekly planning and then we tracted the majority of the day. One of the
families in our ward, the Ketchems, who is the Filipino and the Japanese
family, invited our investigators Maddie and Joel ( the really tough
ones) to dinner for a Filipino dishh that night! And then come with us
straight to stake conference that night! They agreed and came! Maddie
went to the Philippines for a humanitarian trip for 11 weeks a couple
years ago so her and Sister Ketchem really connected with that and they
have befriended them and helped us teach them! Anyway, we had chicken
adobo and pansit and lots of rice! :) Everything was so yummy and it
really reminded me and gave me a glimpse of what my best friend in the
Philippines is dealing with... ;) haha I learned how to eat with just a
spoon and fork and no knife too. We had fun! so then we went to stake
conference and it was really good except Maddie and Joel added 20 more
questions onto the ones they already had..... Which isn't a bad thing.
Questions aren't bad but they aren't feeling the spirit and receiving
revelation!!! So we're still trying to help them with that for next
time.
Yesterday was a good sunday. We were
fasting so that we could find more people to teach! Then we had stake
conference and the talks were really good! Then we tracted and found
another guy who invited us back over on Tuesday to teach him a little
more. Little tender mercies like that is what keeps me going some days
:) Then we had dinner with some members and did another member visit
that night. I'm meeting more people in the ward and building
relationships with them already and that makes me happy!
This
week I get to go on exchanges for the first time on Tuesday! so sadly, I
don't get to go teach that one guy we met yesterday :/ but I'm excited
for my first exchange! And this week is Thanksgiving! I'm all set for
that as well, the members are so nice and we get fed very well here :)
haha So I will be having a great Thanksgiving dinner and we plan to do
more member visits. For our dinner messages at dinner appointments
though, lately we've been sharing a part from "Christ" in the Bible
dictionary and then having people tell why they are grateful for Christ
and then committing them to bring Christ up in conversation to friends
and family who aren't members of our church to just talk to them about
Him. So I encourage y'all to do that as well, especially as we are
reflecting why we are grateful for Him and all our our many blessings
this Thanksgiving! :) So I hope you all can do that and I hope you all
have a great thanksgiving! Love you all and I'm grateful for all the
support :)
Love, Sister Davenport
So... me and sister Perrins found these shirts at WalMart... only in the
South will you find these!! Haha they are called "Blessed Girl" and
have spiritual quotes on them. Mine I personally love sooooo so much
because it explains the South. Literally. ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment