Recharged the Batteries

Dear Family,

 

It's funny that you saw Dianne the other day because the other day I got a letter from Mallory and have been thinking about the Operahouse a lot. I even told Hermana Harris some stories. I miss everything about the Operahouse, especially the people.

 

Before I forget, yes, transfers are next week. I don't know what's going to happen though, because next week is also Martin Luther King Jr. Day so all the libraries will be closed and that's how our zone leaders find out where we're going... So we will see. I guess my zone leader is the office elder so I may find out on Saturday or Sunday. Who knows.

 

This week was an interesting one. Hermana Harris and I have been struggling a little bit with getting motivated and whatnot so this week was us trying really hard to get back on the horse. Some pretty interesting things came from it. We've been trying really hard to apply the things we learned at the mission conference we had this transfer, teaching simply and whatnot and finding out what people really want in life and helping them to realize that no matter what they want to aspire to, the Gospel can help them. We had a lesson with our investigator, Claudia, and we worked really hard to get ready for this lesson. First off, Claudia is awesome. She doesn't have a whole lot of religious background, doesn't know a whole lot about God, but prays and reads the Book of Mormon with her daughter. She wants to come to church but we have to work around her husband that won't let her. Anyway, we had left the Book of Mormon with her, honestly as a comfort tool because she's been going through a really rough time. Hermana Harris bore her testimony about how when she's going through a hard time, reading the Book of Mormon really helps. It was great! But Claudia seemed to take it the wrong way and that it was going to solve all her problems and if she read it then she wouldn't be distracted ever again. Oops. So this lesson we wanted to clear that up with her. We did, and then we started talking to her about what we as missionaries do. We flat out said that we're not here to sell our church or convince her that this is the only true Church, but we did tell her that we're here to help her make changes in her life so her life will be more in harmony with the teachings of Jesus Christ and when we do that, she'll want to follow those teachings and be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority (How to Begin Teaching point. Yup). She took it like a champ! She told us that she will only get baptized if she feels it in her heart. We told her that we're here to help in any way we can and she got all excited. Yay!!

 

Another thing that I've learned in the last few weeks is to just be people's friend and don't always jump right into being a missionary.

 

This last Saturday we were heading over to see a less-active family (This family is huge and has three households that we know of. Hermana Bates, Harris and I refer to them as the Mora Clan. In one of the households there's a member that's semi-active, but everyone else is either less-active or not a member. Lots of potential that Hermana Bates and I have been trying to work with since I got here. We had this awesome plan to do an FHE(Family Home Evening - a night set aside to spend with your family teaching or living a gospel principle, usually Mondays) with the whole family that never when through because when we mentioned it to Hermana Mora (the semi-active member) she started avoiding us. Anywho, we drove up to one of the houses on Saturday and saw that everyone was outside, having a family get-together. We sat in the car down the street for a few minutes debating on whether or not we should go and be awkward and crash the party, or just try another day. We decided prayer would be the best way to find out. After a short prayer, we sat and thought for a little bit, trying to see how we were feeling. After a few minutes we realized that we really should go and at least try to talk to them, if they let us in we can make new friends! If it's awkward, well, we'll have an funny story to tell later. We also made sure that both of us knew that we had to be confident, even if they tried to make it awkward. So we walked up to them, our heads held high and with big smiles on our faces. We were there for about an hour and a half, just talking and laughing with them all. It was really fun and a really good experience! We tapped into the Mora Clan!

The best part about this is (first off, Hermana Harris and I usually divide up during Relief Society and try to sit by different people every week.) Hermana Harris sat by Hermana Mora in Relief Society yesterday, Hermana Mora flat out told Hermana Harris that she wanted us to come to their FHE today: we were to give the lesson, she was to provide the treats. Alrighty, Hermana Mora. We're on it! We're super excited!

This week has been a good one and we're hoping to have an awesome last week of the transfer! Pray for us!

 

I think that's really all I wanted to say...

 

Much love!

 

Hermana Myers

 

P.S. Don't worry, we're getting fed plenty. It's actually really nice eating with two sets of elders, each having a HUGE elder in the companionship. People are a lot more satisfied with how much they eat, then the pressure's off us to eat everything. I don't explode every day. Yay!