natalie ann: week 7: noodle hockey, hedgehogs, and miracles

Wednesday, December 16th, 2015

This week has been truly excellent and full of miracles! Sister Jones and I have been working really hard! She is such a great trainer and I am so glad I have her for another 6 weeks! I'm so happy I got my first transfer under my wing!

We had our last lesson with Cheyenne Button this week! She is a recent convert and we finished her 90 days! She is a senior in high school and is moving to Ohio :( We are really bummed about it and hope she stays active in the church. Her ward will be 30 minutes away and she will be living with nonmembers. We are praying for her!

We saw Sue twice since last Pday. She is so awesome! She is a less-active but is coming back and is talking to the Bishop on Sunday about coming back to the temple! We are so excited for her!! Every time we go to her apartment I learn from her! She is so awesome and has great insights!

Friday was a great day. We are going to start volunteering at a mental care facility, so older people with dementia or Alzheimers. We are probably going to go every other week for two hours. I love just serving! It will be such a great experience! We are probably going to help paint the ladies nails! So we went this thursday. It was really good but oh so said. Most can't move or speak. This week we played "noodle hockey" with them. OH my goodness best thing of my life! Everyone say down in two rows across from eachother. Everyone got a noodle and there was a bouncy ball. We all tried to hit the ball in the goal. It was so funny and great. This one lady Mary can really hit hard! We were all just cheering and sword fighting lol. Even when they barely moved their foot we got excited. They truly are so sweet and I love them so much! I can't wait to go back! We then played the piano and sang for them!

Later that day the whole district (12 of us) were invited to a nonmember's home for lunch! Some sisters in another ward serve them because their mother has Alzheimers. They don't take the discussions or anything but they love the missionaries! So they wanted to meet all of us! So there was a couple, and her mom Hilary. I LOVE them SO much! Hilary is the funniest women ever I can't even describe it to you. She is so happy and has had such a great life full of travels. She is very artistic and loves paint! Their home is full of colors! She painted the floors bright colors and everything is just amazing! He made us homemade indian food! Ugh best thing ever! And they made homemade marshmallows! like what!? how cool! It was so good! It was just a great afternoon full of laughs! I love that family so much! They taught me to enjoy life. Life should be full of laughter, travel, music, color, and fun!

We saw Marilyn Bowser this week on Friday. She is the one who has a son in the church and has been seeing missionaries for years. She is older but is so sweet. She loves missionaries and mormons cause she feels comfortable around them. She tells us she is not ready for baptism. We decided to check on her occasionally but not all the time. She called us this week to come over! She really just wanted to give us cookies. She is so kind. Then we saw her at the temple lights on Saturday! We were so happy to see her there!

I got to go to the temple this week on Friday for an endowment session! Am I lucky or what?! Sister Pinto-Haynes is a service missionary cause she has health problems. So she did not go through the temple before she came out. Since she has been out all of her problems have pretty much gone away! SHE IS A WALKING MIRACLE. She doesn't have a wheel chair or need to wear a brace or anything! She is the sweetest, happiest person you will ever meet! Her smile really brightens your day! Also her hair is down to her knees, no joke, she hasn't cut it since she was 8. She also is an opera singer. Anyways enough bragging about her. She is just so cool. The temple was amazing and then after we got to see the temple lights for a bit! It's like Christmas threw up!

Miracle this week! So we had a referral for Kathleen Gibson. We went over early last week and she said to come back Saturday! So we went and no one knocked...so we drove away. But as we were driving away we saw a white truck pull up! We thought it might be her so we awkwardly creeped and it was her!! So we drove back up and knocked on the door! She answered and was so glad to see us! She totally forgot though. She had to leave soon for a hair apartment soon so we couldn't go in. We had a great conversation though. She immediately opened up to us! Her husband has recently passed away and she is having a hard time. She wants to be prepared to meet God and really wants to meet with us! Everything she was saying was like hey we have an answer for you! It grew my testimony that God really does prepare people! She is so ready for the gospel. We shared a scripture and she said that our visit was exactly what she needed. She said we were such a blessing. She was crying and hugging us. We are excited to meet with her again!

Another miracle was we pulled up to a less-actives Saturday night and their whole family was just leaving then to go to the temple lights! They invited us and so we spontaneously went! It was so great! I love the temple lights! So many people are there and I am so lucky to be able to go!

Another miracle is Sister Holdiman. She is a less-active older stubborn women. She is so funny. She never says she will keep commitments and does not go anywhere. She pretty much does not want anything to do with the church but will let missionaries in. We read the Book of Mormon with her and her husband. Since I have been here I can already see the change in her. Her heart is being softened. I think part of it has to do with it being Christmas time. We went over yesterday and she said she would do the commitment! She also said she has been thinking about coming to church and might come this Sunday or the next! AH I hope they do!

Also another funny thing is that we knocked on a less-actives door and they answered! He is an old guy and oh my goodness we stood outside his door for like 35 minutes talking! He is so funny! He just started rambling about how his daughter is selling hedgehogs and how he finds rats in his house and then he lets them go in a desert but told us not to tell anyone lol. People are so funny.

Also I had my first experience of someone being really rude to us. We knocked on a less-actives and he was well..NOT happy. Everyone needs Jesus.

Last night we had a lesson with Isaac! He is the RLDS guy. We brought a member and it went well! We taught him the restoration even though he is a restorationist but we decided to just start from the beginning. We will probably transfer him to ysa though. We think it will be really great for him cause he just moved here and probably needs friends!

This week has taught me a lot and I am loving Christmas season. I will be so sad when it is over. Miracles are real, we just need to notice and look for them! I love meeting people here and having something to say to them. Many people know we are the mormons and will say "hey i've been to the mesa temple lights before!" It's great!

Anyways have a lovely week. Also the past two days here have been pretty cold! Like 30's in the night and mornings! Thanks so much for all the love this Christmas!

xoxo

sistafisha