natalie ann: week 24: feeding lemurs

Monday, April 11th, 2016

Another week another email. Let's see here. It was a good one. Here's the recap:

Monday we got to see Weston! He is a less-active that is coming back to church! We had a good lesson with him. He came to church and stayed for 2 hours:)

Tuesday we went to see Constance. She is doing so well. We brought Sister Wynn with us. She hadn't read the Book of Mormon so we read with her. Sister Wynn is the best member present and told her she would pick her up for sacrament meeting. Constance was like I'll go all three hours! And she went to an empty nesters FHE and seemed to really enjoy it. Constance always makes us food when we go over, she is so sweet. We saw Stephanie who is active but lives in an assisted living home so she doesn't come to church. She really needed our visit so it was cool that we were inspired to see her. We then saw Sue and taught her a lesson. We saw Mike again, he told us he is gay and atheist. We tried to share with him a mormon message but he didn't really watch it. He really opened up to us though. It sounds like he has had a rough life. And then he was talking about how much he loves marijuana. And then I think Saturday he calls us telling us how much he appreciates us coming by. He said even though you don't always convert people you might change their life. It was so cute and he was saying how much happier he is. He says he is being healed. He is using the Atonement even though he doesn't realize it! But it's amazing to impact people's lives even though you don't really think you are. We then saw the Luongs that night. They are so good, Linh bore her sweeet testimony in sacrament meeting. I mean my heart literally melted.

Wednesday we had ZTM, which was good. They pretty much told us all the things that we are doing wrong, but it is motivating us to be better. Sue called us during the meeting and told us she found a tumor on her thyroid, that is why he voice has been gone for over a month, it's pressing on her vocal chord. She was really upset about it and asked us to come over. We read a talk with her. They told her she won't get her voice back :( pray for her! We then saw the DeBenckendorffs and Sister Pruel came with us! It was really good. Their resident that lives in one of their rooms, his name is Carlos, came and sat in on a lesson! It was really cool. We planned on teaching the Word of Wisdom and I was a little hesitant because Word of Wisdom isn't normally the first lesson we teach people! But Carlos had some cool comments. As well as Amelia. She bore her testimony about it and has some personal stories about the Word of Wisdom. Oh and their daughter MEGAN got BAPTIZED in new jersey on Saturday :))) oh my heart.

Thursday we volunteered at Amber Creek Inn, my fav. We then saw Sister Holdiman and she was so happy. Sister Chase came with us. Brother Holdiman found out this week that he has skin cancer on the back of his head so he was bummed about that. And then we got a referral for a guy named Fred and he has cancer too. So it has been a week full of cancer, no fun. But Fred is really amazing. He has been going to church for a while and moved from Biltmore. There is a member there that was a really good fellowshipper. We went over on Saturday and brought the Elders and they gave him a blessing. He was told he only has 6 months to live, I can't even imagine. He is from Germany so he has a real cool accent.

Friday we had a lesson with Zach! Finally! We had it at the Lesueur home and it was really good! Kaytie Kerr came with us. He didn't read his Book of Mormon...so we read with him. It was really good and we got to talk about revelation. He said he wants to get baptized May 7, but we will probably move it to the Saturday before to April 30. Some members took us out to red robin, yum so good. and then we had a miracle! We knocked on a less-active door, her name is Tawni Price and she answered and was so nice and totally let us in! (which pretty much never happens). Her husband is not a member and she has an almost 8 year old son. We got to share a message with her and leave her a Book of Mormon. We are excited to get to know her more!

Saturday we had a lot of lessons in active members home which was so good! You could tell they all needed a visit. We didn't get any referrals but we got some names of some less-actives they told us to see! I love the members here because they are so willing to help. We saw the Pavlicks and it was probably the best lesson with them we have ever had. We talked about temples and invited them back to the temple. She says she doesn't go to church because after sitting for the one hour she is down for 2 days later...lol she is very dramatic. but we love her anyway. Brother Pavlick said the closing prayer which was good because he never talks. We then went to see Karen Cummings (the one with ALL the animals). Like I can't even describe to you how many animals she has. Like she used to own camels and BISON. She has all these licenses to own all these animals. She has a pet skunk and he is so cute. I got to hold a skunk. What. And all these exotic animals I had never heard before. And its spring so she has all of these babiesssss. The puppies and baby goats were to die for. She let us feed the lemurs haha. Her grandkids were there so they gave us a whole tour.

Sunday was good. We taught relief society in Larkspur ward. It went really well for not really preparing anything. haha I have definitely learn to wing things on my mission...We then went Brother Newman's. He doesn't go to church because he has severe depression so it is pretty sad. We had a good lesson with him. Then there was a missionary fireside. Grace and Nate brought Zach and he fell asleep in the middle of it! baha. So they all left during it...haha awkward. I guess he worked until 2 last night. And the fireside was music and the spoken word so it was all singing.

A quote that I really like is "perhaps at no other time do we feel the divine love of the Savior as abundantly as we do when we repent." All repentance is is change and love. The Savior not only cleanses us when we sin but he strengthens us! He gives us strength to overcome temptation to stay on the straight and narrow. Remember no sin is ever too big that the Atonement cannot overcome. Jesus Christ loves you and is cheering for you!

until next time

xoxo

sista fisha