natalie ann: week 55: LSD church?

Monday, November 14th, 2016

Hello!

This week has been good, just another week doing missionary work. We still have both of our wards as of right now, we keep texting and calling president to try to persuade him to let us keep both. Please pray it works! But I do love this area and my companion. Oh gosh we laugh so much, if people saw our studies & weekly planning they would think we were insane.

Monday night we had dinner at the Lewis' with Deanna. Omg it was the best food I have ever had. They even bought me chocolate milk, PRAISE. We then had a lesson with Deanna after, she didn't read the Book of Mormon so we read with her. It was chapter 19 in 1 Nephi & it was just so powerful and the spirit was so strong! Deanna has a heart of gold! We then went to Tewana's and had a lesson with her. Her husband Sammy was there, we asked if he wanted to take the lessons, he said no. We then had a lesson with Zach. On gospel library he was looking under missionary and saw the online pamphlets and he read the word of wisdom one before our lesson. Haha we didn't even tell him we were teaching it next. He drinks coffee errday so we need to work on that one with him.

Tuesday I was on exchanges in my area with Sister Szewczyk! (I know her name is insane). She is my grandbaby cause Sister Gulley is training her. We had the most crazy day lolol. First off taking an area after three weeks is hard when you don't drive and you really don't know the area haha. And Sister Szewczyk is new so she doesn't know anything. And it was elections day, so yeah it was just crazy and then there was a shooting, someone shot an officer so that's just awful and sad. But we still had a really good day even though like all our apts canceled! We are very similar and had such a fun day. So many laughs. It was a really good exchange & I think she needed it. She is such a good missionary, and will bless so many people. Well we saw Sister Tuetken in the morning. We read the Book of Mormon with her, cause that book changes people and so we want to read with her. And she came to church on Sunday! Miracle! Since we took on a little bit of Wagon Wheel Ward (which was her area) she introduced me to some less-actives. One of them being the Yoemans, haha so stubborn. They aren't wearing their garments because they aren't comfy. And there were like 5 other reasons. But they are funny. We went and contacted this referral and we knocked on her door, and as soon as she answered she goes, "I'm not taking any visitors!" And so we just asked her if she has ever met with the missionaries before, and she goes "I'm not joining the LSD church!" (She was so angry) and so I was all "you mean LDS?" And she goes "it might as well be the same thing!" She told us she was Roman Catholic, and so I just changed the subject and asked what her dogs name was and she just looks at is with an angry face and says "DOG!" And slams the door. HAHahahh. Missionary work at it's finest. We then had a lesson with Lexi & Gigi who are 9 & 10 recent converts and then their little brother who's name is Ryan. They are so funny. Pretty much they don't go to church because their parents don't go. We tried to get someone to drive them to church but the mom never responded...it was almost curfew and we knock on a random members list who was in wagon wheel but just our ward. We asked for a referral and he gave us his neighbors. So we knocked and the family is super nice! Hopefully we can meet them this weekend! They have been busy this past week.

Wednesday we had district meeting. It was way good! I like our district. We had a cool miracle this day trying to contact people in the apartment complex. We had been trying to see this referral named Gina for forever. Anyways we go up and we hear her talking to someone on her back porch. She then hangs up the phone and starts talking to us. It was perfect timing cause she was going through a lot. And the cool thing is, is that we met her 6 yr old son a couple weeks ago at a less-actives house. At that lesson I asked this little boy if he wanted to say the closing prayer. He wanted to so we helped him say it, he is the cutest boy. Anyways his mom Gina told us that experience really changed him and after that he had a lot of questions about God. So she was like yeah can you come over in two hours to talk to my son? We're like sure! We do and we pretty much just answer his questions and introduced the Book of Mormon and asked if we can come back to talk about the Book of Mormon and how was have the church. They said yes!! We met them last night again and I'll talk about that later. We then contacted a potential that we wanted to see for a while. It's a pmf and the husband Mike is less-active. Her name is Paige. We knock and Mike is there, his wife is never there when we go! So we talk to Mike for a while, he has been less-active since he was 16 and is really hesitant about coming back. Anyways then his wife comes home miracle! And she is so nice. She took the lessons with the elders 6 months ago. She pretty much just wasn't interested. She didn't really get it, she doesn't know really anything about religion or about God. We talked to her for a bit and we are going to start meeting with her!

Thursday I was on exchanges again in my area with Sister Ho Chee. I love her! She is going home this transfer. It was a really good and spiritual day. We pretty much went around Wagon Wheel and met the new members in our ward. We spent a good chunk of our day in Silver Lake Estates. Not many people were home. We did have really good TTI's with these two guys and gave them a Book of Mormon. We had a referral for a guy named Tristan. He ended up being a less-active. He had been baptized for I think three years. We had a lesson with him and his wife and it was really good. They hadn't gone to church for a while and are moving today. But I could tell they needed our visit. Hopefully they go to church in the valley! They said they would. We then had a lesson with Zach. I felt impressed to talk about scripture study and then read 3 Nephi 11 with him. It was a really good lesson. Zach is just very logical, which isn't bad, he just needs to focus more on the Spirit cause that's who does the converting. He is just so funny. We asked them to both pray & sofas to about a marriage date.

Friday was rough cause weekly planning...haha but then we went to the pizza factory with Brother Phil so that made it all better. We had a lesson with Jayce and that was good. We had a lesson with Chase Masters who is a recent convert, he is 12. Their family is pretty awesome, they came from Wagon Wheel. We then had a hand off lesson with the Spanish Elders for Rafaela. We were trying to find a Spanish member to come but no one was available but at dinner we ate with a family who's son just came home from his mission in Bolivia so he came with us! Rafaela was sad I think that we can't teach her anymore but she will understand it so much better in Spanish.

Saturday we spent a lot of the day in white mountain lake. We had a referral for this family allllll the way out there, in the middle of nowhere. The drive is rough. But we meet them and they are so nice but not interested. Then we get a text from the elders asking if we cover white mountain lake, we are like yeahhhh we are here now. They give us a referral that a member gave them. So we contact him right then and he is awesomeeee. His name is Howard Fisher, yes same last name, meant to be. But he is so cool and is trying to humble himself. When he was in prison he went to a Mormon church there and I think that's what sparked his interest. He has been through a lot and has so many tattoos, he has "sinner" tattooed on his eyebrow lol. And then fisher on the back of his head haha. Anyways we set up an apt with him and invited him to church and he came!!! Oh my gosh so awesome!! And he came all three hours!!! He brought his 10 yr old son whose name is also Howard but we call him sir. He is shy and reallly didn't want to go to church but he did and went and had a bad attitude. Haha so we sat by him in primary while his dad went to priesthood. He is a little punk haha he was punching me and kicking me but I know he secretly likes us and that he secretly liked church. Howard said he loved church and a lot of it spoke to him!! He even bought nice shirts for him and his son for church! There was definitely a reason God sent us to white mountain lake that day.

Sunday was good but crazy cause the wards changed with the boundaries so there was a lot of callings. Our new ward mission leader in Show Low Creek Ward is Brother Rubert! He is awesome. We then had our lesson with Gina. Her other son who is 13 was also there. His name is Brandon. Her two boys are just so sweet. We brought Sister Baird who is awesome & she was the perfect member for Gina! Gina has a past with drugs and her husband has been in jail the past 5 years so I'm sure that's really hard for the kids. She wants to go to church but she is scared she will be judged for all of her tattoos. But we taught the restoration and it went really well! She is really open minded and actually has a lot of the similar beliefs that she does. I'm excited to continue to teach her!

Alma 29:9 "I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy." That's when I feel the most joy on my mission, is when I feel that I am being an instrument in His hands.

Elder Cook's talk from general conference called serve is a great one. He says "when we recognize God’s hand in our calling and serve with all our hearts, additional power comes into our service, and we become true servants of Jesus Christ." I have seen that so much in my mission. There is no way that I could do His work by myself. I'm grateful for His grace to help me get through he day. He also quoted President Romney who said, “Service is not something we endure on this earth so we can earn the right to live in the celestial kingdom. Service is the very fiber of which an exalted life in the celestial kingdom is made.”

I love serving my Father in heaven & so grateful for this opportunity to be an instrument in His hands.

--xo: sista fisha