Week 16

Wow family. This week I had 2 emails! TWO! And one doesn't even count as an email because it's my debit card statement from the church! So, thanks for all the love and support :P

This last week was pretty awesome. We taught Brother V the law of chastity in preparation for his baptism on the 14th. He's so funny. We asked him what he understood already about the law of chastity and he said "ooh, is tonight when you fit me for my belt?" It just all went downhill from there. We had a member there who was joking with him about Madonna and the song Like a Virgin. You all know how awkward that makes me so I was just dying the whole time!

I don't know if I told you all or not, but President Morgan has challenged every companionship to have a baptism in September. Sister Richeson and I decided that since Brother V was kind of a shoo-in that we wanted to push ourselves. We are hoping to have Armando (an investigator that I tracted into on a split) be baptized by the end of this month! It's going to take a lot of hard work and even more prayer, but I know we can do it!

This week we had some move-ins to look up. They were down at the very bottom of our area at the Maritime College. Sister White had told me that we weren't allowed in because it's practically like a marine school... but you know me! We had to find out for ourselves! So we took the bus down there and the school was all fenced in. We walked up to the gate and asked the guard if he could help us because we were looking for some members of our church. Just then someone from the parking lot yelled 'HEY SISTERS!' we looked over and saw this older man in an officers uniform, so we went to talk to him. He was a member from another ward who worked at the school! (Miracle number one) We told him why we were there and he was so ready and willing to help us! He looked on his roster and both of the people we were looking for were still at the school (Miracle number 2) he then took us to the dorms (keep in mind.. these are male dorms full of potential marines.. sketch? probably.) We went to the first room and the person we were looking for wasn't there, so we went to find the other one! We knocked on the door and the poor boy about died when he saw an officer standing there. Then he looked and saw two sister missionaries and I think his jaw hit the ground! We were able to teach him a lesson WITH the member there and he said he is coming to church on sunday! (Miracle number 10000) it was such an awesome day! But oh, it gets better!

We got on the bus to come home and there were two black guys sitting in the back. I had carried a BOM around with me all day and I thought to myself "you should just go give this to one of them" Proselyting on public transportation is illegal, so I didn't. They got off at the same stop as us, so I held the bus door open for them. One of the guys chased us down and told us how he knew we were good Christians because we dressed the part and because I held the door open for him. He told us women wouldn't do that now-a-days (Look at all that hard work paying off, Mom and Dad!) He said he doesn't like church because he feels like they are full of hypocrites but that we were different. I gave him the book of Mormon that I had been holding and he promised to read it!

That all happened on Monday. Today has been... exciting. There was a member of our ward who had been staying in a nursing home. She passed away this week, and in her funeral plans she wanted the missionaries to sing! So.. the bishop and the senior couple drove us to a funeral on our P-day so we could sing a hymn for her. The funeral home was in the hood. Seriously. It was in the heart of Harlem! The chapel was tiny. Behind the pulpit they had a huge painting of Christ but he was black. It was surreal, seriously. It took all I had to not laugh because sometimes I just can't believe this is my life! I can now mark "See a black Jesus" off of my bucket list. How many of you can say that?

Sister Richeson and I are getting along really well. We wear each other out everyday. I don't think I've ever been so tired! I'm also getting over a cold... I had my first missionary sick day on Saturday. Don't worry Mom, Sister Richeson and Sister Dalley took good care of me :)

I think that's all of the excitement I've had this week. It doesn't quite beat China Town, but it's close ;)

Love you all!


PS Oh! exciting news! By next transfer (so the beginning of october) All missionaries will have an ipad mini and eventually we will all have facebook and blogs! So you can check up on me every day rather than once a week! We won't be able to friend our families but i can't imagine they would make us make it private so you can't see it. Exciting huh?

oh, and I just tried to email Joseph Carley. Hopefully his email is just joseph.carley@myldsmail.netbecause that's who I sent it to.

Sometimes I am amazed at the things I do. We walk through urine in the projects pretty much on a daily basis. I've never felt more looked after, though. My leaders here are awesome, even if they are a little over-bearing at times :) Elder Poulsen is our district leader and he likes to act like my dad. You can imagine how well that goes over! ;)

I'd love to find out who else reads my blog. I probably never will, but it makes me feel good to know that someone does!