Thursday we went with Louise (an amazing sister in the ward) to visit Helen, my favorite less active. Helen called me out mid lesson and basically told me that I'm more stubborn and persistent than she is so that's why she's coming back to church. I call it diligence, but whatevs. It's working. :) sister Orme and I were "blessed" with two dinners that night. Lucky us. ;)
Side note. Louise served a mission in Italy. She OPENED Italy to missionaries, along with a few other companionships. She almost died there. They didn't even have a mission president at the beginning of her mission. Now look, they are building a temple there.
Friday we visited pretty much all of the Spanish sisters I consider friends. First was Zuley. She is a recent convert that has been through so much. Her life is still crazy pretty much all of the time, but it's okay. :) she's Puerto Rican, so that might be part of it ;) she is a single mom and is going to court this week for full custody of both of her kids. Then we visited Miguelina. My favorite Dominican.
What is there to even say about her? She was telling us how much of a difference the Holy Ghost has made in her life, and how she knows that she always needs to live worthy so she can feel it. I'm pretty sure she is better at discerning the spirit than I am. I was crying by the end of her telling us about it. :)
After that we went to dinner at the bishops house. I had been thinking a lot about another recent convert in our ward, Abi, so I texted her and she said she was too sick for us to come over. I asked if she needed anything and she said no. Being the "persistent" missionary that I am, I asked if her front door was locked because we were going to come and do her dishes. She said no so we went over. We ended up sitting on her bed and just talking. She is a single mom of four and has been through every possible crazy/sad/scary situation you can imagine. She is SO strong, it's amazing. I have learned so much from these three about being independent and strong and overcoming hard things.
Saturday we visited Eileen. She pretty much breaks my heart every time we visit... Which isn't often. We talked about the sacrament and why it's important and at the end she said something to the effect of "thanks for coming, see you in a couple of months" I think the real issue is that she doesn't want to feel like someone's project and she wants to do things in her own time. She is really sweet though.
Saturday night we all came to the church and spent an hour calling anyone and everyone to invite them to come to church on Sunday. We didn't know 75% of the people we called, but it was still fun.
Sunday we had meetings and then church all day. After church we went to do our studies and our phone rang. It was the elders from Monticello. Elder Sullivan has some health problems, so he called to tell us he'd be going home to get them checked out :( so sad. He said he might come back but it could be up to six months before he's back to normal. We had just gotten back to our studies when the phone rang again and it was Miguelina! She called to tell us that she got her temple recommend and that she was really excited to do baptisms.
Hopefully we get to go in the next week before transfers happen. :)
Monday was kind of horrible so I'll spare you those details. Sullivan called us after district meeting to tell us he was leaving :( Ben and Jerry kept us company that afternoon if you know what I mean. ;)
Tuesday was an AWESOME DAY. It started with a blue sky and the first warm weather I've seen in years practically. We went to Warwick, and we had 30 minutes before our first appointment so we went contacting.
We talked to a few people and on our way back to the car this guy said something to us so we stopped to talk to him. He had a tick accent so I asked him where he was from. He said he was from Israel. I asked him what brought him to the United States and he told us a pretty amazing story.
He was raised Jewish. After 13 years they started saying the rabbi of his congregation was the Messiah. He didn't think that was right, so he got a hold of the New Testament and read it... Which is against the law. He converted to Christianity and persecuted for years, until he left to the United States. We just listened and told him we were Christian missionaries and he said "wow, I'd love to talk to you more!
Do you want to get coffee??" We told him we had an appointment but we got his number. I'm pretty stoked.
After that we met with our investigator Kirsten. She's sweet. Her daughter was going crazy so it wasn't the best lesson.. But that's alright. After that we went to the courthouse to fold and unfold some papers. I don't know if I told you about that. They are old documents family search is taking pictures of so people can index them. After that we visited Helen who is just my favorite. Then we went to see Marjorie with a member from the ward. It was.... Eventful.
Marjorie has been reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning. She is having a problem with the way they refer to the lamanites as a dark and loathsome people. She is from Barbuda, so she has dark skin. She has asked us about it before, but we aren't much help obviously. She asked the ward mission leader about it too so we were kind of concerned. Anyway, the member got a little zealous and I think ended up hurting Marjorie's feelings. It was one of the only times in my mission I felt the spirit leave a lesson because of contention. By the end of the lesson things were okay I hope. :)
Then we went to check on someone the Spanish elders found, who speaks Spanish but wants to be taught by sisters. She hadn't returned any phone calls so rather than waste a members time by going with us to find her not home, we just went by ourselves. Well, turns out she was home and then we had to teach her about the Book of Mormon in Spanish!!
After that we went to dinner at the Phillips house. It was just sister Orme and I, and it was nice and quiet :)
Anyway. I think that's all that happened. Wow. The mission is great. I love it. I am due for a transfer I think. So.. For the next week pray that I get sent to the city ;) and send any mail to the mission office
:)
Love you all!! The gospel is true, the book is blue.
- Sister Toone
Zazuetas birthday and what I was doing on Mom and Dad's anniversary :)
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