12/2/13

Hey momma!

Things in St. Marys are a little better. Still slow, but we're getting there. We had a great week though!

Monday we got home from our errands and there was a big package waiting for me! Thank you so much! It was so fun to see things from the family and everyone. I loved it! It made Thanksgiving so much better!

 

Monday night we went and saw this less active family that we are starting to work with. I love them! They are the Beoughers (Bookers) and they are sweet. Michelle is the mom. She's adorable. She has this really high pitched (but not annoying) sweet voice and I can't see her hurting a fly. She has 2 boys. Nate is 21 and he just got his associates degree in graphic design. He's struggling to find a job, but he's cool. And then she has another son, Joey, who is 17. He has some disabilities. But he's funny. It was too cute, they don't get company very often it seems because when we were there both of them brought out all of their stuff and had like show and tell time. haha! Nate showed us all of his projects and his degree and some of his football stuff from high school. Joey did the same thing. It was fun. Michelle's husband isn't very friendly toward the church and he plays a lot of head games from what she has said. She doesn't really know the doctrine of the church and so he uses that against her. But hopefully if we can teach her and help her understand the doctrine she'll be able to combat that and also gain her own testimony and be motivated to come back and stay. They're great! I love them.

 

Tuesday I don't remember what happened... We had district meeting. Those are fun. I like our district a lot. Our zone leaders were on exchanges and one of the elders from my MTC district came to our district meeting. So that was fun getting to see Elder Maxwell. He's awesome!

 

Wednesday nothing too exciting happened. We met some less actives that the branch has been looking for for a while. so that was great! We dropped off an invitation to the Beoughers for the branch xmas party and she told us that we were really getting through to Nate. That made me so happy to hear! She had always said that she only wanted to have lessons when her husband wasn't home but she told us wed. night that she didn't care anymore, she was going to do it! That was awesome to hear. She really wants to make a change.

 

Thanksgiving was good. We were invited over by a family, the Kiefers. They're great! They joined the church about 5 years ago and are so solid and awesome. Dinner was a little akward. Her nonmember family was there and they didn't really know what to do with a bunch of missionaries. so they didn't really talk to us. We sat by ourselves at the bar in the kitchen to eat. But then after dinner they started playing games and we played a fun game with Sis. Kiefer and her mom. It was good!

 

Thursday we made plans with the senior couple to go to a funeral on Friday. The situation is a little complicated so I will try to explain it correctly. Sis. Jill Shepherd is a less active. She joined about 4 years ago. Her parents and family joined the church when she was 18, she's in her 50s now, and were SUPER active when they were alive. She never joined, was a little rebellious. But she joined and got active, but then moved back in with her ex-husband who wouldn't let her go to church. So she fell away and got back to her old habits. But last week on Saturday we went by and saw her. She had taken her sleeping pills early (at 3) and so when we were there she was COMPLETELY out of it. She doesn't even remember us being there, she thought she had dreamed that there were sister missionaries in the branch! ha! But her ex husband, Dave, had just gotten home from some intense surgery a few days before. He was down stairs sleeping when we were there, but Jill went down to check on him and he was dead. It was awful! We later found out that when we were there he was already dead. That really creeped me out.... but anyway she told the Jensons (the senior missionaries) that the funeral would be on Friday. So we made plans to go to that. When we got to the church that Dave went to there was no one there, the church was locked. So we called Jill and they had moved it to Tuesday.... So we talked to her about coming over and helping her go through stuff and clean the house and she said yes. She was a little embarrassed about it but needed a lot of help. So Saturday the Jensons picked us up and we went over to start. HER HOUSE IS DISGUSTING. It was pretty bad. She suffers from severe depression and has a lot of other health issues, so she completely let go and didn't do anything around her house. But we got to work and made a pretty good dent in things. She was really good about throwing things away and just getting a ton of crap out of the house. (literally, she has 2 dogs and 2 cats inside the house). But she was really appreciative and it made me so happy to see someone who really needed help saying thank you and meaning it. She was SO excited to have sisters in the branch! She wouldn't stop saying how happy she was. It was cute. I like her a lot. She doesn't remember much about the doctrine either. She had a few overdoses a few years ago and has lost a lot of memory. So we offered to start teaching her the lessons and she said yes. I'm really excited to start working with her! She's great. I love Jill.

 

Yesterday was awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jill came back to church and bore her testimony. She has NEVER done that even when she was active. It was huge. I love this gospel. It is a gospel of change!!!!!!!!!!! It helps people overcome their weaknesses and become the people the Lord knows they can be. Change is possible through the atonement of Jesus Christ. I am just so grateful for what this gospel has done for me. I look back at who I was when I first got out here and it's neat to see how much I have already changed. there is a lot left to change though! Don't get me wrong. But it's cool to see a little bit of progress. I just think its so awesome how this is really possible. It's true that when you lose your life for the Savior's sake, you find your life. You become something better than you ever had thought for yourself.  THE GOSPEL IS TRUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Today we are going up to the mission home with the Jensons and then tomorrow we are having our Christmas Mission Conference INSIDE the Kirtland Temple!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I  AM SO STOKED!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's going to be so legit. I can't wait. The entire mission, every single missionary, is going to be inside the first temple built in these latter days. HOW COOL IS THAT??????

 

I almost forgot to tell you about this scary thing that happened to us! We had only been here a few days and we were driving home from a tiny town in our area. We turned the corner and I saw some guys crawling on the ground and some running around this house. I did a double take and they were holding these HUGE GUNS!!!! IT WAS A FLIPPING SWAT TEAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They didn't block off the road or stop us or anything! We just kept driving by. It was scary! I thought I had left East St. Louis!!!! reminded me of being home! haha!

 

How was your Thanksgiving? Did you guys get home safe? How are the kids? How is Rex doing at home? How is Sarah feeling? How were Gma's rolls? How is that great woman doing?

Ah! I miss you all so much! I can't wait to talk to you all on Christmas! I don't know where or when we'll be skyping, but I'll let you guys know when we figure it out.

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!