Transfers

Hello Fam!

 

I forgot to tell you, transfers were this week. We have them every 6 weeks. Unsworth went to Juneau, we were both devestated cuz we were both hoping that he was gonna die in Chester Valley. I honestly could not believe how close we both grew together! We have only been together for 6, incredibly, short weeks. It was rough, we went around saying goodbye to all of the families we would visit and teach. It got pretty emotional later that night, we both were pretty depressed. I am staying in Chester Valley, and getting a new companion to! His name is Elder Ashby, he is coming down from Fairbanks and that is all I really know about him. I have not met him yet, I am going to meet him in a few hours. I do not know where he is from or how long he's been out, all I have really found out about him is that he talks like he's stoned so I will be entertained for the next transfer. :)  Apparently, Elder Ashby is getting a cornea transplant. So I am guessing a lot of hospital visits, imagine that, I do not like going to the hospital AT ALL and even on my mission I'm going to be going there a lot!!! 

 

Heard about D-Will.....my heart felt like it dropped down to the underworld. I was devestated, but quickly over it, I knew that was gonna happen someday :/ what can ya do? :)

 

President and Sister Dance are leaving in 4 months!!! I do not like that at all!!! It was so weird cuz when I first got here and met them, it felt like I was seeing an old friend. They are both so amazing. It is going to be really hard for me to let go of them. The new President coming in is President Mary I want to say? I could be getting it wrong, when I found out I will let you know.

 

As far as the work is going. Hard. Our area is tiny! We can drive thro our whole area in 5 mins. It is really hard also because it has been tracted out hardcore. The last 6 companionships before us tracted all the time, so the people know who we are and have answers ready for us. Some are nicer than others, some kindly say "I have my own religion, but thank you" others just slam the door or curse at you. We went on exchanges last Wednesday with the Zone Leaders. Elder Fishburn, the Zone Leader who I was with, I guess LOVED the exchange. I made him laugh a lot throughout the day. One thing I learned about myself is that I am good at helping people relax. :)

 

Nina is not going to be baptized, we had to move the date back to the 12th I believe. He mothers birthday is on the 2nd and they were going thro some big family problems that week and the mother did not like the idea of her being baptized on the 2nd. We respected that and understood, so it was no problem moving it back. Sister Carol got in a car crash the other day! We visited her in the hospital and gave her a blessing, in the middle of it Elder Unsworth, who was giving the blessing, said "we call upon angels to be with you at this time" and not 2 seconds after he said that, you could just feel people standing in the room. The whole atmosphere changed!! It was so awesome, indescribable! I am sure those of you who have served missions have a good idea of what I am talking about tho :) The next day, we found out that she left the hospital later that night! The crash was not as severe as they thought and she is home now resting!

 

 

We had a very interesting experience the other day at the library. I met my first "Bible Basher". This guy was Edgar and he was African American. Basically he was looking for an argument. He tried to start a debate with a companionship, but the Senior recognized it and just said "I would love to talk about our similarities with the Bible, but we have an appointment" he threatened to punch him in the face after that. A little later, he comes up to us and asks us why we are mormons to start off with us. Of course, like every Basher, he whips out the scripture in Revelations about nothing being added to the Bible, I cannot recall it exactly, but it is saying how if you add to it plagues and scourges will come upon you. We were stumpinh him left and right, he would go off on tangeants that didn't even make sense. You can't argue the truth. We talked with him for an hour and a half, he talked 95% of the time, and we talked the other 5% and it was not even a debate cuz we were just simply speaking the truth with short statements and questions. Near the end of the argument, he asked us if we were going to get married. We both instantly answered "yes". He kept telling us not to do it and waste our time. He believes that marriage drives you further away from God rather than closer because you are paying more attention to your wife than him. He looks at a wife and kids as "extra baggage". I, personally, am grateful Terra was not there to give him a piece of her mind, but that would have been great to see. He was saying that a family is a waste of time and that you should never get married. I have a challenge for you. I want you to tell me how marriage has blessed your life personally. I want you to tell me why you are not "exatra baggage", how you are blessed with your spouse. I think, for the most part, the world does not look at marriage as a real priority in life. The world sees living together as good enough and no commitment. It is sad that not everyone will be able to enjoy the blessings we do in life.

 

It was so awesome, as we were saying goodbye to the Medina's, the family wrote Unsworth a card. It was thanking him for finding them and blessing them with the Baptism and the wonderful lessons. What struck both of us the most tho, was when Unsworth read from one of the little girls "I am glad Jesus sent you to us". Words of a child just always hit home with us, I don't know why. That made me realize even more that we are on the Lord's errand. We are tools for him and messengers, we are converting people to his church, not ours. After he read it, we both sat there for prolly 5 minutes in silence just pondering on the quote, the spirit was so strong. I really do love it out here, it is just the best and so rewarding, even tho at times it seems like it never looks that way.

 

 I love the relationships you build with everyone out here, such strong bonds with people in such short time!! It is the best and the only way you could ever experience something as rewarding as this is out on a mission. I love it and I hope to get as much out of it as I can. I love you family! You are the best and everyday I think about how lucky we are we get to spend eternity with each other! :) comforting thought. I love you! Hope your having a fun week! I am going to try to send the pictures thro Costco like mom said, hopefully it works! :)