This week has been a great week! So many miracles!
We have been working hard and we have seen blessings. We had zone conference this last Wednesday and it was an inspiring training. It was the last piece to the puzzle which we had been missing. President Howes and the Assistants to the President inspired and motivated us. We were pumped up to go and do everything we possibly could to help this area progress in this area. We did have to drive our car to the meeting and the assistants took it. So we no longer have a car. BUMMER. It's been so hot since we have to bike everywhere. The members have been really great with giving us rides, but we always feel bad since we have so many meetings where we can't bike to. So we're getting fit and tan! We work out at the gym in the morning and then bike all day. Anyways, at zone conference President gave an announcement about sisters.
SISTERS CAN NOW BE SISTER TRAINING LEADERS (STLs). It's like being a zone leader- there won't be any sister only zones, but it's like zone leaders where both in the companionship are called and are leaders over other sisters in the area. As of now, sisters haven't been able to go on exchanges really with other sisters. This will be effective this next transfer since we're getting so many sisters. This is mission standard (all of the missions)-- I think it's like when you were a traveling sister, mom. Crazy, right? This opens up a whole new responsibility for sisters that I never thought we'd have.
So about our miracles. We have a day set apart for each of our wards so we can put a fair amount of time in each to really work each area fairly. We were working the whole day in one of our wards. This area hadn't really been progressing for awhile (there's hardly any former investigators and potential investigators), so we have been determined to have a new investigator that day. We have been trying to contact one of our investigators since we got here, but we don't have his exact address and we've tried calling him several times. We had just 2 doors down from a less active. So we biked over there in the morning and no one was home. We were in the area later that day and we saw a car there. We knocked and this teenage girl answered. We asked if he lived there and she said Jose did not live at this house. We then asked if she would be interested in learning more. She said yes! She stepped outside and we started teaching her right there on their porch. Her parents drive up after about 10 minutes. They came up and they didn't speak english very well, so she had to translate to ask if they wanted to learn. We have a lesson set up for Saturday! We're going to give them over to the Spanish Elders if the parents are really interested.
Then we were again biking around and talked to a teenage girl outside. At first she was like, no I'm not interested, but then her heart was softened. We again started teaching her part of the Restoration right on the street. She said she'd have to ask her parents if they'd also like to learn.
We were again heading to an appointment for a member visit and we saw a girl and woman in a pavilion. We started talking to them and it turns out the girl's sisters have been going to church. She had been thinking about going, but hadn't yet. We again taught her the Restoration and set up an appointment for Tuesday.
By the end of the day we had two new investigators.We hardly followed our written plans that day because it wasn't the people written down we needed to see. The Holy Ghost guides us and the Lord put those people in our path. The miracles have just continued since that day. We bore our testimonies on Sunday to introduce ourselves. We had to run from meetings to meetings the entire day, so in the ward were we had had an amazing Thursday, we had to bear our testimonies and run to a meeting. The Bishop who was conducting said more about missionary work and some of our miracles this week. Apparently after we had left, our ward mission leader and his wife bore their testimonies about missionary work and how much they love us being in the ward. We feel very blessed to be in this area and just doing the work.
It's kind of sad because the sisters before us for the past couple of transfers haven't really been working that hard. So we have a lot of work ahead of us. It's been fun though!!!
We had a funny experience just the other day. We were biking down the road and we stop to talk to some people at a bus stop. As I'm testifying and asking if they'd be interested in learning more, this guy says, "That was beautiful and you're beautiful" I didn't know what to say so I kept on going and testifying. Then he says, "Do you like me, because I like you." I just said "I'm a missionary." Then we finished and biked away! lol
Such funny experiences. A mission is so worth it! I love basically every minute of it. It's so rewarding. I love this Gospel and especially when I get to recite the First Vision. Every time, the Holy Ghost manifests to me that Joseph Smith really did God the Father and Jesus Christ. I know he did. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I love starting out my day with reading the scriptures.
Love,
Sister Collins
lauren.collins@myldsmail.net
lauren.collins@myldsmail.net
P.S. How much is like a 6GB ipod or MP3? Ebay? I'm really suffering with hardly any music! Thanks!