Like usual, this week was full of wildness and wonderfulness and lots of laughter.
This transfer
Sis Steg & I are both planning to really focus on MEMBER WORK. This
is kind of a new thing for both of us...neither of us has ever done too
much member work, but the Ft. Laud ward has tons of part-member families
that we want to work with. There is one family in particular that we
both felt very strongly about. We are also trying to focus on working
our area God's way and not getting too comfortable...making sure that we
are always fulfilling our purpose and stepping outside of our comfort
zones.
Our area is SO
amazing and I am so grateful to be here. I feel like every time we meet
someone, we come out of the lesson or harvest blessing and say to
eachother, "Okay, THEY'RE amazing!" This week we went over to bless this
woman Elaine whom the elders had met at Walmart. We knocked on her door
but she wasn't home. We were about to leave when Sis Stegelmeier said,
"Let's try this house right here." We knocked and met Naomi and Rebekah,
who let us into their home to leave a blessing. It was probably one of
the most spiritual blessings of my mission! It was so strong and they
accepted baptism right away. We went back to see them the next day and
have seen them every day since and they are an INCREDIBLE family! They
have so much faith and are truly looking to follow after their Savior.
Then on Saturday,
after teaching them we came out and it looked like Elaine was home. We
went and knocked on her door and she told us, "God sent you at the
perfect time!" She let us in to pray and told us how just that day some
awful things had happened in their family. She truly knew we were sent
there at that moment to bless her. She is incredible...she has been so
prepared and doesn't smoke, drink, break the law of chastity, or
anything like that. She also knows she needs to get work off on Sundays
so that she can come to church and be baptized! And then, if that's not
enough miracles, when we were leaving her house we saw a woman sitting
on the porch next door. We went over and blessed her and she also
accepted baptism! Three incredible miracles, all living right next door
to each other! I know we are receiving these blessings because of our
diligence and our prayers to be led by the Spirit to those who are
ready.
We had our first baptisms in the Ft. Laud ward this Sunday,
and they were awesome. Afterwards, when we talked to Patricia and asked
how she felt, she said "I feel beautiful." Jacque just couldn't stop
saying, "I am so happy today!" I just love the people here so much!
While I was in Nova, I never thought that anything could be better than
working with the YSA. But I think I must confess that I love the Ft.
Laud ward and working with families even more :) Well, okay, it's a
toss-up. I love them both. But there is something so special about
working with families!
OH MY, I wish you could have been there to
see the baptisms. We had Brotha T, a recent convert (actually one of
Elder Pond's converts if you remember me writing about him before) do
the baptizing. He is the the coolest. And he LOVES that baptismal font.
Right before the baptism, we were trying to take pictures and we
couldn't find him anywhere. We were running around the church looking
for him...and finally we found him in the font! He
was just standing in the water blissfully turning around in circles
with his arms out behind him. We dragged him out for a picture and then
he went right back in! And we had to get
him out again so that the service could start. Then after he finished
baptizing, instead of following Jacque out of the font, he just leaned
back and laid down in the water. Our ward mission leader was like,
"Brotha T, you're not getting baptized again! Come out of there!" So
funny. There were so many funny things this week that I don't even think
I could pin my finger on what made us laugh the most. It's probably a
toss-up between:
a. Brotha T in the baptismal font
b. Me
imitating a sheep in one of our lessons and ramming my head into Sis
Steg's shoulder while uttering, "maaah, maaah" [yes, that happened. and
yes, it was in a lesson.]
c. Teaching our 78-yr-old
investigator who talked about how she got pulled over by the po-lice
because they thought she was drunk [in reality, she had left the eye
doctor after they put drops in her eyes and she couldn't see]
d. Somehow ending up attending
priesthood meeting at Nova...yeah, remember that one time when we
supposedly left Nova? Somehow we didn't really. And we ended up being
there for half of their meetings yesterday.
e. THE DONK PARADE. So this week was
4th of July, which in deepside means e'ryone's out grilling and driving
their donked cars. I can't even explain to you what these cars look
like. I wish I had a super good picture of one. They're these cars with
wild colors on big rims. And they were all out on the road on the 4th.
Sis Steg and I were practically drooling and making monkey noises
watching them go by. One would drive by...followed by another even
BETTER one...and we were like, "Ohhhhh oooh, look at that one...OOOH
OOOH LOOK AT THAT ONE...OOOOOOH MY DID YOU SEE THAT ONE!"
f. Me wearing a "wrap cap" aka do-rag that we got at dollar tree
g. Watching
this guy in this crazy outfit breaking it down at the bus stop. There
were booty shakes and hip swivels going on. IT WAS SO WILD. We loved it
and I took as many pictures as I could.
h. two words: carrot juice. two more
words: with ginger. And the fact that we gave it to the assistants. I
think their text sums it up: "That carrot juice was atrocious.
#foolmeonce"
i. Me singing a David Archuleta and Louie Armstrong mash-up
j. Making
a deal with the assistants that they could only borrow our blender if
they showed up at our door also singing an Archuleta/Armstrong mashup.
(One of them strongly resembles David)
k. The "G.I. Nova" poster we left on
the assistants' door before Elder Gust (RIP!) went home. This girl in
our ward gave us some movie posters and so we decorated one of them and
left it on the assistants' door. SO FUNNY. You probs had to be there.
l. We have this SUPER GHETTO
investigator. She's a wild time and we love her. But last time we were
there she kept telling us about how she's been "bustin' her bumps" (aka
popping pimples) and I wanted to die laughing in the lesson because she
kept saying it and it was so funny!
m. I invited a motorcyle dude to church! He was next to us at a
stop light. I rolled down my window and tried to hand him a church card,
but he was like, "Sweetheart, if you're gonna preach the gospel you're
gonna have to get on your feet." and so I got out of the car and went
over and handed it to him.
This
transfer as sister training leaders,we are really focusing on TEACHING
SKILLS with our sisters. A big focus right now is to help the sisters teach doctrine simply. I
I read something this week in a talk by President Eyring called "The
Power of Teaching Doctrine" that was awesome. Pres Eyring says, "Because
we need the Holy Ghost [in our teaching], we must be cautious and
careful not to go beyond teaching true doctrine. The Holy Ghost is the
Spirit of Truth. His confirmation is invited by our avoiding speculation
or personal interpretation. That can be hard to do. You love the person
you are trying to influence. He or she may have ignored the doctrine
they have been taught. It is tempting to try something new and
sensational. But we invite the Holy Ghost as our companion when we are
careful to teach only true doctrine. One of the surest ways to avoid
even getting near false doctrine is to choose to be simple in our
teaching. Safety is gained by that simplicity, and little is lost." I
had some awesome revelation this week about Christ's doctrine vs.
missionary doctrine [promising blessings that aren't grounded in
scriptural doctrine].
OH MY, IN OTHER NEWS......I AM A GRANDMA!!
Sister
Gordon is training [in a Spanish area]! I am so proud of her! My
granddaughter Hermana Sanchez is suuuper cute! I think she definitely
takes after her grandmother ;)
love you all!
sister dougal
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| (g.) |
Thank you for posting these, Becca!
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