I'm a firm believer in tender mercies & if we
are observant, we can notice tender mercies every day of our lives. The
Lord is waiting to bless us & He does.
This week was pretty special. Every week is special, but this was just a great week.
(heads
up: I left my brain (my planner) at home today, because it is the start of a new
transfer so I forgot to bring last transfers brain, so I'm borrowing
Sister 'O's brain)
Monday we had dinner
with the B family. J B is our investigator; her husband is a member and they live with his parents. After
dinner we watched "Finding Faith in Christ". We're trying to help her
find greater faith so that she will be baptized! She lives like a member
but isn't baptized. We call these kinds of people "dry mormons". We
haven't quite figured out what's holding her back yet, besides the fear
of telling her family. We need to be more bold with her & that's
what we're planning on doing this week.
Tuesday
we had our last district meeting of the transfer. Afterwards we did our
weekly routine of heading to Walmart on the way back home. After lunch
we visited a less active, L. She's very talkative. And I mean VERY.
The message we were planning on sharing was Alma 18:24-35 talking about
our testimonies, but she was talking so much that it was almost dinner
time & I was thinking "I really don't want to share this long
message with her..." So I turned to Ether 12:27,
to share that, but couldn't relay that to Sister 'O. Luckily L went to the other room to grab something & quickly
Sis. 'O & I were able to discuss the changes in our message & we
shared Ether 12:27
with her...tender mercy #1.
We had dinner with the cute S
family. They're the family we had dinner with my first night in Phelan.
Super cute kids, esp 4yr old Q. If you know me, you know I have a
thing for blond haired, blue eyed little boys...NOT CREEPY. Then we had a
lesson with S and we watched the mormon message, "bear up our
burdens with hope" or something similar to that. then we had a lesson
with Sister H.
Wednesday we drove to our
stake center in Victorville where R picked us up for my dentist
appointment in Hesperia. Turns out I'm probably going to need a root
canal. The Lord is blessing me & my family because they're not
charging us for a thing. HUGE tender mercy #2.
Afterwards we did our
studies, then went to visit Sister M. We had a nice conversation
with her. She was holding her baby, T, & got a phone call so she
put him on my lap. Not totally legal, but I couldn't do a thing about
it. A baby was placed in my lap! So I took advantage of this opportunity
& took pictures. because CUTEST BABY EVER. When we were leaving
Sis. M said "hey I just went to Costco & got too much. I have
stuff for you." After all was said & done we were walking out of
their house with bags of groceries like we just went shopping...frozen
pizza, pork chops, frozen chicken, fresh green beans, cheez its, cereal,
butter, & much more! tender mercy #3.
We had dinner with the
Os and then a lesson with E and G W. We watched a
film called "Together Forever", a really cheesy old film about eternal
families. It really is a funny one haha. Then we went to visit our
investigator A (10). Her mom was sick so we just talked with her.
We shared "the hope of God's light".
Thursday
we had a lesson with B & M. Talked about obedience! A few old
ladies from Sister 'O's first ward came to Phelan & took us
out to lunch at KFC. It was nice. Then we tried to visit our referral,
C. She wasn't home. So we did mormon.org
until our dinner with the Hs. After dinner we were heading to see
A again, but we passed by V & D's house &
they were outside! tender mercy #4. We had a really nice time with them
looking at old photo albums & sharing about prayer. We're gonna go
back this week & do service for them. V, who is 88 with dementia
absolutely loves us. She kissed me about 20 times, no joke.
Friday
morning we pulled weeds at Kim E's. Then she made us lunch.
Afterwards we went home to do some weekly planning until our dinner
appointment with the N family. They're a young family with 3 kids.
They invited a nonmember family over for dinner too. This family isn't
interested in the gospel yet, but they're super nice & fun. We had a
really nice conversation with them & got to share a bit about our
missions. tender mercy #5. Then we had our ward coordilation. In
the afternoon, K took A, our investigator, shopping to get church
clothes. She got her like 3 outfits & shoes. SUCH A BLESSING.
Saturday
our zone had a zone service project at El Mirage. You can probably look
up what it is, because I'm not entirely sure. I know people ride quads
on a dry lake bed though. So we were supposed to be there at 6am-1pm they would feed us breakfast & lunch & we'd get a free tshirt. Our zone was planning on meeting at 5:40 on the corner of a road so we could drive there together. But Sister O & I woke up at 6am....whoops.
We woke up to numerous calls/texts from the elders asking us where we
were & telling us to wake up hahaha. We hurried & got ready. We
got there around 6:40
& made it in plenty of time for breakfast. It was pretty nice for
us, but not so much for the other missionaries who woke up at 4:30am
hahaha. tender mercy #6. They definitely did not let us forget that
small fact the rest of the day.
After breakfast we headed out to the dry
lake bed & picked up trash for 4.5 hrs. It was actually pretty fun,
we just hung out with the other missionaries while picking up trash.
Then we ate lunch around 12:30
& got our tshirts. Took a couple zone pictures last time as a zone
& went home to do studies. After studies we tried a couple people,
then went home for dinner.
After dinner we stopped by C's.
Hopefully you remember what happened last week with her. If not, go back
& read last weeks email...Anyway, in our lesson with her last week,
everything she was telling us reminded me of President Uchtdorf's talk
from October 2013 GC, "Come, Join With Us". We printed out that talk
& brought it to read with C. From the get go when we walked in
the door, she was in a much better mood than the last time we talked to
her. She had time to think about what happened last week & to cool
off. We started reading the talk with her & she kept saying "really
guys?! did you write this?" The talk was literally perfect for her. I
didn't even realize HOW perfect it was until we read it with her. Every
point he makes in it, she brought up last week. Such a miracle. She
viewed it as "divine intervention" tender mercy #7.
Then we went to
visit A, but she was sick. The stomach flu was going around their
house. We went in & talked to her grandma & her mom, V.
V really wants to come to church & hopefully F will let
her. Pray that his heart may be softened! But neither A or V
were able to come this week because A was siiiiick.
Sunday..C
came to church! tender mercy #8. She cried. tender mercy #9. hahaha,
but she must've felt the spirit during testimony meeting. She wasn't
able to stay for the rest of the meetings, but at least she came to
sacrament meeting! After church & studies we had dinner with the
Ds! Steak, baked potatoes, & broccoli. yummmm. & of course
the famous D cookies! After that we were able to have 3 lessons
with less actives. tender mercy #10 because we were able to meet our
goal for less active lessons for the week! And sister H gave us
eggs from their chickens :) tender mercy #11.
Today
before we came to email is the last tender mercy I can think of for
this week's email...I got to take a nap. tender mercy #12.
It
sure was a great week & I'm excited to be starting this new
transfer still in Phelan with Sister 'O! It's gonna be way
different in our zone though because no companionship stayed the same
except for us! Ahhh. There's just not as many missionaries anymore, so
they're closing some areas that have had 2 sets of missionaries &
just putting one. We were hoping to cover Phelan & Wrightwood so we
can be super busy, but I guess not ;) hahaha. That's okay. We've got
enough work to do here & more to find!
YOU HAD AN EARTHQUAKE??? I"m so jealous.
I've never felt one & I'm in CALIFORNIA for goodness' sake. Anyway, I think that's about it. I think this letter is one of the best I've written so you're welcome :)
love you so much & I'll talk to you on Sunday!!!
xoxo,
Sister Viraldo
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