Training - Week 1 (Email from 6-22-15)

My first week as a mom (trainer) went better than I could've hoped! My new companion's name is Sister W & she's from Monroe, Utah & is so prepared to be a missionary! The fact that she is so enthusiastic to go out & work hard each & every day makes my job 10x easier.

My Daughter, Sister W

 

 

 

 So one thing I forgot to put last week was that on Monday Sister 'O & I were in the mission office & Sister Hobbs (the mission president's wife) was telling us about all the great things the people in the Phelan ward have been saying about us as a companionship & the great things she heard about when we gave talks in sacrament meeting a few weeks ago. She said "We're taking a great companionship and making you both trainers." That was really neat to hear. Even though it was hard to leave Sister 'O, I know that we are both going onto new & greater things.

Saying Goodbye to Sister 'O

This week unfortunately we weren't able to meet with any of our investigators. At this point, we really only have one promising one, that being M. We've been trying multiple time a week to contact A (our 11-yo investigator), with no success. We did visit a bunch of less actives & even did some tracting. It's so cute because when we were on a street with a few houses that didn't actually have gates, we decided to go tracting & Sis W says "now this feels like missionary work!" haha.  Instead of driving from house to house in a truck on extremely bumpy, rocky roads? I guess so! 

 

One day we were on a street & I felt prompted to look at the ward list & came across a name that wasn't familiar to me. He is less active & his wife is not a member. They lived on the street we were on, so we decided to go see them! They had a gate around their house, but miraculously they had friends over who JUST left...like we saw them pull out & drive away. So their gate was open & their dogs put away. We were invited in right away & they were super nice.  The husband is quite antagonistic, but in a friendly way, if that makes sense. He enjoys asking us questions, trying to stump us. It was really amazing because we answered all of his questions really well.  We definitely had help by the Holy Ghost. He & his wife are active in another church. He said we can come by anytime we want to be "antagonized". Hahaha, it was a miracle seeing them & sharing a message! 

We got to see M (a recent convert) 3 times this week. She is incredible. The excitement of the Gospel is so evident in her life. Yeah, she was baptized in February, but still, she's so willing to share with anyone what she believes. I wish you could meet her! She's so sweet. One night we stopped by to see her & her boyfriend was there & she still wanted to have a lesson with us. And it was PERFECT because our lesson was on missionary work! She has a burning testimony of the Gospel & missionary work! 

Saturday we were on a street with a few potentials, with no luck. But I had to use the bathroom a little bit, so we decided to walk to the end of the street where a member lived...but they weren't home. I felt prompted to try their neighbor across the street, & it turns out this family moved here about 2 months ago. They are catholic & say they're happy in their church, but they stood there & listened to our message & accepted a Book of Mormon. That was the first Book of Mormon that Sister W placed in the field! Wooooot!

Sunday was really awesome. I've liked the Phelan ward so far being here, but I think this was the first time I realized how much I love the people here. They really are amazing. I think it was difficult for me to see at first because of how awesome the Carbon Canyon ward was, but I've come to see what great people are here. 

My personal studies have been really great this week. Recently I finished the Book of Mormon, so I started reading it again. This week I've been studying the Tree of Life, which I absolutely love! Jesus Christ is the love of God. Only through His Atonement can we gain a fullness of joy.  Also, my studies have been focused on the importance of the Spirit. Laman and Lemuel had multiple experiences with spiritual things, yet their hearts were hardened so that they were "past feeling". We are all born with the Light of Christ, and as members of the Church have the gift of the Holy Ghost. This influences us to do good continually, but as we disregard it and choose evil, that influence fades until we can eventually become past feeling. Likewise, if we heed the promptings and do good, the Light increases and lights our path continually.

It's been SO HOT HERE. But it's true that the dry heat is better than the humidity. So thanks for the letter & tell everyone I love them & would love to hear from them!!  Hope you have a wonderful week! talk to you next week :)

xoxo Sister Viraldo