It's been SOOO stinkin' hot here this
week. I don't know the exact temp because we don't have a temp thing
in the truck, but it's only been cooling off to about 80 at night. I
am grateful for the dry heat though!
 |
| Eating lunch in the back of our truck one 100-degree afternoon |
We didn't get to meet with Antonio this
week. We called him a couple times and once he said he was busy
working & then we called back a few days later & he didn't
answer.
Yup, so I thought I was done with the
dentist, too. A few days after they re-filled my cavities, one of my
teeth was hurting even worse, but I gave it a few extra days to see
if it would improve. It didn't. So I called & they got me in
really quick. I love how understanding the Drs are. They just keep
telling me how bad they feel & how I need to get better so I can
be a missionary! I guess the cause of my cracked tooth is from
clenching at night. Even though I wear a guard, I still clench &
I can feel it in the middle of the night. I don't know what I can do
to prevent it. I tried taking Magnesium like Joey said to relax
muscles, but it doesn't seem to help.
So Elder Falabella of the Seventy is
coming for the mission conference in September. Hopefully everything
will work out for us to be able to do our song, since it is next
transfer. Elder Spriggs is playing piano for us. He's a Spanish
elder here and he's 19. He is pretty talented. He couldn't just look
at it & instantly play it, but he's put in a lot of effort in
learning it & it sounds great!
This week has been pretty darn good &
weird & kinda off.
Tuesday we had zone meeting from
10:30-1:15. Sister Wagner & I gave a training on referrals. Then we
visited the N family & got our weekly dose of the news report. They
make sure we stay updated, which is not always the best thing. It's
good to know kinda what's going on so we can relate to those living
in & of the world, I guess. We had dinner with the Bs. Sister B
is a member & her husband is not. He loves to cook for us, though.
Sister B hasn't told us herself, but she recently found out that she
has cancer. She is so strong.
Wednesday was a longggg day of
meetings. We got up at 6:05 & left the house by 6:50 to get to
the Apple Valley stake center by 7:30. Zone conference started at 8.
President & Sister Hobbs talked a lot about finding &
different ideas to find. Sister Wagner & I are going to try
singing to people on their doorstep! It's something I've heard of
before, but always thought to be strange. But we're willing to try
anything now & I've been told multiple times that I need to share
the talent that I've been given....
One of Sister Hobbs' favorite sayings
is: "YAGOTTAWANNA". Yagottawanna change, yagottawanna
become like Christ, yagottawanna pray & read the Book of Mormon,
etc.
One of the craziest things that
happened in the meeting, though, is when some guy from Salt Lake
started telling us about these devices they are installing in all the
missionary cars. It's a company called inthinc & the device is a
tiwi. You can look it up for more information, but pretty much it
records the car when you drive. It alerts you when you speed,
accelerate & brake too fast, take sharp turns too fast & go
over bumps too fast. For speed, it will say "check your speed"
& you have 6 seconds to slow down without it being counted
against you. Pretty much it rates our driving. Each week the mission
president will get an account of how each missionary drove that week.
I started freaking out because Phelan is all dirt roads with crazy
bumps. I asked the guy about it & he answered me like I was dumb
& said there should be no reason to get marked for going over
bumps too fast; just slow down. That answer didn't satisfy me,
because he's never been to Phelan! Luckily all the missionaries that
HAVE been there understood & felt pity for me, haha. But Elder
Schweider, our missionary car guy, just said not to worry about it &
go slow. Luckily, I haven't had a problem yet. Twilla (we named our
tiwi that) isn't as sensitive as they made her out to be.
The meeting ended at about 1:20, and
then we had lunch for an hour or so. Then the sisters went into a
room with Sister Hobbs & we had another little meeting. It was
really nice.
On Friday we got 2 referrals from the
referral system!! That was WAY cool. It's always great getting
referrals.
Saturday we did service for a family in
our ward who's moving. And we contacted one of our referrals, Dillon.
His best friend is serving a mission in Colombia & referred us to
him. He was in the middle of dinner, so we set up an appointment for
Sunday. This next story is something so small & seemingly
insignificant, but we definitely saw the Lord's hand in it every step
of the way:
We pulled up to Dillon's house &
there was a man walking down the street with a grocery bag who was
taking fruit off of a neighbor's tree. We didn't think anything of
it. After we talked to Dillon, we were going to visit Jessie, our
other referral. I went down the wrong road & had to turn back on
Dillon's road, and as we were driving past a house, we saw that same
guy with the grocery bag climbing into the back window of a house.
Sister Wagner pointed him out & we had no clue what to do. We
didn't know the man, we didn't know who lived in that house. What if
it was his house? What if it wasn't? What are we to do? I said "Isn't
the Spirit supposed to tell us what to do? Let's listen..."
*silence for a few seconds* Then sister Wagner said let's talk to
his neighbor. So we went & parked & hurriedly made our way to
the next door neighbor's home. A sweet old man opened up & we
asked him if he knew his neighbor & that someone was climbing in
the back window. He said "I know that they are kind of odd. They
do weird things." He didn't seem too worried about it & we
ended up talking to him more. He asked who we represent & we told
him we're missionaries. He's been to other countries & has seen
missionaries, "the white guys in white shirts who don't belong"
haha. We didn't end up teaching him or setting a return appointment,
but he told us to come by again sometime to talk. It's just so
amazing how the Lord placed us on that street at the exact time we
saw the guy going through the window so we could meet him. Who knows
what will come of it, but it sure is amazing how the Lord works!
After that experience we went to visit
Jessie, but she was asleep, so we decided to go tracting at 8pm. It
was pretty dark, but beautiful outside.
This is where my subject line comes
into play. We decided to go to this one house that had a gate, but it
was not locked! So I knocked on the door &
eventually a lady answered looking very angry that we were knocking
on her door. I knew she wanted nothing to do with us, but
nevertheless I said "hello, how are you doing?" "Um,
it's a little late to be out, girls." "Oh, sorry. We're
missionaries..." "Well, take your missionaries & go!”
That's one I've never heard before! It's not fun when you meet
people like that, but all you can really do is laugh about it. It's
probably my favorite rejection line I've heard.
 |
| Tracting in the dark |
After that we tried
another house & met (another) Dillon. He had a sign on his back door that
said "Hippies use the back door." So we rightly call him
Hippie Dillon. He seemed interested in our message, so we set up a
time to come back & teach him on Monday.
Sunday was great!
Sacrament meeting was all about missionary work :) After church we
taught Dillon about the Restoration. He has
Calvary Chapel background & other Christian beliefs & is very
outspoken about them. He is willing to listen to us & he said
he'd read & pray. I don't know how open he is to the Spirit, but
we'll see next week when we have another lesson with him.
After that we finally met
Jessie! She's a senior in HS & referred herself. She has Mormon
friends & wanted to know more so she went on mormon.org
& ordered a Bible because she “wants to read more about what we
believe" Haha so cute. She must've thought it's "our Bible"
But we gave her the Bible & a Book of Mormon! Hopefully we'll be
able to teach her soon.
That's about it for this
week. I hope everything is well back home. Let my brothers &
family know I love them & would love to hear from them. I wish I
could write to each of them personally, but I don't have enough time.
I'll try my best to do a little better though. I love & pray for
you daily! Thanks for your prayers & support. I am strengthened
by them.
xoxo Sister Viraldo
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