Hey Everyone!!
It is that time again. Time seems to be going too fast. I feel like I have been in Carthage my whole life, but it is only been like 4 weeks! CRAZY!!!
Most of the week, I was out of my assigned area and was either in Watertown or Utica, so that was fun. I have come to realize that after being in the country settings the last 4 weeks, how much I love serving in the cities and more populated areas. Ha Ha, who knew!! Anyway,
Last week was great. One of the Elders in our Unit had a birthday and he turned 21. So, we made the Elder dinner on Monday. We actually have been using cookbooks and recipes in Carthage to make food. (Anything is better than PB&J's, quesadillas, and tuna salad every day. #YoungAdultProblems Then, we went visiting teaching with some of the members in the ward to try and help improve the numbers.
Tuesday came around and we had a really spiritual District Meeting about the four cornerstones of testimony that we use to get someone converted.
A. Pray about Joseph Smith,
B. Receive revelation while reading the Book of Mormon,
C. Witness Priesthood power at Church,
D. Jesus in the Plan of Salvation
Part of our training was to pray in different rooms. I just felt kinda awkward and didn't want to do this again, but I did anyway and the prayer kinda went like this; "Hi there, it's me again... and I already know the answer... but I am just doing what I was told and I would like to receive a confirmation that Joseph Smith was a prophet. Sound good?" I then had to sit there for a little while. It was still super awesome because even though I didn't have a super overwhelming experience or see an angel or get smacked by a dove, I felt REALLY peaceful.
This transfer, I have also been re-reading the Doctrine and Covenants cover to cover and I am currently in Section 60. The answer I got when praying about Joseph Smith, was just what Jesus said to Oliver Cowdrey, "Did I not speak peace concerning the matter? What greater witness can you receive than that?" So.. it's always good to continue to pray about the simple things. Because they do matter!!!!
I had to give a training on relating every teaching point to Jesus Christ while teaching the Plan of Salvation. It is actually the main way that we should actually teach the Plan of Salvation and not just jump into things like, "so...before you were born there was this council in Heaven..." Your investigators will run away if you do that!!
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| Flowers Memorial Public Library, Watertown NY |
Then, it was off to Watertown and we went to the coolest library ever in New York. I highly suggest that people look up the Flowers Memorial Watertown Public Library. It's an amazing building. It's both a museum and a library. Sometime I wish I wasn't a history nerd... or architecture nerd too.
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| Balcony Area |
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| Main Foyer |
Then, it was off to Sackett's Harbor (also another super cool historical place, only this time its naval military). We taught some members and had dinner. It was one of the prettiest places I have been on my mission. The next day we continued to work with some other investigators and less actives, but we also tried to find people at the local farmers market. That was NOT the best place in my opinion. People did not want to talk to us.... even the vendors told us to go away in the most polite way possible. That was really funny. It was also hotter than any other day here on the mission, and if it was that bad in Watertown, then I wonder how bad it was down south. Ha Ha
The funniest part was when we went to go get some water. This guy was walking down the street and he wanted to talk with everyone and I said "Hi" and we ended up talking to him for like 20 minutes. The funniest thing is that this man is a "character". He acted with a certain flare. His jobs growing up have been for acting in Renaissance Festivals and he is a huge movie nerd and can speak Elvish and Klingon. He was contracted by Paramount Pictures (I think) and was an "Ork" for the first two movies for the Lord of the Rings. So, he tried to impress us with his Ork and Elvish language skills. That was weird. But, he is also a Wiccan (which is one type of witch) but he is open to learning and experimenting with Christianity. So, we gave him a referral card and the local Sisters are hopefully going to teach him over Faceboook. It's kinda funny... I told the other Sister that if she can convert a Wiccan Ork, I'd buy her dinner... but you never know! Good luck with that.
We then got to meet this lady that the Elders in Trumansberg accidentally 'butt dialed'. Turns out it was a a former investigator and she wanted to meet with us. She was super cool. The lesson went well, but she ended up dropping us later. We knew we were climbing an uphill battle when the first thing we hear is "Wait, wasn't Joseph Smith's mother a witch?" We know that things are going to get tough. People are so crazy and they truly surprise me... like all of the time. But, lesson learned! If you ever butt dial someone, ask if they want to hear the gospel. It may work out!
On Thursday, we continued to work and we went down to Utica for MLC. President Rogers is awesome. He has been the President for a month now and he brought the Spirit and ended up sucker punching us all in the face with the attitude of "I love you all, but we are not living up to our full potential." He has reorganized all of the mission leadership and has brought a new vision. He basically wants us to become a 'finding mission'. Not a whole ton of people are wanting to become members. So, when we are not teaching, he wants us to trying finding people instead of filling the time with administrative duties, or working in area books or goofing off (yes, some missionaries do that) or just always working with the members and less actives. It was good.
We have an ALL mission conference tomorrow in Liverpool and it is going to be sweet. I have never been at at meeting with ALL of the other missionaries before. So it will be great! Saturday and Sunday we did our best to seeing some less-actives and recent converts that have been struggling. :) Today we played ultimate Frisbee in the rain for 2 hours and then went to a mall as a District Activity to get food. We were wet and looked so "non-mormonish" and had to listen to normal music. It was weird. I am expecting to feel weird when I get home from my mission. HA HA! I live in a protective mission bubble. Hopefully other good things happen this week!
All things are good when you are on the Lord's errand!
Love Sister Kylie Williams
