Well, hello everyone.
This has been a crazy awesome week. So buckle up...haha!
I got transferred on Wednesday to Horseheads, so in preparation, there was a lot of packing and saying goodbye to a lot of people in the Carthage area. We picked up a new part member family and they are so sweet. I hope in the future that the husband gets baptized. Tuesday was the same thing, more packing (every time I transfer, I can find new ways to get more things into the same amount of space. Organizational skills are awesome.
We had an unexpected call from a LA person who previously told us that she didn't want to meet with us anymore. Basically, God has been working on her and with some wake up calls with her health and family, she decided that she couldn't sit around and complain any more and wanted to come back to Church. It was a great lesson! We then also saw the Taylor's again, and helped them find church appropriate clothes for their two little boys. It was so much fun. I then had to run around and get pictures of my favorite people.
We went to bed early that night because me and Sister Branch were exhausted and instead of partying the night away, we decided to be old ladies... I am turning 20 this week, so I am pretty much an old lady :) Ha ha ha.
The next day was transfers, which felt like a mixture of High School and Hogwarts all over again. You see new people and it is fun to see where they get to go. We saw mission picture slideshows, and talk about things going on in the mission. We also see old friends and companions and of course, eat pizza. It is also slightly groupy/clicky and if you haven't served in certain places or know what exactly what happened in each area, you can't contribute to a conversation. Anyway, after socializing, I grabbed my new companion, Sister Gass, and jumped into our Legacy and drove off into the sunset back to Ithaca and then Elmira... it's a 3 hour trip. I do not miss that trip!! O well! It was a good bonding experience!
My new companion is a boss missionary. She is from southern UT and loves sports and is a super hard worker. We get along quite well. Right as we got home at 8, we went to the S's for a ward missionary correlation meeting. OMG, this new area has the best ward mission leader ever. The man is the coolest Slovakian person and he knows how to help missionaries. After not having one for 5 months, it is great to get one again. Since that meeting, craziness has ensued.
Horseheads is on fire right now. We have 25 investigators, a billion referrals and potentials and 6 people are on date for baptism. It is so awesome. I have had to hit the ground running and we are almost to the point of having too much. Obviously, we have to organize and prioritize. I have been literally running the last 4 days and I am so tired. I sleep like a baby and I almost went to bed at 9 one night. This is what missions do... pretty sure I almost found a gray hair, but it also could be bad lighting. We have some sweet investigators, we are teaching a super receptive Jehovah's Witness that prayed to know if the Plan of Salvation is true and we had a super spiritual lesson with him and a member. We are also teaching a Quaker lady that is kinda lonely and want to talk about spiritual things. We are also teaching 3 of the cutest elderly men ever. One just got baptized and confirmed and changed his life around in a matter of 2 months! He gets anti-Mormon harassed all the time now, but he just laughs and says "you have too much time on your hands, maybe you should read the Book of Mormon." What a super awesome 60-70 year old man! The other two like the Church, the Book of Mormon but struggle with word of wisdom problems, but who knows?? I know they will get there soon.
We also teach this crazy lady who we are pretty sure has possessed cats and has a slight mental problem, but she loves coming to Church and actually reached out to us. We are teaching a 14 year old who just started meeting with us, who stood up in Social Studies during World Religion class and stood up for the Church! We also have a Wickin (witch) couple that wants to change religions, and we also have a super sweet family that wants the one true church and a religion that unifies them. BOOM! We have the most solid part member that wants to know everything about the Plan of Salvation and we had a super spiritual lesson and wants to commit to baptism once we teach her everything. She will be an incredible member some day.
When we're not teaching, we have been contacting referrals, finding potential contacts and talking to random people. After being on Post for the last couple of months, I actually had forgotten how to contact people on the street. Fortunately, my companion is great at it. We were blessed to pick up so many solid potentials on Saturday. It was one right after another.
My companion has only 2 transfers left before she goes home and she is starting to freak out because she doesn't want to leave. This is a good learning experience for me so that I know how to better respond to that stress when it comes. Lately, I have also come to really see the importance of the Restoration of the Gospel. Many of the people we teach have objections and it all hinges on just 2 things with most people we talk to. 1) do they believe in God? 2) do they believe that we can have modern revelations? So much revolves around the cycle of prophets and God establishing His work and His word through prophets. Many believe that after Christ, there were no more prophets, that the Bible has everything and if we accept Jesus and live a good life, that is all there is. If people cannot believe in modern revelation, in modern prophets, in more scripture, then no matter what we teach them, it will not matter. I have seen so many people now that I have come to the conclusion that the difference between the Elect and Non-Elect, is the condition of their hearts. If our hearts are not humble and soft, then the gospel will fall on deaf ears. The people that I have seen progress have one thing in common, and that is a good heart. They are all nice genuine people looking for the truth, and are not prideful, and are willing to listen and be humble enough to listen to God and not other people. Their hearts are so tender that they feel the Spirit 100x quicker than the average person. God does not mean to change who we are and our personalities, he just wants our hearts. A mighty change of heart to be exact. If we do this, then naturally everything about us is changed for the better. I also saw this quite plainly while at Church this Sunday. The ward members in Elmira, have good hearts. They are great members and it was awesome to walk in and many remembered me from when I visited from Corning and they ran up, gave us hugs and welcomed us and our investigators and then said "how can we help you? It is good to have you back!!" They even introduced all three new missionaries into the Ward over the pulpit. After being in 4 areas now, this is now my favorite ward... by far!!
There are so many good things to come and I am just excited and happy to be here and to be a missionary. Just deciding to enjoy these little moments, because they fly by so fast. I love this work and this Gospel... and it all starts from the heart!
