Another good week in this part of the Lord's Vineyard... it was a fast week, and this week will probably be even faster with some crazy service projects, a zone conference, a blitz and upcoming transfers... who knows what is in store for the future! I looked at the calendar today and I officially have 3 months left.. crazy how fast times goes!!
This week we have been really blessed and I have really come to see the Lord's hand in missionary work. He has a sense of humor and also sends us very tiny rays of sunshine to keep us motivated to keep working hard and doing His work. Definitely seen that this week. He guides, He protects and He inspires.
He protected me this week when I decided to finally repair all of the broken lights in the apartment. I fixed the bathroom and started in the kitchen, but because we have gone so long without light in the kitchen, I assumed that the light switch was in the 'off' position... it wasn't :( So, I get up, pull out the bulb, and the next thing I know I see a spark, pop and a bang. The light bulb, somehow short circuited or something and the surge ignited something on the inside sending a piece or two of broken light bulb everywhere. But here is the cool thing....I was completely protected. Nothing touched me, or hit me in the face and even though I was only 6 inches away, I didn't get shocked either. All of the pieces of glass just happened to have exploded into the trash can that was just to the side. It was hilarious, but scary... but also really cool. Guardian angels exist, that is for sure!
Monday we did the usual and saw the Enright's. We are trying to get them to Church, which is hard. Finally we met her less active mother also for the first time ever. I don't see them coming back anytime soon though. So sad! We saw Don Davis and had a good discussion with him. We talked about how we can receive a spiritual witness and know truth! He had never had any kind of a moment where he knew that God was speaking to him. I never knew how hard it is to describe divine personal revelation, because it is so personal. You have to experience it to know what it is. Unfortunately, he is moving soon this summer down south! But that is okay, seed have been planted!
Tuesday we had a District Meeting and those are always interesting. I can only spend so much time with a large group of Elders, before I want to get out of there! We saw our friend Pat, and she came to Church this Sunday! We also saw Will and he is recovering with his leg and just loves church. Jim blessed the Sacrament this Sunday and was a boss at it. He memorized both blessings and was sad that he could only bless the bread and not both. :)
We then just tried to go finding... that wasn't too successful and people were mean. But God with his Sense of humor gave me a Frosty craving, so we went through the drive through and the cashier asked for our card and said she would call us because 'she was excited to see Sisters again"! Her name is Nakora and is a sweet southern girl and we are going to do "operation: Stalk the Wendy's" so we can get her to call us or get her number! I really want to teach this lady! She was awesome. So what I learned is that Wendy's Frosty's make for a good finding situation. We watched the LDS Face2Face with Elder Holland with Rachel that night, because we are all young single adults and it was really good. Everything was on marriage. Which has it's pros and cons.. but my favorite quote of the night was, "Love is what you go through together" and I loved that. Bonding through hardship... that's why it is so important to have the same goals and aspirations so that you can endure trials, because you are holding out for something greater, like the Celestial Kingdom.
Wednesday we did more finding and we met and taught this surfer bum named Mickey. Nice guy, but we taught him outside his apartment complex while he was taking out the trash. Hopefully we get to teach him again; he was pretty open...but I think his roommates don't like us! Grr! We did more finding...nothing was working out.... but we kept going. Thankfully, it's been warm this week, like 60 to 70 degrees. So tracting was nice. Our bodies are not used to the warm temps, so we were dying and now everyone is sick again because the temps went back down to the 40's. Up and down, up and down! We teach this really cute new less active named Sister Peckham and she is a cute grandma, but now we have to get her inspired to go to Church too. We also have started teaching Gage, who is Brian and Sabrina's son separately on Facebook. He does pretty well, and he has had neat experiences with prayer.
Meeting with Brian and Sabrina was tougher this week due to them being crazy busy. Brian goes in for foot surgery today and they had a lot to do, but we will have the whole next month to teach him at home! We had a good lesson on the plan of salvation with Sabrina and have started to get her to read the Book of Mormon verse by verse so she can understand. We will get there with them. I am so proud of their progression!
We then had a little miracle. After all of the tracting, we got a call from a member who then handed the phone over to his coworker and she is interested in the Church. Her name is Kate and she is the most excited person I have every met who wants to learn about the Church. I am excited to start teaching her, I just hope that her family doesn't "anti" the Church a ton... that's not good!
We picked up some new investigators on Thursday, this cute Mom named Samantha that is looking for a church and has a crazy family, but is sincere and very tired. She needs this. Also Dotty who works at the nursing home by the Church. She wants her granddaughter to come to Church and we also got a few referrals... so not to shabby!
Friday we went on Exchanges with the Ithaca Sisters. So much fun! I got to work with Sister Gilstrap and we had a blast. We found this lady named Kimberli and she has read all of the Standard Works and used to go to our Church 20 years ago. But, with her kids, she left and couldn't handle it. But with her life being so crazy now, she is open to us teacher her and letting God help her amidst trials. Super cool. We taught a few others that were kinda weird. Like this Nigerian OBGYN that wouldn't allow us to speak hardly because he had so many questions. We got back in contact with Leandra, a promising former investigator, and she said we could come back. I hope she lets us teacher her, she has a ton of potential.
Saturday we went to this intense service project at the food bank where we packaged and gave food to about 400 households as they drove by. That was fun! We also went to the Horsehead's St. Patrick's Day Parade. I didn't know there was so much "Irish Pride' in our part of New York! I totally forgot to wear green,, but it did make people look at us more. ha ha.
Well, that was the week basically. I have learned a lot about the importance of prayer and how essential it is for revelation... real sincere prayer is the key and it is the first thing we do to invite the Spirit to help us learn!
I am grateful for the gospel and the peace it brings! I know the Church is true.
Be good!
Love Sister Kylie Williams
