September 2
One of my favorite miracles of my whole mission happened last Saturday. We tracted just one last door before dinner. The girl who answered had been less active for about two months, had just moved from Washington, and had been thinking that very morning that she would go to church the next day. She guessed that there would be Sacrament Meeting at 9 or 11, but Philomath Ward is at 10. Because we were guided to her, she was able to have loving reassurance about her decision to come to church, and we got a cute member couple to give her a ride and sit with her. It was amazing to be an instrument in Heavenly Father's hands to bless His daughter who was making good choices. It is so wonderful to be part of someone's tender mercy...
Corvallis area finally has some mission culture for me. :) Dave's Killer Bread, reusable shopping bags, co-ops (way more natural than Whole Foods). I learned this week that this is part of the Willamette Valley. I'm not surprised. We get to shear goats on Wednesday as a service project.
September 16
I used some plastic bags today. It felt very strange. :) I think Corvallis is rubbing off on me. I really like Corvallis. If I had to actually live somewhere in my mission, I think I would choose here.
The sister I will train is in the MTC now. I prayed for her on the day she went in. It was a confidence booster to be the senior companion for a day, but I'm also nervous, of course. I want to come across to people as happy and at ease, not too professional or stressed. I hope that people think, "The missionaries came over today. My day is better."
Some elders in my district had special protection this week. (I heard about the elder who was killed in a car accident recently.) All the mission cars have little "tiwi" devices installed that track the cars and yell "check your speed" if you're speeding even a little bit, and "check your seatbelt," and "aggressive driving" (I haven't heard that one yet). Anyway, the elders were driving at an appropriate speed on a highway near a bend when their tiwi said, "Check your speed." They knew they were definitely not speeding, but they had to slow down by about 10 mph for about 15 seconds. They just went along with tiwi even though they were annoyed. But then they saw a huge truck in their lane, and if they had been following the speed limit the whole time, they almost certainly would have hit it. Wow.
Yesterday we contacted a referral from the ward mission leader. The husband of the woman came to the door, figured our who we were, and said, "Leave!" I could tell he meant it. When a little additional time on the doorstep occurred, he flatly announced, "I am Native American. If you don't leave, I'll scalp you." He wasn't joking, either. We scurried our way out of there. The saddest part is that the woman was taught by elders a little bit five years ago. She knew the Book of Mormon was true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet, but her husband completely vetoed any further investigation.
President Young made D&C 6:36 the foundation of our mission culture. We individually stood, he called us by name, looked us in the eye, and quoted the first part of the scripture. Then we responded, "Doubt not, fear not." He has been doing it one by one throughout the mission.
October 7
The new companion I am training is Sister Jenkins. She's blonde and 5 feet tall, is very cute and cheerful, and has a great sense of humor. She is 21 years old, is from Idaho Falls, and did two years at BYU-I....Sister Jenkins is amazing! She is exactly who I've needed. She is gentle, encouraging, hard-working, ingenuitive, and in tune with the Spirit. She ministered to me with words of perspective that I needed to hear yesterday. I love her.
We went on a beautiful hike with "C" this morning. She is 53 and a single mom of 3 grown children. We invited her to be baptized this week, and she is considering it. She likes President Monson a lot. We hiked with "C" and her dog on a gorgeous trail near Philomath. The scenery provided a visual aid for the part of the Plan of Salvation that we discussed with her (a loving, literal Heavenly Father who created a beautiful place for our life on Earth). She said what we taught gave her hope. She is very thoughtful.
Less-active members of our ward are softening so much towards us. One 21-year-old girl, the daughter of very committed ward members, considers herself an atheist, but let us share a lesson with her earlier last week. Then she invited us for lunch! We asked her if she would watch conference with us. She anticipated having a hangover for the morning session, but we went in the afternoon and watched the whole session with her. She is so sweet. We are very grateful for how open she is to us. Conference! Conference! Conference! Prophets are true! God speaks!
Other less-active members and part-member families give a friendly beep on their car horns when they pass us or pull over and stop to talk. It is special to build these relationships. These people will be my friends forever.
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| The Sisters talked with a man who had been growing his dredlocks for 17 years |
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