November 11, 2013

Heartbreak Hotel

Dear Mom and everyone,

Carmen's day at work sounds pretty cool. as does pretty much everything else this week.

This week...Monday was pretty chill. I don't remember anything exciting happening. We went grocery shopping since we had money again, and we did in fact buy milk. We'd been buying the bagged milk for a while, since everyone was insisting it was cheaper, and then we actually checked out the prices, and it's like a whole 30 cents. So we were like, whatever, we're going back to jug milk. Haha. After P-day, we basically stopped in on a lot of people, and also went around putting up posters for the musical concert that's coming to Saint John on the 23rd. Then we went knocking. The first door we went to, the guy talked at us for about 45 minutes without taking a breath, just about random stuff. It was like being back in Newfoundland. Actually, I mentioned I had served in Newfoundland, and he kept telling everyone who passed by that I was from Newfoundland, and that he could tell I was a Newfoundlander as soon as I started talking because of the twang in my accent, etc. The whole time, he's making off-hand anti-Alberta comments. It was pretty funny. After that, we kept knocking and got a return appointment for the next day, and also found a former who had moved, who had pneumonia, but was really happy to have us come back when she was feeling better, so that was cool.

On Tuesday, we went to see Heather, one of the LA's, in the morning, and we had a really great lesson about the enabling power of the atonement. Then we stopped by Samantha, who was "just about to go out," so we did 12-week in the car before going to Shelly's, the appointment from the night before. Total 180 on her interest level -- she had seemed REALLY interested on Monday, and that day she was basically just like, "Never come back!" I don't understand people. Haha. Then we went to Lancaster Mall to put up some more posters before going to correlation at Brother Cosman's. It turned out to be a ridiculous use of time, since he was preparing for a business trip and didn't actually have time to correlate with us, so we were just stuck in Grand Bay until dinner was ready and we could leave. Elder Davidsen and I had fun playing the piano together, but it was SO not a great use of time. Haha. After that, we had a lesson with Val, which was great as usual, and then we had a lesson with Muzammil. He's in his 20's, is an accountant, and is another Muslim we'd found. He'd looked up our beliefs on mormon.org before we came and had a little book of notes all prepared for our lesson with us. (Muslims make the best investigators when they're interested. Seriously, all of them do this.) There wasn't a language barrier, since he as born in Canada, so we learned a LOT more about how Islam works and it was really great. He said, "I figure this will either strengthen my faith if I'm right or weaken it if I'm wrong. Because I believe that my religion is right, but if there's a path that's more righteous, I want to follow that one." 

On Wednesday we went to our re-scheduled appointment with Samantha, and she didn't answer, so we dropped her. Then we went uptown and basically walked around all day, street contacting people and putting up posters and contacting and whatnot. We also stopped by this lady named Karen. She'd called us on Tuesday evening and said she wanted us to come over, and she had some people she wanted us to help come to church. We were like, sweeeeet! So we stop by. Turns out she's an excommunicated member who's a paranoid schizophrenic and isn't accountable. But she honestly loves the church so much and is like, "I'm just trying to be good until Jesus comes back and I can get baptized again." Then she was asking us about the kingdoms of glory, because she wanted to know which one she'd get to raise animals in. I was like, "Celestial. You should definitely aim for that one." Haha. Then she said, "I just want to be in a kingdom where I can be a princess and be a special daughter of God." Heart MELT. Then she gave us referrals to all her friends and family. After that, we basically wandered around the south end looking for some potentials the elders gave us, which was a bit sketchy, and then we were supposed to have a lesson with Jackie, but she called because she's sick, so we kept contacting until dinner. After that, we went and knocked on the east side for a bit. The first house we get to, the guy says, "Just a sec, I need to put some clothes on." Then he opens the door and says, "Oh hey. I shouldn't have put my clothes on!" *eyeroll*. People think they're hilarious.

Thursday was Elder Jensen and Elder Davidsen's year mark, so we went uptown and had Thai food. I had this AWESOME green curry that was SO spicy, and naan bread, which I haven't had in FOREVER. They also had deep-fried ice cream, which was great because it was ice cream, but not as exciting as I thought it would be. After that, we visited another LA, also named Heather, who suffers from severe migraines and finds that they get triggered by the rug shampoo at the church. We had a good visit with her, and then we stopped by to see Veronica, so we decided to go knocking. Well, at the beginning of the street, it was lightly misting. By the end of the street, we were knocking in a torrential downpour. And I hadn't checked the weather forecast,so I was wearing my peacoat without a hood. By the time we were done, I couldn't have been more wet if you'd dunked me in a pool. It was pretty awesome. I actually enjoy moments like that because I feel like a missionary. Then we went to a DA, where they made tacos, which was the best thing ever, and then we went home to get some dry things before Mohammed and Amina's lesson. We focused a lot on the Book of Mormon and it went pretty well.

On Friday we did weekly planning, and then we went to go visit Sandra, another LA. Her doctor said she's not allowed to eat any more sugar, but she'd bought a TON of on-sale Halloween candy, so she was like, "Please eat it!" and I was like, "I will help you bear this burden as long as it is yours to bear." (Bonus points if you can name the movie reference.) Then we visited the Hurtados, another LA family, and invited them to come to the family history workshop and to games night. We then went back to knock some more. We got into a house with these two people, Chelsea and Daniel. Daniel is Chelsea's boyfriend, but they don't live together, he just happened to be over there. They're both Christian and you could just tell they're already really good people and had a strong faith in God. We taught the BEST Resto ever -- got to know them, How To Begin Teaching, Opening Prayer, simple lesson with scriptures and inspired questions, introducing the Book of Mormon using the introduction, testifying, closing prayer, the whole 9 yards. It was awesome. And the Spirit was SO strong during the First Vision. And then, they said they thought they didn't need it and tried to give the Book of Mormon back and wouldn't set up a return appointment. It was so disappointing. We tried to resolve concerns and everything, but they just weren't having it. I actually think Daniel was interested, but Chelsea wasn't. Although, she did say the lesson took away a lot of judgement she had towards Mormons, so hopefully we planted a seed or something. After that, we had Val over to Sister Raeburn's for a DA, and then we were supposed to go to games night, but she decided not to come -- she psyched herself out over meeting a bunch of new people. So, that was disappointing. We went to games night anyways and a few other less-actives and non-members were there, and I learned how to play Risk. Risk is great. We're playing Risk when I get home.

On Saturday we had the family history workshop. Only the Hurtados came, out of all the people we invited, but it seemed to go over well with them and so I guess it was a success. After that, we went knocking a bit and tried to contact some referrals, and then we stopped in on Jackie. At first, it was one of those awkward standing-in-her-doorway situations, since her granddaughter was coming over, but then she let us in and we ended up having a short lesson anyways. It was really good, and I think we discovered some of her questions and interests and helped her to realize that she could have more of the Spirit in her life. Then we went to a DA with the McKenneys, a really awesome member family. They just got sealed a few weeks ago and they're so cute together. Then we had another lesson with Muzammil. Muslims really have trouble with the concept of Christ as the Son of God, because they see it as shirkh, which is basically like denying the Holy Ghost in their religion. So we tried to resolve that. They also basically believe that a doppelganger of Christ was crucified and he was just translated. So Muzammil was like, "Where does Christ say he's the Son of God? Where does he say he was crucified?" and we whipped out the Bible and it was like, EVERYWHERE. Haha. It was a great lesson. It went SUPER long though. 

On Sunday VAL CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!!! It was great! Except the first talk was one of THOSE talks...rambling on, really hard to follow, talking about the 2nd Coming and signs of the times a little too much, etc. But everything else was great. She kept introducing herself to everyone she could see, "Hi I'm Val, I'm new." It was great. We were going to start teaching a member missionary class that day, but the gospel principles teacher wasn't there, so I taught an impromptu lesson on prayer, which was good. Relief Society was also really great, and Val kept participating and reading quotes out of the manual and sharing life experiences, which were mostly relevant, so it was great. After church was choir, and then we contacted some referrals before going back up to Milledgeville and going through the formers. We got into this one former, Barry, who seems like an eternal investigator, but he also has a lot of potential and is open and wants to follow God. So, we'll see how that goes. Then we had a DA with the Hofmanns, which was one of those DA's where you're not really hungry, but you just want to take more food anyways because it's soooo good. And she served us brownie pudding, which I haven't had in forever! (And in case you're wondering, I still weigh the same as I did in the MTC :P) Then we went knocking a bit, and then we had another lesson with Mohammed and Amina. Heartbreak hotel, population: us. They were all like, "No, the Coran is true and the Book of Mormon isn't." Mohammed was like, "But all the good things in the Book of Mormon are already in the Coran!" and I bore a really powerful testimony on how the BEST thing in the Book of Mormon is its testimony of Christ, but they weren't really having it. So then we focused  lot on prayer and praying to know which is true, but they really just don't have the faith or understanding of prayer. So we're going to have one more lesson with them to talk about that and see if it goes anywhere.

Love
Sister Olson

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