Saturday, June 1, 2013

May 23, 2013

"Hi Everyone,

"So I will start with last Monday (today is May 20th), Last Monday was an abnormal p-day. We had apartment checks. That lasted a half hour for each apartment. From there went to do emails, we go to the public library for that. After that we did a quick shopping trip, may half hour or so. The we went to the church to have meetings. We arrived and then changed into exercise clothes. We (Sister Robinson, Sister Hanseen, Elder  Howell, Elder Vassalo, and Sister Ferrin, plus me) went and began playing a game called Onka. Onka is like playing extreme dodgeball. We played maybe 45 minutes to an hour before we had to go back to the house and wait for an investigator to arrive named Alice. Alice used to cook for a Fraternity, so she managed to feed all of us. I managed to find something I could eat - Ham, I normally don't like ham but this was really good and some sort of noodle dish. 

Elder Clark shared a spiritual thought and we chatted some before we headed to FHE. FHE was Karaoke night - I got pictures of that. I didn't think any of us were good singers, but I wanted so badly to sing. After that we headed home and spent time street contacting. Then we wondered the parking lot looking for people and handed out pass along cards. Then we went in to do planning. I don't remember what we did after planning until we went to bed. 


On Tuesday we did personal study for an hour and then went to teach a lesson in our lounge of our apartment at 9 am with Young, one of our investigators. The lesson was challenging because Young was struggling with feeling the spirit. We gave him an assigned reading about faith. We found out later that he loved the reading the chapter and that he couldn't have agreed more with the chapter but he didn't felt he was wasn't feeling the spirit. He was describing the feeling the spirit, and didn't even realize it. After talking with him, we helped him figure that out. Then he let us know that he was invited by a friend to another church and asked us if he should go. My first thought was no, don't do it. We said he if he wanted he could and offered to get him the address in Philly. 

On Wednesday, we had studies and then district meeting. District meeting was interesting. We talked about how the Book of Mormon effected our lives. Needless to say I ended up crying when I talked about my testimony. We talked a lot about using the Book of Mormon in everything we dio because without religion is nothing because the Book of Mormon is the keystone to our religion. 

We went to Tacho Bell for lunch with a group of missionaries and Elder Davidson and his companion thought I would make an excellent news caster. After lunch we did some street contracting which is not always so fun. People took cards and were polite when they refused but no one was interested in taking lessons. 

We did go to a lesson after with someone named Lana, but it all fell through, she wasn't home. So we did street contacting and ten had dinner, and then we walked to a lesson we were doing with the Elders. Originally we were doing a lesson with Brandon, an investigator I haven't met yet, but he cancelled right after we had planned his lesson. So we told the elders we could help them with their lesson. We walked 45 minutes to get there and did some street contacting on the way. Then Elder Vassalo and Elder Howell showed up in a red mini van. But that lesson fell through too. So we rushed off and caught a bus and then walked to the church for institute. Institute was interesting. I loved the talk Elder Holland gave called, "Do this in Remembrance of me! http://www.lds.org/general-conference/1995/10/this-do-in-remembrance-of-me?lang=eng After institute we went home and planned the next day. 

Thursday was interesting. We did studies and then had lunch. We heded down the street and visited a potential to see when a good time to meet with her would be, she said in June. That was when all the craziness would end for her. We took a bus down town after that. We street contacted until we met up with the elders at the library. We went to the rest home and took the seniors on little walks. We there for a half an hour. We did some more street contacting and then met up with a Loretta - a potential that hadn't been seen in a month because of schedule. We had Amber an RM and the Ward Mission Leaders help with the lesson. We taught the third lesson and went over the first tim. After that we went to the public library and emailed potentials and then had dinner. We then did street contacting until our bas at 8:14 pm. We did meet a up with a guy named Sam, he was pretty cool. He was interested and he invited us in but we couldn't go in, so he was willing to step outside and talked with us. He is in the Air Force Reserve. He will be in San Antonio soon. 

We got off the bus and did more tracking. We found Elsa. She wanted to know where the church was but we were not able to get an appointment with her like Sam, so we could return. 

On Friday we did weekly planning. Our companionship inventory never eneds up being serious. We do get along well, Sister Robinson and I. We took a bus into town after eating lunch and met a recent covert, her las lesson with the missionaries before the ward talkes over. She is now a ward missionary. Her name is Fei. She is from China and has a member boyfriend. She totally agreed with what we were talking about, eternal marriage. After that we did street contacting but it was pretty dead so went and looked at talks from an email our mission president sent. We ate dinner and had a lesson with a less active member named Shawn. We talked about service. After we decided to go street contacting again, and we met Stephen and Kenny. Kenny asked, aren't you going to me a card? He had seen us passing out the pass along cards. We got to talking to Kenny and discovered he and his girlfriend had been looking for church. We got his contact information and set up an appointment for Wednesday. During the course of the conversation he asked if I was Jamaican. I laughed and said no. We ended up running into him later when we to get my bus pass. 

Not too long after we ran into Stephen again, we found out he works at McDonalds and was interested in what we had to say. But so far, we have not been able to get an appointment. 

Saturday we started with studying. At 10:15 am we went to do a mission correlation in the lounge with Justin, the ward mission leader. We talked about investigators, less-actives and recent converts. We discussed how we wanted the ward to help us with them. 

After mission correlation we had a short lunch and then went street tracking.  That is when we met May. May is an older woman who has little understanding of English. She is from China where her husband is currently. Her son is 24 and lives in New York where is studying for his PhD. Our first interaction with her was amusing. We knocked on the door and she called out "who is it?" Sister Robinson answered with "Missionaries!!" May asked what was wrong. Sister Robinson responded that nothing was wrong and that we wanted to share a short message with her. She opened the door in pajamas. After several minutes of struggling to help understand what we wanted to tell her we were able to get an appointment, because of scheduling issues we had to reschedule for Thursday instead. After we talked with May we did a little more tracking and then caught our bus. No one was interested. 

We emailed and texted potentials and had dinner. We hit the streets again and then walked home. It took an hour and half to get home but we still had the time before going in do some contacting around our apartment and ended up at this park. There was a man and a woman and their two dogs. The woman could not understand what we were saying but the man could. The man told her he would tell her later was was going on. We were able to get his information but we have not contacted him yet. 

Sunday was slightly less chaos. We did studies and then went to church. We went tracking and met another potential investigator Natalie. We are not sure if she is interested, we have not heard from her yet. As we got to our apartment we noticed the other sisters were already in their apartment. We could see through the broken blinds that they were there. Sister Robinson went and slammed her hands against the window, Sister Hanseen screamed. It was hilarious.

Sister Erin Kingsford