5-20-13
Dear Family,
Summer in the south is finally starting to come and I now understand why I've been warned all along about it. It gets HOT. And apparently I haven't seen the worst of it yet, but I guess I prefer this to when I will be in Brazil and not have heating or air conditioning so I suppose I'm pretty spoiled!
It was a pretty rough week. We had just about every single appointment fall through and we didn't get a single lesson taught for 2 days which was a bit discouraging. But I suppose if a mission were easy it wouldn't be worth it because we wouldn't be any better than when we left and I'm pretty sure whoever I would be teaching would not be real! So you just have to learn to love getting rejected and being hot and dehydrated and get used to the people you work with not following through on their promises! But the amazing thing is that after it's really hard, it always gets so much better. I was reading in 1 Nephi about how much they suffered in the wilderness, but the blessings were even greater because of it and that's what always seems to happen!
So after our 3 day drought it seemed we were going to have another one of those days because for whatever reason every appt wanted to fall thru. Then we were thinking we'd just go to another house to fill time, but I made a goal: I didn't want any of the things I do to be just "filling time" so I really just pondered and prayed about where we could go to really make a difference. I felt like we should go look one more time for this one investigator who went MIA (Missing in Action) and doesn't live at the house she told us. So, we went to another house we thought would be another option of where she might actually live and well it wasn't her house. It turns out the person who lived there wasn't too stoked to see us either. Then as we were leaving, the next door neighbor came out (later he told us he had been looking for his phone over and over and finally said a prayer and said he was going to go look one last time in his car and just as he went out, it was in plain sight where he'd looked before and then he looked up and there we were. So we started talking to him and he is awesome! He had a Book of Mormon before but lost it and because of other events really wanted to start learning about the church. He wants to go to church and just was so, so, so grateful for us. Turns out he is moving to North Carolina today, but he wants to go to church this Sunday and have the missionaries up there see him this week. His friend who is moving into the house we went to wants to learn about the church too and we met her that night as well and as soon as we left she started reading everything we gave her and more, and was just really excited and grateful as well. They are so golden! I love seeing people who the Lord has obviously prepared so much for the gospel!! A big rain storm came in the next day (Saturday) which was a huge blessing :)
I also love the example in 1 Nephi of the way they reacted to their adversity. When they were going thru all these trials eventually all of them gave into complaining. In the next chapter it gives examples of all the things L&L are complaining about and s adly it seems like things we all have a tendency to complain about. But I love the contrast of Nephi who was going thru the exact same trials but rather than murmuring he chose to ACT. He wasn't self-righteous about it, instead he turns to his father and asks him where he should go, which was a great lesson for me! Sometimes when it gets really hard everyone has a tendency to complain but I want to be like Nephi and make something of a hard situation and then turn to my sr. companion like Nephi did to his father and ask her what she wants me to do even if she is the one complaining and then we can both get out of a negative attitude and situation.
We had the Milligan family come to the Ward activity the next day with us which was a huge blessing. They and their kids loved it. We have such an awesome ward! They are SO friendly and so willing to help! We definitely need to do a lot of work with the less actives because there are about 500 members in our ward and we have probably 100 of them show up on Sundays if that... So still obviously a ton of work to do. But those who are there are awesome and they take such good care of us! (Our fridge has plenty of leftovers in it right now). Sometimes we even have members call us and tell us when they're free and volunteer to come teach with us! It's like a dream ward right?! We are so blessed.
In Ward Conference yesterday we were again reminded of how the work is hastening. It is such a blessing to be a part of!
Love ya'll so much!
Sister Lewis
Fun Carolina fact: Yesterday I was eating at a members house and one of the teenagers was telling us how shocked she was because she heard someone refer to a Buggy as a shopping cart and thought it was so ridiculous someone would call it that. Took me a while to figure out what she was talking about but I thought it was hilarious :) And they really enjoyed that we think cooking hamburgers and hotdogs ona grill is a bbq ;)
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