So many crazy things happened this week, I'm not even sure where to begin...
Thursday morning (transfer meeting), Elder Davis and I walk outside with his luggage to load up Edna (Edna is the name of our 2013 Dodge Caravan). We couldn't find her. We looked everywhere, but she was gone. She was towed in the middle of the night! We spent all day trying to get our car back so we could make it tothe transfer meeting on time. We didn't make it on time, we actually made it for the last 10 -20 minutes of the meeting. It was pretty hectic.
My new companion is Elder Grow, from Gransville, Utah. He is a hardworking, obedient missionary, who's excited to dig deep and get some work done! It'll be exciting to see how everything goes.
We taught David this week about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The discussion kind of got out of hand; David had a lot of interesting questions that required a lot of explaination. At the end, he said he was impressed with how often we shared scriptures from the Bible. I was so glad to hear that! I've been working a lot on memorizing scriptures for the lessons. It was cool to feel the Holy Ghost bring things to my rememberance in the moment.
It's pretty sad to see David go, he's leaving for Panama for 2 months. I hope I'm still here to teach him when he gets back. I'm not worried about him, though. He said he knows where the church is in Panama, so he'll contact them so he can get the lessons!
We weren't able to get a hold of Sammy this week. I was really hoping to teach him a lot so he can be prepared for his baptism on the 18th of January.
Christmas is so soon! I can feel the Spirit of Christmas, but it's not complete without snow. It's been soggy and wet, at 60 degrees for the past few days. I'm wearing a short sleeved shirt in the middle of December!
Elder Grow and I were fortunate enough to teach the Gospel Essentials class last Sunday. The usual teacher wasn't able to attend, so he called us beforehand and told us to "freestyle" it. It was pretty fun - we read through parts of Luke 2, and shared our feelings about the birth of Christ and the atonement.
Thank you all for your love, prayers, packages, and support!!
Final week of transfers!! (Scary thought). I just got the call Sunday night during our stake's Christmas program that I'll be training a new missionary starting this Thursday. I'm excited to hit the concrete with my new mystery companion!
This week was pretty great! We taught Ibrahim, who was a referral from one of our investigators, Sammy. We tried to teach him the Restoration, but he had a hard time listening. He wouldn't turn off the television. We kinda skipped past teaching him the full Restoration and focused soley on teaching him that he's a literal son of God. He believes that we are all servants of our Heavenly Father. We invited him to pray to know if he's a child of God that same night. He said he was too busy, and that he'd pray on Friday night. We got his phone number to remind him to pray, but he didn't answer.
We tried to teach David this week, and we invited him to come to church, but he flaked off. It's pretty sad.
We taught Sammy last Thursday the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We focused a lot on repentance. We used a fake $1,000,000 dollar bill to represent repentance. Money purchases, or gives us access to, something really great - like a nice car, or something. Repentance gives us access to something greater - the atonement. What's even better, is that we have an unlimited amount of repentance. We can use it as much as we want! Think how great the blessings we would have if we accessed the atonement every day! We gave Sammy the $1,000,000 bill to remind him to repent. It was a really great lesson!
Sunday was fantastic! Our ward put on their Christmas program, and the Stake put on their Christmas program. There wasn't very much room to work that day, but we still had good experiences during our meetings. The Stake president asked the Missionaries in the Mt. Vernon stake to sing at the Stake Christmas program. We had practiced 2-3 times before the actual performance. We sang hymn #214, under the direction of Bro. Clouse, who is a professional, world famous, international musician/director/choir guy. He's really good! After the song, we got a standing ovation. I don't know if it was very reverent in the chapel. Either way, there were tears, and I saw lots of members/non-members go up to their missionaries to give them a hug. It was a powerful experience.
The weather's been at a nice 30-38 degrees! Thank goodness I'm in a car area.
Thank you for all of your prayers/support and love!
I'm sorry, our computer time is being cut today; this Email may be lame and short.
We taught David this week. His mother had a stroke in Panama, and he asked if we could come over. We gave him a priesthood blessing, and shared with him scriptures of comfort.
We also taught Sammy Bangura - we taught him the Plan of Salvation. H really liked the idea of eternal families. I shared with him Ether 1:27, and the Spirit was really strong. He told us he wanted to go to the Celestial kingdom with his Mom!
Brother Orme brought a guy he met on the street to church with him yesterday. It was awesome! His name is Christian, he just got out of jail a week ago, and he loves the Bible. He says he can't live without it. He stayed for all 2 1/2 hrs. of church, and agreed to meet with us this Wednesday. Miracles happen!
We went to 2 1/2 hours of church because everyone in Virginia freaks out when it snows and they cancel everything. That includes the last half hour of church. It's comidically humorous :).
We had zone conference this week, and President Riggs taught us about repentance. It was such a great eye-opener, I learned so much! I really feel the need to delcare repentance to the people of Virginia - a lot like Aaron, preaching to King Lamoni's father about his need to repent.
The atonement is a wonderful, wonderful thing, and I can't wait show others how to access it through repentance.
This week has been so wonderful! Thank you for all of your prayers and support in my behalf - I really can feel your love bouy me up.
Thanksgiving was so fantastic. It was undoubtedly the greatest Thanksgiving I've ever had. There was so much food! We still have leftovers in our fridge. We had 3 meals that day, it was glorious. First, we had a brunch- thingy with the Strait family. We invited them to start doing some missionary work. They brought up concerns about how they feel inadequate when it comes to sharing the gospel, and how they don't know how to share the gospel. Elder Davis and I replied by the Spirit. Next Sunday, Sis. Strait stood up to bear her testimony. She bascially told the congregation everything she told us on Thursday, and said that she knew everything was going to be alright. She said that we don't have to be perfect people to share the gospel, we just need the Spirit, and the pure love of Christ. It was really cool, because that's essentially what we told her family. It's such a blessing to witness the Spirit working through me and those we teach. What we told her family was exactly what she needed to hear.
We had dinner with Sammy and Adama. Sammy is one of our investigators, and Adama is his mother. I don't think I've ever met more Christlike people in my entire life! Adama works two jobs, and only sees her son 1-2 times a week. Sammy goes to high school and works. They hardly ever see each other, so this year's Thanksgiving was a very special occasion for them. Adama kept on saying how happy she was to see us there, and how happy she was to be home. I remember she would always ask Elder Davis and I if we needed more food, or if she needed to refill our cups. We told her that we were doing fine, and we thanked her. Every time we would thank her, she would say, "Oh, don't thank me, child, it is by the grace of God. I love to serve people!" I was stunned by her humility - I was also reminded of how prideful and unthankful I can be, too! Sammy's friends then came over to join in our feast later in the night. They're all from Sierra Leone, just like Sammy and Adama. They were having a blast together! They spoke English/Creol, and it was pretty confusing to understand what they were saying. But whatever it was, appartently it was hilarious. They were laughing so hard, I don't think they took time to breath! Either way, we had a fantastic time with them. We tried to teach all of them, but they were too preoccupied with their festivities. Eventually, Sammy's friends left, and we had an opportunity to talk with Adama and Sammy. We asked Adama if she would ever like to be taught, but she said she's too busy. She gets home at midnight and wakes up early in teh morning to do it all over again. Hopefully we can find opportunities to teach her. I still felt the Spirit strongly as we read from the Book of Mormon and invited her to read.
We also taught, Ann Marie, a new investigator, the Restoration on Sunday. At the end of the lesson, we helped her identify the Spirit, and invited her to baptism. She accepted!
The work is moving along so smoothly here. A lot of good things are happening. Elder Davis and I are excited to continue our work in Alexandria!
Thank you again for all of your love, prayers, suppport, and letters. I love you!