Week 67 - Cooling Down

August 2, 2010

Hey again my favorite people in the world! :0
How is everyone doing? Great I hope! Thanks for all your fun emails! It's one of the many highlights of my week being able to read about what's going on in everyones life!
It's been a fun week. Last week, I don't remember if I told you but it was sooooooooooo stinkin hot! It was only in like the low 90's but with the humidity, it was pretty rough. But this week, it has cooled down a lot.....and less humidity! It's been wonderful and a lot easier to walk around in.
So as I was thinking about what to write about, I was having troubles thinking of something good. But then all of a sudden everything just came to my memory all at once so I have lots of completely RANDOM things to talk about today!
First of all, the amazing investigator Elizabeth we found, we have had a hard time trying to get a hold of her. We called and stopped by many times this week and haven't been able to get a hold of her. We were worried she got antied or something and was avoiding us. BUT she called us this morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) She said that she has barely been home for the last week and she had lost our phone number. But we called her again on Saturday and left our phone number again and she called us back to set up another time to meet! Yay. They have to move into her mom's house because of financial difficulties so she has been in the process of doing that and also thinking a lot about church, so she has been thinking of lots of questions to ask us! Elizabeth is so great! I love miracles! Just when we are in despair, the Lord blesses us!
Some other cool things happened this week. I have been really really really praying hard to see lots of success for my last transfer. Since 2 baptisms fell through this transfer, I've been feeling a little saddened. So I've been trying to "wrestle with the Lord" and pour out my heart to be able to see miracles......even to help teach and baptize a family (that's my transfer goal!) Here's the stories: first a member in our ward called us and said that he has a neighbor family that he has been working with who have been asking lots of questions. They said that they were interested in coming to church, but first they wanted to read up and learn a little bit about the church. So he asked for a copy of the Book of Mormon and some of the introductory pamphlets. When we gave it to him on Sunday, he was excited to tell us all about this family and that they would hopefully be at church next week. But it's a family of 4 and they seem really interested, so are my prayers being answered? I sure hope so!!!!
Next is another family that we have sort of been working with, the Kondash's. They are super cool but so busy, so we don't get to see them very often. We stopped in and taught the Plan of Salvation to the parents and they want us to come back to teach it to their sons. They are planning on feeding us this Friday, so hopefully it'll be a great lesson too. They seriously ask the most perfect questions and tell all their friends about their "Mormon girls!" haha, I love it.
Every week we also do what is called a 'public forum' on Penn State's campus where basically we get to set up a booth and talk to people. It is a closed campus, but they allow us to do this once a week. But last week we talked to this really cool Asian kid named Shawn (american version of the name) for a long time and he told us that he lived in Alabama for a while and worked with some Christian groups but really didn't understand the nature of God or anything. So we told him we would teach him about it and he was excited to come to church too. Asian's are seriously the nicest people ever! In the city, my favorite people to go up and talk to were the Asians and the Indians. They were all so kind and polite! So I'm pretty excited about Shawn.
Last of all, we helped Jess and her member husband, Jacob, move from the basement of her parent-in-laws home to an apartment above the garage. They needed to move out because another one of the Benedict's sons was going to be moving in to the basement. So we thought we'd be of help and help move things up, not thinking much of it. Just to help reduce the stress of moving. Well, we found out yesterday at church from Sister Benedict (the member mother in law) that it was a lot more help to them then we thought. She said that Jacob and Jess had moved a little slower then her other son was planning on, so their would probably be an overlap of moving. She said that there probably would have been a blow-out between brothers over it and that we came in just at the right time to get everything moved out so the other boy could move in. Pretty lucky huh? It's fun to hear about these things after the fact. :)
So lots of good potential that we are working with! I seriously love this work and I am going to work the hardest I have ever worked these last 6 weeks! Oh man I can't believe that it is here already. Keep praying that we can see miracles and baptisms here in State College please! Your prayers are very well appreciated and loved! Thank you so much! Love you all and I hope everyone has a great week! Miss you!
Love, Holly