Hi family!!!!
This week was great! Sister Afoa and I get so much done together!!! I don't really know where to start. Okay so this week we have worked a lot with the YSA and have found some less actives that we getting back to the branch. There are a bunch of recent converts at well that got lost when they went to college and we started getting in contact with them and started meeting with them all. There is Brandi, what just got baptized in July I think and then she went out of town all summer and came directly to school and she never got the new member lessons. She is awesome!!!! She also wants to help us with our missionary work so that is the best. We also met a girl named Gina who got baptized when she was 16 but went less active pretty fast. But then she started dating a returned missionary and she now wants to retake the lessons so she can become truly converted. Shes way cool! And then their in Tyanna who got baptized a few months ago in Columbus and she went less active when she came to Kent State but we found her and shes been going to all the activities and church. Oh man, she is hilarious! We also have been taking one of the recent converts Abby teaching with us, like all the time, and she is the best! I wouldn't mind if Kenny or Anson married her :) We also finally met another one of the recent converts who disappeared named Jordan and she is so cool! She has a hard time with going to YSA wards though because she thinks they are awkward. Funny thing is I was the same way before my mission so its hard to help her change her mind. Karma. We have not been able to see the girls from the laundromat, Beatrice and Toni. But we have been texting them. School here is crazy and everyone is soooo busy all the time so scheduling can be difficult. But we will find a way! Anna is another girl who we have been working with and she is a little on the less active side. She doesn't always feel comfortable at church and doesn't have much of a desire to go, but she goes because she has a calling. We have been working with her to find her own testimony though and she is really starting to get involved. We saw Cara again three times this week and she is doing great! She was going to go to church this Sunday and last Sunday but she and her kids have been sick. Last week her boy had a really bad fever and this week she had a fever. Its the time of the year that everyone is getting sick again... oh no... but Cara said she will come to church in the future. She is really really awesome! We also found a lot of the less actives from the Rootstown ward and there seemed to be a lot of baptisms of people who were not ready. The ward has lost a bit of faith with investigators being baptized. After meeting all these less actives finally, it made sense why some of the ward members were so stand-offish when Heavenlee wanted to be baptized. I mean she had a ton of fellowshippers and they were so good to her, but when she said she wanted to be baptized asap they all freaked. Speaking of Heavenlee, she is doing well. Her mom though changed her mind this week and said Heavenlee couldn't get baptized anymore. Heavenlee's so called "uncle" has been at their house a lot and we think he is feeding them anti literature. He is actually wanting to be a baptist minster and he doesn't like that we are teaching the family. Heavenlee seems to be acting different from her normal self and she won't tell us whats up. But tonight we are having an FHE with Heavenlee's family at a members home so that could be good for Sherry. We also had a miracle with one of the less actives in our ward. We had stopped by several times and every time they say they are busy. Then we got a text from the mom and she asked us to stop stopping by so we were like alrighty... well... is there a time we can meet with you?.... and she wasn't too interested. But then.... we were on their street dropping off a Book of Mormon and they were outside. They looked mad because they thought we were coming to stop by them but then we told them the situation. Sister Afoa jumped in and started asking this woman questions about her life and she turned from being grumpy and rude into her telling us her life story and that she needed to go back to church. She started crying and told us the root to all the problems and now she actually wants to meet with us and start coming back. Ahhh! complete change of heart in seconds. Sister Afoa has a way with people. Oh one last miracle and that I have to go. So a couple of weeks back we had the blast off table at Kent State and we had an email list for everyone on campus who wanted to hear about the YSSA activities and what not. So unfortunately not a bunch of people came to institute this week, but this one boy, Raghu, showed up and then he even came to church on Sunday. We hadn't even taught him a lesson yet and he came. So he is pretty awesome! We will have our first lesson with him this week so I'll keep y'all updated. But miracles are happening everywhere!!!!! And we are seeing and talking to so many more people then before and its the best! Missions are the best! The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the best! And I am happy because I get to help other people be happy :) I LOVE YOU FAMILY!!!! MISS YOU SO MUCH!!!! Love, Sister Call Hi family! This we has been awesome!!! I LOVE SISTER AFOA!!! She is super beast and she is from Hawaii and I want to be just like her! She works super hard, and shes super happy at the same time! Plus shes Hawaiian so thats pretty cool :) We work super well together! This week has been crazy packed and busy but that is honestly one of my favorite things. We have about 15 or more investigators right now that we are teaching and its nice because we actually have time to teach them now!!! Woohoo!!! Now if we could just get the zone leaders to give us a couple more miles haha :) Heavenlee and her family didn't get evicted... at least yet. I think they have way better chances now at staying. Heavenlee is doing great. She is a little boy crazy though so we aren't a hundred percent sure if she understands what she is getting herself into and we don't want her to get baptized unprepared. We also think she just really enjoys coming to church because it gets her away from home. Understandable. But the ward is doing so well at helping her feel loved and inviting her to things and what not. One of the members in particular actually goes over and hangs out with Heavenlee and her family. She has become friends with Heavenlee's mom Sherry and they often talk about how great our Heavenly Father is. Its funny because Sherry is often negative and seems to doubt God when we come over but our member friend is able to see a different side of Sherry. Woohoo fellow- shipping! Now we just have to get Sherry to church. Trent was crazy the first couple times we took him to church, but he is getting much better. One of the primary teachers wasn't too fond of him at church in the beginning because he was very crazy, but this week she was trying to calm him down and gave him a friend magazine in class. He was so excited and later in class they were going around saying what they were grateful for and he was grateful for her. She just loves him now and he is happy to be there. We saw Cara this week and she was going to go to church but something happened and she wasn't answering her door. Her phone is totally messed up so we have no way of checking up or anything. She is either home or she is not. Its frustrating. But she is so so open to learning so we haven't given up on her. We also met up with Michelle on campus this week and shes doing well! She seems to go backwards if we don't meet with her often enough. She still has desires to learn though. I think being a in Sorority doesn't make it easy for her to try to live the gospel standards and she is having a hard time deciding what her priorities are. We were pretty straight forward with her this week about why we meet with her and she still really wants to meet with us so I feel like thats a good sign. But we shall see. We saw Amber and Erin this week as well and that whole situation is a mess. The girls want to be baptized but they are all over the place. And by the time we are able to actually meet with them again, they have forgotten everything we teach them. Their dad is super hard to plan with so its been a struggle. They have a baptism date set up for October 17th but they wont be ready if we don't start seeing them several times a week. This week we also started teaching Deanna and she is so cool! She is a friend of a couple of the members in our ward and she is interested in learning more because so many of her friends are members. She has already told us that she has no intention of joining because she is currently comfortable but she seems to be opening up and explaining why she doesn't like the churches that she has checked out for her and her family. She is pretty much a dry Mormon. She doesn't even drink coffee!!! We also caught up with a former investigator who was super close to baptism but her husband didn't support her getting baptized at all and she didn't want to hurt their marriage. But actually her daughter who is 10 did join the church (after many fights with her dad) and has been being a super good example to the family. In fact the dad has softened up a ton and he even came with his wife and daughter to a little ward party this week. Miracles!!! So one thing about Sister Afoa is she is super brave and she talks to everyone and its just so easy for her. Ahhh! I want to be like her! I talk to everyone I can, but I get so nervous. Anyway, we decided to go walk around this apartment complex and we were prompted to walk into their laundry room area and we ended up finding 2 new people to teach whom we are planning to meet with this week! Who knew, the laundromat!... The Lord works in mysterious ways. We also got together with Rosita again this week. Shes a less active member and we just decided to start reading the Book of Mormon with her. I think she has heard the lessons a million times and really what she just needs to do is read the Book of Mormon. So we read the intro and all the testimonies and she had never even read them before! She thought they were so cool and now she is super pumped to read the Book of Mormon. I think we are even going to go with her to the Johnson farm this week so that should be great! Well those are just bits of the week! We have been getting lots more done so I am happy. Its weird, I work much better if I am going fast. And Sister "Aloha" is just as fast as I am so it works out hehehe :) AHHHH!!! The church is true and I love love love being a missionary. Sorry family, I may never come home. But feel free to visit... in a couple of years or something. Just kidding. I guess eventually I will come home. Just not anytime soon! I miss y'all and love y'all!!!! Love, Sister "Y'all" (Call) Its been a crazy week!!!! AHHHHH!!! First off, sad news. Heavenlee didn't end up getting baptized. She is having some family difficulties. In fact she may even be going to foster care because of the whole situation. I pray that whatever happens is in her best interest. Her family situation is kinda dangerous so it may be better for her to leave. Ahhh! I worry so much about her! Well, this week we also had a mission leadership council and it was pretty big. We have tons of new rules which should straighten out the mission, but their could be some uproar. Later in the week we had zone training meeting where we told our whole zone about the new rules and I was sooooo nervous. President has changed the music rule to all mo-tab hymns and now all Kirtland Sisters for the most part will be going full pros at least for one transfer. There are more rules but I can't quite think of them right now. But speaking of full pros... I AM GOING FULL PROS! We got a call from president last night and I am staying in the Rootstown Easthill area as a sister training leader and Sister Fitzgerald is getting out-staked.(so back to kirtland stake) Plus I will be full pros so I am actually really excited about that! We have done the math and I am almost a 100percent positive that Sister Hardy will be my companion. WOOHOOO!!! I LOVE THAT GIRL!!!! This should be an adventure. Sounds like there may be some more twists in the bunch but we won't figure anything out until this Wednesday. Also, don't send me things to Kirtland anymore. If you send anything, send it to 1002 Lake Street Building I and Apartment number 426. But anyway... back to Zone Training Meeting-- Everything went over really well and everyone was very understanding of the changes. Well at least it seemed like it. I also went on exchanges this week with Sister Pound and Sister Kunz! It was very fun and we got lots done! Its cool because Sister Pound was actually in my class at BYU and we were in the same group for a couple of projects. Both these Sisters are awesome and we saw lots of miracles. It was great! This week we also got to go to a baptism for a girl in the YSA ward. Her name is Courtney and she goes to Kent state! Shes pretty awesome and we got to help teach a couple of lessons with her. We area ctually going to start bringing her with us to some of our lessons with our investigators because she can relate super well with the people here so that is exciting! Well I have to head out soon because Sister Fitzgerald has packing to do :) I love you fam bam!!!! Love, Sister Call Hi family!
This week has been great! We definitely have been keeping busy! So first thing, Heavenlee is still looking good for her baptism this Sunday! We have been meeting with her everyday this week and there has just been such a huge change in her and the spirit she has. Her family still struggles but they also seem to be doing better. But mostly we are working on Heavenlee. Shes leading the way so the rest of them can follow. Her brother Trenton came this Sunday as well and he is better learning how to handle himself at church. He said he "feels so much Jesus inside of him" that he doesn't know what to do with himself. And the youngest son in the family, Jonathan, really likes hearing about Jesus. In fact he snuck one of the Books of Mormon in his backpack to school and was caring it around with him all week to show his friends. Sherry, their mom is doing good but she isn't as open to listen right now. Its just a matter of time though. Heavenlee though fits in like a glove and the ward adores her so its great! Ah! I am so excited for her!!!!!! This week we also helped one of our less actives move into her new apartment for school. We climbed up four flights of stairs over and over again to get everything where it needed to be. Ah man my legs were killing me. But it was a good work out :) And this week at the visitors center was crazy as well because of labor day weekend. Plus it was a whopping 90+ degrees outside when we were giving those tours. And all the families I took on tour had crazy kids. One of the tours had 9 kids all under the age of 5. It was quite the day. But I survived. And the site director and his wife ended up taking us to Cheesecake Factory for dinner that night so it was all worth it in the end hahaha :) Well I am drawing a blank on the rest of my week and I managed to forget my planner to recall all of the weeks activities. oops. But it was good to hear from y'all and I am so happy BYU won their first game! WOOHOO! GO COUGARS! I LOVE YOU FAMILY! Take care! Love, Sister Call |
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