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Hi family! It was so good to see you this last week over facetime and ohhh man do I miss y'all!!!
This week has been pretty great! We were tracting a lot as usual and found tons of people who were interested in hearing our message. Since it was the holidays most of them didn't have much time but this next week we have booked with appointments with them. We also have been seeing tons of referrals coming in from passing out pass-along-cards and so we will be going to contact them asap! Over the past couple of days I have collected quite a few interesting stories and situations. Tracting is the best because we get in the weirdest circumstances and people here are just so funny! Mostly the African American boys are the ones who crack me up. They are always hanging outside their windows and yelling out to us as we tract. We were walking down the street just this week when we started hearing some boys yelling at us and we turned around to see these three 20-year old boys poking their bodies out of a tiny little window telling to come talk to them. So then we end up talking to them at their door for a few and gave them a pass-along-card. I don't think they were interested in the gospel message, but they sure were interested in us! We also were looking for new ways to go contacting because people are no longer outside and now since the holidays are coming to an end, no one is at the mall. So we deiced the other day that we were going to take the bus to save miles and also to meet more people. At first it was great! We contacted quite a few people who were super nice. Then as it started getting later we got a grumpier crowd of people and they didn't like us too much. I was the only white girl on the whole bus so I stood out like crazy. I actually sat next to this lady who did not want to have anything to do with me so she got up and moved to the back of the bus and then she started cussing me out because I sat next to her. I think she was having a bad day... That shook me up a bit so we were ready to head back to our car. We got off that bus to go to another bus and waited at the stop. We were standing there forever and then learned that the bus system was closing earlier because of the holidays. So then we got stranded all the way in South Euclid when our car was in Mayfield Heights. Plus it was the day we got tons of snow so we were freaking out and freezing. So the first thing we started to do was to walk towards Mayfield Heights and made phone calls to people who could possibly pick us up and drive us to our car. As we were walking a member saw us on the side of the road and offered to pick us up, but it was a man and his son so we weren't allowed to drive with them. So we had to pass up the offer. By this point we had already walked a couple miles so we decided to go into a little shop to get warm. Thankfully we were able to get a hold of some of the other missionaries who serve in the area next door (Sister Hardy and Sister Guinn) and they helped us get home. They were life savers! So we were very grateful for that. But basically, that day was the craziest day I think of my mission. But hey we did find some good potentials and I have definitely seen Heavenly Father bless us because of our efforts. This we saw Mary Claire and I don't think we will be teaching her after this next week. She is starting to avoid talking about the gospel and just wants to hang out unfortunately :( Ugg! But she has introduced us to some people who seem to be interested so maybe thats why we were inspired to start teaching her again. We also started teaching someone we contacted a while back and he is awesome! Is name is Shelish and he is from India. He was raised Hindu but he is interested in learning about Christ. It was so different teaching someone without a Christian background but it was so powerful! He was crying by the end of the lesson and he can't wait for us to come back. Woohoo! We also met this lady and her family from Ghana who are super interested in learning about the church so we are scheduled to see them next week! So many people coming out of the blue! Miracles! Christmas and Christmas eve were awesome! On Christmas Eve one of the members had us over for some seafood pasta. I was a little nervous because I don't do well with seafood, but it was so good! Miracles! It was also the Highams who cooked it and they always make good food so thats probably why I liked it. One Christmas day we ate with Sister Smith and I swear it was one of the most meaningful Christmases I have ever had. Sister Smith is the sweetest thing and doesn't have much, but she went all out and spoiled us with a wonderful dinner. And then after we ate she started making a bunch of plates that she ended up bringing to those who didn't have a Christmas meal. Even though she has so little, she went all out to serve those around her. Ahh!!! I want to be more like her! She is one of the most selfless people I have ever met. So that was truly an inspiring evening and also helped me think about how grateful I am for all Heavenly Father has blessed us with. Even though I am imperfect and make mistakes everyday, Heavenly Father still loves. He loves us all so much that He even sent His Only Begotten Son Jesus Christ to die for us. Truly the greatest gift we could ever receive. Sister Smith has helped me open my eyes more to how we can serve the Savior and our Heavenly Father back. We can serve Them by loving our brothers and sisters around us. I love my mission!!!!! I wouldn't take it back for the world. I have learned so much and I just love being able to serve those around me. It has been difficult, but it has been well worth it. I LOVE YOU AND I MISS YOU FAMILY!!!!! Love, Sister Katie Call Hi family!
Okay, so I really can't remember anything from this week and I forgot my old planner at home! Oops! I'll do my best to recount our weeks activities! First off, I wasn't transferred and Sister Janairo and I are still companions. The area is doing well though we are still spending most of our time looking for people to teach. And my oh my, no one wants to hear from us. But we did see a pretty cool miracles this week.All our appointments fell through so we decided to tract. Before we headed out we started with a prayer (of course) and we simply asked Heavenly Father to help us find one person who was open to hearing the message of the restored gospel. So after our prayer we headed out and started knocking on some doors. People were actually surprisingly nice that day but no one in particular wanted to hear what we had to share. As we got near the end of the street, we saw a car pull out from a house to leave so by the time we got over to that house we were thinking to skip it. figuring no one would be home. But as we started to head away, the Spirit prompted me to go and knock on it. So we went up and knocked on this last door. We knocked a couple of times and thats when we met a girl named Grace who was more than willing to talk to us. Turns out she recently had a desire to return to church again but had been going through a lot due to the loss of some members in her family. So we asked if we could come in but she said that she had a big dog that didn't like visitors. We were about to just start teaching her on the door step when I was again prompted by the spirit to walk her over to one of the members homes on that street. So then we found ourselves walking down the street to the Wooleys house and it was a miracle they were even home. We then got to teach her in their spirit filled home and the lesson was amazing. That was pretty dang cool to me. So hopefully we can continue to teach! There is one dilemma though with her, she is probably 18 or 19 and lives with her parents and they don't seem to fond of us it sounds like. So we are praying that their hearts will be softened. We also saw Marty again this week and he is doing awesome! He has very very little knowledge of Christ because he hasn't been to church since he was a child so we have been teaching him very slowly but he really wants to know if the things we are teaching are true. He is super quiet and shy though so we are trying to get him to open up to us a little more. But He is going to try to make it to church this Sunday. It just depends on his work schedule though :/ We also saw Patty and Billy this week. They are the funniest people. Literally there is always a crowd of different people at their house, but we enjoy it because more people to teach or introduce to the church. We had a pretty deep lesson on the Book of Mormon this week and Billy was pretty excited about reading it. He is very interested in the church and we recently learned that he actually used to take the missionary discussions several years ago so that's pretty neat. This week at the sites we didn't have one stinking tour! But we did get to teach a lot of people over the phone and chat. We found a new investigator on chat and her name is Sarah. She has heard tons about the church and loves everything about it. She was raised though in a Protestant church and is worried about even considering leaving that church because she doesn't want her family to be upset. But we committed her anyway to be baptized when she comes to know the church is true. She agreed! And she agreed to take the lessons from us as well. As of right now she doesn't want to meet with missionaries in person but she seems like she will be ready in the next couple of weeks. So keep her in your prayers :) Courtney is doing great and she is still progressing! She loves church and she has so many great questions! Also Marie is doing great as well and still is working towards that baptismal date of December 25th! Woohoo! She is from California by the way. I can't think of anything else, other than we had a ton of new sisters come in this transfer. And they are all so cute! Sister Talbot is now in our house and she is the coolest. So our house is always a party. Well, next time I get to talk to y'all is Christmas day on Facetime!!!!! I am so excited to see y'all faces and hear y'alls voices! WOOOHOOOOO!!!!! I am not sure where we are spending Christmas yet or when we are Facetiming but I will have someone text y'all this week for the details!!! I LOVE YOU FAMILYYY!!! MERRRRRRRYYYY CHRISTMAS!!!!!! The church is true!!!! Love, Sister Katie Call Hey hey heyyy!
This week has been pretty good! We were at the visitors center for most of it but it was good. One of my online investigators is planning on getting baptized on December 25th! Woohoo! Her name is Marie and I have been teaching her for a couple of weeks now. She started meeting with the missionaries in her hometown and I have been able to continue teaching her and answering her questions over the phone. This week I also heard from Courtney (the girl from France) and she is doing great! She has gone to church now a couple of times and has been asking tons about the temple and sealings. She is so golden! We also have been meetings lots of people from the area with the nativities going on. They call us the "nativitiy natzi" because we gard the nativities all day and by the end of the day some of us can get a little snappy. Not me of course :) What else is new.... We met some more less actives and lots of them have non member families. So we are planning to start meeting with them more regularly to get them to come back to church and also introduce their families to the Gospel. One family in particular really impressed me. Their names are the Corsillos and they are too funny. The husband is Catholic and the wife is mormon but she knows very very little about our faith so we have been able to start teaching her everything about the Gospel and shes the coolest! Plus her husband listens in :) Oh, this week Mary Claire came out to the visitor center and we gave her a tour. The spirit was so strong and she had so many amazing questions. She has met with missionaries quite a bit over the years but I think everything is starting to make more sense to her. I don't think she pieced together the pieces completely until she came to the visitors center for a tour. Oh I almost forgot, we also had a mission conference this week in the Kirtland temple! It was awesome! And then when we had lunch, they surprised us and let the whole mission watch The Best Two Years! IT WAS THE BEST! Also that movie makes so much more sense now as missionary. I especially liked hearing the Dutch cause it reminded me of my moma :) So it was a pretty great week! I wish I had more time in the area but we will make due. I miss y'all all and I love y'all all! BE GOOD! Also, the church is sooo true! And I am so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ who made it possible for me to have so much happiness, peace, and joy. I am so grateful to know that I get to be with my family for all eternity. Especially being away from home for so long makes me realize how blessed I am to have the family that I do. I LOVE Y'ALL!!!!!!! Love, Sister Katie Call |
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