It has been quite the week!
Okay, so first off, THANK YOU FOR THE PACKAGE!!! GPS is great thanks!!! Mom i took some of that nasty medicine you sent and it actually helped. I was a little sick but I am back in good health. Emily, thank you for the Christmas presents :) I now smell better so that is good! Also, I sang on Sunday and I used the music mom sent. I sang Savior Redeemer and my Bishop cried. And now every day in the area we have a full schedule of both lunch and dinner! Also YAY for good shampoo and conditioner!!!! Y'all made my week!
Okay, so my crazy week... I'm going to try my best to lay this out in a way that makes sense.
Monday- We had a normal day at the visitors center, but were still in a trio which was a bit crazy when we gave tours. We all had to make sure we wouldn't talk over each other and it was especially weird when we were giving tours to small groups.
Miracle #1 of the week. Some elders had an investigator come to the VC (visitor's center) and they couldn't come because it was too far out of their area. She had started meeting with the missionaries about a month ago. Super sweet, humble girl from the middle of nowhere Ohio. She didn't talk much the whole tour and at the very end when we went into the Johnson Inn which is just an area to look and wander around and look at kiosks. She came up to me and just started to talk and asked me tons of questions. I was really shocked cause she hadn't said anything the whole tour and then at the end she poured her whole life story out to me. I was able to answer some of her questions and she was just so pleased. She said, Oh good! Well I guess then I'm going to get baptized! She then told me the elders had been pushing for her to get baptized in January but she was skeptical. After she talked to me she decided for real she would be baptized. SO COOL! She asked for my address so she could write me if she had anymore questions. The elders where so happy because she opened up to me about what she was worried about and hadn't opened up to them. WAY COOL!
Tuesday -We had a normal p day and then we went to the Perry area and saw some really neat members.
Wednesday- We had transfers and now i am no longer in a trio. But then for the rest of the day we were in our area which felt so good. Especially because our time in Shaker Heights had been cut so short. So after transfers, we stopped by two different potentials we have. First we saw Mary and we shoveled her driveway. She was super happy and sweet! Then we stopped by Karen, the older lady who used to be Jewish. She let us in and we talked with her for about an hour. At first she talked and talked, but then (miracle #2) she she said, you know I've been having a really hard time and she talked about almost committing suicide and then she found a sticky note we had left on her door. She then told us that her friend, who used to be a catholic nun or something weird, sent her a random email about faith and hope and prayer. She was blown away and knew God was watching her. So we got to talk to her about the church and invited her to come on Sunday. She wrote the address down and seemed really excited to go, but then we told her it started at 9am and she was then bummed and said she couldn't come cause it takes her too long to get ready. So we are praying to figure that out, but she wants to have lunch with us this next week which should be great!
Thursday- We shoveled SOOO MUCH!!! . We shoveled a bunch of peoples driveways and then had dinner with a member at Applebees. (Miracle#3). After we ate dinner we pulled our scriptures out to share a spiritual message. The waiter came over and he started asking us about our religion and such. He was like only 18 and he told us he stopped going to college so he could help support his mom who just had a baby. He has two jobs and really needs God in his life he said. He told us he studied with Jehovah Witnesses and some other churches and wanted to hear more about our church. So we told him about the visitors center and he is going to come on Wednesday to see Meet the Mormons. It was soooo cool! Oh and then after dinner, I wanted us to stop by a former investigator named Erma, so we did. (Miracle#4) Past sisters had been calling and stopping by and she never let them in or talked to them. We stopped by and she was so cool and said we could come back so we are going to see her tonight --hopefully!
Friday- we had a visitors center day which was normal as always. Oh and nativities are over so we did lots of cleaning. Also -- they changed our schedule a bit for transfers. Oh and by the way, my new VC days are Wednesdays and every other Sunday if you care to know.
Saturday- We first went to a member's house and helped them shovel her neighbor's driveway. Afterwards, we went to a recent convert's house and she didn't answer the door. We were super sad so we left and went to get lunch. One of the other sets of sisters told us about a girl they met at Burger King. Her name is Danielle and she worked there. When the Sisters left Burger King, Danielle ran out and said she had just joined another church but didn't like it. She then said, " I want to know about your church cause y'all look so happy." So we went to Burger King to see if we could find this girl Danielle. When we got to Burger King, (miracle #5) a member from another Ward was there and insisted on buying our meal. Woohoo for members! So we ate and almost left because we didn't see anyone with a Danielle name tag on. But then I decided to write on a Kirtland Historic visitor center card and leave our number with a cute note. When up to the counter to asked them to give it to Danielle,(Miracle#6) -the girl at the counter was Danielle!!! She said she super wanted to meet with us and said she was going to cry she was so happy! So now we know where she works and she's planing on calling us on her day off. Praying it happens! So then we decided to go back to the recent convert's house and try one more time to see if she would let us in. (Miracle #7) She let us in! She was there earlier but wasn't feeling up to talking. She said she was glad we came back later because she has been having a hard time. We shared a message with her which ended up helping her a bunch. She even said, "you guys must have been talking to bishop! How did you know I was having a problem with 'such and such'" and we were shocked cause we honestly had no idea what was going on. The thought was just inspired! Did that make sense at all? Okay, so more miracles happened. We went and shoveled a bunch of driveways and one in particular, a former investigating family's house. We left a note on their door before we left and told them to call if they needed service. (Miracle #8) They texted us a couple hours later and want us to come to there house for dinner next week. They stopped seeing the missionaries like two years ago and no one has heard from them since, so such a miracle!!! Also they used to be golden investigators with a baptismal date but then got scared at the last minute. So we are praying that we can teach them again! We later went to dinner with a member that night to Wendy's. This isn't so much a miracle, but more crazy. So we were eating and sharing a spiritual thought with this member and a man and his wife come up and start telling us about how they used to take lessons with the missionaries and how they want to take lessons again. They gave us their information and told us to send missionaries their way. They seemed way normal and we were excited to give these other sisters a referral. When we told them they both flipped and pulled out their area book. The first page of their area book says, DANGER! DO NOT TALK TO THIS MAN, which was the man and his wife we met at Wendy's. Thankfully we didn't give him our info or anything and we were with a member, but i guess he's just messed up and has bad intentions. So that was crazy. And it turns out every area book has a sign that says not to talk to him. So this guy is pretty much a legend in the Cleveland Ohio Mission, and we met him!!! All the sisters were going crazy when we told them we met him. Also we had to call President about meeting him for safety reasons, so don't worry everything's okie dokie!
Sunday- And then on Sunday I sang and that was fun and then since our schedule changed we ended up going to the visitors center for the rest of the day.
Overall, this week was crazy and jam packed of miracles. I'm sure that I am forgetting a lot of them but i don't have enough time to talk about them all.
Family I love y'all!!! Keep me updated k???
Also I have to leave like now so i didn't get to read your email mom, but i will print it out! The church is true people!!! Heavenly Father really cares about each and everyone of us. I have seen his hand is many ways this week and pretty much my whole mission and life. Remember to remember our purpose. Forget the worldly things and get focused on what God wants! I love y'all to pieces! Write me!!!!
Love,
Sister Call