Katie and Sister Sorensen. She's also a descendant of the Mormon pioneer and colonizer, Anson Call!1/26/2015
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Hi there my lovely family!!!! I don't have much to say this week so please send me questions so I'm less boring sounding, k?
Our investigators Mary and Karen are progressing. We taught Mary the Plan of Salvation and she was literally speechless. She studies religion and the Bible and all sorts of stuff and the "premortal life" never even crossed her mind. She had never thought about what happened before this life, just about after this life. Our prayers had been answered cause she wasn't even half as chatty as she normally is and is really thinking about the things we are teaching her. Its so neat!!! Karen is doing great as well! So last week when I saw her, i asked her is she would pray before we left...she quickly turned it down and wasn't too happy about it. I was worried that if she wouldn't even pray, what would make her even consider doing anything else like reading The Book of Mormon. So I was praying a lot about that. Anyway, this week we stopped by her house and she was running to a doctors appointment. So then she asked us to help her over to her car because of all the ice. As we were walking she asked if we could say a prayer with her. First I was so excited, because i know she sees a difference in her life when we pray. She iss overall so much happier than when we first found her. Anyway, I said,"okay, well should i say the prayer?" and then she quickly responded with a sort of harsh "no!". So then I was like oh...., alrighty then, I guess she wants Sister Burns to do it. Then there was a long pause in the conversation. She then said, " I want to say the prayer." I literally died with happiness inside!!!! She then said the sweetest prayer. As we were walking to her car and I started to tear up, it was so great. The spirit was so incredibly strong! She thanked Heavenly Father for sending us and that she so much more hope now in life. AHHH It was just so great! We ended up setting up a return appointment for next week so then we will really start getting into the lessons. Pray for them okay??? One last quick story that will really comfort you Mom and Dad. Jokes. It's kinda scary. Okay, so we were shoveling Mary's driveway this week and her neighbor came out and asked us if we would help him finish his driveway. His name is Bob and seemed like this sweet, little innocent old man. Anyway, so we helped him out and he was talking to us about his church and how he served some mission where he went to build a church in Africa. So he was cool. We told him about the visitors' center and told him to come watch "Meet the Mormons" and take a tour at the sites. He said he knew a lot about Joseph smith and all sorts of stuff and didn't seem that interested in going. So then we finished shoveling and told him goodbye and left. Yesterday. at the visitors' center. around 8pm, he comes into the VC and starts asking people, "Where is Sister Call?" And the other sisters are like.... oh we will call her down for you. He says, "Is she upstairs? I'll go upstairs." and then he starts to walk to super fast to the stairs. One of the sisters had a bad feeling about him and called over one of the senior Elders to stop him from going upstairs. He stops him and tells him to wait, so Bob agrees and pretends like he is going to wait. The Elder turned his back for a second and Bob ran up the stairs. In the meantime, I was paged to come down to see him. So Sister Burns and I are at the top of the stairs when he comes up. So then we greet him not thinking anything was too weird or wrong. He starts to be super creepy and wants a hug but we tell him the rules. He starts joking around and being super weird and says stuff like, "does the handbook say no butterfly kisses?" and we are both freaking out and backing up staying away from him. Luckily there is a balcony and Sister Mueller, a senior Sister, hears him and runs upstairs. Then he stops being as creepy and we tell him we have to get back to work and he needs to leave. Ah... I got the heebie-geebies! So in the beginning of our conversation with him, i invited him to start taking the lessons. He agreed and sounded interested. Now that we are completely creeped out, we will be sending the Elders over to see if he still would be interested in the lessons. I guessing he won't be. The scary part is he is neighbors with Mary so we don't know what to do to avoid him. Anyway, pray for Bob that he will stop being creepy and that we won't have anymore problems with him. I just hope he doesn't come back to the VC. The Church is true! The mission is hard but it is worth every second! I honestly think about my decision to go on a mission all the time and am so grateful i made the choice to go. I didn't realize how crazy it was to just go on a mission 'til i got here. I mean i could have gone to some crazy foreign country. I am so blessed and I know that Heavenly Father has me where i am suppose to be, with who i am suppose to be with, and when i am suppose to be there. God has a plan and we just have to have faith that everything will work out. Trust in Him and follow the path He has provided for us to get home safely! Love y'all sooo much! -Sister Call Happy MLK day! I have so little time but so much to say so this letter may be all over the place. Okay, THIS WEEK WAS AWESOME!!!! We had like 15 lessons this week!!!! And we have two new investigators. Karen and Mary are both now taking the lessons. Karen has had a major change of heart and is the coolest lady!!! I see a lot in her that i hadn't seen before. A couple lessons ago we asked if we could say a prayer with her and she agreed. The next time we went over she said, "are you going to say a prayer with me again? Cause your last prayer really worked and i need more." So we taught her about prayer and asked her to take the lessons. She said yes!!! She seems more and more prepared and ready every time we see her. She is like a completely different person! And then Mary agreed to take the lessons too. We were at her house and I felt inspired to ask her to take the lessons super randomly. She was in the middle of showing us her woodwork she does and I just said, "Mary, can we teach you about our church?" I don't think i phrased it quite right, but she agreed and now we are teaching her! Our lessons are a little complicated with her because she is everywhere. She also is super religious and loves to talk about the many churches she has been a part of. So it can be frustrating. We just have to make sure she understands our purpose better.
Oh... we also went on exchanges this week which is always refreshing. I love seeing the ways other missionaries work! It shows me where I need to improve and I love it!!! Have I told y'all about Alexandria? Shes a recent convert with 4 kids. She just had a baby that was super premature. She was 2.15lbs and is such a miracle baby! Anyways, Alexandria isn't married and lives off of government money and was having a super rough time in life. She requested a bible online and the missionaries brought it over and she started taking the lessons. Anyways, 3 years later and baptized, her life is now so much better! She is awesome!!! We have been helping her a lot with scripture reading and we are getting members to get over and read the scriptures with her 2-3times a week. Its really helping her!!! She loves it! Ah i have more to tell you but so little time so I'll have to tell next week! Oh before I forget, my companion and I did get a ticket. Which super sucked. I'm sorry parents! FORGIVE ME! I will be a better co driver! Oh also Brother Moody-- Brother and Sister Moody, Dads old Ohio friends came out to see me. They tried to come last week to hear my musical number but they missed me because they didn't know the church times changed. This week they came and hugged me and talked with me for a few. They are so sweet! I wanted a picture with them but they wouldn't let me take one because they thought they didn't look good. I was so sad! Also they look great. They are just crazy. Is there anything else I'm missing?!?! Well, I love you family! The church is true and I am so grateful for missionary work and to be a missionary. The greatest work is missionary work. There is no greater gift then sharing the gospel! And people may not see that at first, but once they discover the gospels truth, they will be eternally grateful. Be courageous and spread the light of the gospel! I love all y'all!!!! -Sister Call 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 |
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