Hellooooooooooo again. This week has been quite a week! Full of stress and miracles all mixed together to make an excellent week. Something amusing...Thursday, was a really stressing day for me, like really full of dramatic peaks...like, for example, it was my first MM meeting as senior companion, so I spent a LONG time on the progress record, trying to make it really good and respectful for the ward...but the MM leader wasn't even there for my reporting, he was late that week, the Elders were really rude to me about some things, and I just had gotten hit by a car, just about 2 hours earlier, so I took their criticism really really bad and had a hard time even talking in MM meeting because it was my first time and I was nervous and the Elders were mean to me, and a car just hit me and my leg hurt...haha, so i just thought the whole world was crashing down around me, you know, those days where everything just, doesn't go right. But don't worry, it was all okay in the end, the MM leader got my progress record...the Elders and I talked and got back on the same terms, and the lady that hit me apologized and my bike wasn't hurt, just my leg, so I told her to not round corners so tight or fast and be careful...and everything worked out in the end.
Besides that day, this week went really well. When I came here, we talked about everything in WPS, and realized we were going to have to work really hard this week to try to find some new investigators. President has asked us to try to get the standard of 5 a week, and so even though that has been a week point for both of us in other areas in the past, we knew we needed to go out there, and make goals, set plans, and expect to see miracles. So we did! We tracted a lot this week, and even at one point circled around a stoplight making scooter contacts when we got home about 15 minutes early...and we saw miracles.
Like, on Monday night, our appointment fell through, so we made some goals before going out tracting, said a prayer about our goals, and went out there and knocked doors. And, we made our goals, Heavenly Father let us see that when we are willing to make goals, he is willing to help us see them achieved if we go out there and do our part to get them done.
...Also people we talked to on their scooters came to church,a person I talked to on the phone through referrals and old potentials lists came to church and set up to start meeting...and we got an amazing referral from a Zhongli member, who we both have met and we happened to run into on Saturday to meet with her coworker...a Li Jiashan, or Sandy, who is really great. We met with her this week, and ended up having a little bit of a long lesson because she had a lot of questions. The reason she is interested in the gospel lately, is that her 10 year old daughter and 11 year old son saw 2012, and it really scared them, and she didn't know how to help them not be so scared...so her friend gave her a Book of Mormon and told her about our church, so she was willing to meet with us and talk about church and the blessings it has for families, and about the Restoration. We set up to see her again this Saturday,and go to her house so we can meet her children as well. I'm excited to teach them!
We also met quite a few people who will start progressing next week when we will meet with them the second time, who came to church. It was a miracle, and at the end of the week, we were able to not only get our goal of 6 new investigators, but we surpassed it. We got 9. In fact, every number this week except one either met our missions "golden standard," or surpassed it. I know Heavenly Father blessed us and helped us do His work. I know that as long as we are just doing our best to talk to everyone, we will see these kinds of miracles every week...so Sister Messenger and I have just been talking to everyone...and it's going great. We met some awesome people and saw some unique experiences.
We also got the opportunity to go to Temple Tours this Saturday. I had the special opportunity of doing a tour for the Assistants and their investigator while my companion took some other sisters on a tour at the same time. Although it was a little bit nontraditional, because you usually lead around on a tour, and they lead some, and I lead some, it actually was a really great training experience. Elder Lysenko did something really cool. They lady was concerned to know where Moses, etc (prophets) authority came from. He told her an example about cops, and how anyone could wear a cop suit, and you would believe them, perhaps, but you have no real way of knowing until you go to the department and ask if your ticket is valid or not. Then, he showed her his order of ordination card, which starts, of course, with Jesus Christ, and showed his authority came from Jesus, who gave it to his disciples, and we were at a picture that showed the disciples passing authority to Joseph Smith. It was really cool, I don't have a card like that, but I just really liked his teaching methods. They also were just really powerful working off one another. In the end, the lady still didn't want to set back up, because she doesn't have much of a desire she said, but she gave me two referrals at the end of the tour, and took a Book of Mormon. There is still hope for her. One of the Assistants apologized, because he realized it could have been hard on me to have someone who rejected most of what we taught, because they said they had no desire at this time to know for themselves, but it wasn't heartbreaking for me. I took the tour as a learning experience...and mentioned to him they could have trusted me a tad more...since I already felt so small next to 2 over 6 feet tall Elders....who both had leadership positions over me...and he took my advice really well. I like Elder McClaws. He's a good Assistant, so it was a positive experience. He also helped me a little on direction advice. I like that about the Assistants. Everything they do, they let it be a learning/growing experience for us missionaries...so I know they are good at what they do. (training us)
Lets see...what else? Oh...well, one interesting thing about this area, is that when I moved in, some members of the ward asked us to meet with this lady, who is, well, literally troubled. I talked to her Father about it even. He said he doesn't understand her, and he doesn't think we can understand her, but we can see if she can progress and get baptized if we are willing to spend the time, but he said not to get too high of hopes. She has been coming to church every week for about 9 months or something and all the activities, so some people want us to see if we can get her progressing, because she really sincerely always talks about her desire to be baptized. She just also prays to have a male child...and stalks and stares at the Elders...but I guess I'm a good person if any missionary to see if she is able to progress. I taught her the Word of Wisdom and she kept saying she would see if we all could do it how to do it, and i was like "NO, You will commit to start living it or I will not meet with you..I cannot afford to waste time meeting with you if you are not willing to try" so I was just really forward with her, but I'm pretty sure she did good this week, because she said she would just smoke maybe once every couple days when she was bored in the end...and on Sunday she said she hadn't smoked since we talked to her about the Word of Wisdom. No offense though, I'm going to follow up on that really well, because it's not an easy addiction to give up cigarettes. This week I plan on telling her Elders can't get married, because that's just against our missionary rules..and she needs to not stare at them so much because that makes them uncomfortable. I hope we can make progress in that area...they Elders would appreciate it greatly. I guess she kind of stalks Elder Mauldwin...and after he told me, I noticed it on Sunday. But yeah, I'm doing what I can to help out this situation...so...yeah. I have a troubled investigator, but she totally got the 2nd lesson, and could put it back together perfect with the pictures I scrambled at the end...so she's there in some ways. That's excellent! ha. It will be a unique experience to meet with her.
And one last cool thing! My companion and I ran into this lady in the elevator who just speaks Spanish. She lives above us, and gave us her address. My companion can get out a conversation in Spanish, so we will go visit her this week. Unfortunately, I'll have to practice to even say like a line or two of testimony, because this Chinese business has made my mind unable to translate to Spanish...I still can understand a lot of it...but speak...that's a different matter.When I try to say uno,dos, tres, it usually comes out yi, er, san. ha. So that will be a cool experience. Yay for the upcoming week.
Love ya all,
Sister Flora Bruno
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