Dear Family,
This week was an adventure! Tuesday, we had Zone Conference. It was great. Pres. and Sis. Summerhays were there. I really like them. President is really determined to make the south rise again, this time in membership in the Church. He is working really hard to implement "The Better Way", having the members get more involved with the missionary work. They also really care about each one of us. We have two Elders in our Zone who are plagued with health problems. President Summerhays gave them special blessings during Zone Conference. The Spirit was so strong!
Wednesday was just the normal ho-hum until an appointment we had that evening to teach a family. One of the sons through a previous marriage is a less active member. As we went to met him, we got talking to his father. His father had invited us back for another lesson and we taught him the first lesson. We committed him to be baptized, but his "wife" wasn't very happy about having us there. When we called him the night before to make sure we were still on for Wednesday night, he said his "wife" didn't want us coming back. He wanted to hear another lesson, but didn't know if it would be a good idea. We told him to talk with her and then let us know Wednesday before we went over there. We heard nothing until we called him right before. She said she didn't want another lesson taught, but would be okay with us teaching her what the basic beliefs of the Church are and answering any questions. We took a sister from the Branch with us and headed over not knowing what to expect. Our investigator's brother and girlfriend were there as well so we ended up teaching the first lesson; since that is our basic beliefs to 5 people (they have another son who is 9). It was amazing. You could see the people change as we taught them and bore our testimonies about the gospel. The member was very helpful. She is a convert, so she could relate with their fears. Everyone accepted a Book of Mormon and we are going back this week. It was amazing to see the fear she had disappear as she just listened. She told us she had her doubts and originally didn't want us coming back to her house, but she told us she felt peaceful and not afraid about anything. As long as she holds onto those feelings, she will be fine. We are happy for them and hope things work out with them.
Thursday we tried teaching more lessons. One of them wouldn't listen to a word we said. She kept contradicting herself and saying how she didn't need anything that came after 33 AD. It definitely was not the most spiritual lesson ever. We keep praying that her heart will be softened and will understand that we have so much more that we can offer her. We also visited a media referral and had a good talk with him. He has invited us to come back this week and that he would try and have his brother there as well. It would be great if that happened.
Friday was when the real fun started. It rained all day Thursday and Thursday night and Friday morning, so things here were kind of soggy. Sister Chadwick and I have been working on a booth for the county fair that is going on this next week. We were working hard on it, and as we were out Friday afternoon, we decided that we would see some less active members who lived somewhat near us. They weren't home, and I started to navigate us home. I found a shortcut that would allow us to see a new area that we hadn't been to yet. Now, they have a lot of dirt roads here and it isn't the normal dirt. It is a sandy red dirt. As there are so many dirt roads, you can only imagine what things are like here. And they are within city limits, as well! With no clear differentiation between paved and dirt roads, we headed down this one particular road that just so happened to be dirt. We had no problem until we got far enough along to not be able to turn around. The dirt road was so muddy and unstable to drive on. We were just hoping that we could make it. We ended up running across a guy whose car had gone into the ditch and there was no way we could get around him. We couldn't turn around either so we backed all the way down the dirt road. He was kind and helped us so we wouldn't go in the ditch either, then we walked all the way back down the road in our skirts and dress shoes to help him get out of the ditch. It was a great experience! Mission life is great. I do feel that the Lord did want us to go down that road so we could meet him and help him get unstuck.
Saturday, we worked on our fair booth and tried to find less active members. We met a really sweet old guy at Wal-Mart. Some of our best conversations happen at Wal-Mart and we almost always leave feeling good about the time we spent there talking with people.
Sunday was Church. It is strange because we don't have any investigators who have come to Church yet, so we just go about regular old Sunday School and Relief Society. We did get a major wake-up call yesterday. We are now the Young Women and the primary counselors! There are only two kids in each who come, so it will be a struggle. The Primary President doesn't know what to do with the Primary program. One of the girls is 4 and the other is 7. The two young women are 12 and 13 so as we were talking last night trying to figure out what we can do to help them, we had a hard time remembering what it was like to be that old. Also, the Young Women President isn't even a member. She was just given a special assignment to work with the young women. It is great for us because we can work with her and hopefully help her understand that she needs to be baptized. We are also trying to help some of the members overcome their prejudices about how no missionary work can be done here in "the South".
That pretty much sums up my week. It is raining again. It has been nice to see rain so frequently. They are in a pretty severe drought. Sounds like life in the world seems to be going like it always has been. This week I got great letters from the family (okay, it was only Mom and Grandma this week, but I did get one from Emily the week before and an email from Ben and Sarah last week, too) and from my friends. It is great to feel your love and support!
I can see this work changing people's lives here. I know it is true. As we studied this morning, we talked about the Atonement and how perfect Heavenly Father's plan is. I'm so grateful I was raised knowing this. It has made my life so much better.
I love you all!
Joanna