On Tuesday this week, we had district meeting and three missionary birthdays so of course every companionship just happened to bring treats. That was the beginning of the sugar rush. As a zone, we decided we needed to focus on working with part-member families and less actives, so that is what we did this week. We asked for a list of all the part-member families in the ward and even asked the Bishop if he had any additional insight on who we should visit. We try to just drop by a couple of them each day, but not much success so far.
On Wednesday, we helped our young women's president set up for her activity that night (New Beginnings). We created an escape room and all the clues had to deal with the young women values. It looked amazing after it was all finished and we were able to get our recent converts, Stella and Khayolane, to the activity. They had a lot of fun and are finally starting to feel like part of the ward! It makes me smile when I see the other young women reaching out to the girls. Yes, the basics of the gospel should always keep our testimonies firm, but a friend or two in the church doesn't hurt either. I am a full believer in fellowship!
Thursday was kind of a crazy day. I finally got a doctor's appointment for my poor toes and of course it was out of our area. We ended up spending half the day there, so not much else happened. The good news is I don't have frostbite. The bad news is I have a disease called Raynaud's disease which means my hands and feet don't circulate blood very well. Basically no matter how many layers I put on, my toes and fingers will always be freezing. Good thing Washington is finally letting the sun come out!
Currently we are working with this part-member family named the Saldanas. The parents are members and the kids are not. They want to be baptized though and there just happened to be a baptism on Saturday for a few kids in our ward. We were able to find the kids (Mauricio and Maya) a ride and they got to watch the baptism. After, we had a lesson on why Jesus Christ was baptized and how baptism can make us clean again. Mauricio said the closing prayer and it was so sweet. Sister Baker (the member who took them) was in tears after. These kids are special and hopefully we will be able to get the parents involved more. We set a date for their baptism on March 30th, but they haven't been coming to church so the date will probably be moved. Keep them in your prayers though because they have so much potential!
Evan continues to progress although we always catch him falling asleep at church haha. He works late every night and our ward meets at 9 so I can't blame him for being tired. He always brings his notebook and Book of Mormon to every lesson and he has started taking notes. He also is continuing to read and prepare for his baptism. I think he still gets scared about it, but at least he's asking more questions so we know how to help him.
Casey on the other hand is another story. Due to some things that happened, we have decided to not teach him anymore...at least for now. He doesn't have a desire to change his bad habits and we can't force someone to repent if they don't see the importance of it. I continue to pray for their family each day and we do visit Chris once in awhile. She's great and I wish we knew how to help her. We just continue to minister to her and let the ward reach out as well.
A couple days ago we met a woman from the Philippines named Nora. She is the cutest and when we handed her a copy of the Book of Mormon, she says "wow I get to keep this?" Then she hugged it and promised to start reading. She has family members that joined the Church in the Philippines and she's always had an interest. Let's just say we are pretty excited about Nora!
Quick funny story: so yesterday was daylight savings right? So we were at church and we didn't see Khayolane and Stella with their family. So of course I was pretty bummed that they didn't show up and was regretting telling our ward mission leader to not pick them up. I just wanted to see if they would actually come to church on their own. After church, we stopped by their apartment and the kids were all dressed up. They said "Why weren't you at church today?!" We told them we were and they said they didn't see us. We were so confused....but then I figured it out. They didn't set their clocks ahead one hour so they ended up going to the ward that meets after ours. We laughed about that for awhile and I was so proud of them for going to church...even if it was the wrong ward haha!
Ok I think that's all for this week! Hope the sun shines wherever you may be!
love,
sister smith
Tracting the usual apartments
Sorry it's another sky picture
Only in pants could I ever do this #tendermercies
Woke up Thursday morning to this and died a little inside
Had to make a pit stop at Cafe Rio on the way home from the doctors office
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