August 18, 2014

Sweet Sister Coleman - love that smile!

 This week has been good! Transfers are this week, it's so crazy to me that I've been here for a whole transfer! Thankfully everyone in this area is staying, but it really hit Sister Rowland and I that she's probably leaving next transfer, which is so scary. She's already been here over 6 months, and it'll be 8 by the time she's done training me. I might have to train when she leaves too, since apparently this is a training area, and that's what the last like 5 sisters before me have done. Scary stuff!  I have a lot of growing to do in the next 6 weeks.

Tampa Rainbow

We've met some really awesome families this week, which has been incredible. We've been really hoping and praying for some families to teach for awhile. There's this 8-year-old girl in our ward who kept telling her friend at school about church and about her baptism, and now because of her, her friend wants to be baptized. We've been teaching their family, and now her brother wants to be baptized too. Their two little sisters want to as well, but they're too young :) We haven't met their dad yet, and apparently he's kind of scary. But their mom totally wants her kids to be baptized, and we're hoping that she'll eventually want it for herself too. It's so incredible the impact that this little girl had, it just shows that absolutely anyone can be a missionary :)

The other family that we met this week just moved here from Indiana a few days ago. We were just walking around their neighborhood, and the dad was like "Who are you? Why are you walkin around my neighborhood all dressed up like that with nametags?" We were kind of scared at first, he was intimidating, but we told him who we were and what we do and he brought his kids outside to meet us. He didn't like that we use our last names though, he asked if we had "real names," and then he called us Sister Jordan and Sister Kaitlyn. They have this huge bus in their yard for some reason and they showed it to us. They said they'd come to church, but they haven't so far and I don't know how interested they actually are, but they're super awesome and they gave us popsicles.

Tampa Clouds

Our ward here really is pretty awesome, I love them a lot. This older man, who's a recent convert, called us this week just to tell us that he bought a bunch of food storage. Apparently "it has a shelf life of 25 years!" It was so funny, he was so excited about it :)

Also, it feels like everyone I meet here is from North Carolina. And if they're not, they've at least been there. I mean it gives me an immediate connection with them I guess, it's just weird to me that so many people here are from there. I guess I forget how close I really am to home. So close and yet so far. This one man asked me where I was from and I said North Carolina and he said I thought so. Apparently he thinks I have a southern accent. And one specific to North Carolina too. I don't know how he knew that, I don't think I have an accent at all. But he's from NC and I guess he just knows these things.

The other sisters in our ward had a baptism on Sunday, I'm so happy for them :) It was this teenage girl with special needs. It was an interesting baptism. She's afraid of water and people touching her, so needless to say, she was pretty nervous. Before the baptism she ran out of the church and the sisters chased her down. Then when she was getting in the font, I guess she got scared, and the sisters literally got in the font with her. One of them got her clothes so wet that she had to change into one of the white jumpsuits, which was pretty funny because she gave a talk afterwards. But it was really neat that they cared so much about her that they didn't even think, they just got right in the font with her.

We have 5 people with baptismal dates, which is great, but we have to keep pushing them back because either they don't feel ready, or they can't keep the Word of Wisdom or the Law of Chastity. But hopefully everything will work out! Our Law of Chastity lesson with Danielle went really well, she's working to stop smoking. But she got back together with her boyfriend sooo I don't know what we're gonna do about that... He came to church with her on Sunday though, so that was good! This other guy came to because a member of our ward invited him. They just moved into the area and they're looking for a church, so hello, perfect :) He said he really liked it and he wants to bring his family next week!

Studying

We've started doing a Book of Mormon study class every Friday at the church, and the first one went really well. We're going to take turns teaching it with the other sisters in our ward. So we'll be teaching it this Friday, I really hope it goes well!

It's been such a blessing to not have to bike anymore. We have done a lot of walking though, but I'd still prefer that to biking. Except when we walk, a lot of creepy guys hit on us. Sometimes they say really inappropriate things and it's kind of scary. For some reason, as a missionary, it makes me really upset. I'm like hey, don't talk to me that way! I am a servant of the Lord! Of course I don't actually say that, but I want to :) But it's okay, I know that God is looking out for us and he'll continue to protect us.

That's all that I can think of right now! I'm still loving being a missionary (well, most of the time)! Thank you so much for all your emails and letters! They mean a lot to me, even though I don't always have time to respond. Love you guys, have a great week!