September 15, 2014

Funny Mailbox

Hello everyone! :) Things in Florida are going well! Update on the zone development day last week: not fun. We played a game where they made us eat baby food. Baby food! And not the fruity kind, it was like turkey and potatoes or something, it was so nasty. It was like a race too, we had to eat it as fast as we could, I'm surprised no one puked. This is the kind of torture they put us through haha :) I was upset that they took almost my whole p-day for that, it's the only day we're allowed to nap! And being a missionary is so tiring, we randomly fall asleep all the time. But oh well, I'm trying to work on not being so sellfish, so I better get over it :)

A lot of really crazy things have been happening. We went over to visit a member referral the other day and their son was really excited that we were there, he was playing with us and he went over to the window and he was hitting it and it broke! I have no idea how that little kid shattered the window, but he did. His head was bleeding like CRAZY, it was all over the place. It was so scary. I've never seen anyone freak out like that before. The members that we were with drove them to the hospital and we stayed there with the wife and their daughter. This poor family, they just got in a really serious car accident last week, their car is completely totaled, but miraculously they were all alright. We think Satan's working really hard on them because they're about to receive the gospel. We hope that's why anyway :) But the kid is fine, he had like 9 stitches, but he's alright now. We feel so bad, we know it wasn't really are fault, but it feels like it.

Also, my grandpa passed away this week, so that's been kind of hard. The way I found out was surprising too. We got out of a lesson and a checked our phone and I told Sister Rowland "we have a missed call and I think it's from my dad's number." She was like are you sure?? We had no idea how he could've gotten our number, and that's so not allowed. We didn't know what to do, but he called back in a few minutes and sure enough it was him! And don't worry, he got permission from my mission president :) It was so good to talk to him, although of course it wasn't under the best circumstances. I've been so focused on the work that I almost forgot how much I miss everybody.

We don't have a lot of investigators right now. We've been instructed to drop everyone who isn't progressing, which is like everyone. So we've had to drop a lot of people, which has been really sad, we love them so much. But the point is to have time for people who are truly prepared and ready to receive the gospel. So hopefully we can find them! 

Also, this family that we work with a lot is really struggling, which has been hard for us. They're recent converts, they were baptized just before I got here. They are considering leaving the church, and it doesn't seem like we can say or do anything to change their minds, it's scary. So we've been pretty worried about them. Also, Danielle was supposed to get baptized this week but we have to postpone it because she still lives with her boyfriend. They're not even really together anymore, but he just has nowhere else to live and she doesn't want him to be homeless. We don't know what to do about that situation either, they don't want to get married but he has nowhere else to go. And she's so ready to be baptized.

So yeah, things have been kind of hard lately. But that's how it goes, and somehow I am still generally pretty happy :) I know that that happiness is all because of God, it certainly has nothing to do with me. Unfortunately I do get kind of discouraged sometimes, but I also know that this is the Lord's work, and He'll make it happen how it needs to. I'm just grateful to be a part of it :)

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PS.  Jordan didn't mention it, but I learned from her companion's post that they are now doing their contacting through Facebook.  I'm anxious to hear more details about this.