November 2, 2015

"Pretty Sunset"

Well, last Monday was one of the worst days of my mission. We stopped by P's because she didn't show up to church on Sunday and she stopped answering our phone calls. And she invited us in and handed us all the church books she had and said "I'm done." She gave a lot of reasons, but basically she realized what a big commitment joining the church is and decided she didn't want to do it. All 3 of us cried. It was hard and really unexpected, but I feel satisfied that we did our part.

And the week did get better after that :) Our ward had a really fun trunk or treat, complete with a petting zoo and pony ride. And there were lots of our investigators and other non-members there, so we were basically running around like crazy. It was really good though! Then on Halloween we went trick or treating with a bunch of members. We gave some of the little kids mormon.org cards to give out. One little girl even gave away 2 copies of The Book of Mormon :) Kids are the best! 

"Sister Foderaro decided to take all the stuffing
out of her pillow so of course this happened."

We also had a family show up to church on Sunday. We met them tracting a couple weeks ago. The dad used to live in Greensboro and also went to Elon University where my dad teaches so that was pretty cool!

We've been going around to the young women in the ward and helping them answer their concerns with The Book of Mormon. It's been awesome! We just turn to a random scripture and every time it's helped them. About half of them have cried so far, so I'd count that as a success :) The young women in this ward are super awesome.

"Sometimes I feel like I'm in the tropical rainforest.
This thing is huge!"

I was having kind of a hard day yesterday (Sundays are always really stressful) and so I decided to try the random scripture thing. The one I opened to was Alma 26:27:

"Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst they brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success."

I made that my ponderize scripture for the week and decided I need to bear my afflictions with a lot more patience. It gave me a lot of comfort because we haven't been having a lot of success lately. I know that the Lord is aware of us and I know that The Book of Mormon is His word and we can find answers and comfort in it. I love this gospel so much, and I love being a missionary :)