Week 51

Mon, Jun 10, 2013 at 10:13 AM

Hola family,

Well, well, well...here I am in the good ol' Wake Forest public library.  To start, hurrah for Israel on Tropical Storm Andrea.  No one even told us it was coming.  We just woke up one day and it was raining...and then it didn't stop...we biked to our dinner appointment that night...and got soaked.  Didn't even bring our ponchos because we didn't know we were in the middle of a tropical storm.  We got a ton of flash flood warnings though. 

Next thought...it's disgusting how expensive everything is...especially shipping...but I also bought brake pads...I haven't had back brakes for about 6 months or so :)  Good story on the condo.  Sounds like fun.  I live in an apartment.  It's pretty nice.  Since normally Wake 1 and 2 would share the car, we get the car full time since we are wake 1 and 2...back track...so we are covering Wake Forest 1st ward and half of Wake Forest 2nd ward aka church from 7:45 to 4:15 on Sunday :)  Also, aka lots of ground to cover.  To spice up life even more, we're whitewashing Wake 1 aka we didn't really know anyone there...not even the two investigators who got baptized 5 days after we arrived.  The baptism went really really well though.  I got to play the piano :)  and there was tons of ward support.  Then last night, we went to a fireside for recent converts and investigators at the mission home, the 2 recent converts came and 1 bore her testimony of her conversion.  Solid :)

So Wake Forest in a nutshell??? Tons of baptists and hills...Wow...and when I say hills I mean hills...I'll have to get you a picture sometime. (I forgot my camera today btw).  My legs are going to be ripped for sure :)  I don't know if you know but we live down the street from the huge Baptist Seminary.  Ahhh yeah...just to break me in on my first couple of days, we talked to this man waiting for the bus and he kindly went on to say "I don't associate with devils."  I was like "oh???  That's good since neither do we."  That conversation ended rather quickly following that.  As we left I thought, "welcome to wake forest :)" haha :)  Seriously, I wonder what those preachers tell their congregations about us.  I know some vehemently profess we are a cult.  I'm not sure how people can profess to believe a religion that talks like that about other people, about many of the people's friends.  Seriously, if my whole church just ripped on all my good friends' religions, that would be the end of that. 

Our Ward Mission Leader for Wake 1 is amazing.  He understands his role and everything else gospel related so well.  He is a spiritual genius and super kind.

The Tri-Fecta of power (aka my trio companionship) is going pretty well so far.  We all get along pretty well which is good.  One of the companions has been out 20 months and he's a really good missionary.  He has no problem talking to people and is very personable; we have some good times together.  There are a ton of Thorntons up here.  The bishop for the next ward over is Bishop Thornton.  There's a Thornton in the temple presidency.  Intense right?? I've never met so many Thornton's in all my life :)  We have 4 sisters and 7 elders in our district.  good stuff :)

So, ps, here's a good story for y'all ( I hope I didn't share it last week).  Sharing the gospel doesn't have to just be with our friends, acquaintances are just as good, and usually there are a lot more of those.  For instance, right before I left Southport, we got a call from a member of the Relief Society Presidency who was in a thrift store getting some clothes when she started having a conversation with a lady who worked there (Ok, I think at this point we can all relate to this).  The amazing and crucial part comes next.  Upon hearing about what this lady was going through, she asked if she could share some about her religion with her.  She explained that she was a Mormon and explained how the truths and principles of our religion would help her deal with the situations she was going through in life.  She bore testimony of how it's helped her in her life.  Now the last part is key, the invitation and the plan for follow up.  She invited her to call the missionaries since she had learned that this lady had our card, but more than that she called us and told us about her and where she worked and everything so we could follow up with her too.  2 groups following up.  When she told us this, I couldn't thank her enough for what she did.  Imagine if everyone did this all the time...we missionaries would be ridiculously swamped :)  Keep up the good work, family.  Be the studs y'all are.  I love you tons.  Enjoy all the weddings and receptions y'all are attending.  Should be a blast.  :)  

Live the good life,

Love,

Elder Patty