Mi Familia favorita
(for obvious reasons)
Feb 3, 2014 at 10:26
AM
Hey
y'all. Shucks.
Thanks
for all the birthday cards and stuff (I think that was last week). Tell
Bernice and Tom thanks and that I sent them a card via Nana for the Christmas
goodies too. Also, tell Grandma and Nana thanks as well. And all
others involved :) The battery charger does work. Hurrah.
Let's see...
We
did get some snow last week. I would say about 4 inches Tuesday
night. It started out raining at like 28 degrees, weird. Then it
turned into a hail-y, sleet-y, "snow", and finally at around 10:00 or
so, it turned to real snow. And guess what, it shut down the whole town
for like 3 days. Fail. We ended up having to cancel all the
district meetings Wednesday and do a zone wide conference call district meeting
instead since the roads were still pretty bad that morning. Get this, the
kids got 4 snow days for this. That's right, 4. They got Tuesday
off because they were predicting snow that afternoon . . . hmmmm . . .
okay. Then they got Friday off for who knows what reason. Apparently,
5% of the roads still had a microscopic trace of ice dust left on them, and the
buses just wouldn't be able to handle it. 4 snow days.
Sheesh. Who would have thought. We did make a snowman on one of our
lunch hours. It was fun. I think I threw a snowball at Elder Bagley
too :)
Other
news...we had 4 investigators come to church and also 3 of their primary aged
kids that aren't technically investigators. So, that's 7 people and a
baby. It was exciting, but I'll tell you what. Church as a
missionary is the farthest thing from relaxing. It is so hectic trying to
make sure everything runs smoothly and that everyone is taken care of including
investigators, Less actives, Recent converts. It's crazy. Trying to
make sure everyone gets to class, everyone stays in class, people are learning,
enjoying, fellow shipping, feeling the spirit. Whew! I feel whooped
after church. And it's a good thing the spirit is the one that converts
and not us because if we were trying to sell the church, we would fail.
Keep in mind yesterday was fast and testimony meeting. I
learned/re-learned something yesterday. Take this for what you
will. When you go up there to bear your testimony, try to focus it around
the Savior. If you're going to talk about Joseph Smith, talk about how
Christ restored His church through Joseph Smith. If you're going to talk
about the Book of Mormon, talk about how it brings you closer to Christ or how it
teaches and testifies of Christ.
I
have ascertained due to a conversation with El Presidente Bernhisel that I will
be transferred. I will be going back up to the Raleigh area. I'm
excited. It should be really good, except for the fact that this will
most likely be my last area (which is weird to wrap my head around) My
companion is going to be great. I'm excited. But I'm sad that I'm
going to miss these baptisms that will happen in about a month. And I'm
pretty sure one of our investigators might kill me for leaving. I think
she thought that I would be here for another 6 months when I told her I had 6
months of my mission left. Or she may kill Elder Bagley since I won't be
here anymore, but that wouldn't be smart because then she would have 2 new
missionaries. .
Oh,
another intense story. So there is a set of Spanish sister missionaries,
one of which is from Mexico. I sent them a slightly complex text the
other day in Spanish (complex for me) where I said in Spanish "Sisters,
please send your goals and actuals for January and the baptismal goal for February
when you can. Thanks" And Yesterday, I saw them at church, and they
asked which one of us knew Spanish. I said I did a little, and then they
proceeded to inform me that the native Mexican sister was astonished at that
text because she said it was perfect Spanish, and she was convinced that someone
must have told me what to type. It made me have such warm fuzzies inside
:) Tee hee. Good story right. Wow, this email is bizarre, but
I guess y'all are probably used to that by now ;)
We
had a combined leadership council meeting in Knightdale, outside of Raleigh on
Friday. That was good. (District leaders, zone leaders, and sister
leaders, assistants, and President and Sister Bernhisel)
We
also played some B-ball last Monday. That was fun. I like
basketball. I can't believe that Chris has been out over a month
already. Seriously, he's almost done with the MTC. That's
insane! I thought he entered the MTC like . . . ayer! ;)
Oh,
I received 83 from mom, one from Kayla, and one from Grandma today. Good
stuff. Haven't read them yet. Oh, and sorry for being such a bum on
sending pictures. But, you'll have to forgive me. The bible says so
;)
Yesterday,
we had a really good conversation with this lady that we decided to knock on
her door when we trying to visit someone else. She told us about how she
was very religious and all, and something that Elder Bagley and I have really
improved on is building off people's surety in their faith. When they say
they've been "saved" or that they have a strong faith in Christ or a
church already, we just express our joy and excitement for them and then start
building higher. I love sharing the Book of Mormon with people who
already love the bible and Jesus Christ. I say "Have you ever heard
of the Book of Mormon? Have you read it?? NO?!?! Well, as one who loves Jesus
Christ you will love the Book of Mormon!!" I proceed to testify and/or
explain and/always following the spirit in what to say. I think it kind
of catches them off guard. But it's kind of like this. If I asked
someone in the 1920s if they were dissatisfied with their TV. Very few
would say "yes actually, I was wondering if they had any of these things
color." What we have to do is show them a color TV and then say,
wouldn't you rather have that instead of that Black and White one. Of
course all would say yes, unless you were blind, then you wouldn't care. But
regardless, it's the same with the Book of Mormon and the gospel of Jesus
Christ as restored through the prophet Joseph Smith. Very few people sit
there and say, Geez, I wish someone would just restore the true church to the
earth and bring forth a book of scripture written by ancient American
prophets. We have to show them how amazingly well it would build upon
their faith and foundation. I love it. Then, anyone who gives it a
chance would never turn down a color tv aka the restored gospel of Jesus Christ
that brings ultimate joy, peace, and direction to our otherwise chaotic lives
in this world.
Anyways...thanks for
being the best family in the world. I love y'all. Thanks
Love,
Elder Patty
Love,
Elder Patty
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