Morning!
How was your b-day Garrett?! And Father’s Day? I hope you each enjoyed wonderful days with everyone. How are the chickens? Is it getting hot yet?
It was a week full of miracles for us! We taught a lot and did some good service. Well, ok, Vanessa has actually found a lot of work lately. Which is such a blessings, but she hasn't made the time to do anything with church stuff. So she's stopped progressing. And we went to put Judy on date. She was so committed, she even knew who she wanted to baptize her, she just needed to pick a date. Well, she missed church last sunday (Stake Conference). It was her first time to miss and when we asked her about it, she said that her husband finally wanted to go to church, but only Catholic church (because he can smoke and wear his shorts. Really. That was his reason) so they went there together. Honestly, I'm not gonna give the details of that lesson. It was a lot to take and take, the stuff she was saying. But I honestly have faith and hope that it will all work according to God's timing. Everything truly is in His hands. It's not that Judy hates everything she's been learning, she just feels stuck. Things can change. We're not giving up on her, so we'll see what happens. I don't know if I've ever met an adult with a purer heart than Judy, she's taught me so SO much. She was crying by the end of the lesson, and when I gave her a hug, she started to sob. She just stood there holding me. She calls me "hija" or daughter, and just whispered in my ear to please not forget about her. Oh Judy. I won't ever forget about everyone here. Everyone sure missed her at church yesterday. She had really made a difference for many.
So, on the other side of that we found 8 new investigators this week!! We keep having so many each week. This week our goal was to have 2, we really wanted to work on all the new ones we already had. But God had some different ideas. We saw miracles! Saturday was the best. We were looking through the area book and saw a former we wanted to contact. It's just a few houses down from an investigator Sis Carolan is teaching. So we knocked on the door. This lady hollered at us to come in (I was just so grateful for a reprieve from the awful heat!). She was there talking to a man that works out of a shipping company (to Honduras) that's based out of Kenner. I know exactly where it's at! So talked to him, gave him a BOM and got his info. He had a Grandma who was Mormon and had nothing but good impressions. So on his way he went. Then we talked to the woman who lived there. Her name is Wendy and she has 2 kids. After talking to her for awhile, we find out that she's taken lessons from missionaries before! She used to live in a different part of Louisiana where she took the lessons for two years she said. She must have been one of those on and off people. But she even mentioned an elder that taught them. I've heard of him a lot and he must have gone home right before I got here. Anyway, she was just a happy soul! She told us that she moved to Baton Rouge about a year ago and lost contact with the missionaries. It really kind of felt like she was prepared by them. Right as we were about to start a lesson, her neighbor, Elsie, knocked on the door. Wendy leaned over to me and said something about "perfect timing, her friend would be interested." Ok, so we gave Elsie a BOM and she sat right down and read from the introduction with us. It was great! We have a return appt with Wendy tonight. The cool thing is that area book. We've been through those formers before, and that one didn't jump out at us. But it did this time, and guess what? Wendy just moved into that house 5 days prior, so we wouldn't have found her before anyway!
While Sis. Tanner and I were in that lesson, Sis C and Sis Sagers were a couple streets away teaching. When we came out of our lesson we see them and they're talking to these three boys who'd been playing some street ball. The picture doesn't describe it, but just picture the dirtiest, smelliest, poorest street in Sandpoint, and then multiply that by 5. That's where we were. And here are these three awesome kids, not yet ruined or tempted by circumstances like gangs and drugs, or bad family lives. They were such awesome kids! So of course, what were we going to do?! Yup, just play some ball with them :) Us against them. Just us white girls in our skirts - haha. I would ust love to know what those kids were thinking. But they were so nice, and we had fun playing for awhile. Out in the 98 degrees with 95% humidity. Holy smokes, after like 15 mins we thought we were going to die. But we had to stop for every car that came along, so that was a bit of a reprieve. :) So we made some good friends in them. We were pretty evenly matched. :) We were joking about our skirts as we were leaving, and one said, "yeah, bring your shorts next time!" haha. I just used to always wish I was an elder because of the things I feel like I could do and look much less ridiculous in pants, but now I just embrace it. :)
How was your b-day Garrett?! And Father’s Day? I hope you each enjoyed wonderful days with everyone. How are the chickens? Is it getting hot yet?
It was a week full of miracles for us! We taught a lot and did some good service. Well, ok, Vanessa has actually found a lot of work lately. Which is such a blessings, but she hasn't made the time to do anything with church stuff. So she's stopped progressing. And we went to put Judy on date. She was so committed, she even knew who she wanted to baptize her, she just needed to pick a date. Well, she missed church last sunday (Stake Conference). It was her first time to miss and when we asked her about it, she said that her husband finally wanted to go to church, but only Catholic church (because he can smoke and wear his shorts. Really. That was his reason) so they went there together. Honestly, I'm not gonna give the details of that lesson. It was a lot to take and take, the stuff she was saying. But I honestly have faith and hope that it will all work according to God's timing. Everything truly is in His hands. It's not that Judy hates everything she's been learning, she just feels stuck. Things can change. We're not giving up on her, so we'll see what happens. I don't know if I've ever met an adult with a purer heart than Judy, she's taught me so SO much. She was crying by the end of the lesson, and when I gave her a hug, she started to sob. She just stood there holding me. She calls me "hija" or daughter, and just whispered in my ear to please not forget about her. Oh Judy. I won't ever forget about everyone here. Everyone sure missed her at church yesterday. She had really made a difference for many.
So, on the other side of that we found 8 new investigators this week!! We keep having so many each week. This week our goal was to have 2, we really wanted to work on all the new ones we already had. But God had some different ideas. We saw miracles! Saturday was the best. We were looking through the area book and saw a former we wanted to contact. It's just a few houses down from an investigator Sis Carolan is teaching. So we knocked on the door. This lady hollered at us to come in (I was just so grateful for a reprieve from the awful heat!). She was there talking to a man that works out of a shipping company (to Honduras) that's based out of Kenner. I know exactly where it's at! So talked to him, gave him a BOM and got his info. He had a Grandma who was Mormon and had nothing but good impressions. So on his way he went. Then we talked to the woman who lived there. Her name is Wendy and she has 2 kids. After talking to her for awhile, we find out that she's taken lessons from missionaries before! She used to live in a different part of Louisiana where she took the lessons for two years she said. She must have been one of those on and off people. But she even mentioned an elder that taught them. I've heard of him a lot and he must have gone home right before I got here. Anyway, she was just a happy soul! She told us that she moved to Baton Rouge about a year ago and lost contact with the missionaries. It really kind of felt like she was prepared by them. Right as we were about to start a lesson, her neighbor, Elsie, knocked on the door. Wendy leaned over to me and said something about "perfect timing, her friend would be interested." Ok, so we gave Elsie a BOM and she sat right down and read from the introduction with us. It was great! We have a return appt with Wendy tonight. The cool thing is that area book. We've been through those formers before, and that one didn't jump out at us. But it did this time, and guess what? Wendy just moved into that house 5 days prior, so we wouldn't have found her before anyway!
While Sis. Tanner and I were in that lesson, Sis C and Sis Sagers were a couple streets away teaching. When we came out of our lesson we see them and they're talking to these three boys who'd been playing some street ball. The picture doesn't describe it, but just picture the dirtiest, smelliest, poorest street in Sandpoint, and then multiply that by 5. That's where we were. And here are these three awesome kids, not yet ruined or tempted by circumstances like gangs and drugs, or bad family lives. They were such awesome kids! So of course, what were we going to do?! Yup, just play some ball with them :) Us against them. Just us white girls in our skirts - haha. I would ust love to know what those kids were thinking. But they were so nice, and we had fun playing for awhile. Out in the 98 degrees with 95% humidity. Holy smokes, after like 15 mins we thought we were going to die. But we had to stop for every car that came along, so that was a bit of a reprieve. :) So we made some good friends in them. We were pretty evenly matched. :) We were joking about our skirts as we were leaving, and one said, "yeah, bring your shorts next time!" haha. I just used to always wish I was an elder because of the things I feel like I could do and look much less ridiculous in pants, but now I just embrace it. :)
That night we went to an investigator's house. Wait, back up. That morning we had done service at Bishop's storehouse where some lady pulled up with a whole truck bed full of fresh picked corn on the cob. So we took some bags of it to give to people. We definitely know people who could use it. So I had a bag of it and went out to give to this investigator when all of a sudden I hear a voice in broken English from above asking me what I have. I look up and there's a woman on the second floor. She was so happy when I started speaking Spanish. :) I told her we just had some corn we were getting rid of it. I offered her some, and she thought we were selling it so she was so happy when it was free! We started talking to her, Mele, and then her husband, Orsvaldo came out. We talked to them for a long time out there. We eventually contacted them with the Book of Mormon and invited them to church. And guess what! They came!!! They were the only ones in our whole teaching pool that came. Well, they slept in and called right as sacrament meeting was starting. Mele was so worried, saying she'd slept in! But could she hurry, get ready, and still come? Of course! They made it and came to the 2nd and 3rd hour. She, at least, totally loved it. He's more quiet. In our investigator sunday school class she was participating and loving it! She spoke of how content she felt. Plus, she said, pointing to me, this muchacha came along last night. And "I told her I'd be at here, and how can I break my word?" haha! What a sweetheart. So we're going to teach them tomorrow. Well, we hope so. They live really far away so hopefully a miracle will happen and we'll get a ride!
So there you go, there's my miracle Saturday. It really all started because I had my interview with President Wall on Tuesday. I really needed it. I've been struggling and he and our discussion really helped me. Plus, he gave me one of the more powerful blessings I've ever had. It was just one of those special and spiritual experiences that I'll have to tell you about one day.
I hope this finds you all well, that you're having a good summer, and will have a good week!
Love you all bunches!
Hermana Marks
p.s - There's 2 pics of my district that I thought were good. I didn't really have any other good pics from this week, so those are just two from the week before on LSU campus.
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