Sister Jenson sent me a letter the day before I left the MTC and said she'd continue training Sister Haefele (pronounced "hey flea") for another 6 weeks, so she wouldn't be at the transfer meeting. She put her physical address on the letter rather than the mission home address. I got to the transfer meeting, and guess who's playing the piano? Sister Jenson. Apparently she lied to me. 144 of the 164 missionaries were at the meeting because they were doing a lot of transfers. They announced all the switcheroos before giving us our trainers. I had a 1 in 4 chance of getting put with Sister Jenson. Soon it dwindled to 1 in 3, then 1 in 2, then 1 in one! President Corey announced mine last of course. I had a feeling I'd get to be with her. She told me when she wrote the letter, she didn't know she would be training again. She found out late Tuesday night (the day I got to Indiana) But her return address (which was a coincident slip) and also a sticky note on my file that President Corey had said "Sister Jenson!" on it. Actually Sister Jenson didn't lie to me, she's still training Sister Haefele - so we're in a trio. Good thing I got practice with that in the MTC. :) Dad, she's from California... :)
Alrighty, back to the beginning to catch you up on things...
Thursday the 12th, Laura (from Barbados, writing the paper) emailed us back. We were way excited and we responded with the plan of salvation overview, along with a commitment to contact the branch president (we looked up his name and number for her). I haven't heard back from her yet though.
Friday the 13th we went to the RC to make calls again. I wasn't getting anyone and I was like, "I want to talk to someone named….Sherry". The next person I called was named Shelli – close enough. She had ordered a Bible to get closer to God and I testified of the Book of Mormon as another great way to draw closer to Him and she accepted a copy of it with the missionaries! She also gave a referral. Wow!
That evening Sister Summers and I taught the 2nd lesson to a teacher (Sister Mann) for some feedback. She said we did really well at explaining things clearly and being confident. However, we lack on the bearing testimony part. For some reason, it's hard for me to switch from teaching/explaining to testifying. I do really well at the logic and laying it out clearly, but switching from logic to testimony is hard for me for some reason. I definitely need to work on that and improve, because it's what an investigator FEELS that will bring them to the waters of baptism and then on to the temple.
Saturday the 14th we played a fun game with Brother Phipps. He gave each companionship an objection and we had about 15 minutes to prepare how we would address that objection. Then we went around and did a role play. Phipps likes to spar with me since I've corrected him on a few occasions. He gave me the Trinity objection and he taunted me and told me that he had something up his sleeve that would beat any of my points or scriptures. This kind of worried me because I felt we prepared well and had nailed it. Up until my turn I kept trying to think of what he might have up his sleeve. He let us go last, kind of as the culminating humiliation of the group. We watched the other groups go. Some floundered, some succeeded. Everyone was anticipating the showdown with me and Phipps. Sister Summers was worried she wouldn't get to talk because Phipps would just want to beat me, so I made a conscious effort to share the talking time. All eyes and ears were on me as we began. He brought up the concern, and Sister Summers started and then I took him to John 17:21. As soon as I said "John 17" he hung his head in defeat. SCORE!!! I asked if we could be done since we'd already beaten him, but he said to keep going. He grabbed at straws trying to get us to stumble, but we were solid in our testimony of Joseph Smith and the First Vision and telling him that he had to pray to know for himself. Phipps was impressed by our work and said no missionary had ever taken him to that scripture right off the bat and there was really no argument after that scripture. His secret weapon was going to be scriptures that led one to believe that the Trinity is correct, since those confusing scriptures are just as plentiful (if not more so) than the distinct personages scriptures. I love success.
Monday we went to the RC again. I love the RC. Our goal was to get 25 lessons in an hour (at least 2 principles and a commitment) between our whole district. Chats from www.mormon.org started coming up the wazoo. I had a great chat with a lady named Tracey from Canada. It started out with her struggling trying to get over a difficult past. I testified of the Atonement and she asked how she could use it and I asked if she prayed to God. I testified that He wanted to hear from her and He would answer her prayer. She asked if I really thought so, and I told her I KNEW so. Then she committed herself to pray! I didn't even have to ask her! Awesome! We talked about how God loves us and is our Heavenly Father and she mentioned she never knew her earthly father because he died when she was young. Her mother died from cancer when she was 7. She had seen a commercial about the purpose of life, so we talked about the Plan of Salvation, emphasizing being with our families again, and also talked about temples and temple work. She was really interested in all of it. Man, it makes me pumped just remembering it again! We had a meeting to go to, so we set up a time that afternoon to come back and chat with her again. Sadly, something happened and she didn't come back. We sent her an email and gave her our contact info. Hopefully we'll hear from her soon. She sounded so ready for the gospel. Missionaries in Canada, please knock on her door! During the hour, we only got 19 of the 25 lessons we wanted to teach. But when we went back to wait for Tracey to come back, Sister Summers and I picked up about 7 more lessons. Amazing things can happen when you aim high.
Tuesday the 17th we were up at 3:00 am to leave. Yuck, what an unruly hour. Everything was going well until the Dramamine didn't kick in for me or Sister Spindler. Then I lost my wallet (still no news on that). We met Pres. and Sis. Corey and the Assistants at the airport. Us Sisters got to ride back to the mission home with the Coreys so we got to talk and get to know them. Right off the bat Pres. Corey asked which one of us was from Smithfield. Soon the exhaustion set in. I was so happy to go to bed at 9:00 that night, even though it was only 7:00 Utah time.
Wednesday morning after a big breakfast and some orientation, we went to the transfer meeting. It was a long meeting, but it was good. The suspense about my trainer almost got to me, but as I said, I had a feeling it would be Sister Jenson. We rode home from the meeting with a recent convert (Emily) and an investigator (Erin).
Thursday Sister Haefele had a hard day. She was feeling kind of left out. She was under the impression that Sister Jenson and I were really close friends. I didn't do as good of a job as I should have of getting out of my comfort zone and getting to know her a lot. (It didn't help that she didn't feel well Wednesday after the meeting so she slept on the way home. It's hard to get to know someone while they're asleep.) There was some tension that day and then that evening she and Sister Jenson talked, and then Sister Haefele talked to Pres. Corey and then she was able to call her mom and that helped her out. I wrote her a note and apologized for making her feel left out and such and I would work on that.
We went tracting for a bit that day. We weren't so successful, but it was good. I'm glad I don't have to do that all day every day though.
Friday was kind of difficult for me. I didn't really feel like a missionary. I didn't feel like we were using out time most effectively, and there was also some frustration with my companions because of some sarcasm and light mindedness.
Saturday we had a companionship (trio-ship??) fast to feel the Spirit more. Saturday was a good day. We did some contacting in downtown Bloomington in the morning and sang some hymns on the street corner until people got mad at us. We met a "good Christian boy" as he called himself (he's 62) and gave him a pass-along card for the Finding Faith in Christ DVD. He told us that God had saved his life twice in the last 6 months and he got a bit teary eyed. He felt the Spirit! He said he didn't know much about our church and he said he would call for the DVD. I hope he does! I hope we get to go back and teach him.
We went to the R.S. president's home for dinner that night. Boy was I happy to eat! We didn't have dinner the night before (we forgot to eat) and then we were fasting all day. The dinner appointment was hilarious! She and her husband sat at opposite ends of the table and they disagreed on the details of every story they told. Oh, it was a good laugh.
That night Sister Haefele asked me if I was frustrated with her and Sister Jenson. I said I wasn't frustrated per se, but I have a hard time switching from joking around to being spiritual in a short amount of time. She said she'd try to be aware of that and work at being more focused before we go teach. I really do like Sister Haefele. She's maybe not as focused as I would like, but I learn from her and she has a way of relating to people and being bold. I think I can learn a lot from her. I'm glad that she notices things that bother me and asks how she can fix it, rather than me bringing it up. I hate bringing things up.
Yesterday (Monday) we went to Gosport and tracted for a bit. We visited an old lady (Vivian – member) in the nursing home there. She had given a BOM to her nurse and we got to talk to her about the BOM a bit. She said she's in Alma (after 2 weeks of having the BOM). She had a question or 2 about it, and we gave her our number to call us. I hope she does! As we tracted for a little over an hour, we got 3 return appointments! I set up the first one, kind of on accident, or by following the Spirit. I meant to start teaching her something from the Restoration lesson, but setting up a return appointment came out instead. And she accepted!
Wow, this is a long email. I hope I can get some pictures on here… We'll see.
We're working with Ashley Berg (14) who has a baptism date on Dec. 5th. Her mom and step-dad (the Thayers) are recently re-activated and they are awesome strong members. We're also teaching Chelsea (8) who lives with her grandparents and they just recently got re-activated, so that's why we're teaching her. We have kind of a standing appointment on Wednesdays with Lisa, a recent convert, and we work with Emily and Erin, who we got a ride to and from the transfer meeting with. We have a hard time contacting possible investigators, but that doesn't stop us from trying. We keep going back and keep trying to set appointments. Soon it will happen. I'm really excited about the 3 return appointments in Gosport. It's about 30 minutes away, so we only go out there on Mondays.
