Greetings from Fishers, Indiana! It's a little northeast of Indy. My companion is Sister Summers - my MTC comp! We were both way excited. We got along well in the MTC, and we both had a trying past transfer. Fishers is definitely different than Bloomington: our whole area here is basically subdivision after subdivision, whereas in Bloomington, there were only a few subdivisions; we tract A LOT here - like 3+ hours a day, some days it's all day long - ugh; we don't work with members/less-actives as much here, but I'm about to change that; we only get fed a few times a week instead of every night; people are nicer here for the most part when we knock on their doors; we have 3 investigators, but we haven't been able to touch base with them lately; the beds are comfortable here, and the apartment is a nice one. So far it's been great with Sister Summers. We talk a lot, and we're learning and growing together I feel. Thank goodness for good companion relations, because we both struggled greatly the past 6 weeks.
Last Tuesday we went around saying goodbye to some members. Bishop Allen and Brother Dunford (ward mission leader) were NOT happy to hear the news - the assistants mislead us and the ward DID get switched to elders. Both of them have commented multiple times that they didn't want elders because the work has sky rocketed since they've had sisters. I'm sure the zone leaders will do a good job though. But that was not fun news to give them as we said goodbye. I cried at the Dunford's house. We called Sharon and John Flake to tell them since we saw them Monday. I could tell Sharon was sad. We also called Bill & Aggie and Aggie said she didn't want to say goodbye, and I could tell she was brought to tears again. Oh, I just love that couple! The elders better take good care of them! Sister Thayer drove us to transfer meeting Wednesday. Before we left, I offered a prayer, and I began to cry again, and continued to cry as we left Bloomington. I've come to love the people there so much. It was really hard to leave. I was excited for a new adventure, but change has never been my favorite thing. Sister Spindler is now in a trio in White River with Sister Jenson and Sister Smith. They'll take good care of her and show her the love that for some reason I couldn't show her.
Before unpacking and settling in my new area, we went tracting, and we found Kelly Trittipo. She's a Jehovah's Witness. We talked with her on the doorstep and as I was interested in her beliefs, she let us in and we had a level-headed discussion about her beliefs and ours. Yes, we were quoting Bible verses back and forth, but it wasn't in a manner of contention, simply a stating of beliefs and how we view things. It was interesting to talk with her. There are some things that we agree on, but some things that are completely opposite. She invited us to their annual celebration (1st day of Passover) where they take the sacrament which is tonight, and she also said we could come back tomorrow. She mentioned a few times that she's not going to become Mormon, but I think she's curious enough to listen to our beliefs. I've been thinking about her every day since then and how we can help her come to a knowledge of the truth. I've truly gained a greater appreciation for modern-day scripture because only studying the Bible, I can see how some of the conclusions that other churches make seem logical (to some degree). We know so much more with the BOM and PoGP! She said she doesn't accept anything but the Bible and so I've been thinking rather than try to convince her of our view of the pre-mortal existence and the Fall of Adam & Eve, we need to start with the possibility and actuality of modern scripture which contains some plain and precious truths not contained in the Bible. We have a lot of phone books in our apartment, and I've been thinking of an analogy. I'm not sure I'll use it, but here's my idea: there's 2 phone books, and the areas that they cover overlap slightly, but there's some towns in one that aren't in the other and vice versa. One of them, I've soaked in water so it has become hard to read. The information that is legible is still accurate, but some things are smeared and hard to interpret/decipher. The overlapping areas represent the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is in the Bible and the Book of Mormon. Though the gospel was recorded in the Bible at one time, it's become hard to read over time/many translations. But the Book of Mormon is still fresh - only translated once. It teaches the same gospel, without the hard-to-read/smeared parts, and it contains more that the Bible doesn't have, about the ancient American people. So, that's my idea. Like I said, I'm not sure if I'll use it or not, but it's definitely something to think about.
Thursday we tracted most of the day (this area has been a "tracting area" for quite some time. It's time to change it to a "baptizing area"!) It was pouring down rain and the wind was blowing in the afternoon and evening (see umbrella). Not so fun. But we got 17 door lessons that day, and 7 potential investigators that we'll have to try back. We met a guy named Vince who welcomed us in out of the weather. He was super excited to answer the door for some reason. We talked to him about the BOM, and he accepted a copy of it and a Restoration pamphlet and we set up an appointment for Monday to go back. He gave us his number and asked us to call and remind him. We called Monday morning and got his answering machine, so we left a message. We went over at the scheduled time and no one was home. :( We left him a note; hopefully we'll get back in touch with him soon.
Saturday we went back to see a guy that lives next to Vince that said we could come back. His name is John Helgemo. At first he said he was content with his church. We talked to him about what the Book of Mormon was and he found it interesting. We left him a copy and a Restoration pamphlet and we said we'd check up on him in a week or so (he has a varying schedule so we couldn't set up an appointment). He's a very nice guy - hopefully he'll soon be a very nice investigator.
Sunday we had dinner with the ward mission leader - Brother Norton - and his family. (Steve Norton - superintendent of schools in Logan - is his uncle.) Sister Summers told me last time they had dinner with them it was awkward due to a lack of conversation. Great. So I went in, with the intention of making it not awkward. And what do you know, it wasn't awkward! We talked and got to know each of the parents and each of the 4 kids. As we were leaving, Hannah (12) muttered that it was the most fun she'd had with the missionaries in a long time. Success! For some reason, the missionaries here I don't think work closely with the ward. Sister Summers is still relatively new in the area too, so she's still trying to get to know people. I'm grateful that Sister Jenson taught me well that in order to be a successful missionary, you have to get to know the people, and there's more to missionary work than teaching structured gospel lessons. So, that's one thing I'm going to change while here. The ward is going to get to know us, and we're going to get to know them, and we're going to work with each other more. That's the plan.
Yesterday our plans got shifted as the relief society president gave us a name of a woman to visit and we decided to go see her. After our dinner break, we decided to still go see a potential we had planned. We'd scheduled some tracting around him too and then we'd try to meet some less-actives. I was tempted, both before we went out and after we saw the potential, to skip the tracting since it would be dark soon and we wouldn't have much time to tract anyway. But, I pushed that thought aside and we tracted for about 15 minutes. We found Ali (pronounced All-e) and Cindy. It was the first house we knocked on. Cindy came to the door and was interested in what church we were from. After she heard, she was still pleasant (a shocker!) She said they had company over for dinner right then, but we could try back another evening. We knocked on 2 other doors, and then we went to the door across from them. Right before we knocked, Ali came out of his house and said that his neighbors weren't there but at his house eating dinner. He started talking to us and said he was interested that we were sisters because he didn't know sisters went out. He knew "brothers" went out. He invited us in and Cindy offered us some food, but we declined, having just eaten, and not wanting to interrupt their dinner party. He said he really wants us to come back for a conversation and maybe he'd invite the neighbors back over to join in too. He told us Mondays and Saturdays are good, so we'll try them back. We found the ones God wanted us to find - on the first door. I hope we did the right thing in not accepting the invitation to go in right then but promising we would come back. Our blessings for going tracting continued as we went to go try to meet the less-actives and they got home just as we pulled up. Had we not gone tracting, we would've missed them.
Well, that's the novel for this week. It's been a good week. I'm happy (my feet aren't always happy because of all the tracting, but they'll get over it). It's going to be a good transfer. Take care all!
P.S. I've had a sore throat the last few days, hence the life savers. :)
-Sister Humpherys
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