So the shooting...!!! Ahh! This is how I found out about it: We were out tracting and we knocked on a door. We could hear that the tv was on. I walked over to the window and peeked in and saw they were watching the news and a huge headline that said school shooting. We decided to not bother the person and let them watch the news. We were super confused and wanting to know more. We went to a member's house for dinner and that's when we got all the deets. So gross. I think I probably slept for 2 hours that night. I kept thinking about what I would do as a teacher if someone came in my classroom. I got nervous when we would have firedrills. I cannot imagine what I would do. yuck!
This week was interesting.... We only taught 3 lessons this week. Our mission goal is to teach 20 lessons a week so...ya. We did a lot of stop bys and tracting but no lessons. Sites was crazy. We are still doing the nativity exhibit so that brings in a lot of people.
Monday December 10
After p-day we had a lesson with Betsy- the less active that we have been seeing regularly. Sister Hansen and I decided that we need to first get everyone we teach to have a testimony of the Book of Mormon. We decided to just read with her. We read 1 nephi 8- The Tree of Life. It was a really good lesson. We taught her how to use footnotes and how to decode symbolism. She really liked it. We are meeting with her again tonight and we are going to finish chapter 8. When we got home we had a text from Cynthia. She told us that her dad wont let her meet with us anymore. If they are under 18 we have to have their parents permission so that means that all of the Pinas are no longer our investigators. We can still stay in contact with them we just can't have a lesson. We asked Cynthia why her dad said that all of the sudden and she didn't know why. We told her to keep asking him why.
Tuesday December 11
Well I tried so hard to keep my piano playing ability a secret. I have no idea who found out but I was asked to play at zone training. It was so scary. Zone training went from 7:30-11:30. They basically just teach us how to be better missionaries. We were taught how to teach the restoration in 10 minutes. It is so hard. I am dying trying to do it. Our new lesson format goes like this 5-7 minutes of Hey how are you/ follow up on commitments 10 minutes of teaching and then 10 minutes of getting out of the house. It seriously is so hard. Sometimes people want to talk and talk and talk with us. It really forces us to show them what our purpose is of meeting with them. It's not to chat and talk about their life. It's to teach them about the gospel. It also forces us to teach really simple. Try teaching what the priesthood is in 2 mins. Yet we tried that and we all failed. It's something as a zone we are working on. We were also told that the missionary committee in Salt Lake wants us to try something new. When we tract they want us to knock on the door and ask if we can come in and say a prayer with them. That's all they want us to do. At first I thought it was soooo weird! People are going to think we are crazy. If someone came to my door and asked if they could come in and say a prayer I was feel so awkward. We haven't had a chance to try it out yet but other companions have and they have had a lot of success with people. After Zone training we all went out to eat as a Zone. There are about 26 missionaries in my Zone. We went to some wing place. I forget sometimes that the Elders in the mission are 19 and 20 year old boys. I was definetly reminded this at lunch. They were daring each other to order the triple atomic hot wings and acting so crazy. Wow! After lunch we had to take our car into the dealership. A few lights came on in our car so we had to get that all straightened out. It totally made me think of you Dad. It was weird walking into a dealership and not being able to throw down your name. haha! After we got our car fixed we tracted in a blizzard. Burr! My coat and boots are so warm though. All of our appointments canceled on us so we decided to stop by Rico and Christine. (Remember them? She was the lady that pretended to throw out her back?) We stopped by and Rico answered. He was really excited to see us. He asked us to come back and teach them but we were going to be at sites. We invited him and his family to come check out the nativities.
Wednesday December 12
We were at the Visitors' center all day. Rico and Christine decided to come in and check out the nativities. We were so excited to have them come. They loved it. We are hoping to start teaching them again. They said that they wanted to come back on Sunday and bring their kids!!!
Thursday December 13
We were at sites all day!!!
Friday December 14
In the morning we had a Visitors' center training meeting. I was asked to play the piano for that. ahh!! I don't know how everyone started finding out that I can play. They had a huge breakfast for us. After breakfast we went to meet with a girl named Kesha. Sister Hansen and her last companion found her and we've been trying to meet with her ever since I got here. When we got to Kesha's house some random girl in her underwear and bra came to the door. It was so awkward. She said that Kesha didn't live there anymore and she didn't know where she moved to. Kesha didn't answer her phone. Lame!! We decided to go to the library and study and then plan for the next week. I left a million pass along cards in random places in the library. haha! We had a lesson planned with a less active named Matt. Since we can't meet alone with him we had a member come with us. Matt wasn't home when we got there. It's always a bit awkward when a member comes all the out to help us. After that we tracted a bit and then had dinner at a member's house. That's when we got all the details on the shooting. yuck! After dinner we had a lesson with a recent convert and his sister and her friend. No one else in his family has been baptized but we are working on them. The lesson was really good. We focused on the Book of Mormon. Hopefully they start to love it! Ellie became a new investigator! We texted Tommy and he hasn't been texting us back! Stinky Tommy!!!
Saturday December 15
We studied most of the morning and had a really good goal setting session as a companionship. This week is going to be really good and powerful. We tracted forever this day. We found a super prepared girl named Sydney. She didn't was us to come back but we had a really good conversation with her. She is a college student that is going on some religious retreat over the break to figure out which church she wants to join. We left her with a Book of Mormon and told her to read it while she was on her retreat. We tracted about 4 hours. No one was home! i guess everyone was Christmas shopping. Later that evening was our ward Christmas party! We had our less active, Betsy and her 2 boys, come. We also had our convert's sister, Markisha, and her friend Ellie come. It was a lot of fun. During the party I was asked to speak on Sunday for Sacrament. Stress!!!!!!!!! We found out that Cynthia's dad wont let her meet with us anymore because he things the world is going to end on December 21. Everyone is freaking out about that here. haha
Sunday December 16
I had zero time to prepare my talk. I basically tried to figure something out on the 20 min car ride to church. I had to have faith that the Lord would tell me what to say. I got up and I started talking about 1 nephi 3:7. Then I started talking about faith. I really had no idea what I was saying. The Holy Ghost took over. I was being so bold. I shocked myself. I said that faith is not just believing that God and Jesus exist. Faith is taking action. I said that when we go to Lake Powell we like to cliff jump. I said that I get really excited and pumped when I am climbing up the cliff and then when it comes down to the moment when I have to jump I start to get really nervous and scared. I said that I can have faith that the water is down their and I can have faith that after I jump we will go on doing fun things on the boat. But me just knowing that isn't doing me any good. If I don't take the action of jumping I would be stuck getting sunburned and thirsty. I kept going over and over how important it is for us to act. I was so bold. I said that the Lord doesn't want to hear our excuses. He wont command us to do things that he knows we can't accomplish. After sacrament one of the Elder's investigators came up to me. When I was first in the ward I totally thought this lady was already a member. She comes to church and she does everything. She is just really scared of getting baptized. They have really been working with her to get her to finally get baptized. After sacrament she came up to me and she said "because of your speech I am getting baptized next Saturday." Holy Cow!!!!!! I could not even believe it. The Lord really does help us say the things that he wants us to say. It was a really cool experience. Later that night the Community of Christ (the Church that owns the Kirtland Temple) help a Christmas Hymn Sing in the Temple. Basically we spend an hour singing Christmas songs together. They invited us to come. I was asked to play the piano for it. It was so scary. Playing the piano in the Kirtland Temple!!! I could feel the Lord really helping me be able to play all of the hymns- even if they were super hard.
I guess this week you can just pray for us to find investigators. You can also pray for Cynthia's dad, Rico and Christine and Markisha and Ellie. I love you all! Thanks for everything that you do for me. P.s. Thank you Cathy and Phil for the cute Christmas present! I love it!!!
Lacee
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