Back to the Basics

This week has been really great! I have been reminded of and brought back to basics of finding, teaching and baptizing.  

Last Monday we had a super cool experience with a member, Sister N*. She comes out with us almost every week, she is THE BEST because she truly understands the members role in missionary work. We knocked on so many doors for about an hour with no luck and then we were inspired to go visit a part member family that we had just visited not too long ago. We knocked and they didn't answer so as we were leaving they pulled up! We had an amazing lesson with them about the Book of Mormon and at the end, the non-member dad said the most heart felt and powerful prayer ever asking God for direction and guidance. I truly know that Heavenly Father has a plan for all of His children and it's all in His timing because if we would have gone over there earlier then we would not have met with them! The Dad, is also super prepared and really searching for the truth, the only hard thing is he works on sundays so he can't come to church. So we are still going to pray and work hard with that family. I also learned not to quit before the miracle! After an hour of nothing, but continued diligence, the miracle happened! 2 Nephi 27:23, God works according to our faith. Never Lose Faith!

We did a lot of community service this week for the members in our ward, less actives and then just random people we find. Since we are super trying hard to find more people to teach we talk to Everyone that we see, we go tracting, ask people if they need service or volunteer work, ask about peoples families and just everything we can. I know without a doubt that Heavenly Father is preparing people out there for us to teach. We did meet a couple people actually that set up a return appointment to come back this week so that's exciting! Also during service we have been talking to our less active, sister W*. We challenged her to read the first chapter of the Book of Mormon and after many times of encouragement she finally did. The next day her new job called her and said her background check came in and she starts orientation on Monday!! That was such huge miracle that we know happened because she exercised her faith and put God first.

On Friday we had a lesson with T*, our Jehovah Witness investigator at the church! It was super cool because our other lessons were always outside in his driveway and there was a complete difference in the church building. We gave him a church tour and talked about the plan of salvation, even though it was a little different from what he grew up believing he took it pretty well. and I know that it's because of the spirit that is in the church. He really enjoyed it and actually sent us a message on facebook later that night thanking us for the good time that he had.

some other cool things that happened this week:

-I went on exchanges with one of the sisters that will be taking my place in a week

-in the morning while we were running one day we saw 2 coyotes run right in front of us! It was pretty crazy and slightly scary at the same time.

-for dinner I tried deer meat for the first time, it was in the form of like a sausage. it was pretty good!

-A* got her temple recommend on Sunday and is going to do baptisms for the dead this Friday with the ward! So excited for her and the progress she is making, even though her baby could come at any time!

Life is great! I love the gospel, I love my companion Sister Bullard, I love Maricopa and I love being a missionary. It is bittersweet as this is my last week here, but I will definitely go where the Lord wants me to go!

Happy Valentines Day! I love you all!

Sister Dewey

Transfers

This week has been so totally crazy! The biggest miracle ever happened!!

So it turns out that Sister Bullard and I are both leaving Maricopa... that's not the miracle. The miracle is that we are staying together in our new area!!!! That seriously NEVER happens, being transferred together. We are so stoked. The crazy part is that the members we live with now are out of town, so because they don't want 2 strangers to be in their house when they get back we are going to stay in Maricopa for 2 more weeks until they get home! Then we will both leave and go to a Young Single Adult ward! It will be different not working with families but I'm just glad we get to stay together and I know this is what the Lord wants for us at this time. It was weird going to transfers and seeing our name go to a different ward but then we got to come back to Maricopa for 2 more weeks! I have been here for 7 months now and going on 8 and I still LOVE  IT! So we are going to work our hardest these next 2 weeks to find more people to teach!

Another crazy thing that happened is about this one guy we have been teaching. He's the one with the brain injury where we don't really know how much he understands. But he has been coming to church, so that's great! This week we found out that he looks at me more than just a missionary... He told Sister Bullard that I was making "googly eyes at him and he was making them back at me" during the lesson and that's why he couldn't focus. He then proceeded to tell her that he was in love with me and called us like 3 times a day to have us come over and see him. Then he started posting shrines on Facebook using the Book of Mormon and other pamphlets we had given him... it was super weird. We talked to him yesterday and hopefully made things VERY CLEAR with him that that is not our purpose as missionaries and that we can't come by anymore. oh the joys of being a sister missionary. haha

The craziness continues as we played Zone sports last Monday we played chair soccer and I guess after not playing soccer for a long time I forgot how competitive I am... I accidentally tripped one of the other sisters and she got a minor concussion. I had a long repentance process with that one... haha so because A* got baptized we don't have any other super solid people we are working with, so for the past couple weeks and especially these next 2 weeks we are doing a lot of finding. By going tracting, talking to everyone we see, asking members for referrals, just doing everything we can! We talked to this lady one day that told us we were going to Hell because we were being deceived by false doctrine. That was fun and took a lot of patience not to bash back with her.

But don't worry, "No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing"! There were many tender mercies this week as well! For FHE on Monday we got to go with T* and her family to the temple visitors center to watch Meet the Mormons! I got a really cool blessing from one of the members telling me that my next phase of my mission is going to be really impactful and rewarding! A less active, Brother R*, told us we were his 2 little angels and then he had never let any missionaries in his house before us! We read the Book of Mormon with our Jehovah Witness friend and he really enjoyed it and is going to read a couple chapters a day! While getting lost in the desert, we asked for directions, only to find out the guy we asked his a less active member living with his non-member girlfriend and they said we could come back! We met A*'s neighbor, who is not religious at all, but her 7 year old daughter has lots of questions so she invited us back as well! We found this less active lady who has a 13 year old granddaughter that she wants us to teach and baptize!

so I don't know if you know the parable of the wheat and the tares, but that is kind of my life right now! And it takes a lot of patience and longsuffering to not pull the tares out... But we are finding the wheat and helping it to grow! Matthew 13:24-30.

I love you all and I am so grateful for your love and support! And I am doing a project on Facebook to promote happiness and cheer! So I was wondering,if you want, if you all could take a picture of you doing something that makes you happy and send it to me through e-mail or facebook with a sentence or two of why it makes you happy! And then I can post it on my wall! Thanks so much, I am excited to see all of your great and HAPPY pictures! have a HAPPY week!

Sister Dewey

Conversion

Happy Martin Luther King Day! And because of that, the library is

closed, so therefore there won't be any pictures this week either...

So sorry. But I hope you had a wonderful week! I sure did, every week

on the mission is wonderful and filled with interesting experiences!

We had a cool district meeting about our earthly fathers and Heavenly

Father. We took turns sharing attributes about our fathers. I said dad

was kind, patient, loving, smart, witty, and a rockstar. Aka, I pretty

much have the best dad in the world! But the cool part was as everyone

was sharing about their dad I realized that each of these attributes

relate to our Heavenly Father completely.

We were walking on the street playing some football with

these little kids and talking about Jesus when we saw this lady

walking her dog, so we started walking with her and found out she

doesn't believe in God, never has and never will... It was so sad. So

then we looked and saw these 3 guys playing basketball in their

driveway. One of them has a "rip city" shirt on so I was like heck

yeah, I'm going to talk to them! We started talking about the Blazers

and Oregon and found out that 2 of the guys were brothers and are

probably moving to Oregon soon! They asked us who we were and we got

started talking about religion. M is only 18 but he is the most

well versed about religion person I have met on my mission so far. He

truly is searching for the truth. He hawked us some challenging

questions and I just prayed for the spirit the whole time. We got to

testify of the Restoration and invite them to find out for themselves

if it was true. The other kid, A*, is Christian and said he

wouldn't mind having us over to his house and this is parents are

probably interested! At the end of lesson I said "if I make this shot

then you all have to come to church". I missed the first one because I

had my bag around me (threw off my balance... Haha) so I took it off

and made 5 baskets in a row, so now they all get to come to church at

least once! It was really cool to see how Heavenly Father led us to

play football with the little kids which led us to talk to the lady

walking her dog which led us to the kids playing basketball.

We had a member come with us to visit this guy named N*. He has a

disability and it's hard for him to remember things so we teach him

really slowly. We're nearing hate end of the lesson and it was going

alright. Then the member starting Bearing her testimony and holy cow

the whole lesson changed!! The spirit was so strong as she testified

of the Book of Mormon and promised him blessings if he read. It was

cool how even though he may not understand everything we say or read,

he could still feel the spirit, especially when the member testified!!

Members are seriously the BEST!!

We had zone interviews and it was great!! Sister Bullard,

the zone leaders and i gave a training to the zone about the Nature of

God, how life is like a football game, and how to come to know God

through revelation. The AP's said that out of all the zones our

gaining was the best because we are super United, energetic, and

enthusiastic! Maricopa is the Best! I am just scared that in a week

and a half when transfers come that I will leave this amazing place!!

An example of how amazing Maricopa is: for lunch after interviews we

went to subway and met this super cool guy named D*. He started

talking to us and asked about Joseph Smith. So we taught him the

restoration, gave him a book of Mormon, and got his address for the

elders to go by! No big deal, this all happened in subway.

We had a lesson with A* this week and went over the baptism

interview questions! She is so far good to go for her baptism on

Saturday! We are so excited for her and we will continue to pray for

her!

We talked to this crazy girl on the street. She is a

sophomore, Protestant, and very against MORMONS. She started talking

to us and bringing up all this anti material. She had a book with her

that talked about all the wrong things about Mormonism. Apparently she

goes on mission trips around the world too. I asked her what her

purpose was in her mission trips and she said to go out and tell the

world how Mormonism is wrong. It was pretty sad and pitiful if you ask

me. But we were very kind and then just went our way.

We taught a Jehovah's Witness this week about the restoration and he

actually took it surprisingly well! He pretty much accepted Joseph

Smith and said he would pray about it and soft committed to baptism if

he found out he knew it was true. He still is insistent on giving us

his Bible and pamphlets though. So we will see how it goes!

Last night was the best ever! Our recent convert T* spoke at the

mission president's devotional! When she spoke it was so wonderful!

She was a natural and truly spoke with the spirit! I got a little

teary-eyed as she testified of this gospel! It was so cool to see how

truly converted she is. We found out she went to the Gilbert

Temple to do baptisms for the dead for the first time! Every time she

talks about her conversion she just shines and light is just beaming

from her! I love her so much and I'm so grateful to be a part of her

conversion. I know without a doubt that this gospel is true and that

it truly does change our lives if we let it. May we ever be more

converted today than we were yesterday! I love you all! Have a

wonderful week!

Sister Dewey

For Sis. Dewey's Birthday!

Temple day with the Zone

Sis. Dewey's birthday!

Christmas morning with sis. Dewey & sis. B