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