great ending to a long week :)

What a week!

On Tuesday, we had ZDM and I went on exchanges with Sister Voievodina because Sister Wheeler was sick. It was fun :) I like her alot. Elder Bills, who used to be my district leader a year ago, is now one of the zone leaders in Kirtland. I just love that elder!! He's such a good missionary, who just totally gets it. I feel like he's my little brother. I love being back in the Kirtland zone. <3

On Wednesday, we had surprise president's interviews. The zone leaders forgot to tell any of the sisters when our interviews were so we found out about an hour before. I don't like that! I prefer having time to figure out what I need to ask President about. We talked about ways to get Sarah's family more involved in her conversion, and about a couple other investigators. President also told me a few stories about other OCMers that have gone home and are still being purpose-driven. I really don't want to go back to the way I was before when I come home and I know it could be easy to do.

 

So besides that we had a BUNCH of finding planned. We tracted in the cold rain at a trailer park for an hour, and then moved on to a long country road, Chardon-Windsor. The houses are pretty far apart but we felt good about going there. So we're tracting and we were going to do one last house and we cut across the lawn because the house was like 300 feet back from the road, and there was a ditch.

 

I didn't like the idea of crossing the ditch but the other sisters thought it would be okay. (It was a pretty small ditch). But anyway, we jumped, and my left foot  landed, submerged in the nasty thick muddy brownish blackish water and the swamp went into my shoe. I let out a nice scream of frustration because I totally saw that one coming. SICK. So I had a dirty foot/shoe the rest of the evening. We taught Sarah on Wednesday too! She is wonderful, and at the end of our lesson said, "My mom told me something about tithing...when do I need to start paying that?" She really just gets it.

Sister Esser, Sarah, me, & Sister Decker

Nothing terribly exciting happened between Wednesday and yesterday, except that we found out that Sarah's aunt and uncle who are active members of the church in Oregon are flying in for her baptism!!! For some reason yesterday morning was one of the hardest I have ever had on my mission! It was very cold, rainy, and DREARY outside and I was feeling just like really hormonal or something and I did NOT want to be there and all we had scheduled was tracting. It was FREEZING and I was about to cry and it was just lame.

 

But...we met with Sarah and taught her about tithing right after church which was wonderful. And, we found a potential family!! When the lady opened the door, she was like "Are you here to help us move the furniture?" like sort of jokingly and we were like "yes, actually!" and so we helped them move a bed downstairs and sweep and clean out a dresser and we left a Book of Mormon with them and they invited themselves to church on Sunday!! Awesome.

 

One thing I forgot to mention that President Sorensen told me during my interview was that we should focus our finding efforts around clusters of members and around the church. And this family lives like 2 minutes away from the church!! :) Then we taught John Powell...in Taco Bell. On Sunday. It was great. He is our new investigator and he's really going to read the whole Book of Mormon. You could tell. He's very open and honest and sort of quirky. I like him.

 

Then, we had dinner with the Hoenigmans and offffffff to the fireside in Kirtland!! :) I love those firesides! They just like fill you up! This one was neat because President & Sister Sorensen spoke at it, and also because a ton of people that I love were there! I got to see: The MESSEGEES!! (Mayfield), Sister Carey & her daughter Kira, who just got off her mission in Germany like a week ago (Ravenna), Sister Morgan (Ravenna), and SISTER HENRY!! She is down to the last week and a half of her mission. She is my favorite. I love her so much! Sister Calder has been such a good companion for her and this last 5 weeks since I've seen her has really good for her! Hoorayyyy!

Sister Wheeler, Sister Southwick, Sister Voievodina &
Sister Esser, and me & Sister Decker on the floor.
That's my new haircut!

Today, I got my haircut! It feels SO good. It hasn't been cut since January sooooo it was KIND OF disgusting. Yay. Also, we ate lunch with Elder & Sister Southwick and the Painesville sisters. Love love love it.

My spiritual thought of the week is if you are feeling down, or feeling burdened, COME UNTO JESUS. Trust Him and find rest. It will come, I promise! He will pour out tender mercies and you will have reason to say, How great thou art!

Love,

Sister Webb