Tuesday is here and it's letter time! :)
I hope you all had the BEST Easter ever and that it motivated you to stick by your Savior Jesus Christ for the rest of the year! I know it did for me, Sister Purcell and I were talking this morning about how we don't just want to study about Christ's life at Easter and Christmas, but we want to make it an everyday thing. And being on a mission it's easy to do that. It's after the mission I have to brace myself for. But don't worry I have plenty of time! :)
Tuesday night we were able to be with Maddie!! The coolest YSA EVER!!!
We love her and can't wait for her to go on a mission. :) We conquered Lakeside, even if it is sketchy in the dark! The gospel prevails!!!! :)
So this week, Wednesday. We went to the food bank to enjoy some of my favorite people ever! :) And in return they gave us a TON of fresh vegtables. Good thing Sister Purcell cooks and she's good at it, we enjoyed a lot of crock pot dishes, living vicariously through the senior missionaries. ;)
I've been eating healthy this week and of course it started since Sister Stew left, sorry Sis Stew. ;)
Then we had a scheduled appointment with a former investigator, Debbie. She and her sister sat in the lesson. Slightly awkward when the bickering started but we were able to bring the spirit! And the spirit had us talking about baptism and we ended up teaching the Plan of Salvation! Backwards! Starting with the kingdoms. It was awesome, her sister Tina said "It just makes sense. It's like I've heard it before."
Well, Tina, it's because you have. :)
SO WE ADDED HER AS AN INVESTIGATOR!!!!!! It was awesome, not date yet but hopefully this week! :)
They also gave us cupcakes, which may or may not have slid off the car dashboard...... Sorry Sister Purcell. ;)
And hooray for 15 minute dinners in the apartment! We've been doing that a lot because we've been go go GO! It's the best. :)
Then our YSA Elders Quorum President asked me to play the piano for him for Easter Sunday. It worked out because we were having a lesson with Netta anyway and she was practicing too! I love my piano skills, I truly can not say that enough! :)
We also taught a 10 year old the law of chastity. Head, shoulders, knees and toes has never come in so handy! Then we were able to teach the Nelsons who we are helping come back to church, the ones who just moved in. AND BROTHER NELSON WAS AT CHURCH ON SUNDAY!!!!!! He was so excited to shake our hands, it was awesome. :)
Then on Thursday we had weekly planning, classic I know. :)
AND WE GOT TO MEET WITH VANESSA TO HELP HER PUT TOGETHER HER BAPTISMAL PROGRAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND SHE PASSED HER INTERVIEW ON FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AHHHHHH SHE'S GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!! And Sis Stew and Sis Pilk are going to skype in!!! Ohhhh I'm so excited!!
Sister Stewart and her sisters and us with Vanessa!
She's so cute and she came to the General Women's broadcast and loved it and she came to church and stayed all three hours!! Oh I love her SO much! :)
After the general YW broadcast we sat at a table of YW from the Bostonia Ward. We had the funniest conversation. We asked how their elders were, and they responded "NOT cute." We told them, "Don't Worry, our purpose as missionaries is to specifically NOT look cute." ;)
We also had correlation with our YSA Branch Mission Leader, he's a crack up but also a spiritual giant. The quote from the night was, "We have to be cunning like a snake, but with our malice." Missionary work, gotta be smart and quick and loving! IT ROCKS!!!!And Sister Purcell always has me laughing with her Australian words and her personality! Fun fact: all my companions have been older than me physically and mission-wise (they've been out longer than I have).
Then on Friday WAS JULIE'S BIRTHDAY!!!! She turned 16, and she had us over for a lesson! We got to have birthday cake with her too! I told her about our cake tradition, the first bite, they just laughed. :)
Julie's birthday
But it was really cool because not only was Doug and Julie there but so was her older sister who is not a member. She wasn't really engaged at the beginning of the lesson but Sister Purcell and I were praying really hard during the lesson to know how we could involve her. Let me just testify, praying works. And we definitely have a lot better relationship with her now which will hopefully help her go somewhere. But her family committed her to pray together! It was sweet and when Julie said the closing prayer she mentioned how she was grateful her sister was in the lesson and was learning what she did. OH I LOVE JULIE!!!! She's the greatest in the world!!! Such strong faith! :)We also had district meeting, good times with a new district. We met with Netta again. HOPEFULLY SHE WILL BE ABLE TO GO TO THE TEMPLE SOON!!!!!!! :) I love the temple. :)
So I always title my journal entries every night, and Saturday's was "Happiness in a human body." I didn't know how else to explain it! I was just SO happy on Saturday! And funny note; for some reason I even introduced myself as Sister Pilkington.... Why you ask? I have no idea. I guess I miss her too much. :)
Another fun fact: Sister Pilkington trained Sister Purcell, and Sister Chan was also companions with Sister Purcell right before i was! CRAZY!!!!!!!! Anyway, Saturday. It was BEAUTIFUL!
I just love this weather, living in paradise! But it has made me a wimp, I can not lie about that! :)
One cool miracle was we were trying potentials in this apartment complex and one of the families let us in! The Tufts, his Dad is a member but none of them are! He has a cute little family, wife and two little boys. We showed them the Easter message, invited them to church and they said they could text us about a return appointment. WOOHOOOOOOOO. SUPER excited.
Then we got Gail, our investigator, to follow us to the church building for the General Women's broadcast!! Oh, that made me so happy because it was her first time in a church building, she met a lot of members, she felt the spirit and heard from our church leaders! SHE JUST LOVED IT!!! OHHHHHHHHHHHH
AND ALSO SISTER STEWART, NOW LEXI STEWART CAME TO THE BROADCAST TOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Her family wanted to come back for their spring break so here they are! It was soo awesome to see her, I miss her a lot. When she left it made me feel like my home left, little sad but I'm so happy for her! :) And don't worry, I'm still super happy on my mission too! :) And seeing her Mom and little sisters was the best! They are so cute! And I loved talking to the actual Mama Stew, she reminded me of my Mom. :) And her little sister Addy was even playing with my hair so that was cute. :)
Then Sunday. Wow. What a spiritual day! Sister Purcell and I were asked to bear our testimonies, which we did. I quoted John 15:13 which says:
13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Boom. Power. Love. I love it. And I used it with the last verse of I feel my Savior's Love. I just love primary songs! They are so simple yet so powerful I'm so grateful I was raised with them! The third verse says:
I feel my Savior's love
And know that he will bless me
I offer him my heart;
My shepherd he will be.
He knows I will follow him
Give all my life to him
I feel my Savior's love
The love he freely gives me.
Boom. Power. Then I had the pleasure of accompanying Netta and Blake. Netta sang, "Blessed be His Name" by Jenny Phillips. Powerful words. And then Blake sang a rendition of "I Know that My Redeemer Lives." Spirit was strong and our investigator Stephanie was there so that was a plus! And as I was sitting in primary the words of another primary song came into my head:
I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
I know who I am, I know God's plan,
I'll follow him in faith.
I believe in the Savior Jesus Christ,
I'll honor his name!
I'll do what is right,
I'll follow his light, his truth I will obtain!
I'm so proud to be a member of this church. I just am. And we were able to have a nice Easter dinner with a nice family and drop off some Easter cards.
Then Monday, oh Monday. Our car decided to be difficult and we had to take it in to Pepboys. They needed to keep it over night. For some reason I just have the worst luck with cars! I don't know why. Oh well. So we did a lot of walking, it felt good. And I was smiling all the day long. Good thing I have two legs that work and nice shoes that support my feet! (Thanks Mom :) )
We also had nice senior couples and other missionaries willing to help us get to appointments on time.
We did service for Sister Whitlock in her garden. Cutest woman ever!
Sister Whitlock had the coolest swing ever!
And we had the senior missionary luncheon, also best thing ever! We also taught Eddie and Jake. AND EDDIE GOT A CALLING TO BE A BRANCH MISSIONARY!!! WOOT WOOT!!!We met with him and he was just on cloud nine, he said he was going to give us 110%! And apparently when he first accepted the calling he asked the counselor "So where am I going?" How great is that? Eddie had enough faith and he loved the gospel so much that he was willing to go anywhere! What a good guy. :)
Then we had power hour with a YSA Colin, always a good time. And then we walked and walked and walked and walked. Ran into some people we were definitely supposed to see, set a few return appointments and even ran into a former that disappeared off of the face of the planet Earth!
TENDER MERCIES OF THE LORD!
Good thing we didn't have a car that night. :)
God is good.
We also got to teach our 10 year old recent convert. It was a little hectic with three kids running around and trying to settle. But then I saw their dusty old piano and we decided to sing primary songs to them. Amazing how that calmed them down, we talked about the lyrics and by the time we were done they were asking for one more. It felt good to be able to bring the spirit into a hard home.
One of the greatest joys that I had that day. And also it was cool, we weren't planning on going over but we decided to and apparently as we went over, one of the girls, Kaylynn had said "1,2,3, MISSIONARIES!" God is good.
I love his work, I love my Savior, I love all of you and I rejoice in the fact that we all will live again and be happy! Keep on smiling, keep on loving!
Love,
Sister Whitcomb
At the airport last week. I miss these sisters!
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