Dearest family and friends!
I am officially half-way through my mission. Please tell me how that happened?! It has been one of the best weeks yet and I'm excited to tell you about everything that's been going on!
So first of all, we have a new investigator, Suzannah Kolar (not sure if I'm even spelling that right). She is from Liberia and is so sweet and she is so ready to get baptized! She's been to church twice with her cousin Beatrice who is a member and she loves it! We taught her for the first time on Wednesday and then again on Friday
But before we get to her Friday visit, I have to update you on George. So we passed him off to the Elders, but they weren't able to visit him last week and so he finally called them on Friday morning and basically said, "You have 3 weeks to make me Mormon, or I'm out." So they went over Friday afternoon, taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and invited him to be baptized on March 9th. And he accepted. So funny. SO FUNNY! He came to church on Sunday and punched me on the shoulder from behind and was like, "Hey Wheeler!" and then he made some comment about how we weren't able to go to his house recently because we needed a chaperone with us and how insulting that was and told Sister Watts not to let me take her to strange old men's homes and then he talked about how he always had to have a chaperone when he was growing up in high society New York. But he seemed friendly enough, so I think we're okay. :) He was apparently quite mean to other people in Gospel Principles class, so he's going to be quite the addition to the Branch. I can't stop laughing- it's just too funny! :)
Anyway, back to Suzannah. The Elders had texted us about the baptismal date with George before we went to her lesson. While we were reading the Book of Mormon with/to Suzannah (she can't read or write), she kept talking about how she just wants to get baptized. So we invited her to join George on the 9th and she is all for it. :) We (including the Elders) are pretty excited! :)
And then after that we contacted a GOLDEN mormon.org referral. Usually those go nowhere, but this was a young mom named Amanda who was very open to us, let us right in, accepted our invitation to come to church (she didn't come, but that's alright!) and we have a return appt with her this Wednesday. AMAZING! She was so sweet and so interested in learning more about Christ! She had checked out mormon.org because she had read a little book that had info about a bunch of different religious leaders and she was interested in learning more about Christ- I'm so glad she found his church right off the bat! :)
I told Sister Watts she is seriously in the golden age of my mission, so she should realize how amazing the start of her mission is! (It's all downhill from here, Sister Watts...) JK! :)
We also had a ward culture night that we (the Sisters) were in charge of on Thursday night, but I felt so frazzled about it because our Zone Conference got scheduled the same day and we had to leave that early to get to the culture night. And we didn't have time to help set up like we were supposed to and I felt bad that Sister Fairbank had to help so much, but it all turned out great! I was running around like a crazy person the whole time, but there were a lot of people there including less-actives, investigators, and non-members and there was tons of yummy food. And I sang German songs with Sister Barr and her non-member husband and then Leona Sarmie did some Liberian dancing that was the highlight of the night. So all in all, it turned out great, but of course I worried about it before and after until President Culley (our branch president) told me yesterday that they thought it was one of the best activities we've had as a Branch. Made me feel much better!
We had an amazing branch council on Sunday where we talked about the Branch mission plan. I was speechless and had absolutely nothing to add to the proposed plan. This Branch is seriously the promised land!!!
We also had the Branch Presidency change because the Culleys are moving. The first counselor, Keith Fairbank, is now the Branch President. The whole meeting was so powerful. The Spirit was there as these men expressed the love they feel for us from serving us (and now I understand that better as a missionary!). The Spirit testified that the change was exactly what the Lord wanted and that was so special to be able to feel and witness.
Speaking of the Fairbanks, we have dinner with them and their non-member friends tomorrow night to teach the first lesson. I think this is one of the first official member referrals I've had and I'M NERVOUS OUT OF MY MIND!!! The Fairbanks are geniuses. PLEASE PRAY FOR US!!!
Also, Sherri and Chantel are still moving along slowly. We had a great lesson with them on Friday with the magical Julie Dexter and the Spirit was so strong. Chantel does not want us to give up on her even though she's not progressing as quickly as he feels we want her to, but we expressed so much love for her and we won't give up on her or Sherri.
Maya is doing great- haven't seen her this week, but we caught her last night at her cousin's house and we ended up doing Personal Progress with both of them and it was ROCKSTAR. :)
Alright, I failed as a trainer and gave us ZERO time to email today, so we must run. I'm sure I missed something, but just know it was an AMAZING week. I love this area so much and I'm so grateful to be a part of the miracles happening here.
I love you all so much! This is the Lord's church. Our Heavenly Father's plan is perfect. The Book of Mormon is true and was written for us! I love it! And I love this gospel!!!
Love,
Sister Wheeler Jr.
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