March 26, 2014
My dearest family and friends who I love so much!
That's right! It's transfers again! So our preparation day is today. (just for this week.) :)
Big news item #1: Sister Watts and I are safe here in Providence for another transfer (as well as Sister Bosch and Sister Skabelund- YAY!), but President Packard did call us on Friday morning to ask me to be a Sister Training Leader. Crazy! So, I'll have a lot more responsibility this next transfer, but I'm excited to serve! And to learn from the other sisters I'll be over. A plus to this all: we will be getting a car because I'll have to conduct exchanges now. I am so grateful!! It will make it easier to get more done and we won't have to deal with crazy people on the bus (I have seen so many drunk guys this week!).
Big news item #2: I puked for the first time in 5 years! So epic! :) (I'm sure you were all dying to know that.) Saturday afternoon, we both started feeling a little icky right before an investigator lesson with Kalyn and Mychelle. We came home afterwards and I got in my p.j.s and bed ASAP with body aches. Sister Watts was too nauseous to get in her top bunk, so she spent most of the night on the floor. :( I laid in bed in denial that I was nauseous for an hour before I finally caved. Nothing like catching my puke to help Sister Watts and I grow closer. The Lord works in mysterious ways. :)
Big news item #3: Elder Holland is coming to the Providence Stake Conference in May!!! ALL MY WILDEST DREAMS HAVE COME TRUE!!!! The only potential problem is that the next transfer is the week before he comes, so I'm really praying that I can stay at least one more transfer after this one. It'll be 7.5 months in one area, but that's not unheard of and I'm wondering if I'll be here a little longer as a Sister Training Leader. We will see! I LOVE SERVING IN THE PROMISED LAND! :)
Those are the only big news items, but here are some funny/crazy highlights from Sunday:
-a homeless lady was sleeping in the lobby of the office building where we go to church on Sunday morning when we walked in with our Relief Society President for Branch council. This is the second time we've seen her. She waved cheerfully at us as we walked to the elevator. :)
-George came out of Elder's Quorum spitting mad on Sunday and said he was never going back to that class because everyone in there is illiterate. Such a kind gentleman. But I have faith that the gospel can change him. :)
-One of our members mentioned that they have been in an insane asylum 9 times. They mentioned it very casually while they were giving us a ride to our next appointment. :)
In other news, we adore Julie Dexter. It has been so fun to see her every week and to help her get re-acquainted with the gospel. She is amazing! She's working on getting her patriarchal blessing soon, which is going to be AMAZING for her. And no matter where I am in a year, I am coming back to be at the temple when she receives her endowment. I love her so much!
It's also been so cool to work with our re-activated member Cindy. She is really hitting it off with one of our ward missionaries, Sister Weiss (they're both Southern girls married to R.I. boys.) :) Yay for fellowshipping!
Also, the Fairbanks are awesome. President Fairbank is doing amazingly as the new Branch President and is very focused on the branch mission plan, which is a great one. Sister Fairbank had us over for dinner with Julie last week (we saw Julie 4/7 days last week- it was awesome!), and although we were too wussy/intimidated to follow-up with her about their friends the McDonalds, she mentioned to us on Sunday that she is planning to follow-up with Annie McDonald this week about reading the Book of Mormon. I LOVE THE FAIRBANKS!
And along with the wonderful new branch mission plan, I love our new branch mission leader, Brother Cooper. He is absolutely perfect. Very helpful and determined and committed and sincere in his desire to help us and to make progress in our branch. We love working with him!
And I know I haven't mentioned our investigators a lot today, but there isn't a TON to report on as of yet. We're still getting things going with Kalyn and Mychelle. (P.S. Sister Watts and I totally blew Kalyn's mind last week with TOO MUCH INFO on the Plan of Salvation. We just had such a hard time teaching her because she wouldn't respond to our questions with more than a couple of words so then we kept feeling like we had to fill the time with more information. She was a vegetable by the end of it. Definitely will need to re-do that one.) :) And Sherri Newton is being a little too "busy" for us. :( We think she might be dropping us, so please say a little prayer that we can do all we can to help her this week. We are working our way through the former investigators we got from the Elders, so hopefully there is some low-lying fruit in there!
Here's the investigator prayer list! :)
Maya Johnson
Mychelle Briggs
Kalyn Waite
Sherri and Chantel Newton
I love you all so very much! This gospel is so true and is the only source for true happiness and abiding peace in this life and forever. I feel like my testimony of that grew as I studied this week and pondered on what it means to bring others closer to Christ. I realized that ultimately, it's about helping them feel free. Free of the burdens of guilt that we all feel because of sin and the burdens of sadness we feel because of life's difficulties. And we can't fully be healed from those until we've been able to use the Atonement in our lives, which we can't do without the knowledge of the restored gospel. I am so grateful for our Savior who made it possible for us to be healed. Our Heavenly Father's plan is so perfect and because of it, we truly can grow and become who He wants us to become as we use the Atonement. I wish I could articulate better, but I am so grateful for the peace this knowledge brings. And so grateful to be able to share it with others so that they can experience a fullness of joy in this life.
Much love,
Sister Wheeler Jr. :)
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