Family and friends!
So much has happened, but it's been a great week! Here goes! :)
Monday night we had a great lesson with Alex Washington in preparation for his baptism (he's about to turn 8 and we are teaching him all the missionary lessons). His mom and brother were there and we working with Sister Washington to do the next lesson when her non-member husband is there. SO excited! Brother Washington has been making some great progress in the last few months. We all (Branch council included) feel like he's really warming up. It just makes me so happy! I can't wait to see their family sealed! :) :) :)
We also had a great Family Home Evening with the Bouthillier family. They are members but their daughter Zoey is 9 and not baptized. She doesn't come to church, but we had a great interaction with her and she LOVED us. Seriously, she was doing everything she saw Sister Crane and I do. And then as we were leaving she said she'd come to church on Sunday (she didn't but we'll get there). Hopefully we can continue to be a good influence and role models for her and help get her active and enjoying the blessings of the gospel! She is a darling girl and is so smart.
We had a great first lesson with a media referral, Julie Brindamour, and her 2 adult daughters, Jody and Jamie, and teenage niece, Jasmine. They have such a crazy family and life, but all of the kids are so respectful and kind and we felt really good about the lesson. Jody and Jasmine seemed especially engaged. We are going back tonight and we're excited to see their progress!
So Richard... kind of disappeared. :( We figured out what happened and it sounds like he's going to be moving out of state, but we will keep tabs on him and get him lined up with the missionaries there.
We picked up a former investigator, Phillippa, on Sunday and she seems great. She's 17 and from Liberia and her grandmother and aunt are members, I think. She really has desires to learn and build a relationship with God and Sister Crane just ROCKED the lesson and made Phillippa feel so loved. She was so open with us from the get-go and I think things are going to go really well with her!
We also had a great lesson with Maya on Sunday. Her progress is so much different than Sherri's. She's an eternigator, but she seems so much more invested and full of desire. I love her and am excited to keep helping her progress. Sometimes it just takes longer for people, but I really feel like she will get there and when she does, she will be so solid. We had a really good lesson and she opened up about more of her questions and we will be focusing the next few lessons on helping her self-discover the answers in prayer and study of the Book of Mormon.
As for our other investigators, Sherri, Kalyn, and Mychelle aren't really progressing for one reason or another. We had a lesson with Sherri last week and her desire just really isn't there. And the lesson was STELLAR, but Sherri just wasn't invested and had weird questions and she kept getting SO distracted. She left the room for something at one point and Sister Crane turned to me and was like, "Satan, get OUT of our lesson!" So, we'll probably be dropping them all this week.
In other news, Claire is a new investigator who came to the Book of Mormon Musical tour and she is AWESOME! The Elders met with her last week and she has been obsessed with Mormons for years and has so much real intent. It is SO refreshing!!! She teaches at RISD (yes, please!) and her husband teaches at Brown. He seems less-interested, but Claire is all in. We will be team teaching her with the Elders, so we'll get to teach her on Thursday. I'm so excited!!!
So we're running out of miles on our car for this month, so Saturday morning we biked to Lori Barr's. It was quite the (painful) adventure! But really, is there no such thing as a comfortable bike seat?! We helped Sister Barr in her garden and talked to her about Bob and it sounds like she's totally down for us to teach him- she's just not sure how interested he is. We saw her again today and we're working on scheduling a visit when he'll be home and we can talk with him about it. :) I just adore Sister Barr! She's German and sassy and knows a lot about theater and sewing and flowers. That's my kind of lady. :)
Lydia came out with us to a lesson earlier in the week with Maya and she ROCKED it. Unprompted, she just asked Maya if she wanted to get baptized and then she bore such sweet and sincere and powerful testimony about how getting baptized changes your life and makes it so much better. Nothing beats watching your recent convert flourish like that. She is the sweetest!
We got the chance to go to the temple to do baptisms with Lydia on Saturday and we helped her take her grandmother's name. We think she enjoyed it, although when she was asked to do 10 other names, she looked a little concerned about drowning. She was a champ, though. :) I had a chance to do a few names and the very first name I had had the middle name of Susanna. Mom, I know you always find tender mercies in the names you do work for in the temple and I often feel the same way. This was such a special tender mercy for me. I felt like Heavenly Father was sending me a little message and hug to say it was all going to be okay.
Temple, round 2 on Monday! LOVED it. There is just nothing that compares with the peace there. And I learned SO much. I felt like my brain was going to explode. Also, President and Sister Christensen were in our session (be jealous, Victor. So jealous.) :) And then we got to see Caty!! She didn't get to come on Saturday to do baptisms with us, but we stopped by and she and her parents are doing so well! I have been worried that Caty hasn't been active but she's actually preparing to give a talk on Patriarchal blessings in a couple of weeks because she's preparing to get hers, she's the Laurel class President, she's still being fellowshipped so well, and she's going to Girl's Camp this summer. Phew! :) It was the highlight of my day to see her and give her a hug. :)
And of course, the part you've all been so excited for: ELDER HOLLAND ROUND 2! How do I even sum it up? It was such a powerful experience to first of all, be gathered as a mission and be there with all the people that I love. The Packards, all my previous companions... they are my family and my time with them is running out! I just want to make the very most of it. And then I got to shake Elder Holland's hand again and I have no doubt in my mind that he is an Apostle of Jesus Christ. So powerful. Some of the highlights of what he taught:
- Our mission should mean everything to us. Never again will we be able to be a disciple in the way we can as a missionary. Never again will we be able to spend ALL of our time thinking of others in the same way our Savior did.
- God is easy to please but hard to satisfy. He is so pleased with the progress we've made but thankfully, he sees more in us and is so excited for us to continue to grow. This is why he's never satisfied and I'm grateful for that!
- A mission is hard because we are working for the most important thing- the salvation of souls! We should expect it to be hard and we should embrace it because it is part of experiencing a small small portion of our Savior's hurt.
So that doesn't really sum it up. BUT IT WAS SO POWERFUL. And I'm so grateful we got to have him here. And Sister Holland spoke and she was SO incredible.
Alright, must run, but I love you all so very much and am so grateful for all you do for me. It is such a privilege to be here helping others make it back home to our Father in Heaven.
Much love!
Sister Wheeler Jr.
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