Today for p-day we had a JAX West Sisters day, so we went to a park and
had a little nature walk. We jammed everything in the morning so we
could be done before we got there. It's really hot today. Broke the
triple digits. Doesn't bode well for the rest of the summer. Last year
at the same time it was really nice. It's April for crying out loud!
Tuesday we saw our cop friend N again! Don't remember if I told
y'all about him. He is a less active guy who lives in Mandarin
(central Jacksonville) but works in our area. He flagged us down with
his lights and said hi. We sent him the "Because of Him" Easter video
(which now has more than five million views if I understand
correctly). He said when he was watching it, his radio didn't go off
once! Little miracle there.
Painted a house on Wednesday!! Sister Martinez and her old companion
used to live with a member in our Ward. They moved out and into the
apartment we live in just before I came into Normandy. Interesting
situation. They're trying to start a daycare now, but need to paint
their house first before the do that. It would have been more fun if
it weren't so hot outside.
Thursday we got called out in District Meeting. We were at the part
where Elder Shelton asked if anyone had any questions about how to
help their investigators. Dead silence. So of course, "Sister Carlson
and Sister McCann, what questions do you have?" We weren't planning on
asking any, but in the situation where you have to say something we
asked about how to help K. She's keeping all her commitments and
studying a lot, but the process just seems a little longer for her (I
think we started teaching her in November). We got some really good
feedback that was really helpful. I still hate getting called out
though. After we had this really nice teriyaki chicken lunch at a
members house. Super healthy, and I could eat it!! There's so much
stuff you can't eat on this diet thing. Gluten and dairy encompasses a
lot of things. :p After lunch, we helped K moving boxes of her
stuff into storage.
Had a super good lesson with K on Friday! We used the advice that
was given in district meeting and asked Kati to fast and pray about a
date when she would feel ready to be baptized. (This next Sunday is
fast and testimony meeting because of the Temple Dedication next
week). She accepted! We talked about the Brother of Jared and how God
let him figure out things on his own sometimes. We also read from
Elder Perry's conference talk citing the part where he talks about how
the driver will only tug on the reigns if the horse is going in the
wrong direction. She said that she believes everything we've taught
her, her hold up was that she felt like she want being 'pulled' by the
Holy Ghost to be baptized. It was a really powerful lesson. Sister
McCann and I are getting better and better at teaching together.
Friday night we went to the Normandy Young Woman's Spaghetti Fund
Raiser Dinner. The YW raised 1,700$ for Girls Camp in a single night.
Nice. We had to bring our own rice noodles (no gluten), but everything
was very delicious. They had a silent auction and a vocal auction
where they sold desserts and food that members of the Ward donated. A
cheesecake went for 120$ and a basket of home made Cambodian Egg Rolls
went for 150$!! Bishop got the egg rolls. He had a few and then let
his wife pass the rest out to everyone who was still there. SUPER
GOOD. They were the ones I had at Christmas.
Dad reminded me that I never mentioned anything about A's lesson
on Eternal Marriage. It was...good. We basically read D&C 131...or
132? And talked about what we read as we went along. It was really
good, but some of it was a little deep for a new investigator to get.
Luckily we only read the first 20 verses or so. It got
even...deeper...later in the chapter.
Saturday we pretty much did service all day. Not the best cause it's
prime pross all day...but they needed to be done. As usual we helped
pass out bread in the morning. Got to know one of the volunteers. A 20
year old kid on parole already. He was giving out hot dog buns like
crazy. After that we had coordination meeting with the Elders and
Brother Brown.
Sunday was great! Brother Brown seems to have taken over teaching the
Gospel Principles class. He's really good! But I'm sad about Brother
Luckey. We would have to teach the class a lot of times because he
seems to be in the Hospital every other weekend. This past week, he
and two other members of our Ward had heart attacks! All this fatty
southern cooking. But Brother Brown does a good job. Last week he
compared the two priesthoods to the different ranking system in the
military. Differences of Aaronic and Melchezidec priesthood offices
and advances to enlisted and officer rankings. He's in the Navy and
h's in the officer rankings. Everybody but the missionaries seemed to
know what he was talking about. It's usually the opposite in that
class!
Sunday night we had a movie night! Watched 17 Miracles. There was
surprisingly a really good turn out (we hardly did any publicity). A
lady we've been working with in coming back named K brought her
soon to be sister in law and her boyfriend. They loved the movie! We
have an appointment with them later today. I won't be there because in
about an hour, we'll be starting trade offs.
Anyway. We need to eat and get ready. I'm all sweaty from the nature walk.
The centipedes are still going strong. We don't know if I told you
that we moved our beds to the middle of the room.
Love ya!!!
~Sister Carlson
