Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Sister San Diego

So many things...
First off! I have a new companion! Sister 'Eukaliti from Tonga!
She's incredible. Before the mission she was an Undercover Cop so that's cool.
Dated a Drug Lord to get information. Then baptized him. What? I know...
Add it to the List!
Thailand
Japan
Korea
China
Switzerland
Germany
France
NOW TONGA!
Are you excited? 'Cause I am.
BUT I am also.. Concerned? I'm going to miss sister Stewart. A lot. I
kind of don't really know how to be a Sister Training Leader let alone
take over the area. But sister E doesn't know how to be one either so
all is well. HA! We're going to have a blast. SISTER PILKINGTON IS
HERE THOUGH. Just her presence in this room is giving me peace of mind
:P



MIRACLES
For. Days.
Jenelle!
Monday... One of our members brought his friend (J) to FHE! She
didn't really participate in the activity, instead she had a
conversation G (recent convert) about religion. Over hearing, we
discovered that she already thought Joseph Smith was a true prophet.
SO we just taught her then and there. Great first lesson. She was
amazed we were so normal.
A few days later we texted her to follow up and see if she had read in
the Book of Mormon and if she had any questions.
"Sisters, I'll be honest. It took a lot of faith to pick it up, and I
haven't read it until today. But I can't put it down."
What?
Sister Stew and I danced around the apartment. We asked her if she had
any questions.
"How could people not know this is true?"
What?
We cried in the car.
Our next lesson with her, she apologized for not getting very far in
the book. SHE WAS IN JACOB.
What?
She told us that her sister was giving her flack about Mormons but
Jenelle asked her if she had ever met a Mormon. The answer was no.
She came to church and told us she was reading the Book of Mormon on
the beach and started crying.
What?
The tears continued next lesson when she was taught about the Gospel
of Jesus Christ.
She'll be baptized on the 20th.
Aside from J, Sister Stew and I were feeling pretty bummed a few
days ago. All of our investigators had dropped their dates. I told her
we just have to double our failure to triple our rate of success! Kind
of as a joke as we walked up to the next door, I told her we were
about to see a miracle.
Wait for it.
This man answered the door. He was scruffy, fit, and willing to talk
with us for a minute. After further conversation we see that he's a
pretty deep thinker and he likes religious texts. He even said he
believes everything he's heard so far of the Mormon religion. So we
read to him a verse in the Book of Mormon. Handed him a Restoration
pamphlet, he took one look at it, and a tear dropped. After a few
moments of silence, he full on started bawling.
(For reference, there is a picture of Christ on the cover of the pamphlet)
"You don't understand... I know him. I remember him... I miss him."
What?
Speaking of crying, YESTERDAY! We had dropped by one of our
investigators house to say goodbyes. We ended up reading with her in
the Book of Mormon and at the end of the lesson during the closing
prayer. ANDREA BROKE DOWN. Before this moment.. Sister Stewart and I
weren't sure if she liked us very much. She's so sweet and we really
hope she can follow her little sister and get baptized.
HILLARY bore her testimony at the Mission President's Devotional
Sunday! Her conversion story. I cried. Of course. President got up
afterward and said when I called him after discovering Hillary was
Baptized in France, he had to hold the phone quite the distance away
from his ear. Haha! Hillary laughed pretty hard at that. I got pretty
red... I'm so happy she's in La Jolla with Sister Wilson and Kaiser :)
So much happened this week. I could go on for days but... There is
never enough time.
Love from me!
-Sister Carlson