On Monday night we contacted a lot of people, started planning zone conference with the Zone Leaders, and had a call with the Bluegrass sisters.
On Tuesday we decided that we were going to take the bus in an attempt to save miles. That turned into quite the adventure. We missed three different buses and walked to four different bus stops before finally figuring out what we were supposed to do. (We asked some nice random strangers who explained it for us.) It took us about an hour to finally make it on the bus, and it was also raining the whole time. We looked a little like wet dogs and we were delivering cookies to someone, so we had a damp plate of cookies with us. It was not the smartest decision on our part. It was super windy so our umbrella also kept capsizing—but it definitely made for some funny memories! After taking the bus to visit a few people, we switched to the car and went to dinner with the Noehrens. I love them! We talked a lot about track and missionary standards. It was really funny because they just kept asking us questions. After dinner we did some service for a lady, had ward correlation, and got exchange information to the Danville sisters.
On Wednesday, we had 8 lessons scheduled. Only two of the 8 lessons ended up going through, though. One of the lessons that did happen was with three of our newer friends. They all speak Haitian Creole, but only one is fluent in English. He was translating back and forth during the conversation. The funniest part was when one of them was very firmly saying it was wrong to use water for the Sacrament (in Haitian Creole). The one translating was very obviously toning down what his uncle was saying so that it sounded nicer. After their lesson, all of our friends canceled for one reason or another, so we ended up visiting a few people instead. We got to visit some of our friends to drop off cookies and it turned into us setting up a lesson for the next day! We also washed our car because we realized there was no way that was going to happen on Thursday. Wednesday night we had a phone call lesson with our friend Miss Jay. It was probably the best lesson we have had with her because she is a kentucky talker, but she actually took time to listen to what we were saying!
Thursday we had a zone comp study in the morning. The focus was on Easter. After Zone comp study we finished planning zone conference with the Zone leaders. We then spent 20 minutes frantically finding someone to give our friend a priesthood blessing and finding a woman to come too because otherwise we would not be able to be there. We found people, but that left 10 minutes for us to grab something for lunch and fly over to the hospital. The priesthood blessing turned into a short lesson and our friend was so excited. He said, “If it is from God, then I want it.” After that we had a phone call lesson with our new member KC. We were reading the scriptures with him, but then started talking about God helping us through our challenges instead. After his lesson we had a lesson with our friends Chris and Kelli. They are so funny. Chris was telling us about how he is super stuck in his ways, but it confuses him because he is so intrigued by the Book of Mormon and wants to learn more. It was a really good lesson in which we talked about a lot of different topics (the gathering of Israel, the godhead, etc.) They also told us that they want to come to church with us some time, so that was super exciting! After their lesson we had another phone call lesson with our friend Janis. We read Alma 34 with her and talked about Christ's sacrifice for us. She is a super funny and sweet old lady! After her phone call we had a lesson with our friend Darren and his with Cora. They are super involved in their own church, but love when we come over because it gives them new things to think about. They are both committed to reading the Book of Mormon cover to cover. After that we flew across town to have a lesson with our friend Kahmari. We had a member coming with us, but she ended up canceling last minute. That left us in a predicament because we needed an adult present (Kahmari is a minor) and her parents were busy. We ended up awkwardly having a video call lesson with her while sitting in our car in front of her house, but we did get to have our lesson! After that we flew back to the apartment for a 15-minute dinner before going to a lesson with our new friend. He is quite the character. We ended up having our lesson with him standing in the street because why not? He basically told us his entire life story, and it was wild! He wants to turn his life around because he grew up in the cornbread Mafia, served 20+ years in prison for attempted murder, drove through someone’ house in his car multiple times, and was engaged to marry a black widow (someone who marries someone and then slowly kills them to get their life insurance). Despite his wild background, he is super genuine and has such a desire to learn the truth! After his lesson we had a call with the Richmond ASL sisters and then called it a night!
Friday morning we got ready quickly and put together Cornish pasties, so that they could cook later during our lesson. We then went to zone conference. Kind of cool that it happened to fall on Good Friday! We started by doing car Inspections. Elder Zahlman (the vehicle coordinator) came up to me during Inspections. He said he had a question that he was embarrassed to ask, and I was expecting something profound. He then proceeded to ask me how to pronounce my first name.🤣 After car inspections we had a slight panic because we were missing a companionship of sisters in our zone. It turns out they accidentally drove to Louisville instead of Lexington!
Zone conference was really good and the main focus was Preach My gospel. We had the realization a little before lunch that we left the fliers we were supposed to hand out at our apartment. We sacrificed our lunch break to go get them and a 30-minute round trip ended up taking 50 minutes. There were some wild cars on the drive to the apartment (someone driving 20 in a 55, someone repeatedly swerving in front of me, and a school bus that was spurting black smoke everywhere as it drove). We then frantically ate in 5 minutes before the go-to scripture competition. We did not win, but I felt rather accomplished because I did not open my scriptures the entire competition. After the completion we broke in the zones again and taught about being a successful missionary. After that we finished zone conference all together and then went out to ice cream with the sisters in our zone (the ones who were able to make it). We then got stuck in really bad traffic and had to cancel our lesson with our new member. 🙁 We then got back to the apartment, packed to go blitz Danville, and went to a member meal with the Hirschi Family. We definitely had some weird conversation topics. The kids spent most of dinner telling us about Minecraft, Captain underpants, and YouTube channels. I think the kids were too busy talking to eat! After dinner we drove down to Danville.
On Saturday we separated most of their 70 potentially interested people into two groups to go visit. Sister Palmer and I hit the top of their area while Sister Allen and Sister Sellers knocked out the bottom. Probably my favorite visit of the day was with Jerry. He is a deacon from another church and when we told him why we were there he told us he was not interested and apologized for wasting our time. We then started testifying of the Book of Mormon and he asked if we could come back to teach him more about it another day. He also said he would talk to his wife and make sure it was okay with her. It was super funny and reminded me of the scripture, “[people are] only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it.” We also got to pet his dog and goat while we were talking to him. The scariest visit of the day was the last one of the night. We all skipped dinner to visit more people, so it was around 8:30 pm. We went to the address of a referral and it was an abandoned building. The map was showing that the house was further up though, past some trees. We did not feel comfortable driving the car on the uneaten ground, so we parked and decided to walk. We ended up in a beautiful field of wildflowers and it had a pretty sunset. We realized though that there was obviously no house, so we headed back to the car. While I was backing Sister Palmer, I heard something moving towards us in the woods. I then got the gut feeling that we needed to be gone. Nothing happened, but it definitely had us both a little stressed. We got back to the apartment three minutes before curfew and ate dinner.
Sunday morning Sister Sellers wrote her talk and we drove back to Tates Creek. We got back to our area 15 minutes before church started. Five of our friends made it to church!! That was a pretty exciting way to celebrate easter! After church we studied and started planning for the week. We then had dinner with the Shumways. They are a sweet older couple in the Commonwealth branch and they got permission to have our whole district over. They are super sweet and kind of funny. After dinner we called the Somerset sisters, drove home, and finally updated the past 5 days!
This week was a testament that diligence pays off and God will make miracles happen. Despite having 2 entire days not spent finding and teaching in our area we were about to have 9 lessons and continue to have people express interest. God truly can do his own work, and I am thankful that he allows me to be part of it!
Pictures:
On Saturday we separated most of their 70 potentially interested people into two groups to go visit. Sister Palmer and I hit the top of their area while Sister Allen and Sister Sellers knocked out the bottom. Probably my favorite visit of the day was with Jerry. He is a deacon from another church and when we told him why we were there he told us he was not interested and apologized for wasting our time. We then started testifying of the Book of Mormon and he asked if we could come back to teach him more about it another day. He also said he would talk to his wife and make sure it was okay with her. It was super funny and reminded me of the scripture, “[people are] only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it.” We also got to pet his dog and goat while we were talking to him. The scariest visit of the day was the last one of the night. We all skipped dinner to visit more people, so it was around 8:30 pm. We went to the address of a referral and it was an abandoned building. The map was showing that the house was further up though, past some trees. We did not feel comfortable driving the car on the uneaten ground, so we parked and decided to walk. We ended up in a beautiful field of wildflowers and it had a pretty sunset. We realized though that there was obviously no house, so we headed back to the car. While I was backing Sister Palmer, I heard something moving towards us in the woods. I then got the gut feeling that we needed to be gone. Nothing happened, but it definitely had us both a little stressed. We got back to the apartment three minutes before curfew and ate dinner.
Sunday morning Sister Sellers wrote her talk and we drove back to Tates Creek. We got back to our area 15 minutes before church started. Five of our friends made it to church!! That was a pretty exciting way to celebrate easter! After church we studied and started planning for the week. We then had dinner with the Shumways. They are a sweet older couple in the Commonwealth branch and they got permission to have our whole district over. They are super sweet and kind of funny. After dinner we called the Somerset sisters, drove home, and finally updated the past 5 days!
This week was a testament that diligence pays off and God will make miracles happen. Despite having 2 entire days not spent finding and teaching in our area we were about to have 9 lessons and continue to have people express interest. God truly can do his own work, and I am thankful that he allows me to be part of it!
Pictures:
- Pretty field in Danville
- Blitzing with Sister Palmer
- Zone Conference
- Taking the Bus
- 3-D printed Dallas Temple
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