Week #46

December 3, 2012

Hey fam!! 

Well wow! Sounds like some major changes are going on at home, ha ha!! That's super exciting Dad! Utah!!!  I feel peaceful about the whole thing, and I think that the Lord is putting us there for a reason. For some reason I can feel that pretty strongly right now! And then we can visit my mission all the time!! :) ha ha. Dad, you will DEFINITELY need to visit the next time you fly into Utah when I'm out there again!  :) Thanks for keeping me updated!! Keep it coming, okay? I like to know when my family is doing well and is safe. :) 

Mom, I'm so sorry I didn't respond about the Christmas things.  Ha ha!! Totally spaced, honestly. I really can't think of anything I need right now. The address I gave you is the mission address. Send it there because then my Zone Leaders will just forward it to our apartment. Snail mail is that way too. :) Actually, the only thing I can think of is another journal? 

Have any of you seen the Liken movies? They are musicals of different stories in the Bible and Book of Mormon. They are SOOO funny and fun!!! I am in LOVE with them!! The sisters and I have been watching them during lunch breaks, getting ready for bed, etc and they are super entertaining. :) You should look into them!! You can get them at Deseret Book. I think they're kind of expensive but they're really fun. :) 

Well this week was good, but we did a LOT of service. It honestly felt like we did service this whole week and that was it, ha ha!! But it was really good though. We taught our investigator Frank (who's showing a lot more interest than his wife, Ana) and he's doing incredibly well. He LOVES meeting with us because of the way he feels afterward. My companions were really sweet, and they said that it was one of the best lessons they've ever had with him because of me!! It definitely wasn't all me... not even close! But I did figure out why I was able to help out so much in the lesson (even though this is only the 2nd time I've taught him, and they've been teaching him for about a month). On Temple Square, we teach people on the phone all the time and really have to try hard to figure out their needs and how they're feeling with only the sound of their voice as our guide... pretty difficult stuff!! Because of that, the Spirit has really helped me to be able to recognize those super subtle hints that our investigators would give over the phone. Teaching people in person is SOOO much easier to recognize what they need to hear, what questions to ask, but most especially, how to listen to them!! No more interruptions happen because there is no slight delay of the phone call, ha ha!!! Sooo, so great. It has been so fun to teach Frank and others here!! 

We had a huge miracle happen yesterday. Apparently, the sisters found a "lost member" in the ward tracting a few days before I got here, and his non-member wife. Phil and Edna are their names. :) (Edna. Mode.) Phil said he was interested in coming back to church because he and his wife were trying to find a church to go to. They invited him to church, of course, but his wife didn’t seem interested. Well, guess who showed up to church yesterday on their own??!! Yep!! They even stayed all 3 hours!! We sisters teach the Gospel Essentials class each week (really good experience for me to teach less actives and non-members!) and they came to our class and then went with members, Sister and Bro Mangold, to Relief Society and Priesthood. Phil LOVED coming back. You could just see the light in his eyes! And Edna was nodding her head in agreement during each meeting!! :) Ha! It was such a miracle. We're going to teach them on Wednesday again. 

We also had another miracle this week! Sister and Brother Knox (the ones that fed us on Thanksgiving day) have a daughter that was excommunicated a couple years ago that wants to take the lessons. I was sooo humbled though, because apparently when I came, Sister Knox said Rachel (her daughter) could really relate to me. She felt like I was the typical "so-cal girl" with my long blonde hair, ha ha, and she was impressed that I was on a mission and really wants ME to teach her. So sweet, huh?! I can already see why the Lord has sent me here to Southern California! 

Literally EVERYONE is shocked that I'm from Sacramento serving in my home state, but I honestly love it more than I can express now!!! I fasted yesterday because I was having a hard time really loving the members and investigators and really feeling like they were MY investigators... I don't know if that makes sense. I guess I was just really missing my old investigators and felt like I should not have left them. But fasting yesterday completely changed me. I looked at the members of the ward as I bore my testimony to them and felt an overwhelming sense of LOVE for them. I want to help them SO badly!!! 

I don't know if I told you much about the ward, but more than HALF the ward is less active. I think only 35% actually go to church every Sunday, something crazy like that. Its SOOO sad!! But I know why. The members don't know what it means to serve each other. In all of the meetings, almost NO one sits by each other.  There are "cliques" in the ward that don't talk to anyone else in the ward. Sooo sad. I honestly was a bit overwhelmed with the responsibility that I now have in this ward. They need a LOT of help! I told the sisters my concern and they finally told me the truth and said that the ward has a serious struggle with the work. Some members are totally willing to come to our missionary lessons, but there are a lot of them that aren't even active enough that we would ask them to come!! So that's going to be my big challenge while I'm here. . . getting the ward to finally unite and be an actual WARD. A ward is supposed to be a family, and these people really aren't family... I don't know if I told you this, but I had a total of 2 people in the ward actually come up to me and meet me on my first Sunday... and I'm a missionary!! All they have to do is say, "Hi, I'm so-and-so. Where are you from? How long have you been out? Thanks for talking!" It was sooo sad. I had to literally go around to everyone in the ward and shake their hand and introduce myself to all of them. Usually it is the other way around, especially for missionaries, ha ha! I have a lot of responsibility on my shoulders right now, and Sister Callister (Sister Brinkerhoff's trainer btw) is leaving so it will just be me and Sister Brinks. Deep breath. :) Pray for me!! It will be awesome I know it!! 

Well family, I love you all SO much and am really loving this work a lot. I will be imagining EVERYONE that opens their door in baptism clothes!! :) Right Brad? :) Love love love!! 

Sister Nat 

PS. I forgot my cord again... sorry!! Pictures will come next week! The weather here btw has been great with a little bit of rain. SO nice to be out of the snow!! :)