October 21, 2013

My nerdy side was fed. I died and went to heaven when I saw this.

What a week! I can't believe it's Monday again. Where does the time fly?? This week, to me, has been stellar! We've been meeting with a lot of members and teaching them and sharing messages and extending commitments that will help them exercise their faith and much more!

 We had an amazing thing happen to us this week! We were going through a list of YSA, whose records are not in the YSA ward, trying to contact them and find out where they are in their life. We were going to go and see a brother and sister, Jose and Maria, but they didn't live there anymore. But there is an engaged couple who lives there! We talked to one, Sean, and taught him about Jesus Christ and a little about our church. He said we could come back!! YAY!! Sister Sparhawk tried to give him a Book of Mormon before we left but he wouldn't take it, but he did say that we could give it to his fiance. His fiance's name is Bethany. It definitely was a miracle from the Lord because we were putting ourselves out there, working hard, and talking to everyone. We did go back when we said we would but they weren't there :( Sad. But we were walking back to our car when we saw Elder Rountree and Elder Van Noy talking to someone. I thought that maybe the lady they are talking to would know her neighbors, Sean and Bethany, so we went and talked with her! When we introduced ourselves she asked if we were there to talk about her son Zed Rodriguez. Just then I remembered Bishop Peterson talking about having us find a less-active named Zed Rodriguez. We just found his mom and his mom wants him to come back to church! What a miracle! We've had a lot more experiences like this one but there's too many to write in a short letter. :)

 

We got in contact with a lot of less-actives this week as well. We're going to start teaching them the lessons. We had a really special experience this week with the mother of one of our less-actives. We went to his house trying to contact him and set up a time when we could come and teach him. He wasn't home but his mom was and she invited us to come in. We did and started talking about how her son became less-active and we started talking about enduring and having faith and hope. While she was speaking, 2 Nephi 31:20 came into my mind immediately and I knew I had to share it with her... and I did. After I shared the scripture and shared my testimony of having faith she had tears in her eyes. I could tell that she was so thankful that we came and shared the gospel with her. The next day we went back to see her son (who wasn't there for an appointment we set up) and she answered the door and was so happy to see us. Before we left to go and contact another person she gave us a thank you note and started crying because she was so thankful for our visit the previous night. We read the note and started crying ourselves. She wrote that we were an answer to many prayers and that we could never imagine the impact that we just had in her life. I feel so humbled!! Small miracles like this make going on a mission worthwhile. I have never had the experience of being an answer to someone's prayers before; it's definitely a humbling and fuzzy feeling. 

 

I'm in an awesome mission choir! Sister Beckstrand (the Vistitors' Center director) invited Sister Sparhawk and I to come and sing in a choir that will perform for Christmas lights. It's amazing! This was an invite only choir!! I really missed singing in a choir. 

 

I can't say how thankful I am to have Sister Sparhawk as my companion. She is so wonderful and I learn from her every single day. She pushes me to be the best trainer I can be. I pray for her all the time and I study just for her as well. I worry about her so much!

 

-Sister Dunn