2 Month Mark

Here are some excerpts from her email.

"We didn't get to go to mass (AGAIN), but the couple we were going to go with came to sacrament meeting on Sunday. It was so great! We visit this couple every Sunday night in hopes of getting them to be active again, and to help them realize what the catholic church is missing. They said that Sacrament meeting was really touching, even though it was just fast and testimony meeting! They were so excited to see old friends, and to feel the Spirit. She was especially touched. Last night at their house, they got so into talking about their spiritual experiences, they pulled out their old LDS materials, and included was their Books of Remembrance. This especially made me think of Papa (Elizabeth's grandpa that died in Jan), and the genealogy that is awaiting my discovery at home! I was so thrilled to see family history stuff...it's been a while!  They found their sealing certificate too!! It was such a spiritual experience for all of us in the dining room. We can get them coming back, it will just take time, and a little "walk to remember".

"This week I got my first pizza meal! haha When the members have to cancel dinner one night, they order you pizza and have it delivered to you hahah...So I got my first pizza this week. Great stuff haha! Gotta love Papa Johns on a Saturday night. I had a s'More craving this week. so I made stove top s'mores."

"Driving was weird at first! I had to adjust to a brand new car, which isn't at all like a Honda, and it was super fancy and stuff, so it took adjustment for sure! I love being able to drive, and once I got the hang of it, I realized how much fun this car is to drive! It's a TON of fun! I can practice shifting for a real stick shift, but it has paddles on the sides of the steering wheel so I can paddle shift. It's definitely not like a real stick shift, but its fun anyway!"

Ticks, the pastor (finally!) and strum sticks

Elizabeth is a much better storyteller than I am so I'll just give you direct quotes from her email.

"This past weekend we did exchanges with the Huntington sisters again, and this time Sister C and I were companions (: it was SOOOO fun!!! We have become really good friends over a course of a few weeks.) We got to participate in an "adopt-a-highway" clean up Saturday morning together, and it was so perfect for Earth Day! However, we found ticks on our clothes on the way home...Sister J said later that the ticks get really bad out here. Good thing I have tick repellent in my mosquito repellant stuff! Ticks are so gross."

 

"We finally did have lunch with the pastor! It's way funny, cause we actually tracted into this guy back in March. Didn't know he was the same person. He's more like a teacher at the church he belongs to. He also teaches history. He wants to do a radio show with a few people from different religions, and sort out some of the misconceptions about these different religions, mormons included. Our president doesn't want us participating, but we did sit down and answer his questions. Unfortunately we didn't get to really teach him. They were all superficial questions about our takes on some scriptures, the sacrament and who Joseph Smith was. He was open to learning about the gospel, but more for other purposes, and not for himself. The TWO HOURS we spent talking to him Sister J and I feel like were kind of a waste of time. We didn't really get to help him come to Christ. It was kind of lame, but the roasted tomato asiago something or other bagels at the resturaunt were so so so good."

 

"We have a new investigator! She had visited with previous sisters, but something happened between her and them that made her turn away from learning about the church anymore, but now she feels like it's time to try again...and me and her connect REALLY well!!! I love her so much!! During exchanges me and Sister C went to her house and we made homemade spring rolls and teriyaki chicken! I LOVED the spring rolls...it made me think of making won tons and having Chinese with grandpa. Good times with chinese! (: "

 

"I was introduced to a new instrument on Sunday!! That family that has gone Catholic have this three stringed 3 1/2 ft long ukulele thing called a strum stick. Youtube it!!! They are sooo cool!!! I may or may not have to buy one towards the end of my mission!! Last night we went to the BYU-Idaho symphony concert. Lilith, Gerald, and Seldon were there (: I love running into them!" These are some of her relatives that live in West Virginia.

 

Yeah for investigators!

Elizabeth didn't email until today. They had interviews with the mission president yesterday so that pushed P-day off until today. I'll let her tell in her own words about her week.

"Our meeting with the pastor fell through again, and we didn't get to go to Mass. We went to Adoration on Wednesday morning.. it was so strange. Definitely a feeling of reverance in the chapel, but the priesthood presence just wasn't there. But we had a few really incredible things happen on Sunday. 

Sunday we had an investigator come to church, and he LOVED it! He got to stay for the baptism we had for an investigator of the Elders too, and he said that he thought it was really neat. We are teaching him about the plan of Salvation today, and we are soo excited!! The baptism was for a 16 year old YW. She was fellowshipped by a less active member of the church. The two of them are amazing friends. She was baptized Sunday, a month after the elders introduced her to the gospel. At her baptism, the ward mission leader asked me and my companion to be at the top of the font stairs to hold her towel. She came out of the font a whole different person. It was incredible. I wrapped her towel around her front, and we sat there and cried for a few minutes. She kept saying how amazing she felt, and how clean she was. I told her that that was just the beginning, and that my companion and I were so excited to teach her the new member lessons. That Sunday, I realized how amazing the gift of eternal life is, and how thankful I am for the Savior’s example of baptism. We can be made clean through the Sacrament weekly…which is SO BEAUTIFUL. I know that through the Savior’s atonement, all men can be made clean, and we can live in peace and rest for eternity. I totally thought of her in an eternal perspective. I saw her being sealed in the temple. I saw her going through for herself. I saw her salvation- and if she makes the right decisions the rest of her life, All that the Lord has promised her will be hers, and she will live with her Heavenly Father again, with the rest of us that have made those same covenants and kept the commandments with all diligence. Anyway…hahah that has been my great missionary experience of the week."

In case you are following the blog every week, she said that P-day is Wednesday next week because of transfers. 

Conference was amazing!

The first words in her email were "conference was amazing!" Some of her favorite talks were given by President Uchtdorf, President Monson, Elder Holland and Sister Dalton.

"This week I went on exchanges with the Huntington Sisters: Sister T and Sister C (Rachel from school!). Sister T and I were companions for 24 hours, and Sister C stayed in Huntington with my companion. After trading companions on Tuesday, we went to lunch at a place called "Hillbilly Hot Dogs" hahaha the BEST place I have ever eaten lunch, hands down!! The boys would LOVE it! They take a hot dog and put whatever you want on it basically haha, It was so fun! I'll send pictures next week, I forgot my usb to transfer pictures. It was built out of 3 buses! Look it up, google it or something, It's absolutely hillarious!" (see May 13, 2013 post for the pictures)

The meeting with the pastor was rescheduled so stay tuned to see what happens. Good news, though. They have a new investigator who is excited about the gospel and went to conference with them on Saturday. She is very happy they have someone to teach. They have been invited to attend mass on Saturday with an inactive couple. That should be interesting.

Bunnies, McPizza and Pastors

This is taken from her last email to me. "Yeah!! spring is definitely springing! The buds on the trees are more visible. There are frogs instead of crickets here that "chirp" at night, and they come out when it starts to warm up. The rabbits in our yard are cute little grey brown ones. We've seen at least three in our yard. We see a lot of birds, squirrels and the deer are starting to come out. Because WV is mostly forest, deer are all over, and it's common to see the deer in neighborhoods and fields in the middle of town. We have seen a bunch of Cardinals...they are sooo beautiful!"

"We had to drive to Spencer for our District meeting, which is about a half an hour away. We went to McDonalds for a light lunch, and you will never guess what we ordered. The McDonald's in Spencer has a PIZZA LICENSE. We had a McPizza. It was soooo weird. But now I can say that I have eaten a pizza at McDonalds. BLEH. hahah!" I'm guessing she didn't like it.



"We are teaching the pastor today at noon. I am SO nervous. We have been praying and studying about what to say. But yes we have concluded that bearing our testimony is the right thing to do." This pastor gave the mother of a girl that loves our church some anti-Mormon literature so now her mom makes her go to the pastor's church. An inactive family arranged for Elizabeth and her companion to meet with the pastor. Stay tuned to find out how it went.

I finally figured out how to put the pictures she sends to us on the blog. On March 16, they found a "leprechaun" standing outside a pub advertising for St. Patrick's Day so they stopped and had their picture taken with him.


 Elizabeth and her companion found this army hat in their apartment. They decided to keep it.

On their way home from a district meeting they saw this riverboat. It reminded her of the movie "Princess and the Frog."