Week 17

This week has been wonderful! There have been some great adventures. On Monday there was some freezing rain. I never knew what it was until I came to the midwest. It feels like mist but when it touches the ground it instantly freezes, so there is a layer of ice on every surface. We went tracting after p-day and we were laughing at each other as we shuffled across the icy sidewalks. We stayed warm and I didn't fall, but Sister Edgel did once. We had fun.

Tuesday was great. We got to teach Ananayanee (Thai) and Minnie. Ananyanee was great as always. I love the desire that she has to learn about the gospel. It is so interesting trying to teach someone about Jesus when they don't have a Christian background. She is so wonderful. We also taught Minnie. She is an older lady who recently lost her husband. We has been encouraging her and just trying to lift her up through this hard time. We haven't been pressing the gospel on her but we were able to go through the first half of the Restoration in detail. I love her so much. She was worried one day because there was a crash near her neighborhood and she thought we were involved. She told us how she prayed so much for us not to be hurt because she knew she needed us and she couldn't bear the thought that we wouldn't be able to come to her house. We came the next night and she was overjoyed to see us and find out that we were not involved in the crash. We also got to visit the activity day girls and help with one of their lessons. Afterward, the Holmes asked us if we had a dinner appointment, we didn't and so they ended up feeding us too! We had breakfast for dinner. It was great!

Wednesday we got to visit one of our recent converts, Robin. She works at the police station (the same one mentioned in the last email). It's funny how everyone who works there knows who we are. We taught her more about the gospel of Jesus Christ. And she told us how she is trying to share the gospel with her family. I encouraged her to read "Our search for Happiness." If you haven't read it. Please do!! It is only about 100 pages long but it is sooooo good.

Thursday was filled with appointments. We visited another one of our recent converts, Virginia. She is the best. She only has one foot, so she rolls around in a wheelchair. She gives us the biggest bear hugs when we see her. She says she is always afraid she will break me in half because I am so tiny. :) haha. She has the greatest testimony and she is so strong in the gospel. She has been called to teach in primary and she loves it!

Friday we had District Meeting. We usually have it on Thursdays but we had to move it. I gave a training on conversion and I also did a musical number. I was a little stressed with all the preparation I had to do, but it went well. I am glad that I have had opportunities to share my talents because I know they will grow if I share them. I also received the belated birthday presents and cards. Thanks everyone for the letters :) That night we had dinner with the bishop and his family.

Saturday morning we had a meeting with Brother Allan, our Ward Mission Leader. He is the greatest. Partly because I love his first name, Kingsley. haha I think it is really cool name. He is also so hard working and helps us so much with our missionary work. We met in his home with the zone leaders and whet through our past lessons and talked about plans and stuff. His daughter made us lunch and they let me play the piano after the meeting. They brought out a bunch of their music and let me play. One of the songs I played was one of Sister Allan's favorites and she was so excited to hear me play it. :) Joanna, their daughter even made some copies of the music that I love. Their whole family is so great. I love them all. Later that day we did some tracting and I had one of the funniest replies at the door. A man came to the door and I introduced ourselves and told him how we are sharing a message about the strength that can come into our lives as we follow Jesus Christ. His reply was this: "That is a very true statement, but I'm going to go back to my peanut butter sandwich." And he closed the door. I have never had that response before and I thought it was so funny.

Sunday was great but is started off strange. At 5 am, we were woken up by our smoke alarm. We didn't see any smoke but we put on our shoes and coats and walked outside our door to find that our alarm was the only one that was going off. None of the other apartments in the hallway were affected. We were confused so we went back inside and turned it off. We thought maybe is was a carbon monoxide warning instead. But it kept going off every 20 minutes. We struggled to get it off the ceiling to try and fix it. We called our district leader as well as one of our mission leaders.We thought is was a faulty detector and we finally got a hold of the maintenance people to come check it out. They came at 6am and we sat in the hallway while they ran tests in our apartment so we could get some fresh air if it really was CO. We were so tired and frustrated at that smoke alarm. Turns out that it was faulty and they replaced the alarm for free. It was a hard start to fast Sunday but we survived. Testimony meeting was wonderful and all four of us missionaries shared our testimonies. The other 2 hours of church were cancelled because of weather conditions. We were able to meet with Tamela one of the less active members. We came at a time where there was some crazy things going on and stressing her out but she let us in. By the end, she was smiling and her kids were quiet. You could definitely feel the spirit change as we met with her. It was great.

When we came home there was a tender mercy waiting for us. There was a chair at the bottom of the staircase of our apartment building with a note on it saying "FREE CHAIR please take to a good home" These past 2 weeks, i have been using one of the hard kitchen chairs as my study chair. I didn't mind it and we had nothing else to use. But I was so happy to find a nicer rolly chair waiting for me that night. I felt like it was Heavenly Father's way of saying "You're doing a good job. Here's a cookie (or rather a chair)." A new chair was not something I needed or even praying for. But I knew it was a way of Heavenly Father letting me know He was looking our for me. Little things like that make the days great.

I love seeing the little things in life. Sister Edgel likes to say there are 3 kinds of angels: The kind of angels that warn of danger, the kind that bring good news, and the kind that save sister missionaries when they slip on ice. She says that she keeps the 3rd kind of angel very busy. :) And now I can also say there are angels that give you a comfy chair for studying in. :) i love the tender mercies of the Lord. Your life will be much more enjoyable if you look for the small things that give you joy! Love you all!!!!