We have been working more on family history. I find it so aggravating but I am starting to see progress. It is time consuming, and a lot of work. It is no wonder why they call it Family History Work. I have printed a name to take to the temple, but first need to find a group of youth going to do my baptism parts before I can do the endowment when I go to the temple next.
Wednesday we had a stake humanitarian service project with members of a local baptist church. It went well and it was great that they were able to be in our church and see how normal Mormons are. We received a referral while we were there so we left for a little while to go and contact him but found out the next day that he doesn't actually live there. Sad moment.
Thursday we were doing our companionship study and the 12 week training at the church. Happening at the church during that time was a scouting leadership training. After we finished, a member from Homer asked if we wanted to eat lunch with them. Free food? Don't mind if we do. The food was really good too. Later we went to try by a former investigators and ended up trying by a less active. After talking with her she wants to be retaught the missionary discussions to solidify her understanding of the gospel and hopefully correct any falst doctrine she has heard. We had the opportunity to do spontaneous service for a ward member who needed help shoveling her car out of the snow. It was a lot of work, but we did it both in a skirt. A couple of elders came and helped us as well, which made the work go faster. The member was very much grateful for our service.
Friday we had our lesson with Hara and Megan again. We had another set of members there which we met at the Kenai chapel to meet halfway. We taught the latter half of the Restoration and they both accepted to be baptized when they feel that this is the true church of Jesus Christ. Later we visited another less active's home. One of their dogs was not friendly at all towards us but after about a half hour this dog was jumping on me to get petted. The couple was surprised and said that never happens. I told them it is because she can sens the Spirit we bring :) For our lesson we had with Danny and Raevin we taught about missionary work. We were at a dinner with members who kept going on an analogy of missionary work with cake which we found interesting. So for our lesson we baked a cake and did a little skit to convey our message about everyone being a missionary not just full time missionaries.
Saturday we were out trying by formers again. We passed the house we needed to try by and because I love my companion so much and don't want to make her "back" (meaning my companion has to get out of the car to help me back up every time we need to put the car in reverse) I thought we would be able to u-turn around just fine so she wouldn't have to. The roads are misleading though. What I thought was just road turned out to be a leveled-off, snow-filled ditch. I tried to get us out but it was useless. Not even five minutes later a guy came down the road to help us. The Lord is great at using me as a tool even with all my weaknesses. We talked to him a bit and found out that he doesn't like organized religion. As we could tell he didn't want us to preach to him we just found out things about him. He just had a baby 13 days prior and works for this wire company in Kenai. This is where The Lord uses me as a tool. Later we went district tracting in our area close to our apartment. As we were going door to door there was this man outside putting stuff in his truck. One of the tactics we use to talk to people is finding common ground or at least social things to start off the conversation. I noticed his truck had the same work logo as the guy's who helped us get out of the ditch. We started by asking him if he works there and if he knew the guy who helped us get out of the ditch. We started by asking him if he works there and if he knew the guy who helped us with our car. He said he did and after chatting said that we should go inside and talk with two women in there. There was a sign on the door that said come on in. So we did, but found out that they were having an inside-the-house garage sale because they were in the process of moving. The two ladies were clearly not wanting to have missionaries talk to them and said the sign was for the garage sale. What do we do then? We say we are here for the garage sale. Even though we weren't we looked around and were able to talk to one of the ladies on a personal level. We found out her grandpa is a Mormon. Now we wouldn't have been able to find that out, show her how kind Mormons are or how we are normal without that innocent, non-missionary conversation. this all wouldn't have happened if we didn't get stuck in a ditch. All in all, The Lord uses us as instruments in His work, even with all our imperfections.
Sunday we had our ward conference. The stake presidency came to our ward council and gave great trainings. After church we helped Danny and Raevin find a name to take to the temple when they go in April. Because we were having them stay after church we decided to feed us all lunch. We bought turkey burgers and cool ranch Doritos and put the bag of buns and the chips in a separate bag on top of the church's refrigerator. We are in a church, no one will steak them. As we were leaving Relief Society prior to doing family history, I smelled the Doritos. I walked into the kitchen and saw people having lunch. I saw the bag still on the fridge that says if food is not labeled then it is free to take. But why would someone just take my chips from on top of the fridge? Oh, I was upset. We had ice cream that wasn't labeled and felt better. We attended a double youth baptism that was packed with people and their "refreshments" basically was another meal. We just had dinner but we were able to scarf down a whole plate of food plus dessert. Just want to puke my guts out, but that's okay. We had another lesson with Dominic and his family, but had two kids from a Samoan family be in on the lesson. We taught the Laws and Ordinances of the gospel fairly quickly and played a game of jeopardy as a review afterwards which was a lot of fun and we can see how much he is learning. We are on track for his baptism, which is exciting! Work is progressing here now which is starting to make it fun again.
Sent from ALASKA!
Sister Shelley Willden
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