Another Week

Tuesday we rode down with the Thomas' to Clinton, Iowa for Zone Training meeting.  We were trained by our Sister Training Leaders,  Zone Leaders, and the Assistants to the President.  The training was good, and it really focused on helping members with the missionary efforts.  The Assistants were telling us that the ward that they work with in Des Moines has had over 60 convert baptisms in the last year with 93% of the converts still fully active, and that the ward is the highest baptizing ward in all of North America!!!  What a wonderful thing to have right in our mission under the direction of President Jensen.  The Assistants said that the whole reason the ward is booming is because the members are implementing everything that was in the Work of Salvation broadcast and on the Hastening the Work website!  Just the example of the Des Moines ward goes to show that there are so many more people prepared to receive the gospel than we can even imagine, and if we all do our part the work will explode!!!

Sister Thomas, Sister Call & Sister Whipple

Truth be told.  Tuesday was sort of a rough day at least for the most part.  I was really struggling, because I have been here in Dubuque for over 2 months and I don't feel like the work has been moving anywhere.  And so apparently my mind was fixed on our training and what needs to take place in our ward in order to hasten the work!   I think I got about 3 hours of sleep Tuesday night because my mind was racing.  It was such a long night, but I feel like it was what I needed.  Because when morning finally came, I pulled out my notebook and Sister Whipple and I went through and wrote out what we could do to help the members, and especially the ward council members to catch this wave of missionary work.  As we discussed ways we could help I kept getting more and more excited. That afternoon our district ended up going to the Thomas' and we all talked about the training that we had received the past two weeks and what we needed to do to help the missionary efforts here in Dubuque.  Because for the past couple of months we have all tried to do the missionary work by ourselves and it has gotten us absolutely no where, and so we each had things that we needed to change, and a major part was to involve the members more.  That evening we held a meeting with the Bishops and ward mission leaders.  Sister Whipple and I were talking to the 1st ward Bishop and he said that when Elder Anderson was here in April he had said something along the lines that members should create the missionary experiences in your own ward that you hope others are creating for your son or daughter if they were/are serving.  So if you want your son/daughter to be in a home teaching and having uplifting spiritual experiences, then invite the missionaries in your area to come and have those experiences in your own home.  I thought this was a really good perspective to put on missionary work, because I would way rather be in a members home than get the vulgar/degrading comments yelled at Sister Whipple and I as we are walking along the roadside.  

 

Anyways,  Thursday was a fun eventful day.  There was not a cloud in the sky and so Sister Whipple and I wanted to locate a referral we had received, so we walked over to where we thought it would be.  I think it was close to 90 degrees outside so it was warm.  Well we had been out for about an hour and a half and decided to go get some ice cream at a little store close by to where we were at.  So Sister Whipple and I are sitting outside eating the ice cream when I look up at the sky and see this dark cloud moving towards us.  I kind of laughed and commented that we might get rained on in a while.  Well this cloud kept getting closer, so we decided we would start heading in the direction to our house, so that if we needed to we could swing by and grab our rain jackets before our next appointment.  It was shortly after we started walking back home that we felt the first couple of rain drops and that confirmed that we were going to grab our rain gear before the appointment.  We continue walking home and we get about 3/4 of a mile from home and the rain drops start getting bigger.  So we laughed and decided that we could live with a few raindrops causing our shirts to look a little polka dotted.  And then I said to Sister Whipple that I was glad that it wasn't raining as hard as yesterday morning, because yesterday morning had like rivers in the running down the streets.  (ummm  I spoke to soon)  because not too long after I said that it just started to pour down on us.  haha So we started laughing and couldn't stop laughing at our situation, but we needed to get home.  So we picked up our pace and are hurrying home, but the rain is completely soaking us and it is to the point that we know that no one was going to offer us a ride because it was raining too hard.  Well we finally made it back to our apartment and we were completely soaked through.  I'm pretty sure we could have jumped into a lake and been dryer than we were. We took our clothes and could just wring water out of them and we had to take the soles out of our shoes because we had so much water in our shoes.

completely soaked from the rain storm

Oh how you have to love the weeks you don't have the car.  After we made it back to our house Sister Zirker called to make sure we were alright and then offered to pick us up since we had an appointment at her house next.  Then the other ward sister missionaries called to make sure we were alright as well.  

Sister Whipple with soup and bread

Well the rest of the days weren't quite as eventful as the rainstorm on Thursday.  On Friday we helped Sister Zirker make tomato soup and so yesterday we delivered the soup and some homemade bread with Sister Zirker to one of her neighbors.  On Saturday there was an all day family history conference held at the church and the directors over the Family History Center had asked Sister Whipple and I to help out with it!  It was great, there were a lot of non members that came, plus it was good for SIster Whipple and I to learn more about family history as well.  

 

Last week we had helped a family carry their groceries to their apartment so on Saturday after the conference we went over to this families apartment and were able to teach them part of the restoration.  They are such a great family, but aren't particularly looking for a religion right now, but they were willing to read from the Book of Mormon and they asked if we could come back next Saturday!!

 

 cool African art in a members home

Well I hope you are all doing well! I love you all and love hearing from you!

 

Love Sister Call