"Be my Own Best Friend"

Another week has come and gone and now October is almost gone.  

 

Last Tuesday marked 5 months of being a missionary! Once again I asked myself where the time has gone.  We had exchanges with Sister Hill and Sister Murphy on Tuesday, and so unlike last time they came, this time we did not have very many appointments, so we spent most of the day finding (aka tracting).  OH its fun to find, fun to find, all the time.    

Sisters Hill, Murphy, Pierce, Call

I was with Sister Hill for this exchange and her trainer was trained by Sister Thompson.  So we had a lot of fun together.  We were able to drop by a less active sister in our ward and she talked, and talked, and talked, and at the end we were able to say a prayer, and then she opened up.  She said that she doesn't understand women's roles in the church, and so we just listened for a little bit, and then she ended up continuing and saying that she doesn't even know if there is a God.  It was great, because as we were able to listen to her she did open up and now we know more of where she is at. That evening Sister Hill and I had dinner with the Lowders, which is the family that we will be spending Halloween, and Christmas Eve with.  

We ended exchanges Wednesday morning and each time the sister exchanges end, the training leaders leave a note for each of us.  And in the note that Sister Murphy wrote to me she mentioned to "be my own best friend."  Which I thought was exactly what I needed to hear, because I think too many times we are so hard on our selves, when in reality we should be one person that we can count on for building ourselves up.  After we ended exchanges, Sister Pierce and I went to Hills and Dales for our service. It was probably the best day so far that I have had while volunteering there. Normally we work with one of the clients and we are their volunteer, but on Wednesday I think over half of the clients were all super talkative to me, even the ones that struggle being able to verbally communicate. Also, one of the girls colored a Halloween picture and gave it to me.  I love being able to work with individuals with disabilities, and am so grateful for the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation.  Where I know that these are precious souls in the sight of God.  Wednesday evening is when they have mutual and they had a game night where each of the youth brought a non member friend so there were over 20 nonmembers at mutual.  We played and mingled with some of them for part of the night, but also Thora ended up coming to the church that evening with her sister, so we spent some of our time visiting with her.  

Thursday was a busy day.  We had district lunch and district meeting, and our zone leaders were up. Then we went over to visit Sister Jodon, and her divorce was finalized so now she is Sister Toles. She is way excited for this new beginning, which is great because we were able to re extend the goal for temple baptisms in January.  She has been reading from the Book of Mormon, so we picked up where she was and read 2 Nephi 9 with her which is such a great chapter about the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  After visiting with Sister Toles, we went over to the Zirkers for a lesson and dinner.  The Zirkers are such an amazing example of living a Christ centered life.  Yesterday we were talking with the Lowder's about the Zirkers and Brother Lowder said that the Zirker's are like a modern day Captain Moroni,  where we could substitute Moroni's name for the Zirkers and the verse about the very powers of hell would be shaken, the verse would still have the same meaning.  

Immediately after the Zirker's we went and changed cars around, so that we had the 1st wards car because we were to drive to Moline, Illinois and spend the night with Sister Pratt and Sister Garrett, and then travel to the new trainer's meeting in Iowa City the following morning.  I love road trips and meetings on a mission, so throw in a sleepover and it is even better.  The member that they live with reminds me of Mama Joy (who we lived with in Carthage).  Anyways on Friday we woke up and went to the meeting.  President and Sister Jensen, as well as the Assistants trained on how we can better unify our companionships and be the missionaries God has designed us to be.  They also mentioned that this coming transfer there are no sisters coming in! But there are 22 Elders that will be coming.  

We received a media referral this past week, so on our drive home from Iowa City we called her and she said that she would be out of town this weekend, but that we could come by either Monday, or Tuesday.  Shortly after we got off of the phone with her, she called back and said that she had just one quick question.  Which immediately I got worried, but then she said that her sister was being baptized into a latter-day saint church on Saturday and she was wondering if the men and women sit together in the church.  Big sigh of relief that that was the question she had, also Sister Pierce and I got way excited that she was going to attend her sister's baptism.  

 
Anyways the weekend was great.  On Sunday we were asked by several individuals if we had been able to make contact with one of the less actives. Sister Whipple and I had tried, but we hadn't been able to, so yesterday after dinner.  Sister Pierce and I decided that we would try by her apartment. We knocked and no one answered, but then one of her neighbors who was outside her door, said that she just pulled up and would be coming.  Sure enough the less active we were trying to find came in and we were able to talk with her.  She has been way busy and had a lot of difficulties take place recently and she just needed someone to listen. The spirit was so strong and it was one of those moments where you love being a missionary and you smile and all of the things that led you to her home that evening.  

Everyone here is an Iowa Hawkeyes fan.  Basically if you are a Buckeye fan you are an outcast.  haha and I haven't heard a whole lot about wrestling.  This past week really wasn't too cold (of course it was the week we had the car, and this coming week is supposed to be stormy and we won't have the car)  just my luck.  Anyways I ask myself where the time has gone all of the time.  I look at the calendar and wonder what happened.  Anyways for Halloween we have to be either in our apartment or with a member after 6:00 on the 30th and the 31st.  So the ward is having a trunk or treat on the 30th so we are going to be handing out the candy at the Beytien's trunk, and then for Halloween we are going to be with the Lowder's and have dinner, go trick or treating with  a group from their neighborhood, and then go back to their house and watch videos from lds.org and have popcorn. Basically I love the members here and hope and pray to be able to spend through this coming transfer here as well.

Well I hope you are all doing well and that you have a fun Halloween!

 
Love you all,

Sister Call