Little Miracles

Last Sunday Elder Simmons (over the cars)  said that our car would most likely be done on Monday.  Well Monday came and went, so did Tuesday, as well as Wednesday. . .  Finally on Thursday Elder Simmons called us to let us know that the car was now done!!!  So we now have the car full time at least until transfers which are on the 13th. 

 

Anyways this week was a pretty good week even though multiple appointments fell through.  It has been a fairly cold week as well which means from Wednesday evening until noon on Thursday all missionaries in our mission were grounded and not allowed to leave their apartment.  

 

This week had plenty of little miracles and tender mercies from the Lord! 

 

For the past month we have been trying to get a hold of Stella, but she has not been answering the phone and so when we were at the Mission Office on Thursday the thought came to use Sister Simmon's cell phone to try calling Stella. Guess what?  Stella answered and we were able to schedule an appointment with her.  So the following day when we went to Stella's, she was home as well as her nephew Francis, who I had met the first time that I met Stella, but at that time Francis was living in the Ankeny Ward boundaries so I referred him to the elders serving in that ward.  Come to find out, he is now living with Stella which means he is in our area!!  We had a great lesson with Stella and Francis and it was great, whenever Francis would have a question Stella would just tell him that the Book of Mormon is true and Joseph Smith is a prophet and that he just needs to go to church.  Now we thought that they would both be coming to church because we even stopped by Sunday morning and another member in our ward answered the door and said that they all were coming, but Stella and Francis never showed up. . .

 

Another miracle from this week was we went to go visit one of the less active couples in our ward. Sister Brown and Hermana Stroud had visited them when we were on exchanges.  So we decided to drop by.  And get this they are both from Wyoming, and they have some property in Star Valley Ranch, plus they love motorcycling!  Anyways,  she is a convert and they were telling us the experiences from her baptism as well as each of their kids baptisms because they had all been baptized in lakes, which I could relate to because I was baptized in the slough (spelling?).  This couple hadn't been to church since the boundaries were all changed, but they came to church yesterday!!!! 

 

Anyways we had a wonderful week and I love working with Sister Brown!  I love helping others feel the love that the Savior has for them and helping them strengthen their relationship with their Father in Heaven, which in turn strengthens my testimony and relationship with my Father in Heaven!

 

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love, Sister Call

Another Week 2

Another week has come and gone. 

 

Last Monday evening we went and visited the Lowman's.  Sister Lowman is a counselor in our Relief Society and President Lowman is a counselor in the stake presidency.  Anyways, we had an appointment with them at 8:00 Monday evening and it was so fun to be in their home.  They both joined the church when they were attending college and have been strong active members since.  Well they had made gingerbread for us for an evening snack and then they were hilarious and gave us like 20 different options on what to drink that not only included several different things to drink, but options for the temperature of the drink, and the type of glass.  And then when it came time to bless the food, President Lowman pulled out a book and we had to say our birth date and then figure out what day of the week we had been born on to decide who was to give the opening and closing prayer.  In essence it took us like 20 minutes just to get our drinks, food, and say a prayer.  But the Lowman's are amazing and we really enjoyed getting to know them better.

Sister Call & Sister Brown

 

Anyways so much happened on Wednesday it was crazy!  Right after our studies Sister Brown and I met one of the sisters in our ward over at an apartment complex and she introduced us to the Karen members that are in our ward, that would be interested in an English class that the Crapo's and we are going to try to do.  Anyways after meeting several of the families, Sister Brown and I headed to Jackie's.  So the past week we had been trying to call Jackie, but the phone number was not working, so we were a little disappointed, but as we were driving from the Karen families to Jackie's  Sister Brown realized that there were two contacts for Jackie in our phone and the one we had been calling this past week, was her number from when the elders were teaching her last February.  Well Jackie was ready for us when we showed up, and shortly after we arrived there her friend Alexis showed up and Jackie had her join us.  We had Jackie tell Alexis about the Restoration since that is what we taught last time.  Jackie is so great and she told the restoration without missing anything!  We then asked Jackie if she had been reading the Book of Mormon, but she said that her 10 year old sister had been reading it and took it to school to read.  Anyways we gave her a copy so that both her and her sister could have their very own copy.  We ended up reading the introduction of the Book of Mormon and 1 Nephi 1 with her and compared Lehi's experience to Joseph Smith's experience and Jackie even pointed out the parts that were similar.  Jackie's friend Alexis participated in the lesson and wants to come each week as we teach Jackie! 

After the lesson with Jackie we ran back to our apartment and met the Hermanas because we were starting exchanges.  Sister Brown went with Hermana Stroud, and I was able to go on exchanges with Hermana Phelps and Hermana Howell.  We went and visited Maryann who is one of the less actives (due to medical reasons)  in my ward.  At the end of the lesson Hermana Howell was extending an invitation and asked Maryann to share the Mormon message video we had shared with her to 7 people during the next week.  To which Maryann replied "oh come on, you've got to come up with a better challenge than that.  That is only 1 person a day."  haha Maryann lives in a loft apartment downtown and is determined to make sure everyone in her building is a Christian :)  

 

Later that evening we had dinner with some members from the Spanish branch.  I was able to pick up on a few words,  but other than that I sort of sat there, smiled, and ate food.  After dinner we went and visited someone who the Hermanas have been working with, but this apartment was so infested with cockroaches it was disturbing.   Luckily the Hermanas warned me before hand, so I barely took anything in with me.  Anyways on better note that evening we went and stopped by Hawa and Alleyia, recent converts from Sister Broome.  We showed the Iowa Des Moines Mission 2013 video with the pictures from the baptisms in 2013.   What a powerful thing to watch as you see so many of our brothers and sisters who entered the waters of baptism this past year! 

 

Sister Call

I spent Wednesday evening at the Hermana's apartment and Hermana Stroud spent the night with Sister Brown in our apartment.  Anyways exchanges ended Thursday before district meeting. 

 

There was a freak blizzard Thursday afternoon/evening so cars were grounded, but the members we had a dinner appointment with came and got us so we were still able to visit them, have dinner, and make ice cream from snow. 

 

Sunday was a great day, but one where your plans all get changed several times and you wonder why you spent the time the night before making plans for the day.  No but it really was a great day.  Church was wonderful as always.  We didn't have any one that we have been working with there :(  but I think Jackie will be there next week!  After church we went with Elder and Sister Crapo and dropped by some less actives and then Sister Brown and I had an appointment with a former, who had stood us up before, so I wasn't holding my breath.  I even left some of our stuff in the Crapo's car.  But to my surprise Agripine was home and we were able to have a lesson with her.  Afterwards we had dinner with the Beck's and they had invited some of their nonmember friends over for dinner!!

 

Well I hope you all had a wonderful week! 

Love you lots,

Love, Sister Call