Week 6 (5/13/13)

This week has been cray-cray to say the least. 

We moved into our new apartment on Wednesday. So Tuesday was mainly spent packing and cleaning. Sister Andersen has more stuff from her 6 month mission than I did in my house for 10 years. It was very frustrating... but I found my favorite shirt of ALL TIME in our graveyard. So I'm trying to be ok with it. ;) 

It's weird being called Nicole. I've only been out a month... imagine how it is going to be in a year and a half! 

We had a cool experience with 3 prayers being answered in one day. I can't tell you how much my testimony of prayer has changed!

On Wednesday we met with an investigator. His wife was baptized 1 year ago and he just hasn't come along. He's had all the lessons, but doesn't think he should stop drinking coffee. He made that very apparent. We tried our best in the lesson not to argue, and to just answer his questions and bear testimony, but it was a rough go. I went home very discouraged thinking that not everyone is ready and we should just give up. Advice- never think that. It's not a good idea. But I had been praying like a crazy person that his heart would be softened. 

The next morning we get a text from his wife telling us that he said he would try drinking less coffee for her. And that if she wanted to go to the temple, he would take her there. I can't tell you how amazing this is. He is very stubborn and was not having any of that the day before. It was such a huge blessing! We screamed when we got the text and we were beaming the rest of the day. We knew it was an answer to our prayers and his wife's prayers.
Later that day we decided that we were going to visit one of our other investigators in the hospital. She was the one that just walked right into church. We hadn't been able to get a hold of her, and were feeling really discouraged about the whole thing. But then we got a call from her from the hospital explaining everything. She had been wanting to learn more but with all the hospital stuff she couldn't get a hold of us until then. So we biked 10 miles in the middle of the day (we were determined to see her) to the hospital.
We couldn't find exactly where we were supposed to go once we got there so we stopped at a desk to ask someone. The lady was very nice in giving us directions. After we were done visiting our investigator we needed to fill up our water bottles so we went back to that same place we had asked for directions. As we were walking in we asked that same lady if there was a place we could fill up our water bottles, she said yes and then immediately after said, "I think you are the Sisters that are teaching my daughter Gracie." We both looked at each other and started freaking out saying telling her that we were. We had been praying to get in contact with Sister Hilton for weeks so that her daughter could come to church. The father wasn't ok with us teaching her after 2 lessons but Gracie wanted to come to church to learn more.
We found Gracie when we were visiting part member families (I can't remember if I have told you about her). Her mom was a member when she was young, so she knew about our church. But we couldn't call Sister Hilton because she didn't want her husband to get mad. So we prayed that she would call us so her daughter could finally come to church. Seeing her there was an answer to our many prayers. It was such an amazing experience! She is going to start bringing Gracie to church because she begs for it every week. We are still beaming from the experience and can't wait to start teaching her more. :) 

The last experience of the day was a woman who the Elders have taught all the lessons to, but now that she is in our area (we switched with the Elders when I got here) We had been praying that she would set a date and know that she needed to be baptized. She had never been overly excited about it, but she teaches her 3 year old son about the stories in the scriptures and he loves it! So we had been praying for her. We met with her and she was just glowing. We asked her about the date and she was so excited. We still aren't firm on it yet because she has to check and make sure her boyfriend (who is actually a member... he's usually at the lessons, but he couldn't make it there this time) would be off of work that day. Also, beach baptism might be in the picture ;) but she was even talking about the temple! She was asking things like when can she go to the temple and what she would have to do for that. It was so amazing. We couldn't stop smiling that night. That was the best day of my mission so far, and I know that I'm never going to forget it :)

We have been doing service projects about twice a week for 4 hours. Someone recent converts in the Naples Ward (the ward right next to us, but it used to be our ward until they split it right before I came out) is doing habitat for humanity and the mother is pregnant so they asked the missionaries if they could help. They need 500 hours to get a house and it's just the two of them. So when you combine all the missionaries (there are usually 16 of us that come) times that by 4 and then that by 2 that's how many hours we can do for them in one week. We love doing it! We have painted the inside and outside of houses, laid sod, put sticky stuff on the floor, done molding things. We love doing it. This week it was funny because we got there late and all the missionaries were cleaning off all the paint stuff. The guy in charge told us they painted the outside of the house the wrong color. Luckily they had only done half of it. So we took a break to let it dry and then came back and started paining again. We thought it was the wrong color after we had painted about a 1/4 of it. So we asked the guy and he just said to paint it over with this other paint. Turns out it was the same paint, we were just painting it all over again with the same color... lots of paint and time because we are a little clueless ;) it was super fun though!  

On my mission so far one thing that I have learned is that I need to rely on others. We always are needing rides and food, and help with things. I have never been the kind of person that likes to ask others for help... but my mom always taught me that it is ok to ask for help from other people. So that's something I have been trying to be better about. I think all of us have to remember that. We need to let other people serve us. We can't deny them those blessings. We are here to help others and learn from each other :)

I love you all so much! I hope you had an amazing mothers day!

"Be a beacon to the whole world!" 

-Elder Perry

I'm loving the letters! Keep them coming :) they help me more than you can even imagine!

Moroni 7:31 (this is not just a missionaries calling) ;)

Love, Sister Calder:)