Fw: transfers

 

 

Hey, everyone,

 

Tomorrow is transfer day. They called us Friday to tell us that I'm staying in Eagle, but Sister Pfeifer is leaving. I'll be training, so my new companion will be a greenie straight out of the MTC. So that will be new and different. I'm not sure how confident I am about training, especially so early in the game seeing as how this will only be my third transfer, but whatever the Lord needs me to do. I'm sure it will be a whole new ball game having to take the lead.

 

As far as stories for this week, I'm afraid they are small in number. Sister Pfeifer and I both got the stomach flu early in the week and weren't really fully up to par. Sister Pfeifer has this whole, "Do it anyway," sort of attitude so we never ceased working, but we were ratherly sick and our numbers kinda reflected that. It made Sister Pfeifer super stressy (which is a little extreme. I mean, we were sick. No matter how hard you push through it, the fact of the matter is that you are physically incapable of working your hardest when you are in pain.) but we did alright.

 

I only have one story for you. A while ago, Sister Pfeifer felt inspired to take a Spanish Book of Mormon with her while we were visiting someone. There was no particular reason for this since the person we were seeing didn't speak Spanish, but she went with it and brought the book. Then while walking, she was like, "Hey, let's stop by this door." I also felt we needed to go there, so we did, and this woman and her son answered. She started speaking Spanish to us, starting off with "No English..." but we explained who we were anyway and showed her the picture of Christ we have on our restoration pamphlet. She then talked to us a lot in Spanish. The only thing I caught was "Catholic" which seems to be the number one excuse among Hispanics for why they turn us away, but then her son spoke to us in English and explained to us that what she had said was, "We are originally Catholic, but we've been going through a lot of hardships and I know that God sent you here to help us."

 

That's not a statement you hear everyday.

 

So, using her son as a translator, we told about how our message is about Jesus Christ and how it blesses peoples lives, and we told her about how God is our heavenly father and wants what's best for us. We then handed her the Spanish Book of Mormon and she promised to read and pray about it. She then set up a time for us to meet with her for the following week.

 

The next visit, we brought one of the Spanish members from the church, and with her help, we were able to teach this family. Then, during the lesson, we invited her to come to church with us, and she was like, "Can I get baptized when I go to church with you?" Apparently, she's had Mormon friends in the past and has been wanting to join the Mormon church for a while now! We had no idea! And apparently, after we left that first day, they were able to rent out both their lower and upper apartments to people, so it ended up saving them financially, and she told us that she knew it was because she had accepted us into her home and God was blessing her for it!

 

Miracles happen every day. Both mother and son came to church yesterday, and afterward, she just thanked us wholeheartedly. They are both on baptismal date, and the Spanish members of the ward just folded them in with loving arms. It was so special to see! The son went to Primary and was able to be given a part in the primary program already, the mom went to the Spanish gospel principals class, it was truly a miracle, that whole experience.

 

I know that this church is true. Seeing the two of them accept the gospel so willingly just allowed me to know that the spirit is able to touch people's lives and help them to be happy.

 

The only other thing that happened this week was that some less-actives invited us to come over and paint rocks with them last P-day after we were done with the hanging lake hike. That was super nice for me since it enabled me to relax after the hike. I love painting. So Sister Pfeifer painted a purple ladybug, and I pulled up one of my pictures of the Glenwood Canyon from my camera and painted a quick landscape. It turned out pretty good. Now I just have to figure out who to give the rock to seeing as how I can't exactly haul it around with me.

 

When we visited this same family later in the week, we asked Brother Deacon (Who recently had his mom, dad, and brother pass away) what we could do for him, and he just started crying, and he was like, "Can you bring back my family?" It's hard to respond to that, and we were just like, "Well, you can see them again after this life," and his response was, "If I had a dime for every time I've heard that, I would be rich." Then suddenly one of the Janice Kapp Perry songs came to my head, "The Test" specifically the last verse of it, so I sang it for him. I was in tears by the end of it, as was Sister Pfeifer and Brother Deacon. The words are, "Tell me, love, why must you die? Why must your loved ones stand with empty hearts and ask the question why? Tell me, love, so I can go on. How, when your love and faith sustained me, can the precious gift be gone? From the depths of sorrow I cry. Though pains of grief within my soul arise, the whispering of the spirit still my cries. Didn't he say he sent us to be tested? Didn't he say the way would not be sure? But didn't he say we could live with him forevermore, well and whole, if we but patiently endure? After the trial, we will be blessed, but this life is the test." He said it touched his heart. I know I felt the spirit, and I wish I knew how to say more to comfort him, but I know that the spirit was there, and the spirit of comfort is one of the best things you can give to a person in their time of need.

 

So yeah, that's it for stories.

 

Wait! Wait! I forgot one! A while ago, we were driving down the road and we saw these two little girls with a table set up and holding a sign. Our thought was, "Lemonade?" So we parked the car and walked over, and these two girls were holding up this sign that said, "FREE ROCKS!" They had a baggie full of a bunch of ordinary rocks from the ground, some of which were shiny or strangely colored, and the little girls were just handing out rocks to anyone who wanted to stop. It was adorable. So I just wanted to tell you that we got free rocks.

 

Anyway, it sounds like you've all been pretty busy at home this week. I hope they find someone to do the percussion for the play. I would have loved to do that, but I'm needed out here. Maybe next time they do a play, I'll be able to participate. Maybe they could see if Kevin (Billy's little brother) would be willing to fill that role. He's a good percussionist who's also a member of the church. He might not have time, though, since he does a number of other extra-curricular activities, but you could still ask him.

 

Well, I have to go now. I'll talk to you more next week! Wish me luck in training!

 

~Sister Jones