April 15, 2013

Thank you very much for sending me that stuff, I haven't gotten it yet but the mail is pretty unpredictable, it should come at either 1 or 4 today! So, our good friend Zach with the baptism date moved it AGAIN to next weekend, but for good reason. When he met Bishop Myers, there was an instant connection and he knew that he wanted him to baptize him, but Bishop will be out of town this weekend to welcome a grandbaby into the world, so they agreed to next Saturday, the 27th, which is my 2 month mark! It feels like I just barely passed my 1 month, but it also feels like I've been out for a year.... Anyway! I've been practicing being more bold and not letting people pass me without mentioning the church. The other day, we were out tracting and we saw one of our investigators out with his dog. He told us he was on a 2 week field trip with his geology class so we weren't expecting to see him (it had been a week and he should have had another week). Sister Harrah and I hid ourselves at first, but then I decided it was silly. So I turned around and shouted "JOSH!!!" across the complex and waved really big! She was so embarrassed! Then it would have been awkward if we didn't go over to his apartment. Turns out he had just gotten back that morning and was leaving the next morning for a second field trip. When he said he'd be gone for 2 weeks, he was talking about two different trips. If I hadn't yelled out to him, we would have assumed he was lying to us and probably would have been making more assumptions for this week that he's gone again! There was also this girl who was clearly avoiding us, so instead of letting her walk away I started walking towards her which probably made her feel even more dumb! And she wasn't interested, but I really shouldn't be so scared to talk to everyone! The worst thing that could happen is they turn me down, and that's already happened so many times that it shouldn't be a fear of mine! I don't think I am afraid of rejection, I think I'm just a little nervous about starting awkward conversations. I just need to own it and be confident! Which I am working on! I've been better at bearing testimony at the door, too, which has at least lengthened our approaches with people. Then they have to listen to me! We have this other investigator named Tyler who was referred to us from Salt Lake. He's amazing! The first time we met with him he just agreed with everything we said so we were a little worried he didn't have a purpose for meeting with us, just to learn. We invited him to be baptized and he said yes! The second time we met with him, we asked him to say the closing prayer and he opened "Dear Heavenly Father" and closed "in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." I couldn't believe it! We taught him how, but he did it all by himself without having to be reminded or anything! We asked if he'd met with missionaries before and he said he hadn't! He just remembered! The second lesson is the Plan of Salvation, so the third time we met with him we were going over the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I asked him, after teaching the section on repentance, "why would you want to repent?" and he said, "because I want to go to the Celestial Kingdom." WHAT????? He was soaking in everything we were teaching him! He reads the pamphlets! He prays! He carries the Book of Mormon that we have him in his hoodie pocket! I am so excited for Tyler! We extended the date of May 11th to be baptized and he said he would!!! But he's moving home to California in May never to return to Flagstaff...so we will get him to baptism and hand him off to the missionaries where he lives to finish. Sad, but at least he'll be baptized :) We've had some other good lessons this week. One of our ward missionaries asked us to "sit in" on one of his new member lessons where he gave the whole first lesson and then surprise attacked us and said "now I will turn the time over to the Sisters to give the second lesson." Good thing we can apparently teach on the spot! Anyway, it went fine, but the new member, Lauren, brought her friend, Ayla, who isn't a member! We were able to set up an appointment to meet with her this week!! We got a referral without even doing anything :) Sister Harrah and I were invited to go to the Grand Canyon with the other District in our Zone, and we almost went this morning, but we felt bad that the Elders in our District weren't invited (there wasn't enough room in the members' cars that were taking us) so we backed out last minute. We were standing on the curb ready to file into the car and everything! But I'm glad we didn't go. Next Monday is transfers so this is the last P-Day that we have together as a District anyway. We'll probably go to the Lowell Observatory or something today instead :) Anyway, thanks for the testimony and for the quotes. Getting your emails is my favorite part of my P-Day :) And writing back to Dad! If no one else wrote me, I'd be okay with that. All I care about are the letters I get in the mail from Dad and the emails I get from you :) I love you a lot!!! I'll call you in 4 weeks!! Love, Sister Tolley