Week #55, Dream Week!

This week was a miracle week! This week was the week everyone dreams about when they serve a mission or think about what mission life is like. It was perfect!  We came home each night and exclaimed "That was a MIRACLE! Wow!"

So, Alyson and Samantha (our investigators) came to a Relief Society activity this week, and so did Sally (one of our less actives)! We were giddy that they came! I is extremely rare for us to have someone we teach come to anything.

On Friday we had an appointment with Betsy Gibauld and her cute family. I have called them up almost weekly for three months trying to get in their door. We were so excited to finally get an appointment, but last week they "juked" us, so we prayed fervently that they would be there this week. We were so excited when not only were they there and let us us, but gathered the whole family together, turned off the TV, and listened intently. It was like out of the Preach My Gospel videos! The spirit was strong and we invited them to be baptized. They sincerely said they would pray about it as a family! They were very excited to set up another appointment to see us next week! We are stoked! I have been praying for a family my entire mission, and they are so ready! Keep them in your prayers! :)

Linda is one of our other investigators. She is super Catholic and does not understand why we keep inviting her to be baptized since she has already been baptized by the Priesthood in the Catholic church. No amount of explaining seems to help her understand. We were unsure what to do. Should we drop her, or keep teaching her in hopes something would catch her understanding. Pics had the impression to tell her that there is literal divinity within us, because we are Gods children. She asked me how I knew that. I said it was because I felt it was true when I was taught it. She then said "You know, I have never told this to anyone before, but while I was meeting with the Jehovah Witnesses, I prayed to God and asked him to lead me to where I needed to go to gain eternal salvation. And then you two showed up are my door. I know there is something to learn from you, I am just not sure what." Wow! We were shocked! We have hope that we can give her what God needs her to learn, she just needs to receive it :)

It was fun to do my third and last FaceTime call home to my family on Mother's Day!  I loved seeing the while family and talking as if I never left. I love my little ones too (nieces and nephews). They have changed a little bit, but are still their cute little selves. The other day one of my missionary friends asked me "if you could do anything that you wanted right now, what would you do?" I said "See my nieces and nephews!" I sure do love them!

 Well, like I wrote about last week, Sister Bolton and I set some lofty goals this week for lessons. We realized by Wednesday that we were being stretched thin and were not focusing on the people as much as we were the lessons. We were running around frantic to get 8 lessons packed in to each day, despite our District meeting, Pday, and weekly planning hours taking up that precious teaching time. So, mid week we
decided to slow down and focus on the things that matter most. We still did a fantastic job this week though by reaching an all time high of 34 lessons taught! We beat our areas highest actual s in three years by over 10 lessons. The mission high is 47 lessons taught by my powerhouse former zone leader, Elder Witbeck. We totally could have reached that goal if we hadn't slowed down the pace, but we figured our sanity is more important. But we now have a new record to beat :) My previous high was 23 lessons I believe, so this was epic!

Yesterday we had another miracle happen. We pulled into an area to drop in on a potential investigator names Pinky. We were eager to see Rose Karpinski out in her yard. She is another potential of ours that I have high hopes for. She called us up last night and accepted our offer to help her with her yard work. So, we hurried or get out of the car to go talk to her. She was happy to see us. She told us about her sisters failing health and invited us to see her condition for ourselves. Instantly my mind became alert. We had been trying for three months to get inside her home, and she always politely refused because of this or that. So when she invited us to see her sisters condition, I thought she would just let us peek through a window or something. To my absolute astonishment, she let us into her home! I was ecstatic! She is trusting us! We talked with her about the gospel and she bore her testimony to us. She kept saying she felt the spirit. We asked her if we could say a prayer at her sisters bedside. She gladly welcomed it, and even turned off the tv mid prayer to allow the spirit to fully be there! It was beautiful! We are so excited to go and visit her tomorrow! She is golden!

Last night we were wanted to go tracting. We were going to turn around and tract a street we had passed, but decided to tract the complex we had pulled into to turn around. The first door we knocked quickly shut once we announced who we were. A yell from the kitchen table exclaimed "You worship the devil!" Haha...woah! First time I have gotten that response. Every other door we knocked was rude, completely not
interested, or just not home. We were shocked. We never got that. A visiting mechanic was kind to us and encouraged us to keep spreading the word. To my surprise, a young lady emerged from the first door we knocked on. She called out to us "Hey, I think you forgot something!" "The card?" I called out to her. "Yeah, you left it by accident" she snidely retorted. "I calmly took it back and said, "Do you know any Mormons?" (Thinking she must've had a terrible encounter with one before by the way she was acting). She was quick to state that she didn't and confidently walked away as she told us again that we worshiped the devil. Huh.... There are some interesting people out there!

Alyson and Samantha both told us yesterday that they do not want to be baptized anymore. I thought that was the case. I loved that they were honest with us. We invited them to really read the Book of Mormon with a desire to know if it is true, and to pray in faith for their answers. I am not giving up on them yet. They are still excited to come to church though, so we are plugging on! :)

And today, Sister Bolton and I had a WONDERFUL experience today.... We both got to go into Wal-Mart for the first time since we have been on our missions! We have missed it SO much, and have been giddy to go back. We even recorded ourselves going in and took pictures to remember the beautiful moment :) We got a lot of seeds and soil, and are going to start planting here soon! We are super excited! I know she won't pick whatever green thing that grows like Kyle did!

I am SO extremely grateful to The Lord for showering down miracles on us as we have extended our faith and sought his help in bringing his children back into the fold. I pray every day that we can have his spirit with us to lead and guide us. He is doing just that, and with his help, miracles are happening! How grateful I am to be his missionary!

Love Always,
Sister Weyandt