Let me start out by saying that I LOVE HERMANA BARRUS. Wow she is so amazing. She is such an amazing teacher. Our lessons are already being taught 50/50 between the companionship. She loves to speak spanish (which is good for me!) and she is from Provo.. hahaha small world am I right?? Heavenly Father really knows what he's doing.
I have some sad news.. Billy, the one I talked about last week is no longer on bapt date. Is no longer going to be meeting with us, and is no longer going to be coming to church. Last night we had a lesson set up with him and his roommate was walking down the stairs at the apartment complex and she told us, "Go look and see what he did." So we knocked on the door and it just wasn't the best situation, so we left and will probably never see him again. He'll change and be taught one day though.
Nicholas is doing great!! I love that kid with all of my heart. He came to church again and since Sister Barrus and I have to be split up on Sundays she was in the YSA branch. She told me, "I didn't even know he wasn't a member until you started talking to him afterwards and set up that appointment!" I just wish everybody could have a Nicholas in their life. He's still reading in the Book of Mormon daily and we're meeting with him again on Wednesday. His parents are coming into town this weekend, so be praying for him! Also be praying we accidentally run into him so we can meet his parents lol lol just kidding don't do that.
Annie has been sick this past week so that's pretty sad.. we haven't really been able to see her, but she is getting better! I love her and I know her prayers will be answered soon.
We went to a members house to have dinner with Edwin. We talked about swimming with sharks (definitely on my bucket list), jumping off big cliffs, skydiving, etc. He thinks we're crazy now haha. We were able to teach about faith at the end of the dinner appointment and we left and forgot to set up another time to teach him. So he called us about an hour later and asked when the next time we were going to come teach him was. He's so eager to learn!
Wendy... Oh Wendy. I haven't even talked about her at all I don't think. Other sisters found her one day at the mall and started talking to her. Sister Waite and I met with her at the mall probably about a month and a half ago and then we met with her one more time at the church and taught her about the book of mormon. Then on exchanges sister Tennyson and I about 3 weeks ago were going to teach her, when we walked in and they were having young womens. So I had to make a quick decision in about 3 seconds if we should have her go to young womens and not teach her a lesson or if we should teach her a lesson and not have her go to young womens. So in about 3 seconds I just said, "Wendy! You should go to young womens!" So we kinda left her there. Anyway it was great that we did that!! The young womens president invited Wendy to go back the next Wednesday and come to another activity. AND SHE DID AND SHE LOVED IT! So we met with her on Saturday night at the church again and asked a young women named Sydney Kate to come (I love her name it is so southern). It was such an amazing lesson. We taught her how we have the Book of Mormon and she was so attentive the whole time. We shared Joseph Smith's experience and when we asked her how she felt afterwards she said she felt warm. At the end we asked Sydney Kate to share the importance of reading the Book of Mormon and she got really shy and put her head down and said, "You know. I didn't start really reading the Book of Mormon until 3 weeks ago." and then she kind of brightened up and she gave her experience and said, "I prayed to know if it was true and I felt so happy inside and I knew that it was true." and so we got to the end of the lesson and I had a strong impression to ask if it would be okay if we said a kneeling prayer and asked if the book of mormon was true together. So we asked Sydney Kate to do it and she did. Afterwards we sat in silence for a little bit and we asked Wendy how she felt and she said, "I feel so happy and so peaceful and I feel like crying." So we explained to her that was the spirit and we invited her to come to church. She came to church and now we have another appointment set up with her. But while I was at ward council yesterday I was talking to the young womens president and she said she talked to Wendy about baptism and Wendy told her she wants to be baptized so bad. I about died haha. We're so excited for Wendy. She is so cute and is going to have such a huge influence on her family for the rest of their lives.
We had a lot of meetings this week, so we didn't have a ton of time to do regular missionary work, but I learned something so important from one of the meetings we had and that was to sustain your leaders. It is so important to sustain your leaders and be willing to love and support them and do all they ask of you. They are called of God. I think often times we forget that our leaders have normal lives like us, they're not perfect, they make mistakes, but they do all they do out of love. Nobody is ever trying to make somebody else's life miserable. They're doing all they can to love you and to help you grow closer to our Savior.
Love y'all so much and have a blessed week!
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