Hola familia y amigos!
It is so weird to think that I am already emailing you again. . it feels like time just keeps going faster and faster and that is just crazy to me!
This week we started our first official week as the VA Beach Hermanas! It was really fun and definitely different but a lot harder than I was expecting at first. Not gonna lie. . missionary work always seems to take me by surprise. It is just crazy sauce! =)
We struggled a lot this week but we also had a few blessings given to us. Tuesday and Wednesday we basically tracted all day because the elders investigators they were visiting didn't want to visit with us or they weren't home. It is interesting to me who you think are your strong investigators and then with the switch they don't want to hear the message at all anymore. It is really sad but we know one day they will accept the message. =)
Basically we "white-washed" the area so we were starting with a clean slate. We had a total of 3 lessons this week which was a bummer but we were trying so we can't really complain. As of Friday we had 1 so we were really blessed this weekend. =)
One lady was hilarious, we were out tracting and she just felt bad for us so she invited us in because we were out in like 100 degree weather knocking some doors and she just let us in and gave us water. haha. And let us share a message. She did have any interest so that was a bummer but it was kind of her to let us hermanas in for a little bit to cool down. =) Sometimes I think this weather will be a benefit to getting us into peoples doors, they just feel bad. One thing that is funny is that EVERYONE will offer you a water bottle. So by the end of the week we have like 20 water bottles in the back of our car. It makes me laugh.
This week we found a new investigator though! Her name is Jenny, and she is 19 years old! She was a little surprised to find out that we were the same age. I shocked two people this week with that information. We had a really great lesson on the Restoration with her and it was neat. We had found her through former investigators and she just told us we could come back Saturday and she would listen because she was baby sitting at the time. So we came back and we had a really great conversation. She was so nice! It was interesting because she wanted us to speak to her in English (that is one thing that I think is really interesting about the Hispanics here, most of the time they want us to speak to them in English. . so it is definitely a struggle but we try to use our Spanish as much as we can!). She was super sweet though. We shared the First Vision with her and she afterwards was like wow, I believe that could happen. She was like "I just felt differently when you told me that, I was caught up in the moment." It was really neat to see her feel the truthfulness of the words of Joseph Smith testifying to her. That is one thing that is so wonderful to me, that we can share the spirit with people in a matter of seconds. We will be seeing her again this week so I will keep you posted on that.
We also are teaching two teenage-ish boys (11 y 13). They are really nice, Jay and Nico. They are living with a member and are going to church with them. So they wanted them to learn the gospel in their native language. We also had the chance to share the Restoration with them. It was interesting because I could just feel the love that Christ has for them. I asked them how they felt to know that Christ suffered for them and all the answer I got was that "I feel bad that he suffered for me."
I guess I understood where they were coming from but at the same time I was like, how do you not know that it was a demonstration of his LOVE for you! He loves you enough to suffer for you so that you can return to him and god again. It was a big testimony builder to me. But it was wonderful to share the love of the Savior with them and just the knowledge that he loves them so much. I hope that they could feel the love that Christ has for them because I sure did.
This week we also had Zone Conference! I just love Zone Conference, it was seriously the best! President and sister Baker always give the best trainings, and the Assistants and the Zone leaders. I just had a great time getting re-motivated to be a better missionary! I just know that I can continually improve!
President Baker shared a great message on accepting correction and just becoming a better person from that. It was a really great message. It was also neat because the branch was in charge of making lunch for all of us missionaries and I have to admit it was DELICIOUS! They are the best! They were so cute, filming all of us singing called to serve to them. It was a good time.
Then after lunch for the second session of course is the terrifying moment when we might get chosen to do a 7 minute role play in front of everyone. But President Baker decided he and sister baker would do it for all of us. But then afterwards we split off in groups and did role plays.
We split off with the sister training leaders, and we were chosen to go first. So we are doing it on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They are being one of their investigators, Cassandra. Anyways as we are reaching repentance you just feel someone join us on the bench, sure enough President Baker sits down and is listening in on our role play. I was like oh great. . . but decided that I would just ignore that he was there and focus on the role play. Oh goodness can I just say that was the BEST role play I have ever done in my life. It wasn't what we had originally planned, we ended up talking about the atonement and repentance for a good chunk of it. And It was just crazy. One of the sister training leaders was almost in tears because the spirit was so strong. Afterwards we were discussing what we could improve on and things like that and President Baker didn't even have anything we could have done better, he only said it would have been better if we had done it in Spanish (which would have been interesting because we were with all English missionaries. haha. but it could be entertaining). I was really impressed. It was nice though to have such a great role play after such a crappy beginning to the week. But all is well and we know this week will bring a lot more miracles! =)
We also had a branch party on Saturday night. It was kind of a bummer because not a whole lot of people showed up but all in all it was a success. And the next party (futbol on the 12) will be a hit! ;) Hopefully lots of people will be there!
This past Preperation Day we went to the Zoo! I had lots of fun and it was great to look at all the animals and just have a day to relax. I truly enjoyed it. =) Who doesnt' love the zoo?!? =)
That is all that I have for you this week!
I love you! Have a great week! Hope you all had fun at the Round-up and ate a rodeo burger for me. . and wore some boots, I DID! ;) I love you and miss you!
Have a wonderful Fourth of July! Be safe, dont' catch on fire! ;)
Love you,
Hermana Gray
p.s. something that I learned this week that I thought was really neat was that the lost pages from the book of Mormon was called the book of Lehi, and I was just thinking how that might have been my favorite since I love the vision of the tree of life and I am sure Lehi just had some really neat things to tell us! =) Thought that was a little fun fact! =)
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