Monday, June 4, 2012

LESSONS LEARNED


Good afternoon family and friends!!

Well, once again, not a whole lot happened this week. It's surprising how fast this week went. Sister Davidson and I were talking about it and we don't feel like we got anything accomplished this week. We looked back and it just went so fast! Which we're sad about because we try to work really hard but by the time Sunday comes around and we have to send in our numbers, we realize how little we feel like we did. But I guess as long as we are trying our hardest, at least that's good!



So, on Wednesday, we were doing our service at City Hall with Bonnie Michaels (a less-active in the ward) and all of a sudden, this lady from a different department comes up to us and is so surprised to see us there! She doesn't usually come over to where we were working but she needed to shred something. Well, this lady ended up being a member of the church in another ward. She had no clue that there were missionaries doing service there. So we talked to her for about 15 minutes and during that time, Bonnie came over and started talking to us. Come to find out, this lady, Sister Lancaster, didn't know that Bonnie is a member of the church. So it was funny because Sister Lancaster said "Missionary moment right here" wanting us to help bring Bonnie back to church. Well, to be honest, that's one of the reasons we're doing this service. We have to do four hours of service each week but it's a bonus when we get to do it with someone who is a less active member of the church! So anyway, we're going to go out to lunch sometime with Sister Lancaster. She is such an amazing person, I can already tell! It's fun to meet so many new people!



Then on Thursday we were tracting and we went to this house that Sister Davidson has wanted to go to for a long time. When we got there, the guy was not interested at all but we got to talking and I asked him "If God had a message for you, what do you think it would be?" And that got him thinking and it got us to be able to stay and talk to him longer. Sadly he's going through a divorce right now and he's already a church going guy so he doesn't feel like he needs more. It was just nice to be able to talk to him.


Also that night, we went over to Cheryl Thompson's house. She just moved into the ward about a month ago and she's less active. We have enjoyed going to her house and getting to know her. She's 60-years old and she's a big work out queen! We go to talking to her about how we wish we could work out longer each day and she ended up giving us a work out book that she put together and we're learning moves from those to do each morning. It's actually a lot of fun! I like working out now! So each week we go over and switch out equipment to use. It's fun! And we just love Cheryl!



Then on Friday night to Saturday afternoonish, we had exchanges. I stayed in Chino Hills while Sister Davidson went to Monrovia. Sister Harker came and spent that time with me. We just went tracting most of the time but it was fun! There was this one family that we went to go see that Sister Davidson and I met a few weeks ago but they weren't home. While we were at their house, there was this old man standing outside and so we went to go see him. His name is Nash. He's in his 70's or 80's and lives with his wife. We asked him if we could take them on a church tour but he said he had other responsibilities. So we just got to talking to him and then we saw his wife in the window and he told us that she has Alzheimers (did I spell that right?...) So she came out and asked us who were were and she was just so cute! She shook Sister Harkers hand and then grabbed my arms and gave me a kiss on the cheek. It was the sweetest thing. Then she was trying to talk to her husband and we just sat there and listened. Then we started to leave and she said bye and she gave us kisses and then she grabbed my face and said, "I love you!" I almost bawled! It was the sweetest thing ever!!! And from that, I learned so much! I learned from Nash that no matter what, you never stop loving someone. I learned from Carmen, that you love everyone, no matter who they are. And I learned even more! It's weird how those small things can teach you so much! As a missionary I thought I was going to be teaching people things. But I've come to realize that I'm going to learn a lot from the people that I meet. And at the same time, I hope to teach them as well!

So on Saturday night we had another finding activity with the district. We went to The Shoppes (a shopping center) here in town and just talked to people. As Sister Davidson and I were walking around trying to find people, she looked over and saw the Mayor of Chino Hills. We had met him once before at an Eagle Court of Honor in our ward and we had talked to him for a while there. So when Sister Davidson saw him, we walked over and talked to him again. He recongized us and introduced us to his wife, their son and his girlfriend. Then we talked to them for about 10 minutes and that was cool! Then we went around and talked to another couple shopping and the guy wasn't interested but she was, and  that was cool. We gave them a pass along card with the SLC temple on it and she just kept staring at it. Then Sister Davidson felt promted to give them a Book of Mormon. He didn't want it but she was very excited for it! Sadly we didn't get any information from them but hopefully somewhere down the line, she will meet more missionaries and she will want to learn more about the gospel!



One more thing, there's a lady we have taught a couple times, her name is Yendia, and we were supposed to teach her on Thursday but she never showed up :( And we had a member from our ward there to fellowship her. Well, yesterday at church, Sister Navas came up to us and told her that she met Yenida! We were so confussed! Turns out, their kids are in the same class and they had a field trip on Friday and both Yenida and Sister Navas were chaperones! How random is that?!?! So Sister Navas got talking to Yenida and all this stuff and Yenida felt really bad that she missed our appointment but said she would call us this week sometime. But we'll go to her house tomorrow and see how she is and set up another time to come talk to her. I just find that so random but God really does put people in our lives for so many reasons and I know that it wasn't just a coincidence that both Sister Navas and Yenida went on that field trip with their children!

Well, that's all for now! The pictures that I'm putting in here are of Sister Davidson and I last night, Sister Butler, Sister Davidson, Sister Harker and I at our exchange backs, Sister Harker and I, me with Larry and Lorrie Williams (they are in our ward and we had dinner with them last night. We just LOVE them!), and also Sister Davidson and I with Sister Williams!

Hope everyone is having a good week so far! Happy Birthday to Uncle Scott and Simone this week. And if I missed anyone else for birthdays, anniversaries, anything. Love you all!

Love, Sister Wheatley

No comments:

Post a Comment