Monday the 22nd was a very good and relaxing day. I cleaned
a lot while Sister Denney was taking a nap (she has been wanting to nap for
almost a month now but hasn't been able to...) So it was just a very nice day!
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| Sister Ackley and Sister Wheatley |
That night though we had an unexpected teaching opportunity.
We had gotten our hair cut earlier and the Sister cutting our hair mentioned
Navajo Tacos. There's a kid who just got home from serving in New Mexico with
the Native American's and he's been craving them. Long story short, we said how
we love Navajo Tacos so she decided to have a last minute dinner party. When we
got there that night, we pulled up right after this former Elder and his family
and out comes his moms co-worker who's not a member of the church. She has been
coming to church for the last several weeks. She saw us and got nervous because
Brother Smith forgot to mention that we were going to be at dinner also.
Anyway, at the end of the night we watched the Mormon Message "I Am a
Child of God." Very simple and very sweet. I love this video because it
takes us back to the basics. So it was really nice to just watch that and
discuss how we are Children of God.
Tuesday the 23rd we went through our area book and wrote
down a lot of names of former investigators. That's mainly what we did that
day, contacting formers and less-actives. It was really cool though because
there was one name in the area book that had an address but when we went to her
house, there was no such address (Thanks Tovey and Yoshi haha) So we decided to
just go knock on all the doors on the street. No one seemed to know who this
lady was and I was starting to get tired and really frustrated. We almost gave
up when we walked up to a house and a lady came out. I asked if she knew the
lady we were looking for and she said it was her. We told her we were the new
missionaries in the area and we felt like we should stop by and see how she was
doing and if she was interested in meeting with us again. She said yes and we
set up a time to meet her on Thursday! We were so happy! Heavenly Father is so
incredible! Right at the end when we were about to give up, He steps in and
lifts us up! I was just so thankful for that!
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| Sisters Amataga, Denney, Lone Wolf, Sister _______ and Wheatley |
And to end the day, we had a final lesson with Lone Wolf
before his interview on Thursday. So it was a good day!
Thursday the 25th was a good day. We had district council
and Elder Gracia tried to focus it more to the "newbies" since we are
the only two "oldies" in the district but to be honest, I got so much
out of it! I loved it! Everything that was taught is something that I have
heard before but this time around, maybe since I'm close to the end, it really
stood out to me. I'm so thankful that it stood out to me because I will really
be using it these last seven weeks (can you believe that's all the time I have
left?! It's blowing my mind!)
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| Sisters Lee and Wheatley |
After district council, we had a lesson with the lady we met
on Tuesday, Kathlene. We got to her house, knocked on the door, rang the
doorbell and nothing. We stood there for a few minutes and tried calling her
but she didn't answer. Really?! We were so bummed! We started to walk back to
our car when I felt a prompting to knock on the door of the motor home that was
out front. Someone answered and we asked if he knew Kathlene, he said yes and
he went inside to find her. She came out and invited us in. We started by
getting to know her and found out a couple things about her. One thing we found
out is that she loves her father and wishes that he would have been more
religious while she was growing up and before he passed away. DING! That sent a
bell off in my head that said to teach the Plan of Salvation. Lucky for us, I
had my PoS pictures still in my bag. It was such an incredible lesson. The
Spirit was so strong and everything we taught she loved. It was just so
amazing! She loved it and wants to change her life and be better. She wants to
come to church and be an example to her sons. She wants it and she knows it's
the right path to take. It was just amazing!
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| Sisters Denney, Ackley, Lee and Wheatley |
We then met up with the Sisters because we didn't have money
or food and we were hoping they would buy us all pizza for lunch and we'd pay
them back when we get paid... We found them driving down the street so we
followed them. We ended up getting some pizza an went back to the church to
eat. We were sitting there all nice and enjoying our time when all of a sudden
I looked at the phone (2:56 pm was the time), I saw a missed call from Lone
Wolf and all of a sudden I jumped up and said, "LONE WOLF'S INTERVIEW IS
IN THREE MINUTES!!! WE GOTTA GO!!!" Sister Denney and I ran out of the
church like it was nobodies business and rushed to the Stake Center for his
interview. We felt horrible that we were late! We got so caught up in being
hungry that we didn't look at our planners. But we got there and everything was
ok. Elder Hill and Elder Beard were there waiting and so was Lone Wolf. Elder
Hill and Lone Wolf went off into one of the classrooms and an hour and a half
later emerged out of the room. It was a very long interview but Elder Hill came
out and later told us "He's solid!" I won't lie... If you know Lone
Wolf, there are somethings that you'd be like "Really??" and so I was
a little scared. But it all turned out wonderfully! We were so happy! Baptismal
interview number one complete!
Then later that night after dinner and a lesson our
investigator Christine had her interview as well. Hers did not last nearly as
long as Lone Wolf's haha It was maybe 10 minutes. She walked out of the room
and was beaming with happiness and said, "I PASSED!!!" It was just so
cute. I can't remember if I told you all last week but Christine doesn't
technically need to be baptized. But she's been coming to church for three
years and wanted to be baptized so we got permission to go ahead with it. It
was awesome! She was just so happy! I couldn't stop smiling for her.
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| Sisters Carrell, Denney, Lone Wolf and Sister Wheatley at his baptism 7/28/13 |
Friday the 26th was just a normal weekly planning day. But
after weekly planning we had a lesson with potential investigators, Nacho and
Carmen. We went there planning to just get to know them and share the
Restoration with them. As we sat down, we asked if we could say a prayer and
Nacho said no. We were all confused and then he proceeded to tell us why we
couldn't pray. I'll be honest, I was so lost that I don't even know what his
answer was. And that's because he pulled out some scriptures from the Bible and
then kept going on and on and on about random things. I was so confused!! We
were there for about an hour and we barely got a word in... It was not good.
When we left, we said, "Ok, now that you've told us what you believe, we'd
like to come back sometime next week and tell you what we believe." He
said yes and we'll see what happens. If we can't teach anything within the
first 5 or 10 minutes that we are there this week, we won't be there long.
And to end the night, we had a dinner appointment with a
Sister in the ward at The Golden Spur. I've been driving by this restaurant for
10 months and have never gone in. We got there and walked in and it was a super
fancy restaurant! We sat down, looked at the menu and there wasn't much for
cheaper than $20, and those were just appetizers! I couldn't believe it! What
were we supposed to do! We couldn't believe that she had taken us there! We
asked her our limit and she said there wasn't really a limit... CHOKE!!!
Obviously though, we didn't get anything too "expensive." I got
shrimp and Sister Denney got steak. By the end of the night, after we had
talked about a lot of things, we had mentioned that we were going to take half
our food home because we were out of money for the month and we don't get paid
til Wednesday. She was paying the dinner bill and she pulled out $40 in cash
and gave us each $20! What was she doing?! This meal was already over $100 and
she was giving us more??!! We were completely speechless. We didn't tell her
that to have her give us more money! We were just talking and bam! We got more
money! I don't tell this story to brag but I tell this story because the
members here are AMAZING!!!! They will do anything for us and I'm so thankful
to them. And it was just a blessing/miracle for us. I'm still in shock! We
don't know what we will ever be able to do to pay back these members. They are
just amazing!! I guess what I can do in return is just do the same for
missionaries when I get home (maybe not $100 dinners but food/money of some
sort...)
After dinner we went to Covina and met up with Sisters
Ackley and Lee for exchanges. So Saturday the 27th that's what happened,
exchanges.
It was a good day Saturday. We had only one appointment set
up so we just did a lot more contacting that day. The one appointment we did
have was with a less-active and it was such a good appointment! We brought
Sister Miller, the Relief Society President and it just went super well. We
read "The Psalm of Nephi" (2 Nephi 2:15-35) and talked about how she
can trust the Lord. Her sons are taking the lessons and she wants them to be
baptized but she's not being the best example to them. So we talked about it
and it was just a powerful lesson!
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| Sisters Carrell and Denney, Christine, and Sister Wheatley at Christine's baptism 7/28/13 |
Sunday the 28th was an awesome day too!!!! We had TWO
BAPTISMS!!!!! It was amazing! I don't ever know what to say about baptisms
because they are just so spirit-filled. We were talking to Christine at church
and she said to us, "You're gonna cry!" Yup, probably! I didn't cry
while they were being baptized but while they were getting dressed, we had a
testimony meeting and Bishop Lemmon called people up. I was so sure I was safe
because I'm just a missionary but I was wrong! He called me up and I just
started to bawl! I had so many thoughts running through my head that I wanted
to say but very little came out. But it was nice to be able to bear my
testimony. I take the opportunity as much as possible but this one was special
to me.
I'm just so happy for Lone Wolf and Christine. They have
been a long time coming! It was just amazing! I have been blessed with such
amazing baptisms on my mission. I may not have one every month like our
standards of excellence says but each one of the have been so special (as they
all should be.) It's just awesome to be apart of this wonderful work. I'm so
glad that I took these last 18 months (almost) to leave everything behind and
serve the Lord. He always jumps in when we need Him the most. I just love this
work!
I gotta go now! After talking and emailing back and forth
with mom and Bubba, it has taken me almost two hours to write this email! I'm
hungry and we have so much to do! haha
I love you all so much! Thank you all for your love and
support and prayers. I've never felt more supported in my life!
Love always,
Sister Rachel Wheatley
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