Little Ms. Missionary: Letter #30 (April 14, 2014)

Well hello there my fine friends/family!

My new-comp-every-transfer streak is over! Sister Child and I are staying together and I'm so excited! This is my first time not getting a transfer call and I love it!

So some things about this week:

Climbed a tree

Used a saw

Rode in the back of a pickup up a mountain

Got complimented on my shoes by old ladies with walkers (Ouch. You know you're a missionary when...)

Shot a fellow deputy

Ate lots of icecream

Got told that I look like I'm 15

Got called "that lady"

Taught some awesome lessons!

So the first three are from doing service this weekend. I was so excited about climbing a tree! I miss climbing! It's hard to saw with your left hand while up a tree though. Oh well.

Twice now little old ladies with a walker/cane have complimented me and my companion's shoes. So sad. I'm used to wearing old lady shoes by now, but still. And they're dying, I'll have to take a picture.

Last Monday the elders taught us a card game called "Bang" where you are either the sheriff, a deputy, an outlaw, or a renegade. I was a deputy, so my job was to protect the sheriff and kill the outlaws and renegade. But I didn't know who they were, so I accidently killed a fellow deputy. It was sad. But me and the sheriff still ended up being the last ones standing, so it was okay. We're hopefully going to play again today.

Our investigator James bought us a pie for our lesson with him on Saturday! So sweet. Later he said that he was bribing us to tell him the right answers to the baptismal interview questions. We told him that it's not a big deal, but he's so nervous! Cute. He's getting baptized on the 27th!!!!!!! Anyway, he introduced us to some delicious icecream by a company called Tillamook. It is SO creamy and delicious! So we bought some today. YUM.

Okay, so we had dinner with a less active/part member couple the other day and when I told them to guess my age they said that if I wasn't a missionary they would have guessed 15! That's a new low for me. But then a couple of days later, one of the youth said "I was wondering 'why is that lady looking at me?' and then I realized it was you!" So now I'm a lady. That sounds super old. Oh boy. I just can't win here! Haha, oh well.

Lastly, we taught a couple of really cool lessons with people that we haven't managed to teach for a while.

The first one was Aaron and Amy. Aaron is a less active return missionary and Amy is his non-member wife. We started teaching them when I first got here, but Aaron works a ton, so we've been having a hard time getting in to see them. Aaron totally has a testimony, he is just "a little rebelious" as he puts it. Amy hasn't seemed super interested for the most part, but they keep letting us come back. Well. We found out that Amy is pregnant with a little girl! The next lesson we had to teach them was Plan of Salvation, we talked a lot about how we can have total happiness and joy as we follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We really focused on how as they follow Jesus Christ, they will be able to have more peace and happiness in their home and more guidance from the Holy Ghost to help them raise their new baby. We really compared Heavenly Father to earthly parents and how He wants the best for His children, just like they want the best for their daughter. I think that it really got them thinking. I really hope that things start happening with them, I know that their little girl will have a much a better life if she is raised in the gospel than if she is not. They will be able to have so much more happiness in their family. I really really hope that they start making an effort to follow Jesus Christ. We'll see how it goes.

The second one was with Myles and Serena. They have had missionaries on and off for a few years, so we just asked them why. Then the Holy Ghost just totally took over for Sister Child and she was able to really talk to them about what they want in life and how they plan to get there. It was the best lesson we've ever had with them. It was really cool. They should hopefully be coming to our ward's Easter egg hunt and breakfast on Saturday AND church on Sunday.

On a more somber note, Adriana told James to tell us that she doesn't want to meet with us anymore. She said something to the effect of that she is too deeply rooted in Catholicism. We're going to try to see her at least one more time and just see what's on her mind. We really think that there is some underlying issue that we haven't been able to figure out as of yet. We're hoping to be able to figure out how to help her. She has said that she knows that all of this is true, and yet she is still struggling. I don't know. We'll see.

I love/miss you all!

~Sister Kretchman