Hello my beautiful people! What a crazy amazing adventurous week I've had! First and foremost: Transfers happened! Oh my goodness! I am staying in Gilmer, and I have been reunited with the amazing Sister Parkinson! Can you believe it? I can't. But it's so wonderful! We have had an amazing week and I am so tired because of it, but goodness, I am happy!
It's been pretty darn cold this week. Tights, boots, long socks, all that jazz. No snow yet, but some drizzly rain and coldness that's for sure. I'm using my little sack of corn to stay warm, but I really am fine and having a great time. :)
Tuesday: We got Sister Parkinson settled in a little bit (not much, but a little) and were off for a couple of appointments. We got to teach Jo. I think I've told y'all about him a little bit, but his mom approached us at church a couple of weeks ago and said that Jo wanted to take the lessons and be baptized. So we got to teach him the Restoration, and it was just amazing. He is so ready and eager and willing to learn! It's basically the greatest. After teaching, we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon. I handed it to him kind of off hand just thinking that he probably already had a copy. But he took it and hugged it close to his chest and looked up at me and said, "Thank you so much." It really touched my heart because the Book of Mormon really is a precious gift from the Savior.
Wednesday: We stopped by Am Ca's house. Her husband is a fairly recent convert, and Am had started taking the lessons several weeks ago but got really sick. We dropped by to introduce Sister Parkinson, and ended up having a really great meeting with her. We shared Mosiah 4:9 and talked about a belief in God and all that He does for us. She expressed that she isn't sure about taking the missionary lessons at this time, but she is willing to have us come over and share a spiritual thought with her each week. So, we'll start there and take what we can get.
Thursday: We had a very very successful planning day! We were very diligent and had a great time. Then, all 3 of our appointments cancelled for the evening. That was very stressful. But we ended up being able to stop by 2 less actives and talk to them for a while. We finished up the cold night with some ice cream, because why not.
Friday: We did some tracting! It was cold and brisk, but I had actually missed tracting a little bit. Ha. But it was good. Not super successful, but always a good time. We miraculously found a member to come with us to a lesson down in Big Sandy. That was a big blessing! I also learned how to can butter and geothermally heat a green house. We were able to meet another less-active and have a good discussion. We asked her why she hadn't been at church the past couple of weeks and she said she just hadn't gone. So we invited her to sit by us during the meetings and she seemed pretty enthused about that. At dinner, the members had made a very delicious, very HOT soup. I didn't realize how hot it was and partook of a LARGE, HEAPING SPOONFUL OF LAVA. To put it simply, my tongue is FINALLY starting to feel normal today (like 3 days later.) That was adventurous. Even ice cream didn't make it feel any better. We finished the night up by teaching Ja his first new member lesson and actually had him help teach it back to us. Oh, how I love that boy. There are marvelous things in store for him. Also, one of the highlights of Friday was listening to CHRISTMAS MUSIC in the car. Yes yes, I love my christmas music early, but oh it was just happy.
Saturday: We had 4 very successful stop-bys! I feel like the fruits of our faith were able to show and we were able to have a lot of success from that. I also got to eat a rhubarb pie, and it felt just like home! Scary story: we were driving up a highway around 2 pm. It was overcast and pretty windy. Well lo and behold we see a deer standing on the side of the road. I slowed down a little bit because I wasn't sure what was going to happen. Well, the deer looked at us, the DARTED right into the road right in front of us! I slammed on the brakes, missed the deer by just a couple of inches, and the deer ran off into the woods, but only after looked back at us with a very coy grin. Blasted thing. I was pretty shook up, so we pulled over and sat on the side of the road for a while, so I could regain my composure. That was pretty emotional, but we were safe. Heavenly Father definitely heightened my ability to deal with the situation, and I am grateful that we made it out unharmed. Oh deer. ;) One last cool thing from Saturday. In a meeting with Br and Ra (less-actives) we were talking about prophets and missionary work and all that good stuff. Then they told us a really cool story. Jo is their 6 year old son. Br had been just thinking about life and his family and things one day at work. Then he said the thought came to him that Jo was going to be a missionary. He just kept thinking about it, and it just kept coming to him that Jo would be. Then a couple of days later, Br's dad came up to him and said, "I have a feeling that Jo is going to be a missionary." Br hadn't told Ra or Jo about any of this. Then several days later, Jo just walked up to Ra and said, "Mom, I'm going to be a missionary man someday." I thought this was such a special story because Jo would be one of the first people to serve a mission in his family. He would be able to do so much. So after they told that story, I clipped my name tag onto Jo's shirt and he wore it for the rest of the meeting. My heart was very full and I could just picture him serving a mission someday. Very special.
Sunday: pretty normal average Sunday. It was the Primary program, and we were able to sit by the less-active who we told we would. So that was pretty good. That evening, we were driving around trying to find a house of some members. I hadn't been there before, we don't have a gps, and it was dark. We just had an address. So we turned down a street, went about half a mile, and were able to find it. SO amazing.
I have definitely seen the Lord's hand in my life this week, and I am truly grateful for that.
I am so blessed to be a missionary!
Sister Gilbert
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