Oh hey!

June 9, 2008

So the news of the week is that the word "y'all" came out of my mouth just right on its own the other day. It was such a great moment! It hasn't become a habit or anything, but I thought it was worth writing about. :) It really is faster and easier than "you guys"; this mission really is changing my life. :)
So this week was also great. Highlights include:
We taught Heather (Ashley's mom, the one that moved out, which is a great thing) the first lesson, she started reading the BOM, then we taught her the third lesson (faith, rep, bap, HG, endure to the end) and...set a baptismal date with her!!! She is preparing to be baptized! Can you believe it? We couldn't! Never did we think this would happen while the two of us were still in the area. Gosh, we have been blessed. And then the next day we went over for breakfast and she made us waffles and we taught her the plan of salvation (2nd lesson) and it was so great! Oh, and before breakfast, we had Heather tell Junior (the 10-yr-old brother) her news (cuz he had been gone overnight so he didn't know), that she was preparing to be baptized, and he got this big smile on his face and then said something to the effect of, "Can I be baptized too?" It was so great, it was exactly what we were hoping would happen. They are preparing to be baptized on June 28. The only obstacle we may have is getting her to completely stop smoking and drinking (she doesn't do either excessively, so hopefully it won't be too hard for her to quit both). So that's our sweet Heather.
The Campbell's came to church yesterday! In fact, the great thing about yesterday (well, one of the great things) was that we had 5 whole investigators to church! Can you believe it? Again, we couldn't. It was amazing! Heather and Junior, Keith and Shannon Campbell (and their 4 little ducklings, all under 6 though, so we don't count them), and our sweet friend Jackie. But the Campbells are doing so well, and we didn't set a date with them on thurs like we planned, but we decided to just soft-commit them since we hadn't even done that, and they hadn't come to church yet. But they are so great, and on thurs in our lesson Keith told us about his experience of knowing the church is true: he said that right after he said (or thought, I can't remember) the question of Is the church true?, the phone beeped twice, this weird beep that never happens. So he took that as his answer. We'll take it! :) And a member of the bishopric left a message on our phone last night reporting that in Priesthood yesterday, Keith stood up and introduced himself and announced that this is the truest church he's ever been to. We were so happy about that. He was kindof raised in the Catholic church, and never really liked or agreed with what they did. Go figure.
And Shannon Campbell said after church was over that she was sore (3 hours of sitting, which she is not used to, plus she's pregnant), but that she got more out of it than in any other church. That made us happy.
Then Jackie is our 5th progressing investigator, and she is this 55 yr-old black woman with a little beard (really) who lives in the little ghetto. I think it's government housing maybe. She used to be taught by the other sisters before us--and right after I got here we taught her a couple times--but then lost interest for a few months, but then told her neighbor Francis, who is a recent convert to our ward of a couple years I think, to have us call her cuz she wanted to be taught. So we've been teaching her and she actually came to church yesterday! It was amazing! She is so great.
This week we also found a turtle in the middle of the road near our house, on our way home. We live on the edge of a golf course and there's a little lake right there, and apparently the turtles come up and lay their eggs in the median/island in our neighborhood. We named him Mertle, took pictures with him, and put him down by the lake. We couldn't find him the next day after church, so we assume he survived. But I held a real turtle! :)
I love you all, thank you Mom, Dad, and Rosanna for the updates! And thank to the Merkleys for those TWO letters in one week! I was so impressed (and so grateful!)! I think we're going to give that article to Angie Camille, thank you, we liked it!
Gotta go, I love you all!
Love, Melissa