Last Weeks Miracles (continued)

To finish up from last week, I'll start with Deedee and Margaret.  Sunday morning (the 4th) Sister Wankier and I had about 2 hours in the area before church started.  We had met our goals for the week, but could still use some new investigators, so we decided to do some finding.  Since we had already visited everyone in the former investigator book, and had checked/called all of our potentials, we were left with tracting.  (Members would be getting ready for church since it was Sunday).  The street we chose was in a well-to-do neighborhood, with beautiful brick mansions, and little families that were all getting ready for church.  None were too interested, or very kind.  We were getting a little discouraged, when we knocked on a door, heard a dog barking as usual, and were surprised to see a woman opening the door and stepping outside to talk to us.  Her name was Deedee and she told us that lately her coworkers had been sharing the book of Mormon with her! She's been looking for a church, and would love to learn more as soon as she finishes the last 5 weeks of her nursing degree, quits one of her 2 full-time jobs, and has a little time.  And she meant it.  She really listened to the message and counted it as a sign from God that we were at her home.  It was such a little tender mercy to have her buried in between these homes of disinterested people. 

But, that was just the beginning.  I think Heavenly Father was preparing us to expect miracles that day, because we needed to have smiles on our faces and we continued to search for those who were prepared.  The next place we went was a little subdivision of town homes.  Everyone we met was either Asian, or from the Middle East.  We were turned away at every door, until we came to one house where a huge golden retriever watched us through the glass storm door, and started to bark.  His owner, a blonde woman in her late 40's, came to the door, saw us, and said, "Wait here! Wait here!  I have to put the dog away!" She dragged the dog over to his kennel, came back to the front door and said, "Come in!" We were shocked, but didn't question, and walked right in.  Now, this is not normal behavior for a blonde, caucasian woman who sees two girls in dresses on her doorstep.  The next thing she said was, "Did Alex send you?" Sister Wankier and I looked at each other, told her, "No..." And I was thinking, "But please don't kick us out," when she said, "Oh.  Really? That's so strange.  Alex is my 18 year old son who joined your church 2 years ago.  This weekend he came home for college to visit, and just last night he said that he was going to send some missionaries over to meet me."  Ahh!!!!!  Things like this don't just happen.  We told her that Alex definitely did not send us, but Heavenly Father had.  We were at her home because he knows her and she needs us.  To make this story even better, Alex is now thinking about serving a mission, and as a single mother who's son had just joined this church 2 years ago, she had a lot of questions.  They were mostly about the logistics of a missionary's life, but we were able to answer all of the questions she had, and bear our testimonies of this great work.  In the meantime, Alex came home after finishing church at the Chinese Branch.  (The boy is 18, fluent in Spanish and English, and is learning Chinese so he went to church there.  Crazy.) Anyway, he comes home and is ecstatic that the missionaries are in his house talking to his mom.  He told her outright that she needs to let us teach her, and that is absolutely our plan as well.  Such a miracle.

This week has been wonderful as well.  Tevin is making progress (pray for him), and he even told Sister Wankier and I that we're "actually pretty cool."  Coming from a 16 year old black kid, that has to be worth something.  But aside from that, he's reading the Book of Mormon, praying about it, and really searching.  He's finally taking this into his own hands.  He even stayed for all three hours of church.  And the ward was great with him.  I LOVE this ward.  The members are wonderful at missionary work, know their duty when it comes to serving others, and they are excited about the gospel.  I love it! It's such a blessing.

So pray for him, and for Claudia, and Wachen, and Brittany.  They're all so close. 

That's all I have time for today.  I love you all!  Stay true to what's eternal.

-Sister Welch

Seneca, Seneca, Seneca News!

I'm not even in the Seneca Zone anymore, but that is the song going through my head right now.  When I was there, our zone leaders would leave us weekly voice mails beginning with their little "radio show" diddy.  And it's so catchy it just keeps coming back.

This past week, my Dad emailed me your guesses to what the mysterious "32" could mean, and I am so pleased that you all think so highly of me!  But none of you came quite close enough to qualify for the prize.  And now I'm a little embarrassed to give you the real answer, but just in case you were worried about me getting translated, I'll let you know what the truth is.  Ultimately, I'm still very human, and still very much a girl, and the number 32 does not represent anything near as spiritual as you were all thinking.  And, I know you're all DYING to know the answer, so the big 32 represents this: the number of skirts I have!  haha.  Don't worry, I'm getting rid of a lot of them.  And one has a hole in it because I tried to iron it and the iron was too hot. Yep.  The miracle of it is, though, that I haven't let myself go shopping in 11 months, so all of the sisters feel bad for me and give me their clothes.  :]  Pretty smart, huh? Tee hee.  And a little ridiculous.  Sometimes I think Washington D.C. North isn't a mission.  It's too good!  So anyway, there's the answer.  (And the prize would have been one of my skirts.  Bahaha!)

On to more spiritual things.  I am so grateful to be in this area.  I am really learning to appreciate the little tender mercies.  For example, now when people are nice, it's a huge miracle.  This past week has been the week of less actives, and we have been able to see so many that have been hostile before.  That's huge.  I wish I could describe the feeling of standing on a stranger's doorstep, with another girl that you don't know that well, waiting for that stranger to open the door, only to see your badge and not even look at your face before slamming the door right as you go to testify, but then realizing that your companion is testifying and the less active is saying, "Come in! Come in!"  It's glorious.  (Did that even make sense?  It was a little convoluted, but oh well.) That same experience kept happening this week!  We saw so many people that we didn't think would be willing to listen.  It was incredible.

It strengthens my testimony that Heavenly Father is in control, and I love the way that he chooses to remind people of our existence.  Meaning, we ran into Samuel last week.  Samuel was the Dad that was in the army and had been deployed to the Middle East twice.  His wife is Jehovah's Witness, but loved us and wanted us to teach him.  So we ran into him, and committed him to come to church. Our exchanges are always such a spiritual experience that it gives me faith in him, but he's still struggles to keep his commitments, so pray for him.  We also saw Devon, the only nonmember in a less active household and ran into him a few more times last week.  We're supposed to teach him.  (Signs like that make life a lot easier).  

And Tevin came to church!!! Such a huge miracle. I'm giving the credit to Sister Wankier, because it was really her doing, and she is the one that got him to commit, and helped him to be excited.  So much faith, that girl.  Please keep Tevin in your prayers too.  This gospel has the answers to his questions and he's the type that has to figure it out for himself.  And he will.

Now, I've been realizing lately that I don't talk about the little things and the details of my specific mission, so I wanted to tell a little story about that.  Last night was a program called, "Night of Music and Inspiration."  This is an event that lasts about an hour and it includes talks and songs that follow a certain theme.  Each month, a different Sister is in charge of planning this event.  Sister Bleazard had this month, and hers was in Spanish. Well, most of the people that come to these speak English, so we needed someone to translate.  Translating here is pretty fancy because we have a booth in the main theater where the translator sits, listens to the speaker through headphones, and then translates into a microphone so that those with the headsets in the audience can hear without disturbing anyone.  The problem with last night was that all of the sisters that could translate were in the program.  So I needed to ask one of the Elders, and Elder White happened to walk through the door right as I was looking for a translator.  He's been out the same amount of time I have and is great with Spanish, so I asked him, and he got this nervous look on his face.  But Spanish to English is a lot easier then vice versa, so I told him he'd be fine, and he said he'd do it.  Then he told me, "But if I don't understand what they're saying I'm just going to start telling jokes.  I might even say, 'If you thought that joke was funny raise your hand...'"  I had to laugh because I had this image in my head of all of the English-speaking audience members raising their hands in the middle of this incredible program.  Too funny.  Luckily, he understood everything and the night went smoothly.  Just another moment in the life of a VC Sister.

And I wish I could share more.  But next time.  I love you all!  Stay true to what's eternal.

Love, Sister Welch

32

Thirty-two is a very significant number in my life as a missionary.  At least it is as of right now.  But I'm not going to tell you what it stands for.  You have to guess.  And if you can guess what it represents, you will get a prize.  :]

(Just post your guess as a comment and my Dad will email them to me.)

This week, all is well in Kentlands.  It seems like our purpose here is to teach young women, and we have such a strong group in our ward, that these 3 girls we've started to teach will have a good support system when they come.  Kelly, the Jamaican who had a b-date, is back in touch with us (woooooo!!!!!), and we're really trying to get one of her friends in the ward to invite her to activities and church.  We were going to stop trying to contact her this week, but decided to give it one more try and she was home! I'll take that as a sign.  Then that night, I saw a girl walking to her house and I wanted to talk to her, but it was raining, and she had headphones in, and we were already on Kelly's doorstep, and I didn't want to scare her (excuses, excuses, I know) so we waited as I just watched which house she went into.  (Is that creepy to admit? Sometimes missionaries are really weird, but I probably shouldn't publicly admit everything we do.  Oh well...)  Anyway, after talking to Kelly, we walked a few houses down and met Kifa, the girl with the headphones.  

Meeting her was actually one of my favorite moments of the week, because it was raining, and it was cold, and she didn't want us to come in, so we stood on her doorstep to explain the Book of Mormon.  Then as we handed her a copy, there was a HUGE flash of lightning.  Perfect timing.  God is definitely in control of all of this.  :]  And when we called her a few days ago, she's been reading!!!! which is truly amazing recognizing that she's in high school, AND has a job, AND younger siblings to babysit.  So, pray that her mom's heart is softened and that she lets us come back.  

And then tonight we'll be meeting with a referral from the Elders.  These three would be such a support for each other and it's always interesting to me how Heavenly Father prepares blessings for us even before we make good decisions.  In this case, these three young woman would be on the journey together, rather than alone, which is something that is so important to youth.  I have faith in all three and am excited to see what's in store for them!  

Also, we're trying to teach Tamarye's older brother, Tevin.  He's in high school too, taken the lessons before, but never developed a testimony.  I have a feeling, though, that when he does join the church, he'll be the strongest in that family.  We'll keep you posted on that.

Oh! And this is a good story too.  Today on our way into the zoo, we met an Indian man sitting at the gateway booth who said that he lives close to the 16th Street Chapel and wants to know when services start so that he can go.  (This is the new chapel that was just built and it's beautiful!  Last Saturday they did a day of service in the cultural hall, and free tours to any visitors who walked in.  The mayor came and we got to meet him.  Her tried to give Sister Morotti a hug and that did not go over so well.  :]  Also, I was kidnapped by the Chinese ward to play the piano for a musical number they did during the tour.  Hilarious and fun.  Look up the chapel if you can.)  Okay, back to the Indian man.  We gave him an Article of Faith/Visitor Center card and invited him to Conference as well.  He seemed very interested and said if he couldn't come this weekend, he'd make it a point to come sometime soon.  Then we went into the zoo for a few hours and on the way out, he stopped us again and said he'd read the whole card (meaning every Article of Faith) and he agrees with them.  We don't have a number or address for him; he wasn't quite ready for that, but he promised to come to the VC and to church.  It was great.

That's all my brain can think of for now.  Love you all!  Stay true to what's eternal.

-Sister Welch

Kentlands

Thus begins another adventure.

Kentlands is the opposite of Carrollton.   At least in almost every way when it comes to the ward and the members and the people we talk to every day. 

But I love it.  The ward is GREAT at doing missionary work.  Almost everyone we've talked to is sharing the gospel with a neighbor or friend.  And we have had a lot of miracles. 

Sunday morning we found a new investigator, Kelly, and Monday night we taught her again and she wants to be baptized.  Then we're working with Nina and Tamarye who are 10 and 9, and they're getting baptized as well.  They're the smartest cutest kids.  I feel so blessed!

Sister Morotti is great.  Again, I'm lucky with the companion I get.

And now, I have to go.  Sorry this was so short.

Love you all! 

Stay true to what's eternal.

-Love, Sister Welch