Week 21 - Light It On Fire

Well, it is fate week, where we get transferred off to wherever we were assigned.. Transfers were crazy.  The bus system we are still trying to iron out the wrinkles, but we successfully almost got everyone to their areas... only 12 of them didn't make it... ha, ha... Well all I can say is don't argue with the bus driver just nod in agreement.

Monday was P-Day we packed and got the house ready for us to move out (only sister Murray was staying).  We went and enjoyed our last time playing chair soccer with all of the missionaries before they left.  It was a bitter sweet day to have to say goodbye to everyone. Sister Roquemore was not happy with me because she thought that I hadn't signed her farewell journal (I actually did) but she didn't know that. I'm going to miss Sister Roquemore.  She was super awesome... I hope to serve around her again.

Tuesday I worked in the office to prepare for all of the new missionaries.  We got all of the paperwork done for them.  I went out with Sister Chumbley to buy 30 subway sandwiches for the new missionaries.   We were standing by the door when they showed up. They got off the bus and all of them were so tired. and yet you could just see the freshness of their spirits; ready to jump into the work. I also went to Sister Harris' house for the last time. to say goodbye.  It was a heart breaking moment. She was saying goodbye to all of her little missionaries. all except for Sister Murray.  At night all of the new Sister Missionaries came and spent the night at sister Smith’s house.  We got to enjoy talking to all of them about their new companions and how awesome their areas are. I finished packing at 10 and got to bed on time :)

Wednesday 5:00 AM the first wave of Sisters had to leave to go catch the 6:00 AM bus. It was early. At 6:30 all of the sisters had to be awake and all had to get ready as quick as they could so that they could all be at the Mission Office by 8AM. There were 10 girls... and 2 bathrooms... yeah that didn't work out. We got to the Office and the new missionaries got some Egg McMuffins and all that jazz.  We had a Missionary Devotional for all of the new missionaries. The President talked and then he opened it to a testimony meeting. a ton of missionaries bore their testimonies. I did too. I talked about how God was getting our area ready and that right now he is raining on the people.   I said he was raining gasoline on all of the people and that we were here to light the fires! ‘Make the work catch fire in this area!’ This mission is going to high places. it will take flight. Afterward  a ton of the missionaries came up and were like "Thanks! We sure will "Light it on Fire"" It was great. After I got with my new Companion Sister McDermott and we put all of our stuff in the car and drove to our apartment near Derby. It is a ittle place. Dishwasher is broken (who needs one of those anyway?).  After moving in we returned to the office and finished up some business and then ate out.

Thursday Office work. We went and worked on making sure that all of the cell phone numbers were the right ones.  For some reason someone in the office doesn't know how to update things correctly... :P  so it makes the process 100x harder than it needs to be. We got some blankets for our beds because we had none and the apartment didn't have any. So sister Bell went out and bought us some blankets. We went to Chic-Fil-A for dinner I got their soup. MMMMMmmmm. after that we went and got our area book from the elders and went through it and it goes all the way back to 2003... they haven't gone back to see if these people have moved yet so we could take them out of the book... it was a long night of organizing things in this new area for Sisters. The Elders wouldn't give us a directory so we had to make do with picking out people from the area book to go see.

Friday Today we had Zone training, it was super intense and we learned a lot of stuff... mostly that we need to be more bold and that we need to focus more on the members because to ever make the work hasten, the members have to help.  We have to help the members realize that what the prophet says when he says ‘every member a  missionary’ he really means it! We also discovered that sometime they are going to take us in districts to go Soap Boxing.  If you don't know what that is... then go find out what missionaries did at the beginning of the church era.   After zone we went to Chic-fil-a and ate with our new district.   After, we went to the office and did more stuff.    For dinner Elder and Sister Black took us out to eat (because the Elders in our new area were kind enough to not inform anyone that we were coming so we had no meal plans for the whole week) We ate at this chinese place called Royal Buffet.  It was really good.

Saturday is what Sister McDermott and I call our "Work Day" because that is the only time that we get to spend mornings in our area.  We hit up a ton of people, and we got a new investigator and we have 2 less actives who we set up return appointments with. We worked into the evening stopped at Wendy's and ate our packed dinner.   (Yeah we are that cool ;we pack dinners) mostly because we were 20 minutes away from home on the other side of our area working out there. It was really intense. but we rocked it!   We also passed out when we got home because we walked a lot and talked a lot. We know where we are going for Thanksgiving now.... a Less Active invited us to join them!

Sunday church we found is about 20 minutes away from where we live.   In the opposite direction we went the other day.   At church we tried introducing ourselves to everyone but a lot of the people were a little indifferent that we were there. We found out later that it was because they had sister missionaries come and stay for one sunday and then leave the next. During church the talks were about repentance. One of the talks a story about Hubba Bubba Bubble Gum was used. This guy bumped his leg up under a table and sticky bubble gum got onto his most favorite pair of pants. He had to work really hard to try and get it out, but even after he scrubbed and scrubbed he went home to his wife and asked her.  She told him that he was going to need more help than she could give him and that he would have to take it to the dry cleaners. Repentance and sin is the same way. we have to look out for sin because it is in the most un expected areas of our lives and we can usually "go home" and ask our "parents" or "spouse" to help us clean the stain of sin, but sometimes the sins we commit need more help and we have to go to the "dry cleaners" who will restore it to its original state but we will always be careful to not ruin our most favorite pair of pants again.
After sacrament I discovered that I am apparently related to 10 people in this ward. so I'm going to need an ancestry chart of Ansen... (is that how you spell it? I'm super bad at ancestry obviously...)  During relief society the relief society president emphasized on how important it is to do Relief Society callings, and how we all need to go do our visiting teaching throughout the month.   It is not a one day let me teach you something day.  It is a way to friendship and fellowship so that people within the church remain active.After church we went to go contact a few referrals that we got.  One we got from the ridgepoint sisters.   We didn't get an address but we got a description and a road that it is on.   We played I SPY until we found a house that matched the description.  Lo and behold we got 2 new investigators!   We taught them the Restoration and they both wanted Books of Mormon so we gave them their own copies.    We got their phone numbers and set up to see them in a week   The mom had just broken her leg the day before by being hit by a car.  She had a lot of doctor appointments to go to. We went to dinner at a member’s house who invited us to join them and the Elders.   They had dinner at 4:15. super early.. reminds me of the good ol’ MTC days.    After dinner we met a few Less Actives and set up appointments with them.

Over all we are really making this area catch on fire and we have only been here for about 4 days! It is amazing what the Lord will grant unto you if you put your whole heart into trying to do your best in the calling that you have been given. Miracles happen. Even when there are discouragements.

"...Doubt your Doubts before you Doubt your Faith..." -Elder Uchtdorf
Love you all
Sister Cindy Call