Week 17 Hoptown Kentucy

May 13, 2013

 

Familia!

 

Estoy bien agradecida que yo pude hablar con ustedes ayer. Muchas gracias por su bondad y amor a mi. Era muy bien para ver que ustedes estan seguras and felices!

 

It was really awesome to be able to talk to y'all yesterday! Really good to know that you are all doing well and that you are all safe and sound. Sorry I rambled on last night, but I was really happy to see all of you... although I will admit, "No No" was probably the best looking one!

 

So I remember that I told you about how on Saturday me and my companion soft committed someone to baptism. Man, it felt so good! Hermana McNab and I (now that we are FINALLY moved into Hopkinsville) are really excited to be able to hold on to some of our investigators that we have here in Hopkinsville. Those couple of weeks in Oak Grove were very testing because we felt so purposeless down there because of so many reasons... but we did find a couple of investigators even though they were all English. The other day we were planning on how we would pass them off to the English sisters in Oak Grove and we were pretty bummed to pass them off- even though they weren't all progressing investigators, we had some really good finding experiences with them. Including this guy named James! We "accidentally" found him when we looked at the ward list for Oak Grove and decided to check someone out on the list who was marked less active. We got to the door and it turned out that the guy no longer lived there anymore, BUT we got to meet this guy named James. We left him a mormon.org card with our number and a Book of Mormon to read. He had told us that he had just moved into the area and was actually looking for a church. He had tried a couple of the churches around town and he just wasn't really feeling any of them. He was really friendly and we had a really good contact with him. He said we could come back if he was home. That was about a week ago, but we haven't been back to see him because we wanted to give him a couple of days before trying again.

 

But yesterday, HE TEXTED US. I can't even tell you how many hundreds of people we give our number out to in random contacts, whether they are on Book of Mormons or they are on mormon.org cards. It was awesome, he texted us and thanked us for the material we gave him last week. Hermana McNab and I were elated! While I was video chatting with y'all yesterday she had a really good texting conversation where 1) we have a return appointment with him 2) we discovered that he went to the mormon.org website and really enjoyed it! 3) has questions for us! We were super excited! We told him to feel free to ask his questions until we can see him again on Wednesday. To be honest, we got a little worried that some of the questions were going to be over controversial issues about the church's stance on things... you know you can imagine what some of those things would be. BUT the first question he texted us was "My main question is, how does one join the church? I've never known where to start or how the process works." ARE YOU SERIOUS?! We were super excited! That is definitely a question we can answer as missionaries. :)

 

SUCH A MIRACLE. It is just like I told y'all yesterday. During this transfer I have experienced my highest highs and lowest lows as a missionary! BUT, the lows make my highs so worth it. I feel like we are being tried everyday to be proved how faithful we will be in response to the miracles that Heavenly Father continues to have in store for us.... There are some really good things that can happen here in Hopkinsville. The Lord just needs faithful, obedient missionaries who are willing to do all they can to reap those blessings. Hermana McNab and I adjusted our weekly goals this week and we have the faith to try and set FIVE baptismal dates. Woo, that would be a perfect way to end a transfer! Next week I will be finding out about transfers, so that might be a little nerve racking if I get moved again and we only had one week in our unfurnished apartment... but I'm so excited for all of the wonderful things we have been able to experience here. Highest highs and lowest lows... I read today in Alma 26 and I feel like Ammon boasting in the strength of the Lord as a missionary. Super exciting.

 

I'll keep my head up this week and pray to be apart of the many miracles Heavenly Father has in store for his children in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Those couple of weeks living in Oak Grove were pretty rough at times, but we had to grow a lot and if anything, we found James through living in there. The catch to the story is the English sisters probably wouldn't have found James because they already had marked on their list that the ward member no longer lived at that address anymore! I guess we were supposed to stumble upon him because of our ignorance and I'm so glad we got to see him!

 

Les quiero mucho!

 

Hermana Rica