Monday: pday. We went bowling with the Elders in our district. Us Sisters had a lane and then the Elders shared two lanes. I got 101 one game and then 109 the other which means I won two of the three games that we played. I know, I'm a legend. We then went to Family Home Evening at our ward mission leader's home and we played frisbee with a bunch of youth in the ward. Overall a really good day besides my small emotional breakdown that I had. My period started the next day so that explains a little bit why I was freaking so much.
Tuesday: We had interviews with President Stratford. I literally love that guy so much. My interview was close to 20 minutes and we talked about a bunch of stuff. We talked about my cute little comp SISTER MAHAN. Have I mentioned that I love her? President told me that our companionship was made in heaven and that it was crazy how many strings Heavenly Father had to pull to get us in the same mission at the perfect time. I agree. Kinda crazy to think that I had to come here at this time (so late in the mission to go outbound) just so I could be companions with Sister Mahan. I'm grateful that He made it happen though! When Sister Mahan had her interview, President talked about me and told her that I was an "angel" and that Sister Mahan had nothing to worry about because she had Jesus on one arm and Sister Moran on the other. ISN'T THAT SO TENDER?!?!! Man, I just love President Stratford. We talked about the fam bam and about the things that I had learned in Ohio and about the Square and about (you guessed it) super quick at the end Elder Thomason. Ew. Basically, he told me that I was innocent and anyone could see that. He told me that both of us (Elder Thomason and I) had very bright personalities and have fun together but he knew there was nothing going on. He told me that he had talked to him and he said the same thing. He told me that this whole situation had come up because of jealousy on the part of others (there is a Spanish speaking sister that has been making me feel quite bad and I'm pretty sure he meant her). He told me that I was pure (that is when I started to cry) and that I didn't need to change a thing about myself. Those two things are what I needed to hear at that moment. I had been feeling so bad and I was feeling like I couldn't be myself anymore because I would just get in trouble for it so I am grateful that President could discern what was actually going on and could comfort me about it.
After interviews, every single one of our appointments fell through. This has been a pretty normal thing as of late. We have been finding a lot of new people (we found literally 20 last week) but nobody really progresses and we just have to drop them really fast which is sad. We have set goals to have better retention with the new people we find and to spend less time finding and more time working with the seemingly endless people that we have already found. That night, we went with Adrina (recent convert from last transfer) to a Relief Society birthday party. It was fun and it was good that we could go because otherwise, we would be tracting all night long haha. Adrina had a good time which was an answer to prayers because she had told us on Sunday that she didn't want to go to church anymore. The member that drove us all texted her and told her that she would drive her to church on Sunday and Adrina said yes so that was a huge miracle!!! I swear, that woman requires so much love and care to keep her going. Hopefully, the members don't get too fed up with how much they have to put out.
Wednesday: This day I remember because it was pretty rainy and we went on a bike ride. The Elders had sent us a referral a few weeks before and we hadn't been able to go out yet because the busses didn't go there, so we just decided to bite the bullet and bike there in the rain. It was only a little scary. We made it there and talked to a bunch of people on the way there and back and even found some cool new ones! When we got to the referral's house the door was open (a very promising sign) and we talked to her sister. The referred lady wasn't there, but the sister said that we could come back later that week so we set a day a few days later. When we texted to confirm our appt, she said that her son's girlfriend's grandpa had the coronavirus and the girlfriend was staying with them and that they were in quarantine so we couldn't come over. DUDES I WAS SHOOK. This pesky coronavirus is really messing with my brain right about now. More on that later. But yeah! That afternoon we actually bussed an hour to the church to get the car. I repeat, we got the car. I feel like Nephi, the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those that do keep the commandments. The grass is always greener though because now I see busses everywhere we go and I am always bummed that we can't be on the bus. But life is good and having a car makes things a lot more convenient. We then DROVE to some appointments that we had set up from people we found last week and all but one either were not home or told us that they were not interested when we got there. Bummer. The good news is that the guy we taught the restoration to last week was home and we could give him a Book of Mormon. Bad news: the lady Emerald that was supposed to be there for another lesson and to be our third female was not there so we couldn't go in and teach him, we just bore a quick testimony and then went on our way. Still, cool though.
Thursday: Today was a day where a lot of our lessons actually did go through. We started off the morning by going to this lady's house that we have been teaching for a long time. She switches between not trusting us and thinking that we're a cult and loving us to death. We showed up and she wasn't answering her door so we called and she was like "oh I am so sorry I am at the store with my mom blah blah" and were like yeah no worries we will come back another day. So, we had an hour to kill and we had already driven all the way out there so we decided that there must be a reason that we were in that area so we knocked on some doors and we found two awesome people!! One is this guy that lives in Reynoldsburg (out of area:() but he was still cool to talk to. At first, he wasn't interested at all but then the longer we talked to him, the more excited he seemed about us talking to him and we shared a verse from the Book of Mormon and we were like would you like a free copy and he said sure and at first he was hesitant to give his address so we chatted some more and we were like "dude, you are so cool, can some of our friends come and visit you sometime?" and he was like "oh yeah for sure here's my address" Parents. I was dead. His name was Richard. We sent the referral to the Reynoldsburg elders and they told us that he had given us a fake number... but they still stopped by and they met him and apparently he is SUPER COOL. Miracles. We also met this other lady who we shared a scripture with about Jesus and His Atonement and she dug it a lot. She told us that there had been a time in her life where she didn't believe in God or depend on HIm but now she had started to and she could see the difference. And now she is going to see even more of a difference! It was pretty cool because we texted her a few days later and she actually responded (that doesn't happen often). Then, we talked to this lady whose dog was named Zion and she had written on her wall that "God is Love" and when we knocked and told her we were missionaries and asked if she had a belief in Jesus Christ she was like "oh I don't" and were just like "como?" She literally could just tell us she didn't want to learn about our church but she was like Peter and she denied God and Jesus Christ. Kinda funny how people are that way. Then, we were walking back to our car and we saw Crystal! The person that we are teaching! She was with her mom unloading groceries so we helped out, said hi to her mom, and then had a lesson with Crystal about the word of wisdom. She is trying to stop smoking. We then set up a time for the Elders to come and give her a blessing to help with that. We then went home and then biked four miles to this lady named Cassandra. The Elders had also referred her to us and she is straight up crazy. We went over and taught her the restoration a few weeks back and she was talking about how her house was possessed and there were spirits that were trying to kill her. We told her that we would come back with the Elders to dedicate her home and get the spirits out. When we came back this past time, I am 99 percent sure that she had been snorting something right before we came. She was holding a knife with white powder on it and she had white powder under her nose and on her cheek and chest. I was highly suspicious. She lives in quite the rough neighborhood. Like for reals rough. The Elders were really concerned for us after the fact because we were biking in this rough place but we were okay don't worry. Anyways, Cassandra was telling us all about how the spirit that bothers her is named Fred and how he was sitting right next to her on the couch and even though she was serious it was hard not to laugh because the whole situation was just comical. You should have seen us, we were trying so hard to stay serious. One of the Elders dedicated the home and in the middle of the prayer, we heard this crash in the kitchen but nothing had fallen and dude I just KNOW that it was Fred leaving this creepy house. It was soooo crazy. After that, she got a blessing of healing because she has various health problems. I love the priesthood. Seriously. My love for it has just grown so much. I feel like I say that every week but there you go again. We are going back to see this crazy lady a few more times just to give her a chance. ugh. Also, she has been taught by missionaries before, she requested a bible online and that is how she was introduced to the church. I was dying to hear about that because of course, she was a Bible request. I can't tell you how many weird people I have met over the phone and now I got to go and see one in person. Kinda hilarious. We biked home where a member picked us up and we went to a lesson in the exact same neighborhood with this dude that we have been teaching for a hot second. His name is Jordan. He is so cool! He is super pessimistic and he had some bad experiences with religion in the past and now is just trying to get to know God again. We have been working with him a lot on the basics. We went over prayer and the restoration last time and this time we just read the Book of Mormon with him because he won't read it by himself. It was cool to see and to read together how much good stuff there is in 1 Nephi 2!!! You can literally apply the Book of Mormon to anyone and everything that chapter said was perfect for him. I love the Book of Mormon. That night we went to the church and we played some basketball. We invited a bunch of our friends... and none came. Bummer. But our whole district invited people and so there were a bunch of nonmembers there. There were mostly just straight ballers. Like for reals, these guys were all huge and good at basketball. We rotated with the other set of sisters and we played some games and the first game I was trash but the second I actually got some rebounds and I dribbled the ball a bunch and people on my team that were good were passing to me and I passed to them and I even made a basket. An elder that was on the sidelines that round told me that I was really fast which made me feel good! It was a fun activity. An Elder told us later in the week that all the guys (the huge nonmembers) all loved that the sisters were there and that we played... if you know what I mean. Boys are gross. Side note: we have had a lot of dudes hit on us and check us out quite obviously this week and it is really disturbing. The most blatant one was when we were biking and there was a guy going the opposite way on the sidewalk and we smiled and said "hi" as we were getting close to him and he leaned in close to us each individually as we biked past and smiled so creepy and winked at us and man that one really rubbed me the wrong way. The funniest check out was when we were waiting at the bus stop and there was an ambulance going by with lights and sirens and everyone stopped and they went past and literally as they passed the stop the driver and the passenger both looked at us and they drove by and gave us an up and down and were smiling and were just like "really??". Man, there are so many I could tell you that are crazy and funny but for dad's sake, I am going to stop there;)
Friday: This was the chillest day so far of the transfer. A member wanted us to come and help her make paper flowers for a choir concert that she had coming up so we did that and then we had weekly planning and got organized and then in the evening we visited some members way out in the boonies. One was the Relief Society President and the other was this super inactive family. We were able to talk with them about the Book of Mormon and everything. The wife (who doesn't hardly go to church) mentioned that the missionaries had always knocked on their door when they always needed it most and that tonight was no different. They have a daughter that had a lot of things going on and they think that us Sisters could help her out. So, we are going to be going over there and helping more! We are pumped and that was a miracle for sure. The exciting thing about today was that we had a mission wide phone call where I found out that they had closed Temple Square and now I'm concerned that they are going to send me back to a mission that is closed and that would trigger me to no end. Coronavirus you are truly killing me.
Saturday: Today was also super chill. There was a service project in the morning so we went and collected bags of food to give to a local food pantry. We then came home and did studies and then we all realized that mentally we were struggling. So, we all hyped eachother up and went out and did some work! We got Crystal her blessing and she was acting sooooo funny. She was talking about how she didn't want to turn into a werewolf or a vampire and how the virus was out to get her and all that good stuff and the Elders were like "what is this chick on" and were just dying. After the blessing and the Elders left, Crystal asked us what was so funny and we told her that she was acting wild and she just smiled and said that she knew. Man, we just died. We visited some members that day too and Adrina the recent convert and it was a pretty chill and fun evening.
Sunday: After doing personal study and everything like that, we drove to our ward mission leader's house to do a lesson with his sister and to a little church! The Elders came too and we talked with Cynthia about the Book of Mormon and we all ate and then we did a Come, Follow Me discussion. We then went around to this SUPER inactive lady and her nonmember family and chatted with them and told them about Come, Follow Me and how the prophet is always right about food storage and having a home centered church. We visited this super cute family with crazy little kids and shared a message with them and then we went to this lady from Haiti's house. She had been living with members for a few months and has been coming to church for forever but lately hasn't. We had tried in the past to have a teaching relationship with her but it has been difficult. We finally got over a few weeks ago and taught the restoration and gave her a French Book of Mormon and we went over today and got halfway through the plan of salvation. She had just moved into her own place and she and her son have basically nothing in terms of material items but she was so generous! She made a cake for us and gave us ice cream, even though she has nothing. It was so beautiful. She really likes the Plan of Salvation, especially when we talked about how Jesus Christ knows what she going through and can help her.
Honestly this week was good! I am stressing big time about the Square and if they are going to send me back to that place. I am also stressing if they keep me here and I never go back to the Square. Basically, I am one big anxious ball of energy and I need someone to talk me down and just tell me what the future is going to look like because it is wigging me out. (Emily was informed later that day that she'll be staying in Ohio for the time being and her flight back to Salt Lake has been canceled. She's also been told to stay in her apartment except for daily exercise for next two weeks and has been instructed to avoid personal interactions with other people and teach through phone calls or other technology. I ordered her and her companions Papa John's to soften the blow.)
I love you both and I'll talk to you soon!!!
Love
Em
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