Can you believe that I have a mere 53 days left to serve as a full-time representative of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Yeah, neither can I. Somehow no matter how hard I try, the time just keeps on ticking down to zero and it is terrifying. But enough of my pity party, here we go on to this super exciting week!
Monday: We decided that we were going to do so much to get Asia going again. In case you have forgotten, Asia was supposed to be baptized and married on May 2nd but she wasn't really talking to us. We just decided to stop by her house and catch her there and lo and behold she was home. She was acting super weird though. She was talking about how she always ghosts her friends and stuff like that and it was really just awkward. She then asked us to go get an application for this apartment across town because she doesn't have a car. So what do we do? Naturally, we drive over and get the application and we grumble about how she is just being so weird the whole time. When we get back with the application, Asia's baby daddy talks to us outside because she left to go with her grandma to get groceries and then that is the last we have heard from them. Asia is still in our prayers and she has a desire to be baptized but she just has no followthrough so that has been really hard for us. We can only do so much to drag them to the font before they need to start walking. Sister Johnston and I both talked about it and prayed about it and we just feel that she won't keep the covenants at this point even if we get her to baptism so we are going to step back and reassess her and her progress. Pray for Asia. So that was heartbreak number one. Plus, you already know that I wasn't really feeling too chipper, isolation was just starting to weigh me down.
Tuesday: Honestly, this day we had a lot of things happen but we also had nothing happen. So, we have gotten a bunch of referrals lately so we went to just go deliver all of the things, even if they never answered our calls. We went to this one apartment complex and we brought a Book of Mormon for our good friend Ray. While we were there there was this family outside so we naturally talked to the dad about the plan of salvation, gave him a pamphlet and invited him to read, and set up a return appointment for the next day! His name was Tom. Tom was nice. We then knocked next door for Ray and we come to find out that Ray doesn't live there... but Mike does!! Mike is super baptist and loves God and Jesus and we were able to have a nice conversation with Him about His belief in Christ and how it has helped him when he goes through hard times. He doesn't have a phone so we just said that we would come back Sunday at 4pm and we went on our jolly good way.
It was really a breath of fresh air to be out and talking with people again my oh my I didn't realize how much I missed it until I was able to do it! Then, we got in our car and we had a lesson via video call where we were able to teach the restoration to this lady named Tonya. She was taught about a year ago by Sister Johnston in her first area but stopped progressing when they doubled Elders in. We got to call her and the lesson actually went super well! She finally said that the apostasy clicked and now she understands why there are so many churches! Yay! Also, we talked about baptism and the covenants and the priesthood and why we are even baptized, that it is a commandment. She didn't seem to quite get that. So, we explained all of that and read some scriptures and she liked it! She said that she had some serious praying to do about baptism now and that was super exciting to hear!
Right after this, we had interviews with President Stratford. My interview was actually super boring. He basically was just like "you two are a dream companionship and you are doing awesome and just keep it up" and I was like "aw thanks you are too kind" and then he said "can I do anything for you?" and I said "nope I'm chillin" and then we said bye. One thing that did stick was that he told me that for the time I had left in Ohio the Lord had big things for me in store. Things that I needed to help with and things that I needed to learn. So, I have been praying every day for God to use me and let me be a better instrument so I can learn what I need to and help where and who I need to. Kinda boring but it was good. It's so weird, I feel kinda detached from the Ohio Columbus Mission but also like I am so embedded in it that I can never leave. I have less than two weeks at this point to be here which is really scary and exciting and sad and happy all at once. Mostly it's just sad and exciting though. Temple Square is going to be so different from the beautiful home that I left and I just know that it is going to be hard but I'm just trying not to think about it at this point.
Also on Tuesday, we drove up to Ashtabula with the Alliance Sisters to get some blessings. The Elders could have driven down to us but we really wanted to see Lake Erie before I left so we insisted on driving up there. It was so crazy because Elder Anderson blessed me to feel like I had felt before and to be able to feel the spirit as much as I had felt before. It wasn't until then that I realized that maybe I wasn't feeling the spirit as I had used to. At the beginning of the transfer I was really acutely aware that I could feel the spirit all the time and then this past week I couldn't really but I didn't realize that is what was bothering me until I was blessed to have it again. I am grateful for the priesthood and for my blessing because the rest of the week I could really feel the difference and I felt a lot happier. After our blessings, we stopped by Lake Erie which was SO COOL. We took a LOT of photos and then we drove the hour back down to Warren while the alliance sisters taught a lesson in the back seat. Oh online proselyting, how effective you are.
Wednesday: Wednesday was such a good day I literally felt like it was the Sabbath. We had district council first thing in the morning and I got to give a training on studies and having effective studies and how that sets us up for success when teaching. Sister Johnston said that it was great and just what she needed so hopefully it helped some of the other members of the district too.
We then went over to Wanda's house to drop off a care package with some church things in it. We have been trying to help her quit coffee and when we went over she was talking about how hard it was. We decided to address it in the lesson we had set up with a member later that day. When we called, she was just talking about how she was going to do it to get baptized but that it was going to be hard. She had already cut down from 2-3 cups a day to one and we are just so happy for her and so proud of her!
We also called Eric and Emily and asked them how the word of wisdom was going. The day before we had dropped off a care package to them and Eric was just saying that he had no desire whatsoever to keep the word of wisdom. In fact, the night before he had been in the shower and he was just angry and he was saying that he could get baptized into any other church and not have to worry about giving up chew and coffee and smoking and things and basically he told God that if he was supposed to do that, that God needed to show him a sign. Well, God did exactly that. Because when we called him the next day (Wednesday), Eric was saying how first thing in the morning he had gotten a cup of coffee and then he felt so sick and tired and gross the rest of the day and even on the phone call with us. GOD DID IT TO HIM AND WE ARE SO HAPPY. Another thing is that we had told him to replace the coffee with hot chocolate but they didn't have any. Well, in the middle of that day they saw a bag on their living room floor that had not been there before and when they looked inside there was this giant thing of hot chocolate. Could we get a bigger sign? So now they are working hard and cutting down a lot on coffee and on chew and cigarettes!! Yay Eric and Emily!
The word of wisdom and these three people was a source of big stress for us this past week and we have been praying for them in every single prayer to gain a testimony of it and now they all have. This just goes to show that as we pray in faith, God will always answer our prayers and our righteous desires. He will even give a miraculous sign if it is in His will. Wow. God is so nice to us and He just loves us and the people that we are teaching so much.
Also on Wednesday, we got to call our friend Bill! Bill is married to a member in our ward and just won't get baptized but is basically a member of the church. We got him to commit to reading the Book of Mormon every day and now he texts us and tells us what he has been reading! We love Bill and we can see his heart being softened big time right now.
We also got to call Margie. We taught Margie the restoration last week and she loved it and is just a normal lady and super nice and super prepared. We called her with a member and taught her the plan of salvation. Man. The Plan of Salvation is kind of my least favorite thing to teach because I just always feel like I teach it so long and confusing and my head just hurts after. But, the lesson went well even though it was like almost an hour and a half. We talked about the whole plan and we reemphasized priesthood and following Jesus Christ and being baptized and she understood everything. We then asked if it was important to her to be baptized by someone who has the priesthood and she was like well yeah so then we invited her to do it and to get baptized by someone who has the authority and she was totally on board. Every time we text and call her she just talks about how she was led to this church and she believes that everything we teach her is true. Could there be a more elect person out there??!!? I don't think so. Margie is the definition of ELECT. I am so sad that I am leaving and I can't see her enter the waters of baptism. Thank goodness for technology though so I will just facetime in because I love her and she loves us too. Wow. Wednesday was honestly just a spectacular day.
Thursday: I know that good stuff happened on Thursday but I can't really remember what. We were both not feeling too good, Sister Johnston especially just felt sick so we were just in our apartment all day. Not too different from any other day then honestly. We had a lesson with Eric and Emily and a member where we got to reteach them the restoration. They had learned it clear back in February so we just wanted to reemphasize the importance of it and especially the Book of Mormon. We found out that Emily reads two chapters of it every day out loud to Eric and then explains them because Eric doesn't pay enough attention and it was just so cool to see how they are really diving in! We asked Emily how she has seen a difference and she said that she has been able to feel happier and that she doesn't quite know how to describe it, but she feels light. Wow. I don't think that I could ever describe it better. This couple is just awesome. Plus, they didn't have any coffee that day and Emily only had half of a cigarette and Eric only some chew! During our lesson, we saw him pop in some gum to help with the cravings and that was super cute.
We called Wanda too and taught her the restoration as well. She wants to be baptized and is solid for the ninth, but we just didn't really think that she understood the restoration and Joseph Smith and why it was all so important. oh my were we wrong about that. We taught her about it and she was like "sisters, I know, I read about lots of different churches being created in the Book of Mormon today and I watched the video about Joseph Smith that you gave me" when we shared the first vision she just said "wow. I believe that is true" and it was so tender. This restoration lesson with her really hit me hard. I think because I had just finished the Book of Mormon the day before and I was praying to know if it is true. Of course, I know that it's true but I was just doing the promise again and I felt nothing. In fact, every time that I have prayed to know if the Book of Mormon is true I have always felt nothing. I just never really got an answer when praying about, I can just feel it as I read and as I learn new things and feel enlightened. I was always kind of bummed that I never got the confirmation when praying at the end but whatever. This restoration lesson was a powerful confirmation to me that the Book of Mormon was true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. I was blubbering my way through it so that goodness it was just over the phone #thankscorona. Man, I just love this gospel. Plus, Wanda was doing so good and hadn't had any coffee and she was so excited to tell us about it! Yay for huge miracles happening in her life!
Friday: Today was the day I had been looking forward to. The day that self-isolation was lifted in Ohio! We had a zoom call with President Stratford and one other zone so he could explain to us what was going to happen moving forward. Turns out, the prophet still wants us to stay inside even though self-isolation is technically over for the state... so we are inside still! A couple of things have changed though. They are putting us on a more strict schedule. I mean Sister Johnston and I didn't understand why the schedule was such a big deal because we have been doing all of the things that we are supposed to anyways, but it came as a shock to some other companionships that maybe weren't being as effective with their time as they should have been. The only thing that changed there for us is that we are going to try and spend more time finding on areabook and facebook to build up our teaching pool, so that will be great!
Another thing that changed is that we are now only allowed to call family once a week now. Also, we have been having nightly district devotionals and now we are only going to do that like once or twice a week. Basically, all of the fluff and the "perks" of isolation are being taken away. My oh my you should have seen how some of these missionaries reacted. Especially the new ones. These extra perks are all that they know and they are looking at this like "why are they taking everything away" when really it is just going back to the more strict missionary schedule. It was a smart move on President's part because can you imagine when we eventually get out of isolation how hard that will be for some of these missionaries that have only been inside their whole missions, so it'll be good to gently start weaning now. We were worried about the Youngstown sisters after the call so we called them just to see how they were feeling and they, in general, are doing okay! They are bummed about some things but the one sister that was training and having a really hard time seems to be just happier and more content in her circumstances which is awesome.
Anyway, we had lessons this day with Eric and Emily and Wanda and such. They are all doing better on the word of wisdom!! Wanda at this point is just done with coffee. Eric and Emily's resolve, on the other hand, might be slipping a little... but I don't know that is to be determined today so just pray for them. But they are doing so good and so much better!
Anyway, we also had some member work set up. As we were able to call this one old lady in the ward, we remembered that we needed to call a referral that she had given us so we quickly gave them a ring... and it was the wrong number. We got a "Mr. Walton" on the phone and we quickly started to talk to him about how we were missionaries and what we did and such and he liked it! He is a music minister at his church and has a super awesome belief in Christ. We tried to set up a return appt but he was like "wow I am just so busy" so then we just kept talking and we all shared some scriptures and then we asked again about five minutes later if we could call him back and he says "yeah I'm never really busy so call me whenever" and it was kinda funny because he lied so hard the first time but as we kept talking to him and helped him feel the spirit his heart was softened!! He gave us some teaching tips because we didn't use enough scriptures and then we parted ways and it was just kind of a funny experience.
We also that day talked to this guy named Justin in our apartment complex. He is probably a few years older than us and is a major hippie. He had long hair and a crystal necklace and in our first conversation, he was talking about chakras. We also talked about the purpose of life though because he had moved to Los Angeles to try and find meaning and didn't find any and now he is just a spiritual universe person which is cool. We told him that God has a plan for us and greater happiness and purpose and direction awaited him if he would call us and he said sure. We ended up having a video call lesson with him on Sunday and we determined that he is a nice guy who is just kind of lost and is trying to fill his longing for spiritual things with weird hippie things that don't make sense. But in general, he enjoyed what we talked about and he even said he wanted to read the Bible and the Book of Mormon in the hopes that he can have a spiritual experience with them so that is cool! Oh, Justin. So weird.
Saturday: Honestly Saturday was super crazy and busy and we taught a lot of lessons (10) and we found a lot of people (4) and it was just miraculous. I loved how this day we could really see the Lord consecrating our efforts. My favorite phrase lately is "really? but we didn't even do anything" and it's true!!! Sister Johnston and I aren't doing anything and these amazing miracles are happening every day! I mean we are doing lots of things don't get me wrong and we are working hard but we are doing anything to deserve this and it is obvious that our efforts aren't making these things happen, it is the Lord just blessing us a ton and it is just so nice of Him!
One of our new friends is named Nelson and he is from Zimbabwe. We got to call him on Whatsapp and he loves Jesus!!! It was funny because at the end we went to pray but Sister Johnston was laughing so hard about something that she made me do it and then I couldn't stop laughing so the entire prayer with Nelson was us cracking up and he seemed a little confused but it was mostly just really funny on that one. Pray that all of us involved in these lessons can have the gift of tongues because we need it!
Saturday night was honestly scary. So, we have been having sleepovers in the living room. Maybe sleepover is the wrong word.. we have just moved our mattresses to the living room and we have been sleeping there for the past week or so. Well, Friday night we started to hear this weird clicking from the tiny cut out wall near where our beds were in the living room. It was pretty quiet though so we didn't think anything of it. Friday night I had this super terrible gruesome nightmare that gives me PTSD just thinking about it and then Saturday morning I felt a little shakey because that is how scary it had been. Saturday night we start to get ready for bed around 10pm and we are in our beds right around 10:20. All of a sudden the clicking starts again when we are in our beds. Sister Johnston thinks that maybe it's just the air so I go and turn off the AC. The clicking continues and actually gets louder and then Sister Johnston gets scared. I got scared too a little but nothing too crazy. Then, we heard this giant bang inside the wall and that is when I got scared and worried. The clicking turned more into a louder noise and it wouldn't stop no matter what we did. So, we prayed and we called the Sisters that lived close by and asked if we could spend the night with them.
Listen, parents, I am not a scaredy-cat but this was really scary. I couldn't see beyond the wall in the corner but I just had this really bad feeling in my stomach and I was just terrified and I knew that there was something behind that wall that I just couldn't see. Sister Johnston felt the same way. So, at 11:30pm we just hopped in our car and drove the 20 minutes to the Sister's apartment and we stayed with them in their safe apartment for the night. Sister Johnston was still so scared though so we had to sleep with the light on. Plus, the whole night I was just nervous so I was just waking up every thirty minutes so it was just a bad night for sleeping. It was a scary night for sleeping. It was weird because the house had never made those noises before and it only happened at night. More on this tomorrow.
Also, today we got to call Margie! Our friend that we put on date this week! She is literally the cutest person ever. We talked about the plan and made sure that she didn't have any questions (because we went over so much when we taught her) but she said that she didn't and that we were great teachers (that made my whole life let me tell you). We then talked about how out of all the titles that God has, He prefers Father. We discussed that and read some verses from the Book of Mormon and suggested a chapter for her to read. She came to church the next day and she was just so tender and the whole time and after she was talking about how she loved it and how she believed everything that was shared. Seriously, it's almost freaky how elect this lady is. We have another lesson with her on Monday which will be good!
Sunday: We wake up in Youngstown and we do our studies there and then we make our way over to Warren to make sure all of our people get to church. We get to the apartment and I was a little nervous but not too much because it was during the day. We called the zone leaders and they came over later in the day to dedicate our apartment and they in-depth checked the wall and the corner. You could tell they kind of thought that it was just the wall creaking but I know that it was not. There is no way. So, they dedicated our apartment and that was nice.
We had a lesson with Justin and we called some people and had a powerful lesson with Wanda about God and Jesus Christ's love in 3 Nephi 17. If you haven't read that in a second, I would invite you to do so because it is good. Also, I bore my testimony in church!!! Now I have done that every single fast and testimony meeting that I have been in Ohio. Kind of funny. We went over to the stake president's house again and they fed us dinner and we had a spiritual thought and we did the sacrament. We also got to watch the Young Adults broadcast there with Elder and Sister Gay and it was so good and I like it and learned a lot!! It made me think about how easy it is to be faithful and to put covenants and not convenience first on a mission. It really made me start thinking though about when I go home in seven weeks what my priorities are going to be. How am I going to put my covenants first, and what does that look like? How can I be a missionary in Provo when I feel like I will be surrounded by members? Just really all that good stuff. It was good to think about.
We ended up getting home super late which was scary for us. We got into our apartment and stuck close together until Sister Johnston had to shower and then I was alone in our ding dang haunted place so I just sang lots of songs as I got ready for bed. Then, we got in our beds and Sister Johnston left the lights on because she was scared and asked me to sing to her as she fell asleep because she was really scared.. so I did. There were no more clicking noises or anything but that dark corner on the other side of the wall was just still sending us bad vibes but it didn't seem as if there was a person there like before. But for the past two nights, we have just felt watched. During the day everything is Gucci, it's just at night.
Anyways, that was a dark note to end things on but long story short this week was great!! All of our friends are doing awesome. Please pray for Eric and Emily and Wanda and Margie that they will be able to make it to their respective dates. Please pray that President Fisher will be able to receive the correct revelation that he needs to for my last companion ever on the mission and that I will just be able to feel good about going back and jump right in and work my little butt off and work myself to the ground and just have the best six weeks of my mission. I keep thinking about it and it is scary how soon I come home because I SWEAR this was not a year and a half. This was in no way long enough. I'm terrified of literally everything right now. Going to the Square, going home, going to school, just all of it. Oh my goodness I am going to just ramble on in a circle so I'm going to stop now.
By the way, I love Sister Johnston and we are having such a good time together! I just love to party with her!!
Okay, love and miss you both! I'll talk to you soon!
Love
Sister Moran
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