Ok first I'll give everyone the low-down
about mail and email. Email is great and I'll have plenty of time to answer
everyone back so please email. However, I get mail throughout the week and I
love it so keep that coming too :) I understand email is easier though so it's
totally up to you what you want to do. It's just way exciting to check the mail
and see letters in there for me :)
Ok. So this week. It's always impossible
to tell you everything that is happening here because 7 missionary days is a
LONG time. So it's a good thing I keep a journal, let me tell you. I'll see if I
can cover the important stuff.
Thursday was a sites day so those days
are kind of weird. We can plan lots of stuff but it only sometimes gets done
because as soon as we sit down to study or answer phones or whatever we get a
call saying someone wants a tour. So that's usually how that goes. But Tuesday
of last week we taught Norah outside and I got eaten alive by mosquitos. I'll
send pictures - it was so bad. So that was a problem by the time Thursday came
around because I was so itchy. So one of the senior couples on sites said she
had always wanted to try this home remedy. So she made a paste out of meat
tenderizer and put it all over my legs. I just went with it and it kinda
worked...but not really. In fact it was kind of more of a nuisance than anything
else. It ended up falling into my shoe as I gave a tour and I just had to deal
with it. I mean I couldn't just stop in the middle of the tour to clean out my
shoe.
Friday was a weekly planning day so we
didn't get out of the apartment until after dinner. So that was no fun. But we
had two really good appointments. One was with a less active member named Kathy.
She's been coming back to church so she's almost active again. Her husband
passed away a couple years ago so she stopped coming, but she's been much
better. We talked to her about temples and how she could prepare to enter the
temple for herself and even be sealed to her husband. She cried, and said it was
something she had thought about before and was genuinely excited to go. So we
committed her to talk to the bishop on Sunday to start preparing to get her
recommend. She had referred her neighbors Lisa and Jim who we also love to
death. They're the couple we taught chastity to for my first lesson. And right
after Kathy's lesson we had a lesson with them, and invited her to come. The
lesson was supposed to be on the Atonement, but it kind of started out more
about the Word of Wisdom. Jim hadn't been drinking for THREE whole days. But he
has issues with the smoking. He thinks that it's not bad for you and the
warnings are not true. He says they "have no proof". Yeah. I'm convinced. So we
discussed how it's a commandment that we don't do that, and Kathy talked about
how she used to smoke and the things she struggled with when she was quitting.
But then she kind of bore her testimony about how it has blessed her since
quitting. It was SO good that she came. Then we kind of lead into the Atonement
and how to access it, and that it could apply even to their attempt to quit
smoking. They understood by the end of the lesson why it was important, and it
was so spiritual.
Saturday I was sick for the first half of
the day so we called Sister Vellinga (our mission pres. wife) to tell her and
she said to lay down for awhile and see if I feel better. So after four hours of
sleep I was good to go. We had to rearrange some things but it worked out that
we could still do stuff. We ended up meeting a guy who was sort of interested.
He said we could call for a return appointment after the holiday weekend so we
will do that later this week. And THEN... We had our game night with the Stamms!
It was so fun and they were all so great at friendshipping them. We had three
other couples from the ward there plus the Stamms. We didn't really do this by
the book, but we felt that the spirit was telling us that they really needed to
be eased into it. So it's kind of in the ward's hands now. One day I think they
will want to take the lessons, but that's not happening just yet. But at least
they have lots of LDS friends and they all made plans to hang out again. So ward
members are SO important!! We're all missionaries, don't forget that! Anyways we
shared a thought at the end that was just so inspired. We really felt like the
spirit has been guiding us so much with them, because that thought was so
perfect. We used the Mormon Message "Waiting on our Road to Damascus" and then
talked about testimony vs. conversion. Then everyone shared testimonies and
comments that were so powerful! So great.
Sunday...LISA AND JIM CAME TO CHURCH!!
Hallelujah. Testimony meeting was good and they both really loved it. I saw
Kathy rush up to the bishop after sacrament meeting so I hope she's going to go
to the temple soon! Then after church we went to a recent convert's house to
talk to him about patriarchal blessings. He seemed so excited about it. He's a
great guy. He's probably in his 50s or 60s and isn't married, but he is working
on getting to the temple. He just barely received the priesthood and he passed
the sacrament for the first time on Sunday. The young men in our ward are
awesome, and they did so good to prepare him for that. But our lesson on
patriarchal blessings was so good. I learned a lot about the importance of
receiving a patriarchal blessing and reading it daily as we studied for him. I
remember when I got mine, it was really a moment that impacted my conversion.
It's personal scripture! And it's so amazing that we are given the opportunity
to have them.
Monday we were at sites again and we gave tours to some people from Heber
Springs, AR. They knew the Woffindens and a couple other people in Cabot. Small
world! We also gave a tour to a family from Lehi. The daughter went to Westlake,
so that was cool. I didn't know her though. She graduated two years before
me.
Yesterday (Tuesday) was another great
day. We took Lisa and Jim on a tour of the Johnson Home in Hiram (which isn't
part of the village at Kirtland, so I haven't served there. It's in my area
though so how that works is that the sisters assigned to the Hiram
area--us--give tours there during the busy season. That season ended when I got
here, so I haven't been able to give tours there yet, probably not till next
summer, and then it depends on where I am assigned.) But that was an interesting
tour. So spiritual, but the whole time I felt like I was going to throw up/pass
out. that coupled with the fact that I knew nothing about the Johnson Home meant
that Sister Johnson gave pretty much the whole tour. I was able to participate
by bearing testimony, talking about principles, etc, but I was still woozy the
whole time. The revelation room was especially spiritual. You guys need to come
when my mission is over. So after the tour was over I was debating whether or
not we should keep our appointments or not since I was sick. But thankfully we
were in the right place at the right time, and I was able to ask some of the
seniors for a blessing. It said that the sickness would not affect the work we
had today, and although it didn't go away completely, it did happen as promised.
It became bearable and we were able to do so much! We taught Michael and he
opened up more than usual. He still doesn't feel like he is receiving an answer,
so we talked a little bit about having a desire to know before we can truly
receive an answer. I shared a personal experience and we were able to ask the
right questions. So at the end of the lesson he prayed for a desire to know if
this was the true church. I know that Heavenly Father will bless him with
whatever it takes to gain that desire. I think he's going to progress a lot more
after that lesson. It was way good.
Anyways. That's probably not going to be
a regular thing for me to type out that much. Sorry that this was such a long
email. There's just so much that happens as a missionary! It's so challenging
every single day, but I love being a missionary.
Love you all!
Sister Coontz
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