Week 19


Hi everyone! Guess what. This week has been one of the best ever. There is sooooo much to talk about. So brace yourselves. This will probably be a novel.

 

So Tuesday we had mission conference in the Kirtland temple and at the historic sites. The entire mission came! That's 240+ missionaries together in one very sacred location. The Sunday before we had a mission fast for safe travelling weather, and it was the nicest day of the whole week. Huge miracle. When our mission president spoke at the open of the meeting, he said this would be such an important event, and then he said, "and believe me. Someone has been trying to stop it from the depths of hell." He didn't expound on that, but he did say that God had worked a miracle for us. He said the biggest concern he has as a mission president is the safety of our missionaries. So all during the week last week he kept checking the forecast. But by the time Sunday came around, he said he stopped looking at it because he knew that the Lord would take care of us as we participated in the fast together. He is such an eloquent speaker, I wish I could articulate it the way he did. I just love President Vellinga. I think we have the best mission president in the world.

Then the stake presidents in our mission shared their testimonies and we sang Christmas songs and the Spirit of God, which if you don't know, was written for the dedication of the Kirtland temple, so it's always so powerful to sing it in there. But even more so when there are hundreds of missionaries singing it. I can't express in words the feelings I had as we sang the words to that song, "we'll sing and we'll shout with the armies of heaven, Hosanna Hosanna to God and the Lamb". And it really did sound like we were singing with the armies of heaven. I thought it might be hard to keep it together emotionally during that song, but it was such a shout of triumph that it was difficult not to just smile and sing at the top of my lungs.

The stake presidents and President Vellinga and Elder Seldon from the seventy all shared some really cool thoughts. They said it is not a random event that we were there that day. That event and our attendance were foreordained. I learned so much and felt the spirit so strongly in that meeting. It was really sad to have to leave.

Afterwards we went to the historic sites and gave our zone a tour. There might be some pictures someone else took of that so I'll see if I can send them. The purpose was to inspire all the missionaries to focus their efforts in bringing people to Kirtland because of what Elder Ballard told President Vellinga when he came in October. He grabbed him by the front of his suit and said "The Visitors' Center is the best missionary you have in this mission. You need to get more people to Kirtland."

Overall it was probably the BEST day on the mission. Soooooooooo amazing. And I just can't do it justice when I try to describe it.

 

And while we were in Kirtland that day we were printing some music for Sister Johnson during our 5 minute break. So we happened to be in the call center printing stuff when the Visitors' Center phone rang. I was hesitant to answer because we weren't assigned to be there right then, and I figured they could leave a message. But I went ahead and answered anyways. The lady said "Yes you called me" At this point I assumed that she was calling for one of the other sisters. We all make calls from those phones so it could have been a call for any of them. So I was prepared to say "Oh, I'll just get your name and number and let them know you called" when she said "This is Etta Boyd." I CALLED HER!!! It was for me!! We had taken her on a tour months ago when she came in to do family history. She wasn't a member, but she had a lot of ancestors who were baptized in the Kirtland years, and were disfellowshipped somewhere down the line. She told us on the tour that she always wondered if she would come back to Mormonism someday. So I called her a couple weeks ago to follow up on the rest of her trip and try to talk to her more about the gospel, but just left a message. Then when she called we had a little conversation and she said "I never paid much attention to my Mormon ancestors, but now that I have researched more, I think they might have been on to something." Ok. I was speechless. Seriously. I didn't know what to say. So I just said "Yeah! You're right!" So she said we could call her and teach her! AMAZING! And what if I wasn't sitting right there at that very moment to answer the phone? Miracle.

 

We had another crazy day on Wednesday. We were on exchanges. I was with Sister Gee in Hiram, and Sister Johnson was with Sister Oliver in their area for the day. A few hours before we were supposed to switch back we got a call from the other sisters saying that something had happened and we needed to meet up ASAP. They had been cleaning at a lady's house and there was a heavy window they were cleaning under and decided to prop it up with a stick. Of course the stick fell and the window came down hard on her hand, and there was a physical therapist in their ward who said it was probably at least a fracture. So we switched back and drove to the Emergency Room by us. They took a quick look and an x-ray and diagnosed it as an abrasion and contusion. Translation: she scraped and bruised her hand. Sounds pretty sissy but it looked really bad. It was pretty miraculous that it wasn't worse.

 

Then Thursday was a miracle day! We had so many miracles, and some of the best tracting stories of my mission. We stopped by a potential investigators that the Elders gave us. They found her name in their area book, but she was in our area, so they gave us her information and we stopped by. She wasn't home so we tracted around the apartments by her house. And the first door we knocked was a crazy Russian guy named Vladimir. He thought we were realtors. We explained to him that we were missionaries, and he invited us in. We saw that there was a woman in the house through the window so we went ahead and went in, and he had two friends there, a man and a woman, who were sitting in the kitchen eating snacks and drinking wine. He said "I'm too old for you. Now, if you have mother, maybe." Sister Johnson and I just looked at each other, holding back laughter and wondering who was going to respond to that. I said "we are sharing a message about Jesus Christ." And he slapped his forehead and said "I hate that!" The woman looked confused and asked him something in Russian, and he turned and said "You are witnesses of yehovah?" and started saying something about the KGB. We explained that we weren't Jehovah's Witnesses, and he said "Ok ok..." Then the other man said "You want something to drink? It's Jesus wine!" And Vladimir said "No no, they only drink Vodka." We did our best to bring it back to Christ, but his only response was, "No no. Forget about mission. Go home and find lover, and make lot of sex." Soooooo we gave him our card and went on our way. DEFINITELY an interesting encounter. We just walked out of his house and burst out in uncontrollable laughter. I was NOT expecting that...

The next stop we made was to an old potential from 2005 or so, and they weren't interested. So we saw a cute yellow house down the street and decided to go there. The man who answered is named Bob. He is golden. His daughter just died and we spent a whole hour just standing on his doorstep talking about her and about the Plan of Salvation. He kept asking question after question about religion and we have every answer. So we are going back this week :) I can't wait to teach him. Miracle!

Then we realized we were out of gas and went to the gas station. Every time we get gas we talk to everyone there. We'll take turns standing by the car while the other one goes and gives someone a card. We invited everyone there to the nativities, including this way creepy guy named Hollywood Bob. He looked like a cross between Marilyn Mansen and Stephen Tyler. He had black acrylic nails about 2 inches long, and wore only black, had this dyed black afro, and funky blue contacts. Yeah. Creepy. But also he is a child of God and we don't judge. So we gave him a card and he explained to us all about how he is the great-great grandson of Lucifer, and his job is to "cut off the head of the beast" (the beast being Pres. Barack Obama...). He told us he knows the end is coming soon and to hug our families tight because we're going to be in concentration camps here soon. Also he was a body guard for Denzel Washington, Rascall Flats, and Big Time Rush (who wrote a song about him dying and coming back from the dead. He played it for us). Not sure what to say to that. But we had a pretty interesting conversation with him for about an hour. Another cool story.

Then we went to another potential investigator from a couple years ago and brought over a Book of Mormon. She was really excited about it and has a daughter who is going through some serious medical stuff right now. She is actually flying to Texas in a week for 5 months of treatment at a better hospital there. But she was also golden, and really excited about reading the Book of Mormon! We weren't even planning on going to her house that day, but she happened to live on the same street as Bob (normal Bob, not Hollywood Bob), so we stopped by and actually caught her right as she was leaving. She said she is never usually home so we were lucky to catch her. She spends most days and nights at the hospital with her daughter. So also that was another miracle find. We were in the right place at the right time.

There were so many other small things that happened to fall into place that day. But there's too many to go into detail about. So those were the best ones. And the funniest :)

 

Then in Kirtland on Saturday we had some ladies come. One was a member and she brought her nonmember friend. She had shared a little with her friend about the gospel, but since the print was too small in the Book of Mormon they were waiting on a larger one. So in the meantime Becky (the member) just though, well, I can bring her to Kirtland! Marsha was the nonmember. She was about 70 ish. After watching the film she said she felt like the Mormons really had something going. She felt so sad about the persecution they endured, and as we took her through the Newel K. Whitney & Co. store, she was amazed at the way she felt. She had said a prayer looking for direction in her life. She has a deep love for Jesus Christ, and she kept commenting on the feelings she had there. She had lots of questions, so we sat in the revelation room and taught her a mini-restoration lesson/Q&A. Becky was great, and had a strong testimony. She was a convert herself. And as we taught the spirit was so strong, we invited her to be baptized right there, and she accepted. She has never met with missionaries before, so we got her number and will be calling her and teaching over the phone until she is comfortable enough to have missionaries come to her house. Best tour ever! Then we showed her the nativities and she told us she writes doggy raps and cat operas. She did a demo of one of her dog raps for us. It. Was. Amazing. She is an old lady. Who writes doggy raps. And wants to get baptized. Doesn't get better than that. Funniest thing of my life.

 

Anyways. If you've made it this far, congratulations! I'm done. I know we have a loving Heavenly Father who is a God of miracles!! This is just a fraction of all that I have experienced and have yet to experience! Missions are awesome. Especially mine :)

 

I love y'all! Have a fab week!!

 

Tayler