Hi everyone!
We had an absolutely incredible week! Last Monday Sister Cheyne had to go to the mission office but it was one of our ward trunk or treats and I needed to meet people in the ward, so we went on splits and I went to the ward party with another awesome member. It was great--so many people brought their friends! As soon as I got there I realized that it probably looked really bad that I didn't have a companion with a name tag...so hopefully that doesn't create any issues! I told everyone I met that the sister with me was my temporary companion, but I didn't get to talk with everyone.
Right after splits we went to Dewanda's appointment but she wasn't there, and then some elders who sent a referral to us called and let us know more about the referral. This phone call made our timing perfect to see Dewanda! She was getting out of her car with her daughter named Neon and we were able to teach them a little more and invite them to come to church! They're excited to come!
We met a sweet lady named Kim when we felt inspired to knock on her door. We asked her if she believed in God and she said that she used to, until her mom passed away two weeks ago. I'm so glad Heavenly Father sent us to her! I feel like she still believes in God, but just doesn't know how to deal with this trial at this point...which is why we're here! We gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon and we will be teaching her tomorrow, so I hope it goes well!
Later we were on the street and contacted a guy named Gannon who was long boarding down the street. He was pretty cool and we passed him off to YSA! Right after we met him we received a call from a contact saved in our phone that we didn't recognize. We answered and it was a lady named Cindy wanting to know if we could help her change her air filter! We went over and discovered that this vent was a large metal covering in her ceiling that had hinges on one side and screws on the others. We helped Cindy change the filter and then she came to the other ward's Trunk or Treat party that night!
Then the member who was out with us (and was giving us a ride) had to head out in a few minutes to pick up her kids from the bus stop, but we contacted one more guy named Dan who was awesome! He talked for quite a bit and when we finished, the sister went over to the bus stop and we walked for a while over to where our car was parked. I'm so glad it worked out that way, because we met some awesome people as we were walking that we couldn't have if the sister drove us back to our car! Thankfully she wasn't late to the bus stop :) She actually told us that the timing worked out perfectly for her too! The first person we met while walking back was a young mom named Jandie with three kids walking down a busy main street. She told us she's been looking for a church and wants to learn more about our message! We taught her briefly about the Restoration and then she had to leave, but we should be seeing her this week. Right after we met Jandie we contacted a high-school aged girl named Tori who told us that her brother had just met missionaries the other day too! Turns out we were the ones who contacted him, but his mom came out and told us they were happy with their church. But Tori was really interested and told us that she's always wanted to learn about religion and wanted to know why there were so many Christian religions! We didn't want to step on her mom's toes, so we gave her a card and told her about the chat feature on the website and then asked her to ask her mom about meeting with missionaries. Tori is awesome! I really hope we get to teach her!
We finally got to our car and were late to our next lesson with someone named Tristan, but that all worked out too! Tristan's mom told us that they wouldn't have been ready if we had come any earlier. Tristan's family is super cool--all of them besides Tristan and his dad were baptized about a year ago when a member driving by felt prompted to leave a copy of the Book of Mormon at their front door. Tristan's mom, Belle, had been praying the night before to know what her family needed to be happier and they were baptized shortly after that! Tristan hasn't been baptized yet because he wants to make his dad happy, and his dad doesn't exactly support the Church. But we had an awesome lesson about the Spirit with him and then later we heard that Tristan wants to go on the youth temple trip in two weeks to do baptisms for the dead and he wants to be baptized now!
We met an awesome kid named Michael as he was walking down the street--he said he's atheist and we testified of God and invited him to church. We went over for our next lesson and brought one of his 16 year old member neighbors named Morgan and taught him some more and he said he'll come to church to get the bigger picture. We planned to come by 15 minutes before church started so we could walk over with him. More on that in a few paragraphs--I write all my emails based off of notes from my journal entries and can't go out of order!
The mission tour was fantastic! Elder Dyches and his wife came. I'm amazed at how well Elder Dyches knows Preach My Gospel--he has page numbers memorized and probably every paragraph and red box too! It was a very humbling experience, because I thought that I was studying from Preach My Gospel enough but that's not the case! He also taught us about the importance of memorizing scriptures (like it says in PMG), which I thought was awesome because it's something I expected to be a big thing when I came into the field, but it wasn't. So I'm going to be working on that!
The mission tour took up the majority of our day and of course at the end all of the missionaries wanted to take pictures, but thankfully the timing all worked out! We ended up being 15 minutes late to an appointment with a guy named Charlie, but as we were knocking on the door he pulled up in his car and told us he was praying that he'd be able to see us even though he was late coming home from a doctor's appointment! Charlie is awesome and we had a great lesson about the Restoration with him!
We had a meeting with our ward missionaries at the church and before it started, a lady named Melissa walked in and asked if the elders were there. Apparently Melissa is a nonmember and they were going to give her a church tour, but they were nowhere to be found! Melissa is planning to be baptized on December 3! She was texting the elders and we assumed we knew who she was contacting, since only one other ward meets at our building but later we asked the elders and they had no idea who she was. I'm interested to find out!
We were really tight on miles this month because of the mission tour with Elder Dyches and a Halloween party tonight at the mission office. When we totalled up our miles at the end of the day of the mission tour, it was 28, and we were expecting it to be 40-50! We drove 28 miles the day before, just staying in our zone! This is nothing short of a miracle! Sister Cheyne and I think it's one of the blessings from being a full tithe payer :) So there you go: a personal story about tithing PLUS Lewis' story about not getting shot!
I guess I've saved the best for last: we taught Derrick again this week about the Plan of Salvation and at the end he was hesitant to pray, but then we bore our testimony of it and offered to say a prayer first and then he could pray and he did! And he told us he felt tingles as he prayed, like he does when he watches a really good movie!
AND THEN Derrick came to church--and so did Michael! I LOVE it when investigators come to church for the first time!! We were in the parking lot and walking towards Michael's house to walk to church with him and we saw Derrick getting out of his car (and this is 20 minutes before church starts)! We took him inside for a quick tour of the building and I'm so grateful for the members here because every single one of them came up and introduced themselves to Derrick, which was just what he needed! By the time we finally sat down it was 8:58 and I felt pretty bad about not getting Michael, but then I looked over and saw him walking to the pew next to us with Morgan! She saved us! I am so grateful for her! Both Michael and Derrick had a great time and I think the sacrament meeting talks were perfect for them! Michael stayed for all three hours! Derrick had to leave because of a previous commitment, but I'm amazed that he came to 9:00 church when we also gave him the option to come to 1:00! Words simply cannot express how wonderful it is when people come to church because that's what's going to help nearly everyone prepare most to be baptized!
I am SO GRATEFUL to be serving my mission! I love doing the Lord's work so much!
Have a great week!
Love, Sister Bedont
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