So we decided we will not knock on doors after dark anymore. I don't know what's going on in the world that's making everyone so defensive, but... We got two more guns pulled on us this week. And out of the four that have been pulled on me I got one pointed straight at my brain. And I didn't even really freak out. I just said "Whoa hey, we're just missionaries!" Haha my heart didn't pound or anything! Is that bad?! Guns are now a regularity..... Yikes.
My lesson for FHE was brilliant. I had a lot of people thank me with tears in their eyes saying it was just what they needed and they needed to work on being nicer to others. It was the neatest thing. Then for Sports Night everyone was so cautious about what they were saying. I only had to sing my “kind words” song once. It was awesome!
We did get to go back to our friends from Kenya! We went in the afternoon and they had made us tea... And we had to refuse. But they understood because they don't eat pork. They were sad that we couldn't come back that night because they wanted to feed us and have us meet everyone else. We couldn't break their hearts.... So we went back! They had African music playing and they were making food. I sat by Valery and started talking to her. She's my age and she just came here two months ago for school and her whole family is still in Kenya. She told me she likes singing and so we opened the hymn book and she picked songs she knew and we sang them and took turns singing alto. I love them! They fed us "chapate" which is like a tortilla/pancake and it's so good! We had a blast over there and we are going to get bracelets from them.
Meeting with our friends from Kenya
Here's about the week:
Monday:
We just had a lot of fun taking pictures and relaxing. We accomplished a lot and Sister Stucki packed so fast. It makes me less worried for when I go home. She left behind a lot and she was WAY under weight with her luggage for her flight home.
For FHE we had that awesome lesson and it went super well. After my lesson I made them team up with people that I knew they didn't necessarily get along with so much. I assigned them, and then I said: "Wrists up" and we taped them together, haha it was awesome! We also had everyone secretly sign a card for Sister Stucki and we gave it to her with some brownies.
Tuesday:
That was a rough day. We bawled all through transfer meeting. It was so sad! I kept trying to say goodbye and I would cry and then we would just follow each other around. She's been home a week now. I never want to go through that trial. Missionary for life.
With Sister Stucki at transfer meeting
I love Sister Oldroyd! She is just so much fun and hard working and full of so much energy! We had Stake Correlation that night and I'm glad President wasn't there because we were late and we got locked out. But it went so well and I liked it better than last time. I've also had fun trying to explain the military to Sister Oldroyd haha.
With Sister Oldroyd, my new companion
Wednesday:
Today was rough... plans falling through like water in a strainer. We did see Brandon though. I can't remember if I told you about him. He was a referral from the elders. He is looking for a religion because he's getting back into it now. He's SO SINCERE!!! He is just really searching for the truth. Good news: We have it! We are hopefully meeting again with him this week.
We did a lot of Less Active hunting and then we went to Austin Peay to scout out complexes around there. We found a ton and I'm a little overwhelmed with how many YSA there are to find. Then Gwen texted us and asked if we were on campus. Lucky.. we were. She wanted to ask us to pray for her fiance’s grandpa who has bad cancer and probably won’t last much longer. I thought it was so cool that she trusted us and asked for help. I was able to suggest a conference talk for her to read. She even told us she watched some of it on her own... amazing! That night we also met Tori. She is 20 and goes to Vanderbilt a couple times a week to do Chemotherapy. She is so sweet and was so interested in the gospel! We left her with a pamphlet and have an appointment again with her tomorrow night.
Thursday:
Busy day. We met SO many awesome people tracting! Jennifer is one. She is married and she is looking for a new church and let us right in. We shared the whole Restoration with her and she loved it. She said she would come to church (she didn't) but we will go back this week. She was really sweet.
We also met with Austin and discussed how to get the new member lessons going to help him retain his testimony. He told us how he wanted us to teach him and so we did that later this week and it was a really good lesson! We had him match principles with scriptures and he did pretty good. That kid's testimony is solid!
Friday:
We set some crazy goals! We set a goal to contact 10 people a day which is 70 per week and 420 per transfer. We also set a goal to have a baptism on November 8th and we are praying for it in every prayer together!
We later met up with a member, Aaron, and talked about missionary work. He actually got really excited about it! We came up with a "program" to help our YSA's do missionary work and bring friends to be taught. It’s working pretty good so far. This is the day I had a gun pulled at my face... that was fun. And we stopped by 2 less active’s homes.
Saturday:
We attended the baptism of the daughter of a YSA and it was so cool. We also met some really sweet other people from Kenya from tracting. She is really sweet and she wants us to come back .
We also met with Aaron, our investigator! Remember him? From a while ago? He was given to the elders because he had a crush on Sister Frampton, but she's gone so we taught him the Restoration again and his countenance was so different from the first time. It was so cool! And he came to church and then he said he had more questions. It’s awesome!
Sunday:
This day was crazy! We had Dre, and Aaron at church. And then we met someone named Brandon. He came and we were combined with the First ward for Sacrament and we went to talk to him afterwards. He is in the military and his wife is in Ohio with his kids. She got baptized 1 month ago and he decided he wants to check into it! It was a miracle! Crazy miracle!
Mom I gave your Book of Mormon to a lady named Amanda. We were just going back to see if she read the pamphlet and she did and she said "I liked it and it’s something I'm interested in." What?! Ok... so we taught her the Restoration and I gave her your Book of Mormon and I told her how special it was to me and that you had written your testimony in there for her. It was so cool! She was really appreciative of it.
We lastly saw Dre. He came to church and he was kind of falling asleep but he said he liked it. Then we saw him that night and I gave him the Book of Mormon with Cory's testimony in it. He thought that was the nicest thing in the world for my brother to write his testimony so I could give it to him.
Dre with the Book of Mormon that Cory wrote his testimony in
Well I have to go, sorry I'm rushing the end of this! I love y'all so much and I can't wait to hear back from you!
~Sister Rokovitz~
Locked the keys inside.....but Kevin will get us in!
