11/29/10- Letter to the World

Well hello World!!

Since my letters are really long, I'm going to color code them so you can pick and choose what kinds of things you like to read :D

Blue for really important or cool
Yellow for really funny
Green for really spiritual

So, when I opened my call and read Pennsylvania Pittsburgh, I thought COLD!  Yay!!  You'd think that'd be associated with snow.  We've yet to see a single flake!  Crazy!  My hometown, it seems, is being overrun with snow!  It'll come, they tell me.  It apparently DUMPS in Jan and Feb, but rarely before Christmas.

Monday--A sister in our ward. Sister Rogers, took us to Amish Country again!  This time it was much more authentic.  It was SO cool and I got an AWESOME thing for my grandma :D  She also took us to Deiner's, a really good buffet!  The servers are Mennonite and Amish.  'Twas cool.

Tuesday--While walking along the street, we heard someone from a van call, "Sisters!"  It's a woman from DC.  Her NM husband lives up here and they go back and forth between houses, but she might start coming to our ward.  She was excited to see missionaries from her church!  On the way back, we OYMed (Open your mouth) a woman who was walking and smoking.  As we said we were thankful for the BoM, she said, "Oh!  I'm a Mormon!"  We were like WHAT?!  lol.  She was from NY and had come to Lancaster County to get her turkey.  What are the odds?!  In Utah they're pretty high, but when our ward takes more than an hour to drive from top to bottom, the odds are pretty low to meet two Mormons!  Sister Longmore says that's always a testimony to her that we're in the right place at the right time doing the right things.  We also met a LA family that night who has two foster children.

Wednesday--We got to teach YeYang today!  We went to a member's house to share a message.  As we walked in, she said, "It's my girls!"  Cute :D  Her husband's way nice, but he's not a member and usually doesn't sit in.  As always, we asked if we could do anything.  She was stressed about Thanksgiving, so we helped her cook!  She is like the best cook in the ward!  We cored, peeled, and sliced apples for her apple pie and learned tricks on making a pie crust!  It was fun. 

Thursday--Thanksgiving!  We were going to tract, but it was rainy and cold, so we went to two LA families that we'd been trying to teach.  Both were home!  We were able to share our Thanksgiving message with both of them!  Then at 12:30 we went to the Clarks.  They are AWESOME!!  They have two adorable little boys.  There was another ward family there with five kids.  And her cousin with husband and two kids in tow.  And a family friend and his roommate.  It was crazy awesome!  Dinner was supposed to start at 1, but with everyone coming, it was more like 3.  We had a "wall of Thankgiving" where we wrote on the window with dry-erase markers things we were thankful for.  I got to talk with the kids a lot.  I taught some ASL and showed them my pictures and just talked.  Before the meal started, Sister Longmore and I shared our Thanksgiving message, then we had a DELICIOIUS meal!  We each had cute nameplace turkey made out of Oreos, Whoppers, Reeses, and Candy Corn.  We had mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole (which was PHENOMENAL!  I'm so glad I decided to try it!  It had walnuts and brown sugar on top), fruit salad (which was like frozen and good), rolls, turkey, ham, cranberry sauce, gravy, green bean casserole, and probably more!  It was way fun, too, because Yeyang was there!  It was her first Thanksgiving!  Then after another hour or so, we had pie....it was almost all homemade!  The Dutch Apple was my favorite.  Yum.  Then we went to another LA for Thanksgiving.  Were we ever glad when we got there and found out that they ate early and didn't wait!  We just had a piece of pie there and shared another message. 

Friday--This morning we met with one of our investigators from a PM family.  I don't know if I've talked about her before.  Her husband is LDS and she goes to the Church of the Brethren.  They go to both churches every week.  She even comes when he's out of town!  We taught her the third lesson and it was awesome.  She was talking about how she thinks the Priesthood shouldn't just be given to every worthy male.  Her husband had offered to give her a blessing once and she thought it should be from someone she could respect more--like higher with more "spiritual umph."  She also asked how a blessing differs from praying for someone.  I shared my experience from when Cody gave me a blessing the day he received the Priesthood and how awesome it was to feel him really be in tune with the Spirit and to see him realize that he was and to feel of God's love for me.  After I shared that, it was silent for a couple of seconds, which feels like eternity.  Afterward, Sister Longmore was like, "Dude!  Your testimony was AWESOME!"  So that was cool!  Benji and Lucy canceled on us, so we went to another LA after having dinner.  We tracted before dinner and this one guy let us in.  We were talking about how there's only one church and he said "absolutely."  Then we said that after Christ left the earth, the foundation of His church crumbled, and he said, "Oh no it didn't."  And we were like, "Are you Catholic?"  lol.  It was funny.  We talked for awhile.  He doesn't know anything about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  He kept saying the Catholic church is the only one that encompasses every aspect of the bible.  I said that actually I had heard it said that the only two churches that have a claim to authority are ours and the Catholic Church.  He couldn't get over the fact that we don't believe in transubstantiation, though (the belief that the Sacrament literally turns into Christ's flesh and blood after we eat it).  He did say that the Book of Revelation is like code for the Catholic Mass which is interesting.  I'd be interested in learning more about that!  Another woman told us, kind of under her breath, that she believe we were a cult.  Lol.  I don't know if I'd have the guts to tell someone that!  We corrected her and told her that we were indeed Christian.  She said she had learned some things at her church about ours, but she couldn't remember.  I think it's funny that the churches around here indoctrinate their members against us.

Saturday--We finally got a hold of Mandy after a couple of days of not hearing from her.  She finally talked to her dad.  He is completely unsupportive of it and will not be at her baptism.  We asked her what she's going to do and she said, "What I've been planning on doing for a year."  She's getting baptized!!!! We heart attacked her door with scriptures, pictures, and encouraging notes.  We love her SO much and are SO excited for her to receive the blessings of membership in Christ's church and the gift of the Holy Ghost.  She is going to be SO blessed.  I can't imagine how hard it would be to make this decision against the wishes of your aunt (who's like your mother) and dad.  I am so amazed by her.  She is such an example to me.  We also got to talk to Yeyang again.  We taught about Lehi's Vision.  When we talked about the Great and Spacious building and the symbolism, she said that when she told her friends she got baptized, they laughed at her.  When she says she went to church, she said their faces change and they say, "The Mormon church?"  She feels that they are evil and felt that she shouldn't be friends with them anymore.  She also noticed that they only call her when they need her.  I didn't really realize all of the opposition she was receiving too!  We told her how awesome it is that she is staying at that tree and ignoring the voices in the Great and Spacious building.

Sunday--We did a hymn testimony meeting for part of church.  It was cool :D  Sister Rogers took us down to dinner at her kid's house.  Then she took us out to meet some of the LA older woman.  One in particular is SO funny!  She's from England and is like 73 in a wheelchair with a brain tumor, but she is a HOOT!  She was talking about how the Elders couldn't come in without another guy and was like, "What am I going to do?  Attack them?  Rape them?  Make a pass at them?!"  haha.  I was laughing so hard.  She told her conversion story and how the Elders came like every week for a year. She said they were like, "We've got a live one!"  haha.  She's awesome.  I want to be like her when I'm old! 

Well, that's the week!  Another novel haha.  Oh ya...at the Rogers for dinner, they had a DB Catalog!  I pointed it out and Sister Longmore held it hostage because it's something I love so much.  After looking through it twice and taunting me a little with, "Oh..this is new!" she let me look through it.  It had a picture of the store with the temple in the view.  I forgot how close it is!  It was SO cool. 

Time's up!  I shall talk to you again next week!  Love ya'll!

Sister Denton