12/12/11- Letter to the World

Hello World!

Can you believe that it's almost halfway through December?!  Crazy!  As of today, I have 100 days left as a missionary.  I cannot believe it!  Time is flying by!

By the way, check out web.me.com/jeannetopham for updates on the mission!  They'll also post pics, so you can try and find me :D  Shouldn't be hard...there aren't many sisters...

Monday
After P-Day, we went to the Bushda/Archer.  We're pretty much only teaching Mariam now.  We taught about scripture study and following the prophet.  I just love Mariam to pieces.  She is so amazing!  And she knows it's true!  Afterward, we went tracting and the unthinkable happened.  Normal intro and then "We're Catholic...we're not interested."  "Okay...do you know anyone who might be interested?"  "Hmm...well our neighbors, the Mccall!"  "Okay.  Thanks!"  "His name is Dan."  "Merry Christmas!"  Usually when we ask if they know anyone who might be interested, we get one of the following responses:

    No
    I think everyone around here goes to church
    I don't ask about their personal affairs
    Well, you can keep asking them for yourself
    I wouldn't want to give them false doctrine
    Not in listening to you
    Maybe my neighbor over there (usually a house we had just tracted with no success)

So ask you can imagine, we were super excited to have a name and a house and a real referral!  So we went over, and this guy opened the door and I asked if he was Dan. "Yes..."  "Your neighbor said you might be interested in our message--we're missionaries with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints."  "Oh!  Ya I am interested!  Come on in!"  (WHAT?!?!) "Is there a woman home?"  "No"  "Ok, we can't come in then, but would you be interested in us coming by another time?"  "Sure"  "Awesome!  What about tomorrow night?"  "That works"  "And have you heard of the Book of Mormon?"  "No"  "Oh!  Well this is another...etc.  Will you read the introduction by tomorrow?"  "Ya"  "Great!  We'll see you then!"

SO COOL!

Then we went to follow up with a media referral we'd received.  It said he requested a Book of Mormon.  He seemed surprised and said he was Jewish.  He was going out of town, but said we could come back in a couple of weeks.  We started tracting around his house and found two people (neither of which lived there) who were interested, so we forwarded the info on to the respective elders.  Keeley was particularly awsome.  She's Christian and as soon as she realized we were too she was on board!

Tuesday
We started the day out by tracting and got a return appointment (RA)!  Then we went to Sis Meza's for lunch and to help set up her Christmas tree (part-member family).  We were also able to share a lesson w/ her husband, who we recently started teaching and it was great!  Sis Meza was so happy!  Next we went to teach Soila who we FINALLY got a hold of again and had a great lesson 3.  She committed to be baptized on New Year's Eve (although her grandma didn't get her to church again, so she won't be able to be baptized on that day).  They just moved and her grandma just had surgery, so we helped move some of her furniture around and then she took us out to dinner.  After that, we went to the Reese's house.  I love them!  Last of all, we went to our appointment with Dan.  It was a good lesson, but he didn't want to meet with us again.   Sad day.  He's a part of LCBC...a HUGE phenomenon out here (LCBCchurch.com or .org I think)

Wednesday
We spent a lot of time tracting this day!  In the rain again.  We got let into a couple of houses, one which ended up with a return appointment.  She's actually a former and VERY knowledgeable about the bible.  Should be interesting.  After dinner, we stopped by the Paynes house.  They're moving away this weekend--I really hope the missionaries find them there!  Then we went to the church to pick out a song for Sunday (I played the flute).  Last of all we saw Laura again...for the first time since she got married.  They're getting it anulled now.

Thursday
After Weekly Planning, we went to LutherCare.  It was spa day, so we did some more manicures.  Afterward, we went to an appointment that fell through and did some more tracting before going over to Sis Bell's and doing a little service before dinner.  After that, we got to go to movie night!  We got permission to watch the recording of last year's Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert which features David Archuleta!  The Day kids and Soila came.  It was great!  After Soila left, we got to teach Bernard the Word of Wisdom and he said he wanted to be baptized!!

Friday
Zone Conference!  Then we went to the Vaughan's house for dinner where we got the exciting news that they are going to be sealed in April!  Then we taught Mariam about baptism and confirmation and she committed to a date!!!!  Then we went to Sis Heaton's.

Saturday
Relief Society Brunch and then studies in the morning.  We did some tracting and then after dinner we had an appointment that fell through.  We went out to Manheim to see the Stones and it was a great lesson.

Sunday
After church and studies, we went to the Blacks for dinner--love them to death!  Then we got to teach Mariam again and found out that her mom won't let her be baptized at this point.  PLEASE keep her in your prayers.  Then we went to the Reese's again.

It was a great week and I am out of time!  Love you all!

Sister Denton

12/5/11- Letter to the World

Hello World!

Well it's been a crazy week.  This is the first week of our mission reverting completely to PMG definitions for numbers.  Before, we could get "other lessons" while tracting, teaching members, street contacting, etc.  Now other lessons are only those which are with an investigator, but without a member.  It made for a huge decrease in numbers, which really shouldn't matter, but it is kind of disheartening to see 20 lessons a week drop to 2...continuous improvement right?

Monday
We went to teach someone at a pizza shop. He didn't show up, but we enjoyed wonderful food :D  We also stopped by Wilbur's Chocolate Factory.  We got to walk around downtown Lititz, which was pretty fun!  We're going to do it again today with the other sisters.  We taught the Bushda/Archer family and shared with them part of Pres. Uchtdorf's talk.  We followed it up by some tracting.

Tuesday
A member picked us up to take us down to a less active member's home for a lesson.  She wasn't home, so they took us out to lunch on the way home.  Afterward, we had 3 hours of tracting planned.  The forecast had said  rain, but all morning--in the car and at lunch--had been beautiful.  Right near the end of lunch, it started raining...and didn't stop.  We were SOAKED!  We went to our 3:30 appt only to find they weren't home.  We walked home and dried off/changed into dry clothes and backpacks.  We went to dinner with an awesome family in the ward.  Afterward, we stopped by Sis Russell's and had a good lesson.

Wednesday
The day started off with District Meeting.  We came home for lunch, which a member had left for us, and then headed down to see Sis. Bell.  I got to teach her a lot when I was in Millersville, so it's fun to see her again.  We stopped by Sis Wood's for a lesson and then went home to finish up companion study and have dinner.  Our last two appointments canceled, so we went out tracting for the night.

Thursday
After lunch, we did some tracting/street contacting and then got to go to LutherCare to volunteer.  Afterward, we headed home to stop by Bernard's and see how he was doing.  We went to our dinner appointment's neighborhood to do some tracting before dinner.  We ate with the Blacks--I love them to pieces!  Sis Black is just the sweetest woman in the world.  During the lesson, one of the kids pulled their tooth out lol.  We went to the Paynes next and were able to see Marie, their youngest daughter.  Afterward, we went to an appointment with our RS Pres as the team-up, but they weren't there, so we went to a less active home nearby.

Friday
After Weekly Planning, we went to see one of our part member family investigators that we've not been able to contact for a few weeks.  They weren't home, so we tracted for a couple of hours before our appointment.  They weren't there, so we headed toward home to take our dinner break earlier rather than later.  We ate at Ciro's--quite possibly the BEST Italian food I've ever had in my life.  Mmm.  And homemade gelatto.  Oh yeah.  We picked our team-up for our 5:30 appointment and headed over only to find that the wife wasn't quite as interested as the husband had been and we weren't going to be getting in.  We dropped her off and headed out to the Blacks--a returning family that I LOVE!!  We were able to teach the mom.  Our 7pm canceled with us, so we stayed out in their area and went to a less active the bishop had told us to visit.  She let us in!  Last year when I tried, we only got to stand in the front door, but we gave a whole lesson and she said we could come back!  We got to the car and found that our 8pm canceled, so we tried to contact another less active out in Manheim.  She was buys, so we went to one more--a sweet woman I'd been able to teach a couple of times before.  That pretty much summed up our night!  So for having every single appointment cancel, it was a great day :D

Saturday
After lunch, we went to our first appointment where...guess what...he canceled.  We went out finding for a few hours until we needed to come home for dinner.  We ate and then headed out to contact a few member referrals with no luck.  We had a 6:30 appt, but hadn't heard from our investigator for a days despite calls and texts.  We went to the neighborhood near where we were going to meet him to tract for a little bit and he called!  He came!  It was almost an hour late, but we were able to teach him in a member's home AND he said the closing prayer!  It was a wonderful prayer, too, asking the Lord to open his heart to the truth.  Afterward, we went to the Bushda/Archers again and taught about prayer.

Sunday
We walked into the church to find it BEAUTIFULLY decorated!  There are garlands and wreaths and bells and ornaments in the foyers and the chapel.  It's gorgeous!  Chruch was great--Bernard and Altagracia came again,  as well as Bro Wong.  After church, we went home to do companion study, and then it was off to the Collins for dinner!  He's our ward mission leader and their daugthers are the BEST at giving referrals!  They also said we could come over for Christmas Eve and to Skype on Christmas Day :D  Afterward, we tried to contact more of their referrals and then headed down to see a less active/part member family we'd not seen for awhile.  Turns out her phone fell into a bucket of water and that's why we've not been able to get ahold of her.  We'll be able to meet this week sometime.  Then it was back to the church for the Christmas Devotional, which was awesome.  It was neat to see the new movies, too, because my friend Hillary has been working with the production of those!

So, it was a crazy week!  It's now the beginning of another week, which means another chance to go out and work even harder to bring more souls unto Christ!  I appreciate all of your prayers and love you all :D

Sister Denton

11/28/11- Letter to the World

Hello World!

 

'Twas a good week!

 

Monday

We got to go see a returning active family and share a message.  I love seeing families come back to church!  It's the absolute best! 

 

Tuesday

We had leadership training in Harrisburg.  It was really good--about aligning our goals to achieve power.  Power is something I've been studying a lot lately, so it was neat to hear it talked about by our President and Assistants.  After dropping the sisters off at their apt, we headed to the Stones for Taco Tuesday.  I love the Stones family!  They are SO funny!  Afterward we went to Don and Laura's, a couple we're teaching.

 

Wednesday

After District Meeting, we went to the Cannons for lunch.  It was great!  As we went out to the car, I realized that I'd put the keys in my coat pocket, and then took my coat off and threw it in the back seat.  Our remote doesn't work, so we manually lock the car.  Bro Cannon tried to get them out, but couldn't, so we had to call the locksmith.  We gave him a card for a free Joy to the World DVD :D  lol.  Afterward, we went to try and find some referrals and less actives.  We went to the Bushda/Ramos and taught the 10 Commandments with the Brintons.  It went well!

 

Thursday

Thanksgiving!

6:30-11am--getting ready/studies

11am--Luthercare--visiting with the women.  Then we went with one of them to the Catey's Cafe and had Thanksgiving dinner.  We'd been given a free dinner pass.

1pm--Mickles--this is a family in the ward that invited us a few days ago.  So good! 

3pm--Bushda/Ramos--they'd invited us the day before.  They'd already eaten, so we had a plate of leftovers.

4:30pm--Stones--Super good food!  Good thing, or we may not have been able to keep it down by this point lol.  It was really fun, though! I love this family!

7pm--Fitzsimons--we went over to share a message and have pie..delicious!

8pm--Don and Laura--luckily this was just a lesson!  Sis Brandon came with us.  It was good!  Don and Laura are now set with Jan 21 as a baptismal day!

 

Friday

Highlight was getting into the Day home!  We haven't been able to for awhile.  We actually ended up eating leftover Thanksgiving food with them :D  I love this family!  Sis Day just started another job, so they're going to be SO busy, but we'll make time!

 

Saturday

Beautiful day weather wise!  Our first appointment was with Juanita.  It went well.  She has lots of questions, which I love!  She doesn't attend a specific church, but is saved.  One interesting conversation we had was whether or not the 10 Commandments are still in affect after Christ came.  Her side is that grace is what saves us and we don't have to do anything.  We read Matthew 5 with her.  After trying to contact some referrals, we stopped by Burger King for dinner.  We had a few minutes left in our break and were just sitting in the car looking at pictures and talking.  I'd turned it partially on to have heat.  When we went to back up, I realized it wasn't all the way on, so I tried to turn it on and it wouldn't start.  We called our Fleet Coordinator (who was actually in my MTC district!) and explained the problem and he confirmed that we had a dead battery.  Our district leader was nearby, so he got some jumper cables from an investigator and came and saved us.  Gotta love car trouble lol.  Our last lesson was with the Bushda/Ramos family, although only Mariam came.  We taught the Word of Wisdom and she committed to live it!  She is really progressing :D

 

Sunday

In the morning, we stopped by some investigators to encourage them in getting ready for church and it helped!  Don and Laura came with their girls and two of the Day kids came!  Woot!  We had dinner with the Zinkes, a fabulous family in the ward.  Then Sis Wright came with us to teach Bro Hancock, who became a new investigator.  He was raised baptist, joined non-denominational and currently doesn't practice with a church.  He agreed to read and pray!

 

The work is trucking along and time is flying by!  I can't even believe it's December this week!  That's crazy!  I hope all is going well with everyone!

 

Love ya!

 

Sister Denton

11/21/11- Letter to the World

Hello World!

It's been a fabulous week!

Monday
We got to teach Danial and Alexis!  He wants to be baptized!  We watched the Restoration and they fed us an amazing dinner and we talked about the Priesthood.

Tuesday
We walked a LOT this day!  For 5 hours!  We walked to the hospital to see a less active member there and then continued on.  We tracted some mansions (and I mean MANSIONS) for about three hours with no success and then walked home.  On the way home, we walked by a person riding a horse and I "open your mouthed" her.  O ya.  We got to go to the Stones (recent convert) for Taco Tuesday, and that was awesome!

Wednesday
District Meeting!  Elder Vellinga (who looks like Chazz for the record...he even said it was way weird when I showed him a pic of Chazz) is the new district leader and he's training a new elder from Alaska--Elder Cluff.  It was a wonderful District Meeting.  We taught Anton that night with some very boisterous members.  Anton said he wants to just go through all the lessons!  He's still willing!

Thursday
We got to go to Luthercare (the nursing home we volunteer at).  It was ice cream day, so we took one of the women down and ate some with her.  The activities coordinator gave us free meal tickets to come on Thanksgiving!  So nice!  We'll come in the morning and visit with some of the women and then eat with them!  We got to teach the Bushda/Archer family.  They're doing well.

Friday
Walking all day again, but it was AWESOME!  We finally had some success while tracting!  We got a new investigator--Juanita.  She let us right in!  I'm so excited to teach her.  She GETS it.  We went to dinner with the Ward Mission Leader--I love their family to death!  Their daughter gave us two referrals!  Rock on!

Saturday
This day was AWFUL until about 4pm when we met with someone we'd set an appt with the day before--Janell!  She is another new investigator!  She is SO wonderful!  She's half Native American.  We went to the Bushda/Archers and read the story of Ammon with them.  Sis Bushda likened the scriptures!  They finally clicked and she really got it!  It was great!

Sunday
After a wonderful church service (two of our investigators came), we went to see Sis Bell, who's not been feeling well.  We dropped by Alexis' and talked about tithing.  Then we went to the Wong's.  Bro Wong agreed to the bishop's invite to officially take the lessons!  They fed us an AMAZING dinner and then we taught tithing.  The rest of the night was studies.

Monday
We went to York today for a turkey bowl.  We ended up playing at an AWESOME playground while the Elders all played football lol.  It was fun to watch for awhile, though.  I LOVE football!

Love you all!

Sister Denton

11/14/11- Letter to the World

Well Hello World!

I don't have my planner, so I'll do a people report :D

Bushda/Archer
This is a family we're teaching--a mom and three kids.  They came to church this week!  That's probably the most exciting news!  Daphne is really progressing--she's been reading from the Book of Mormon when we ask.  We gave them all reading charts, so hopefully that will help.

Sis Hammond
Sis Cain had us, a bunch of other women, and Sis Hammond over for dinner, so that was great!  She came to church this week as well.  Her sister is a convert and her other sister is taking the lessons.  We also got a media referral this week, and it turns out it's her daughter's family!  Hopefully we'll start teaching them, too!

Bro Wong
He's doing great as well.  If you didn't know any better, you'd think he was a member!  His wife is a member and they have an ADORABLE little girl.  He's keeping commitments, coming to church, and is even helping the elders quorum with a move this week!  The only problem is he doesn't know he's investigating lol.  The Bishop is going to formally invite him on Wednesday.

Zach
His wife (the member) is out of town this week, so we didn't get to see them.

Danial and Alice
They are going to get married!  Woot!  This is a big improvement and will help Danial work toward baptism!  Alice is a member who's recently come back.  We're having dinner with them tonight.

Day Family
Bernard has been going to scouts, but that's about the only progress.  We'll keep working with them!

Tomy and Laura
We taught the Law of Chastity last week and they are going to get married!!!  They've been engaged for years, but they're thinking about marriage like next month!  Sweet!  And their 7-yr-old reads the Book of Mormon every day!!

Well I'm out of time.  Love you all!

Sister Denton

11/7/11- Letter to the World

Hello World!!

First of all, I got SUPER exciting news today!!  There was a 20-year-old Chinese kid that I was teaching in State College.  I'd "open your mouthed" him on a bus and we'd started teaching him and I just love him to pieces...he and Zack were two of the hardest people to leave.  Anyway, HE GOT BAPTIZED LAST MONTH!!!!!!!  We don't have communication with other areas, so I didn't know until President sent the list of baptisms for October.  SO exciting!!  Oh I love this work and I can't wait to congratulate him when I get home!  The gospel is amazing!

On to this week :D

Monday
Halloween---nothing really lol.  P-Day and then in at 6pm to deep clean.  It is really nice to have the apt organized, though.

Tuesday
We went on exchanges!  I got to go to Elizabethtown (my first area) with Sister Samuelson (another new missionary who came out with my companion).  It was great!  I got to see some less actives I used to teach and help get appointments with them.  I also got to see Emma, a woman I taught and got to see baptized back in March.  She's not been coming out, but she wants to start again.  It was a good day!

Wednesday
After District Meeting, we went to teach a less active who forgot to call and cancel.  We had dinner with the Meza/Huffman family and started teaching the lessons to Zach.  Afterward, we went to teach Sis Hammond at the Stone's home.  It was a great lesson!

Thursday
We got to have another Spa Day at Luthercare where we give manicures to the residents.  We had dinner with the Knapps--best baked potatoes of my entire life.  Pretty much everything else fell through.

Friday
We got to go and do service with the Meza/Huffman family--yard work.  I've done more yard work on my mission then ever before in my life!!  It was fun, though!  We pruned bushes, raked, and used a leaf-blower.  They also fed us a delicious lunch.  Afterward we went home for dinner and then walked up to Main St to "open your mouth" a little before seeing Sis Heaton.

Saturday
We started the day by going to help Sis Hammond with her newspaper route again--good idea for some side income when I get home!  lol  We taught a lesson afterward--she's doing really great.  We stopped by and saw Sis Bell and got to teach her a lesson on prayer and scripture study.  Afterward, we went to the Cannon home to teach Alexis and Danial, though Danial wasn't able to make it.  It was a good lesson anyway!  Afterward, we did more finding time.

Sunday
Church was phenomenal!  I love Sundays :D  Afterward, we went to find Winford, but he wasn't home.  We tracted for an hour and then went to see the Stones since they'd not made it out to church.  We taught a lesson on family history and temple work that went really well.  I love that family!!!  We had dinner with the Fosters--one of my favorite families on earth.  It was DELICIOUS and we played a rousing game of "Stump the Chump" where you ask questions about church that day and whoever answers, asks the next question and it continues until someone can't answer.  We did it with gospel questions too.  Ross (age 7) taught us a story to remember all of the apostles in order.  I'll try and recount it:

President Monson was walking on the beach when he saw a man get hit by a ball.  He noticed a ring start to form around his eye and pointed, saying, "Eye ring....eye ring."  President Eyring continued on until he came upon a dwarf and he pointed saying, "Dwarf!"  The dwarf saw his face and said "Eww!"  They continued pointing and yelling "Eww!"  "Dwarf"  "Eww!"  "Dwarf".  I can't remember the thing for Packer, so I'll continue on.   President Packer came up to a pear tree (Perry).  Oh darn I can't rmember Nelson either...it had something to do with yelling again "Nels"  "Son" etc..Then someone came up to an Oak tree.  (Oaks) and as they continued walking, they saw a Mallard duck (Ballard).  They noticed then someone royal coming toward them and said, "Great Scott!  Hail (Hales) the King of Holland!"  As they continued on the path, they went into an inn and found a pirate.  The pirate pointed to a bed and said "Bed!  NARRRR  Bed!  NARRRR"  (Bednar)  They continued into the kitchen and asked to see the Cook.  The waiter came out and said, "Hello!  My name is Chris.  Our special today is Tofferson."  (Christofferson)  And then I can't remember how Anderson came into play.

Anyway, they told this story, and Sis Foster was like, "This is what happens when Bro Foster and Daren are in charge of Family Home Evening."  Haha love that family!

We taught Laura about the Law of Chastity and then went in to finish our studies.

Love you all!

Sister Denton

10/31/11- Letter to the World

Hello World!  Happy Halloween!

 

Monday

For P-Day we just stayed at home and wrote letters--so nice!  That night, we got to teach Momma L's family. 

 

Tuesday

In the morning, we went to Luthercare where we got to visit with Cara and Diane--Amy was busy.  Amy is 102 and sharp as a tack!  Next we taught Bro Shaw (our 79 yr old investigator) at Bro C's house with the Brintons.  We watched the John Tanner story.  It was Bro Shaw's b-day!  It went pretty well and we committed him to talk to his family about baptism. 

 

That night we had a ton of appointments fall through and ended up tracting.  We've been doing our complex, but we decided to do a neighborhood a little while away so we have those aparments as an option later if we needed somehwere to tract for a few minutes.  While walking by a strip we hadn't tracted, however, I felt inspired to tract them.  So we did!  One of the first doors was Carissa.  She was just running off to work, but she was interested and took a Book of Mormon!  I thought--she's why we needed to come here.  Then we tracted into another man who was interested.  Then we tracted into Vanessa.

 

For those of you who may not remember, here are past entries on Vanessa:

 

Alan--We open-your-mouthed Alan.  We gave him a mormon.org pass-a-long card and asked if he'd ever had any of those questions.  He said he wondered what happens when we die.  We opened to Alma 40 and shared the scripture and he was happy!  We talked about eternal marriage (he's engaged and has a 3-yr old) and the Priesthood and Baptism.  He said he'd be baptized May 7!  We went to visit him the next day and he said his fiance isn't interested and they couldn't learn anymore.  We were really downhearted.  He kept being on our minds, so we went back when we knew she was gone and talked to him again.  He said he had good feelings about it and wanted to study, but he wanted his whole family to join a church together.  He said he'd still read and pray.  You can just tell he knows it's true!  We keep praying for Vanessa, his finace, to soften her heart and be open to our message!

 

I can't find if I ever wrote more, but like a week or so later, we were in the complex again and saw this woman taking out the trash.  We went to open-your-mouth her and saw that she had been crying--pretty hard it looked like.  We got her to talk to us and she started bearing her soul.  This little boy came running by and she called him Alan and we realized that this was Vanessa.  Little Alan had been having nightmares, so we promised her that if she'd read from the Book of Mormon to him they'd go away.  She also seemed commited to church.  We went back to follow up later, though, and never got another response.

 

That was back in April.  Skip to now.  She opened the door and I saw little Alan and realized who she was.  She said she'd been reading from the Book of Mormon and he hasn't had nightmares since.  She said it was on her bedside table!  At first, she said Sunday was her only day alone, but by the end, she said she'd come to the Trunk or Treat and Church!  (She didn't end up coming because little Alan got sick and the Trunk or Treat was snowed out).  Miracles are abounding!

 

Wednesday

Sis M took us out to a wonderful lunch.  More appointments fell through, but we got to teach Momma L.  All three kids went to mutual that night!  Yay!  We were at the church, too, because another of our investigators was meeting the bishop there.  We ended up with 5 investigators at mutual!  If only we can get them there on Sundays lol!  That night we taught Anton.  He didn't think we'd come back after last time.  It was REALLY good, though.  We committed him to read the WHOLE Book of Mormon rather than just church history stuff and he said he would! 

 

Thursday

We've been teaching a returning active woman named Alice, and her boyfriend accepted the invitation to take the lessons!  So he's a new investigator!  That was really exciting.  President came to District Meeting and we had interviews, which went well.  We met with Sis H at the White's home.  The Whites are one of my favorite families ever!  I want to be like them when I grow up lol.  They have a girl (oldest) with three little brothers, all within about 5 years of each other.  Hmm...sound familiar?  Afterward, we went to visit the Stones, a recent convert family I love to death.  Their daughter is struggling doing her timed tests in math, so after the lesson, I got to work with her a little bit.  I'm going to call her tonight because the next test is tomorrow so I can quiz her over the phone.  I'm so going to be a teacher--all my aversions to the politics of it aside, I LOVE helping kids learn!

 

Oh ya--Bro Shaw called and dropped us this day.  He talked to his pastor, his son, his daughter, and his son-in-law (a pastor in MD) and they convinced him that the only reason he's meeting with us is because he misses the companionship of his wife.  We committed him to keep reading and praying and make the decision himself.

 

Friday

I've known this next couple since my original days in the field.  Sis L is one of my favorite women ever and her husband Zach is amazing, too.  Zach always comes to church, but has never had the lessons, but as of Friday, we're officially teaching him!  He said it's mainly intellectual to learn what his wife believes, but he also agreed to read the Book of Mormon with Sis L!  Awesome!

 

Saturday

The Ephrata elders had a baptism--and Momma L's family came!  Yay!  We went to the RS craft fair luncheon for our lunch break--best bread bowl and soup I think I've EVER had.  And some of the best apple pie too!  Oh ya...it snowed this day!  Like a lot!  We got to go tracting in it. Fun stuff lol.  They canceled the trunk-or-treat, which was our plans for a good chunk of the night since we had investigators coming and members had planned to bring their friends.  It getting canceled meant sister missionaries out in the snow.  We walked to Sis H's house and taught her a lesson and she gave us a ride home.

 

Sunday

We used to have three Lancaster wards that all met at one buliding.  While I was in State College, they turned it into four Lancaster wards that meet in two buildings.  Because of this, we don't see the Elders as much as we did before.  Because of the snow, though, their building was out of power and they came to our church!  It was really fun to have 8 misisonaries in gospel principles lol.  The only ones missing were the sisters, who attended the morning session of church.  We had all three of our part-member family investigators at church!  Awesome!  And Zach gave some of his old suits to one of our investigators who didn't have any church clothes and he looked schnazzy!  It was awesome!

 

After church, we had more canceled appointments.  We had dinner at the Brintons--awesome family--and were able to practice teaching a lesson.  He's a PMG scholar, so no pressure!  haha.

 

Well that's it for the week!  Missionaries are in at 6 today, which is when P-Day ends, so it's only P-Day today pretty much!  We're going to go play basketball with the elders, I believe. 

 

Love you all!

 

Sister Denton