A week

This week was a week. It wasnt a bad week, but I wouldnt call it a great week. It is one of those weeks where it was a long week but I survived it. It was also one of those weeks that I feel like I have learned and grown a lot while being out here.

 

Monday...Monday was actually probably one of my favorite Pdays on my mission. Due to Easter we knew that most places were going to be closed so we had talked to the Elders and some of the members and decided to have a Pday at the church. We pretty much just hung out at the church all day. We made lunch for everyone and the Elders made dinner and then in between we emailed and just hung out. We did have to go grocery shopping and V came with us...it was the greatest thing ever...you never know what to expect from her and sometimes it is hard to know if she is being serious or funny but she tells things like they are and she is hilarious.

 

Monday night we went and stopped by J's...a less active member. She has been ignoring our phone calls and texts so we decided to just go show up. She was home and let us in. We had a really good lesson with her and talked to her about the importance of church. We were really hoping that she would come to church this week. We even told her that we would come and walk with her but unfortunately she didnt come.

We then spent the rest of the night taking our Easter treats around to the members and investigators that we were unable to make it to on Sunday. We learned that Croatians arent fans of you just showing up giving them something and leaving. They want to invite you in and think they have to give you something in return.

 

Tuesday morning we went and helped D. She needed help moving things again. She also wanted us to put together a dresser...without instructions and with some of the pieces missing...we told her that was impossible. We then had District Meeting which was a good meeting...but by the time we left District Meeting we had no investigators. We had recieved some texts and we will just say we were down to no investigators. It was a little rough...but we prepared ourselves for a long night of contacting and tracting and finding. We were able to get ahold of M and were able to meet with him. We taught him about Joseph Smith and he was really able to relate to him because he feels lost as to what is truth and really wants to know. He liked that we were able to help him realize how he can find out truth for himself. He is reading the Book of Mormon and said that he will pray and really wants to learn of the truth.

 

We then went out for contacting...we had a list of potentials so we decided to go check on them. The first door we knocked on was a woman named F. She immediately recognized who we were and invited us in. She actually turned out to be a former investigator so she had had most of the lessons before. We talked to her about the Plan of Salvation and what our purpose is in life. At the end of the lesson her husband R came in. They were both so nice and told us that they would love us to come back and teach them more. So we left District Meeting with no investigators and by the end of the night we had 2! We also found a potential investigator named Ž who we contacted on the street...she seemed really interested. We havent been able to meet with her and are still trying to decide if she is really interested in the Gospel or more of wants to be friends...so we will see how that goes.

 

Wednesday...apparently the Elders were having the same problem as us and Elder Uhlig who is the district leader said that he felt that as a district we should set the goal of finding 7 new investigators this week and that that could include the 2 we found the night before. At first we thought he was crazy and thought there is no way that is going to happen because lets be honest we are usually lucky to find one investigator a week. But he told us that he felt like we could do it so we increased our faith and said ok, we can do it. So our efforts for the rest of the week were put in to finding new investigators. Wednesday morning we went out contacting and talking to people. We had some really good conversations but unfortunately no one that was interested. We then had a lesson with H.  It was a good lesson and we were able to talk to her about how she is feeling after baptism and recieving the Holy Ghost. She is still so happy and is doing great. We had English class and then a lesson with A. A is still great and is still learning so much on his own and comes to lessons so excited to share with us what he has learned.

 

Thursday...was a day where nobody would meet with us. I cant tell you how many appointments we tried to set up, nobody would let us come. However, I cant complain too much because the poor Elders had that happen to them Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We blamed it on Elder Uhlig because he gave us the goal of finding investigators so we were just being given a lot of time to be able to do that. Anyway...we first went and contacted a woman named S who Sister Bunker and I had met a few weeks back. She was very nice and let us in but from the moment she let us in she had made up her mind that she wasnt going to listen to us and that she didnt want us to come back. We tried really hard to have the Spirit testify to her but she wouldnt let it. We then went back to our apartment and did weekly planning and then we spent the rest of the day contacting and no one wanting to listen to us.

 

Friday morning we had piano with B...and then the rest of the day was spent contacting or tracting. Because again, no one would answer the phone. We called it tracting for our lives...and in order to break it up and make it not so long we stopped every hour and took a picture by the nearest object that we could find. We had a nice old lady invite us in and were able to teach her the Restoration but she was more interested in us and America than anything else. We were also let into a house where a family lived. They were so nice and had met missionaries before but again, told us not to come back.

 

We did end Friday with a great night though. We had planned a YSA activity and had encouraged the members to bring friends and we had invited a lot of young people. Well, when we started the activity it was the missionaries and V. But, gradually more people came. D came and then one of the Elders investigators named V came and brought a friend with her. It ended up being a really great night and we had a lot of fun! I think part of that was because we were all so exhausted that everything was funny but it was still great. We played around the world ping pong and I would just like it to be known that I won. Anyway, it ended up being a great night!

 

Saturday morning wasnt quite as bad as the past 2 days but we spent the first few hours tracting. We then went and visited J. She has been wanting to watch conference but doesnt have the internet so we were able to download it and take it to her and she was so grateful for it. We went to H and we talked to her about temples. The Spirit was so strong as we were talking to her about them and telling her even though she has to wait to go that she can start preparing now. When we get H to stay on topic we have really powerful lessons with her, the problem is that she goes off on tangents a lot. After H we had English and then we had piano with L.

 

Sunday was a great day at church. Nothing spectacular it was just a good day of church. We did a finding activity with the whiteboard. Our question of the week was What are you grateful for? We had some really good conversations with people.  Then we ended the night at V's. We taught her how to make cinnamon rolls...actually we taught ourselves how to make cinnamon rolls while at the same time teaching her because neither of us had made them before. But they turned out great.  We were able to set up a plan with her of when she wants to have her personal progress finished and what she needs to do between now and then in order to have that accomplished.

So this week we went through the Area Book, contacted every potential we could think of, we tracted, we contacted, we talked to everyone...but at the end of the week we didnt meet our goal, between the two companionships we only found 2 investigators which were the 2 we found Tuesday night. But I dont think that Heavenly Father wanted us to find 7, I dont think that was the purpose of setting the goal. I think the goal was to push us to work harder than we ever have and to keep going and pushing and trying to find people throughout the week even though we were exhausted. I know that my faith definitely increased this week and I think that all of our faith increased because we knew that all we could do was work and the rest was up to him. Although it was a hard week, it was a good week. I think the hardest weeks on my mission have been the weeks that I have learned and grown the most.  They are the weeks that I have turned to Heavenly Father the most and relied on him to make it through each day because sometimes I honestly didnt feel like I could make it. But as we know, through him everything is possible, and once we do everything we can His grace will make up for the rest.

 

I hope that you all have a great week! Love you lots and lots and lots! Thanks for everything you do!

 

Volim vas!

Sestra Mac

 

Shoutouts...

 

Emails...Mom, Dad, Lex, Carrie, Grandpa, Tys

Sretan Rođendan...David