Liberty week 20

March 20, 2013

Familia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SOOOOOOOOOOO...

It's snowing. Alot.

There is probably a foot of snow outside and it's still snowing. It's been snowing for the past 3 days. I feel like I'm serving in Alaska or something...

This week has been a lot of knocking doors again and visiting less actives. The sad thing is that many of the less actives here in this area want nothing to do with the church anymore. We will call them and they'll say things like "Do me a favor and don't call this number again" or "My husband hasn't been a part of that church for six years! Don't call us!" :(

It makes me sad.

Last Thursday we had the opportunity to visit with Sister Gaughan (Gawn) who is a less active and the bishop says he really wants her back. We went to go visit with her and her and I just clicked. She is such a sweet spirit (I'm really saying that because I like her not because she's a "sweet spirit", no sarcasm!) We had a really nice visit and we talked to her about why it's so important to renew our baptismal covenants and why the sacrament is so important. I felt like the Spirit kept putting things in my head to tell her and I was really grateful. We read the sacrament prayers in D&C 20 and then talked about what we are promised when we take the sacrament. I could tell the spirit was working on her! The problem of why she doesn't come to church is cuz she doesn't want to walk the half mile to the bus stop when the weather is bad to drive her out to monticello. I felt like she was giving excuse after excuse and I just felt so sad because I knew if she really wanted she would walk to the bus stop. Anyway, we had a really nice lesson and about an hour after she called us and told me "I just wanted to thank you for coming over. I know that is just what I needed and I want to tell you that NOTHING is going to stop me from going to church on sunday." It was aweeeesome and I was so happy to hear her say that. But, it is easy for someone to feel the spirit and decide that and then in following days forget about it. She called on Saturday and said she couldn't come to church because she had forgotten she promised to help someone move on Sunday. Boo. But we're not going to give up and I know we're going to get her to church someday.

Also, our zone leaders texted us last week and told us the trainers and trainees would be having a training down at the temple on Tuesday! (Yesterday). We were suuuuper excited first because sister barlow has never been to the city and I was excited to go back to my old area in Harlem. So Monday came around and it started to snow and we were informed we had to drive to poughkeepsie (1.5 hours away from us) Tuesday morning at 5 to catch the train that would take us down to the city. So yesterday morning we awoke at 4 AM to get ready and we left our apt around 5:15 to go follow the elders to the train station. The roads were pretty bad because of all the snow and when we were almost to our destination Elders Atwood and Sevy called us and said to turn around and go home because the roads were really bad and President had said it was too dangerous for us to go all the way down to poughkeepse. They also said that they had slid off the road...so yeah. We turned around and went home and were way disappointed because we really wanted to go to the training. Also sister barlow and I were just tired of knocking doors day after day and getting nothing. So we got home at 6:30, sister barlow went back to bed, and I started praying. I prayed because I was frustrated with how everything was going, frustrated that we couldn't find people to teach and (it's hard being a trainer and sometimes having to do things all by yourself) so I was frustrated that I didn't know how to help sister barlow reach out of her comfort zone. So I laid it all out to the Lord and told him all my frustrations and asked him to bless us.

I'm here to tell you that when you ask for blessings, the Lord pours them out on you! I decided that we were going to have a good day even though we didn't make any plans since we thought we were going to be at the temple all day. I refused to have a lame day and I was ready to see what the Lord had in store for us. We went to go visit a lady named Elizabeth Vargas and her family (we've taught them once, we found elizabeth one day when we were walking and she was waiting on her driveway for her daughter to get home from school). She has a daughter named Shauna who is 12, a daughter named Savannah who is 5ish, and a son who is 2 named Landon. Last time we taught them I asked her if she would be baptized when she came to know the truth for herself and she said yes. So yesterday we taught the restoration and the spirit was soooo strong. Sister Barlow did awesome because sometimes she gets really shy and is scared to say things but she taught right along with me which really helped the lesson. Shauna was there too and we taught her to pray at the end. It was so sweet and her prayer was so sincere. Anyway, we set a baptism date with them! April 20!!!! Yayyyyyyy! I can't tell you how happy I was. Definitely on cloud 9. As we were leaving Shauna said that she loves when we come over and she can't wait till we come again. I know that is because she recognizes the spirit and she wants to follow it! Please pray for this family and that they can stay firm. They are pretty legit, we just need to get elizabeth's husband chad involved. He came in for a little bit during our first lesson but yesterday when we taught the restoration he wasn't involved. So pray for them por favor! :)

Our ward is super awesome and at ward council on sunday we discussed some ways to help missionary work move forward. We have a few awesome ideas and thanks mom for your idea!! I will definitely share that at PEC on Sunday.

Last week we started teaching this guy named Gary who is the brother of one of our members Sister King. We had a really nice lesson with him and he seemed really excited to learn more and progress. He called on Saturday night and asked how he can get to church and that he would be at church this sunday. Well...he called on Monday to tell us that he wanted to stop "bible study" and that he would be moving. It was wierd. I was like "Oh okay brother carrington" but didn't know what else to say. We got off the phone and I felt like my boyfriend had just broken up with me or something. Which has never happened to me in my life since I'm always the one breaking their hearts so I didn't know how to handle it! I talked to sister barlow and I was like ok whatever maybe he'll be ready to accept it in the future. It was just wierd how he all of the sudden just didn't want to learn anymore. Oh well. It's sad when people don't realize what is right in front of them.

So yeah! Thank you for all your emails, I love love love love them even though sometimes I don't write responses to all of them! Thank you all sooooooo much for your love and support. I have the best family ever. :)

Les quiero muchisisisisisimo!!!!!

Hermana Richardson