This week was a great week! Especially compared to the
really slow weeks that we have had the last few weeks. The beginning of the
week was a little slow as we had to work through a few things and we did a lot
of talking. But the last half of the week was really great and we got lots of
work done. We also had a lot of fun this week and did lots of fun activities.
First of all, I learned how to play the harp.... Kind of.
Sister Parker is this super cute lady in our ward who plays the harp
beautifully and teaches harp lessons. We had dinner at her house one night and
she taught us how to play a little bit. We felt pretty cool.
We also got to play ultimate frisbee twice this week, which
was great. We played on Saturday, like we normally do, and we also got to play
new year's morning because everyone was off of work. It was a lot of fun. There
were lots of people on Wednesday, so the teams were huge, but it was still lots
of fun. And I'm getting pretty dang good at it. I'm good at catching and I'm
getting pretty good at throwing the frisbee, too. And seeing as we just run up
and down the field the whole time, we get a really good work out, and so I'm
getting in pretty good shape. It is my running for the week. I
have forgotten how much I love sports and I wish we could play frisbee every
day.
New Years Eve we spent a lot of time doing service.
Every Tuesday, our district does service at a nature center. We pick up trash
and weed and do a bunch stuff. It is fun. And that day was also transfers, so
we got to know all of the new missionaries in our district while we were doing
it. We ended up going on a trail that we didn't really recognize. Our district
leader said he knew where he was going, but he didn't, so we got lost and
walked a really long way in the wrong direction. Then after that we helped a
family move out of our ward. We were at dinner that night, at the Knight's
house, and a less-active that we have been visiting recently texted us. She is
21 and just had a baby girl about a month or so ago. She is having a rough
time. She hasn't been active in a long time and doesn't seem very into anything
religious. But she texted us on New Years Eve and asked if we could find
somebody to give her baby a blessing because she has been sick and hasn't been
sleeping at all. That was really cool. We turned to Brother Knight and asked if
he knew who her home teachers were and it just so happened, that Brother Knight
was her home teacher and he had been trying to get into their house for months.
So he went that night and gave her baby a blessing. It was really cool how it
all worked out so perfectly. The Lord knows what He is doing.
New Years day was fun. Not much missionary work happened.
Like I said, the beginning of the week was slow because we were working through
some things. My companion was having a really rough day and so we were trying
to do things that would lift her spirits so that we could work hard the rest of
the week. So we ended up spending most of New Years day at the Mann's house.
The Mann's are a family in our ward who are awesome and we love them so much.
They are Sister Liljenquist's favorite family, so spending time with them
definitely lifted her spirits. Their son had just gotten married in Las Vegas
and they were having an open house for him and his new wife on Saturday. So
while we were over there we asked if they needed any help getting ready for it.
So we ended up helping for awhile. Sister Liljenquist helped their daughter,
Allison, make oreo balls. The two of them are best friends. And I ended up
polishing leaves -- which by the way is a ridiculous job, on the ficus tree in
their living room. Their 14 year old daughter, Sarah, came over and we did it
together. We had a lot of fun and were cracking up laughing the whole time. It
takes a lot of energy to polish leaves. We were completely exhausted by the
end. We kept losing track of what branch we were on and what ones we had
already done. And I kept hitting my head on the corner of their mantle. It was
good bonding time. It was a lot of fun. We also had dinner with them. In the
South they have a tradition that if you eat black-eyed peas on New Year's you
will have a prosperous year. So we had black-eyed peas for dinner, as well as
chili, macaroni and cheese, and corn bread. It was a really random dinner. But
really good. It was a good day.
The end of the week we got lots of misisonary work done. We
were able to visit recent converts, less-actives, and investigators that we
haven't been able to see in a long time. We visited a recent convert, Amy, on
Friday. She was having a really rough day and was very stressed and worried
about a lot of things going on. She really appreciated our visit and said that
we helped her morning be less miserable. A member told us that she even posted
about it one facebook because it just made her whole day. It always feels good
to know that people appreciate your visits and that we helped people feel the
Spirit more. We also started teaching a less-active that we found a few weeks
ago. We taught her the Restoration yesterday. She is really excited to read the
Book of Mormon since she didn't read it at all when she was baptized in the
90's.
Things are going well. We are really excited about this
week. Its going to be a great and succesfull week.
I hope everyone has a great week!
Love,
Sister Sylvester
