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| Thanksgiving selfie in a gas station restroom! |
Hello!
I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving! I loved all the pictures I received. I hope you all are doing well!
Buckle up for another one from Sister "long email writer" Bates.
Monday: We had an appointment set with someone named Justin. The Erie 1st ward Elders had met with him once before he moved into our area and had a super good lesson with him, even committed him to be baptized! So we were excited about him! So we go over there and knock. And then knock again. No answer, the house was dark. So we decided to do some knocking in his neighborhood. So we go down his street and we were knocking for a good 2 hours! We are almost done circling our way back, and a cop car drives up. A cop gets out and guess what house he goes into? Justins!! And then another cop drove up and went inside too! Then an ambulance drove up! They were outside talking to someone from the house but we didn't know if it was Justin because we hadn't met him. So a couple days later, we call him and text him, no response. On Friday we go over and knock on his door. This girl answers and we ask for Justin and she says, "Oh, he isn't here. He is in jail." SO! We are no longer teaching him, and he is not getting baptized anytime soon sadly. Lol :)
Tuesday: Mike is so awesome!! He has read into Alma somewhere! He is so cool. We talked about temples and the law of chastity. He said everything made sense but he didn't want to focus on that at the moment, he just wanted to get the word of wisdom down. He was feeling bummed he hadn't totally quit yet. But he is doing amazing!! We only taught him 2 weeks ago, and he has pretty much quit. Please pray for him to have the strength to keep the word of wisdom!
Wednesday: We had district council. There was exchanges on Tuesday so our district is totally different! 2 of the trio sisters left, and one of the elders left. It's just different. Sis Paskett and I are great though! :) That night we did some walking downtown but it was SO COLD! The weather app said "25 degrees feels like12" and we were like, "Yes it does!" Sister Bates will always accept warm socks in the mail. We also met with Aleksey, the cute Russian man. He is hard to teach since we have that language barrier but he is kind.
Thursday: Thanksgiving!! We visit a less active woman named Marcia once a month and last week she invited us for Thanksgiving so we went! Her husband and 2 kids are not members and her less active brother and his kids were there so that was cool. They were all nice and the food was pretty good. The pie especially. We then drove up to Ian and had a lesson with him at his Grandmas house. So we spent the majority of the day in New York! We taught him about temples and chastity and that went well. Then they sent us with 3 big slices of pie, each. On a paper plate with a fork with no covering over it. So there was no way that was making it home, even if we wanted it to. Hahaha so we ate a lot of pie.
On Sunday, we got a text from a random number that just said "the only thing keeping me from coming to church is my son gets really car sick" and we were like, Who is this?? So we find out it's this girl, Katie, who had been taught by missionaries 3 years ago, had a baptism date, but went through a divorce and stopped meeting with missionaries. And this is the first time she's been in contact with missionaries since! So we went over Thursday night and met her and she is awesome!! She said she wants to work again towards being baptized, she has been reading her Book of Mormon and had even bought herself a CTR ring! She believes everything is true. She just has a hard time actually coming to church because her 5 year old gets car sick even after being in the car for 20 minutes and the church is 40 mins away. She has tried giving him dramamine but it doesn't help. So if you have any ideas on how we can help her, let us know! Her mom lives nearby and she said she might be able to leave him there on Sundays but we will see. She is just golden! We are so excited about her!!
Friday: Weekly planning! It's a new transfer so we set some new transfer goals and a new vision, see Deuteronomy 31:6! That night we had another lesson with Ian where we taught him Tithing and fast offerings. When we asked him if he would pay tithing he said "Of course I will!" He's excited to get baptized on the 8th! We also had another lesson with Mike. We taught him about callings, ministering, and being a missionary. He was worried he would be called to be a primary teacher and that he wouldn't know how to do that, it was sweet haha but he is doing great, he has so much faith! We are shooting for the 8th for his baptism as well!
Saturday: Sister Pasketts birthday! I made her a cake, sang happy birthday to her, called her Sister Birthday Girl throughout the day, decorated a little, and just tried to make her feel special. It was a good day. We stayed busy! Oh! So do you remember me telling you about a woman named Stevie when I first got here? She was awesome, had a baptism date and everything, but then life, work especially, just got super crazy and she dropped us. So we went a few weeks without seeing her but on Thursday we messaged her happy Thanksgiving and talked with her and she wanted us to come over sometime! So we went today and she told us she has noticed a change in herself since she stopped meeting with us and coming to church, and she didnt like it. And work is getting better so she wants to meet with us again! It was awesome. She is great and we are excited to see her again!
Sunday: Went to church, Mike came which was great. We did knocking for a while last night.
The church is true. This really is the Lord's work and it is the Lord's true church on the earth today! I have seen many tender mercies of the Lord on my mission. Being a missionary is the greatest!!
The church is true. This really is the Lord's work and it is the Lord's true church on the earth today! I have seen many tender mercies of the Lord on my mission. Being a missionary is the greatest!!
Also, at Zone conference a couple weeks ago, my mission president, President Bednar, challenged us all to memorize the Living Christ by our next Zone Conference! The whole thing! (If you don't know what that is, you can find it here! Read it! It is awesome! http://jesuschrist.lds.org/testimonies-of-him/articles/the-living-christ-the-testimony-of-the-apostles-of-the-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints?&lang=eng) So Sister Paskett and I have been working on memorizing it each morning and we finally finished it this week! It has been so cool to memorize. I love it so much. It testifies of Christ and as I have gone around, testifying of Christ, I have found myself referring back to it, repeating a sentence or two from it! As Sis Paskett and I recite it each morning, I have found my love for the Savior growing. Each day I become even more thankful for Him and His great atoning sacrifice. He suffered for me. He suffered for you. Because of Him, we can be forgiven, we can feel more joy, more peace, we can know that we are not alone because Jesus Christ has felt every single thing you have and ever will feel, and he perfectly understands. "God be thanked for the matchless gift of His divine son."
I am loving being a missionary!
Thank you for all the support! I love and miss everyone a lot but I am thankful to be here! And happy to be here! :)
Love,
Sister Bates ❤
