We were also on our last roll of toilet paper this week so we've had to be extremely careful and ration it out and it's all honestly a struggle..we have no way of getting to Walmart today since we are (thanks to the elders) over our miles now by like 30 miles. No groceries for me this week unless I want to spend my P-day walking 10+ miles to Walmart (which I don't). A new month starts tomorrow so then we'll have miles which means during our lunch break we can drive there and FINALLY get more toilet paper. But no groceries...It's amazing the things you become grateful for as a missionary. :')
We had our second baptism yesterday for Emma! I gave a talk on baptism which went pretty well. I hope she likes short and sweet talks because that's what mine was hahaha. I just love baptisms..there is no place I've ever felt the spirit more than at a baptism. I probably said that about Caryssa's baptism but it's soo true! I'll attach a pic of it at the end of this email :)
I GOT DOTTY TO PRAY!!! it was so difficult because she was so unsure of herself but I was very persistent and didn't stop encouraging her to pray. Finally she gave in and gave such a beautiful prayer about herself wanting to accept our church and for her to be able to leave her other church behind. I'm so so proud of her :) I've been fasting and praying for her to finally accept it and feel the desire to be baptized so let's hope it works!!
Sister Crook and I have been struggling with being confident enough to approach people on the street and invite them to learn. We'll do it a lot of the time while walking to appointments (nothing new) but we let them all go too easily. Everyone here is a part of a different religion or they consider themselves Atheist so as soon as they say something like that, we just let them go and continue our day because we are afraid to offend them or something. A few days ago it really hit us that we need to quit doing that. We need to find the confidence to be more bold and persistent when inviting them and ask them more questions and bear our testimonies so that they know our religion is more than just "learning about Jesus Christ". We decided to pray about it and read through the Book of Mormon to see how the people in there would approach people and what they would say to begin introducing this gospel. We've come to realize that we don't need an exact, perfect approach to bring people to the church. The Lord will place people in our paths when they're ready and even when they're not. Our job is to find out and follow the spirit as we do so! We immediately went out and tracted with that new mindset and we ended up receiving 5 new potential investigators. That's more than we would get in a week! #miracle
We ended up going over to the Youlands three times this week because we just love her so much now :) we walked clear to her house last P-Day to hang out with her, Friday for our weekly lunch, and Saturday to build a brick patio. OH maybe we should call her and ask her to drive us to Shaw's to get groceries!!!!!! She definitely would..wow sister watson that's a good idea :) I'll keep you guys posted.
We had a coordination meeting at the bishops house with the elders and I LOVE THE BISHOP AND HIS FAMILY. He has a 14? year old son who's name is Nathan. His 11 year old son reminds me exactly like my brother Nathan :( he is obsessed with his hairstyle and he always makes sure it's exactly how he wants, just like my brother. And it's even the same haircut! He has five sons and they're all so cute. They such a "Utah family" with their Nike Elites and Nike shoes and cool haircuts and sarcasm and such. Sister Crook and I point out "Utah families" all the time because it's SO rare out in New England. It's insane how different these people are than those at home!
While we were walking (wow haven't heard that in a while) to a less actives house, it started POURING rain. Let me tell you..New England rain is completely different than any other rain. It's like a mixture of thick mist and buckets of water dumping down on you and it lasts about 5 minutes. That five minutes is life or death because it's quite possible that you'll drown. When the storm stopped, it was like we just stood underneath a waterfall for a while..awesome. -.-
Since the two of us walk around so much, we've had the opportunity of having some nice, deep conversations. The latest one pretty much changed/strengthened my view of the Atonement. She said, "even if you were the ONLY person that accepted the plan and came down to earth, Jesus Christ would still come down and do the exact same thing all over again." Sometimes it's difficult to think about the Atonement and believe that He knows exactly what you're going through since He did it for everyone that has lived, is living, and who will live. But I'm sure that while he was suffering for ALL our afflictions, he thought of us all individually by name and pictured our faces and saw everything that we would have to go through and everything we were going to struggle with. I'm so grateful for my Savior and his overwhelming love that He has for each and every one of us.
As dreadfully long as this week has been, there isn't much else to talk about! I'm so sorry that this email is so short. I hope I didn't bore you to death.
Have an amazing week, love you all!
We had our second baptism yesterday for Emma! I gave a talk on baptism which went pretty well. I hope she likes short and sweet talks because that's what mine was hahaha. I just love baptisms..there is no place I've ever felt the spirit more than at a baptism. I probably said that about Caryssa's baptism but it's soo true! I'll attach a pic of it at the end of this email :)
I GOT DOTTY TO PRAY!!! it was so difficult because she was so unsure of herself but I was very persistent and didn't stop encouraging her to pray. Finally she gave in and gave such a beautiful prayer about herself wanting to accept our church and for her to be able to leave her other church behind. I'm so so proud of her :) I've been fasting and praying for her to finally accept it and feel the desire to be baptized so let's hope it works!!
Sister Crook and I have been struggling with being confident enough to approach people on the street and invite them to learn. We'll do it a lot of the time while walking to appointments (nothing new) but we let them all go too easily. Everyone here is a part of a different religion or they consider themselves Atheist so as soon as they say something like that, we just let them go and continue our day because we are afraid to offend them or something. A few days ago it really hit us that we need to quit doing that. We need to find the confidence to be more bold and persistent when inviting them and ask them more questions and bear our testimonies so that they know our religion is more than just "learning about Jesus Christ". We decided to pray about it and read through the Book of Mormon to see how the people in there would approach people and what they would say to begin introducing this gospel. We've come to realize that we don't need an exact, perfect approach to bring people to the church. The Lord will place people in our paths when they're ready and even when they're not. Our job is to find out and follow the spirit as we do so! We immediately went out and tracted with that new mindset and we ended up receiving 5 new potential investigators. That's more than we would get in a week! #miracle
We ended up going over to the Youlands three times this week because we just love her so much now :) we walked clear to her house last P-Day to hang out with her, Friday for our weekly lunch, and Saturday to build a brick patio. OH maybe we should call her and ask her to drive us to Shaw's to get groceries!!!!!! She definitely would..wow sister watson that's a good idea :) I'll keep you guys posted.
We had a coordination meeting at the bishops house with the elders and I LOVE THE BISHOP AND HIS FAMILY. He has a 14? year old son who's name is Nathan. His 11 year old son reminds me exactly like my brother Nathan :( he is obsessed with his hairstyle and he always makes sure it's exactly how he wants, just like my brother. And it's even the same haircut! He has five sons and they're all so cute. They such a "Utah family" with their Nike Elites and Nike shoes and cool haircuts and sarcasm and such. Sister Crook and I point out "Utah families" all the time because it's SO rare out in New England. It's insane how different these people are than those at home!
While we were walking (wow haven't heard that in a while) to a less actives house, it started POURING rain. Let me tell you..New England rain is completely different than any other rain. It's like a mixture of thick mist and buckets of water dumping down on you and it lasts about 5 minutes. That five minutes is life or death because it's quite possible that you'll drown. When the storm stopped, it was like we just stood underneath a waterfall for a while..awesome. -.-
Since the two of us walk around so much, we've had the opportunity of having some nice, deep conversations. The latest one pretty much changed/strengthened my view of the Atonement. She said, "even if you were the ONLY person that accepted the plan and came down to earth, Jesus Christ would still come down and do the exact same thing all over again." Sometimes it's difficult to think about the Atonement and believe that He knows exactly what you're going through since He did it for everyone that has lived, is living, and who will live. But I'm sure that while he was suffering for ALL our afflictions, he thought of us all individually by name and pictured our faces and saw everything that we would have to go through and everything we were going to struggle with. I'm so grateful for my Savior and his overwhelming love that He has for each and every one of us.
As dreadfully long as this week has been, there isn't much else to talk about! I'm so sorry that this email is so short. I hope I didn't bore you to death.
Have an amazing week, love you all!
Emma's baptism!!! ❤️
I accidentally left my name tag at the apartment and I didn't realize it until we were about a mile away from home so Sister Crook gave me one of hers to wear for the day. Introducing ourselves was preeeettty awkward..
Elder McMahan gave me this can of green beans (ew) because he knows my hatred for vegetables..thanks Elder McMahan..... -.-
No worries, I haven't changed
Pre-church selfie because baptism and sacrament meeting talk and baptism talk and baptism song solo. We had quite a stressful church day so these smiles are half forced...
Sister Derr served us milk and cookies all fancily (is that a word?)
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