What a week!
Last
week we read a conference talk to Angie about taking Christ's yoke upon
us and he would help us, which she loved so much! She told us about a
story she had read of sisters in the Philipeans when there were wild
storms and flooding but they got up on the roof and were singing so they
wouldn't be as afraid. That night, Sister Ruth woke up to some crazy
noises from the phone after which she woke me, "Sister
Evans...um...there's a tornado warning" my response was "...uh...ok.
Wait, what??" Being both from Utah where there aren't hardly any
tornadoes, we were freaking out. We were running around basically like
chickens with our heads cut off and had no idea what to do. We are
living in a trailer, it is a nice one, but it doesn't have a basement.
That was our only thought, until we realized that we needed to pray. We
decided our laundry room without windows was the safest spot to pray. We
were kneeling there in the dark and hadn't even finished our prayer
before a lady in the ward called. She told us that there was a tornado
warning and that the bathroom would be the safest place for us. We were
still pretty nervous, but were so grateful to have that bit of guidance!
We yanked Sister Ruth's mattress off her bed, hoisted it up a few
stairs to the bathroom, and put it in front of the tub that we climbed
in, to keep us safe. The power and water went out, so we were huddled in
the tub in the dark. It was one of the craziest things I have ever
experienced! The story Angie told us popped in my head and I asked
Sister Ruth if we could hold hands and sing like the sisters in the
Philipeans, and she agreed. As we sang, the most amazing peace came into
the room! It brought me so much closer to Sister Ruth and to my loving
Heavenly Father who is so patient and kind, even when we are being a
little bit silly. The next morning we called her to read her a
scripture, which we do because she's not super healthy and up to reading
herself, and shared Alma 36:3 about God helping us through our trials.
We told her the story of our prayer being answered, and the strength we
gained from singing, like the sisters in the story she told us. She was
so excited that she could help us and was so glad she could have such a
great start to her day! It was so neat.
Later that day Sister Ruth and I ran into a Subway for lunch and
we had an awkward moment. There was one worker and many people standing
in line who weren't really talking. Everyone was just sort of looking at
each other, especially at us. We were definitely being stared down by a
few people. One of them was an older man, who I looked at and smiled,
but he neither smiled back nor looked away. I looked at one other who
was staring and we also made eye contact but he was not phased. It made
me laugh!
On the second we had another awkward moment. We were on exchanges
and at a graduation party for a girl in the ward. The radio was blaring
nearby and we were on the patio eating hot dogs when one of her friends
came up to talk to us about missionary work, as he had been interested
in humanitarian missionary work with another church. As we talked to him
about what our church believed he just kept nodding and saying uh-huh,
ok, and ya. I was almost waiting for him to find something to disagree
on, but we got to the story of Joseph, where I recited the first vision,
and he just kept listening! It was so exciting! He said he was
interested in learning more and gave us his number! We tried setting up
an appointment with him which he hasn't gotten back to us on, but we
were pretty excited. My exchange companion was very proud of me and how
well I did talking to everyone at the party.
On the third we watched the restoration movie with an investigator
and he said he could really relate to Joseph Smith, which we weren't
expecting! It was really cool! We had a member with us who related her
conversion story and although he said he doesn't quite believe yet we
believe his faith is growing. We also got to see this cute little old
lady, Alice, who let us read the Book of Mormon to her. She was excited
how simple it seemed as we read it and said it answered so many of her
questions and she just felt uplifted. We told her it was the spirit
helping her understand it, and that as we continued to read it to her
she would be able to find answers to even more questions. She asked if
reading could get her a boyfriend and we all laughed.
On the fourth we got to visit Notre Dame and went to a Luau! We
saw two of our investigators dance there and a few other ward members
that we knew. It was definitely different from a Utah party and we had
to leave once the music started getting worse but we got to hang out at
the church with other missionaries and have a ball. We even ate chips
and salsa and got to stay out until 10:30. We were living on the edge
for sure. The sisters tried to teach us the cup song which ended up in
us laughing hysterically, mostly.
On the fifth one member from our ward, Monica, helped us out so
much! She let us teach Jessica in her house and offered her so much
great advice in a lot of questions she had about the gospel and life in
general. We were super worried about Jessica when we taught her the time
before because she'd run across some anti-Mormon literature and was
really struggling. Getting her into Monica's helped her feel the spirit
and be in a good environment to help her! We were so excited, and Monica
even fed us dinner when she found out we hadn't had any yet. She is so
awesome and lives just down the street from us!
Yesterday, the sixth, we got to teach Angel and Wade who we
tracted into a little while ago. They invited us to lunch, so we weren't
sure we'd be able to teach, but we ended up teaching them a lot and
they were so excited! Oh my, it was so great! Angel we taught a lesson
more than Wade and she came back with a few notebook pages of questions
from the pamphlet we gave her and reading she had done in the bible. She
is really soaking up everything and thinking so deeply about it! She
has awesome questions and we love teaching her so much! She didn't have
much of a religious background so there is a lot to teach her but she is
so receptive and awesome! That day we went to the riverwalk to plan and
met a member who was actually originally from Utah! We also sang in
primary that day, which was pretty fun.
Favorite Quotations of the week
"Sick, I'm covered in dog!" Sister Ruth
"I think it's just sucking that creature's blood" Sister Ruth and bugs on our door
"I like your skirt, Sister Ruth, can I have it, just kidding." Investigator Anne, said all in one breath and very seriously
"Dude, stop texting and biking on the wrong side of the road, you're gonna get yourself killed" Sister Ruth
"Jessica just needs to date a Captain Moroni!" me
"You're never alone" church movie
"I'm sorry to tell you, but you're never alone...you're stuck with me" Sister Ruth
"Which brings us to the restoration-"me
"we mean the prophet, Mormon-" Sister Ruth
"Well, Bianca, is there anything we can do for you?" Sister Ruth
"You could get me a pizza! Just kidding, there's nothing." (It was a distracting outside lesson)
The other day we didn't have a dinner appointment and sister Ruth wasn't
feeling super good so she was taking a nap, and I attempted to make her
dinner. I even put some M&Ms from my trail mix on her pancake to
make her smile. She was so kind she asked for the recipe for the
pancakes, which came from a box I found in the cupboard.
Picture 1 of Notre Dame!
The things you see in Indiana..
Jozlyn and Raelynn, tan and red, are two of our investigators, that we saw dancing at the Luau. They are so fun!
I was nervous just watching this!! It was pretty wild.
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