Fam, friends:
You know what? It's
been a great week.
You know what is
odd? I only have 8 months left. Past halfway. Ay. Apparently I'm supposed to
know what I'm doing now. I don't know how that happened...
It all makes you a
reflect a bit on what you've accomplished and who you are as a missionary. I'm
trying not to stress about it. "Love what you've done"--Sis. ***.
Just love the past and who it's made you. She's so wise :)
Super cool VC
experience this week: Giving a tour to a group of non-denom Christian
youth from Iowa!! Who knew such cool people could come from such a random
state! They were so kind, so wonderful, so polite, and they had BOMB.COM
questions. We ended the tour w/ a Q&A session, and it was one of the most
powerful and instructive experiences of my life. Bibles and Book of Mormons
were out. Elder ********* dumbledored the floor with his grace and love and
charity-filled-yet-indestructible answers to some pretty tough (and only a few
obnoxious) questions. And then we got to add our personal witnesses. There were
a few moments, in particular, where I was able to share my own personal
experiences with doctrine that just...it was just amazing. Things I have
studied and experienced very specifically were brought up, and I could BEAR
WITNESS. Don't you love that? Bearing witness
We sent quite a
few of them home with copies of the Book of Mormon, and a promise to read and
pray about it. A few with the promise of a missionary visit. It was phenomenal.
I love them so much.
...and I LOVE YOU SO
MUCH.
aka I'm out of time.
So I'll attach my lame letter to pres and let you gather a few more details of
my experiences here.
Love,
Sister Wells
Hello
President,
Here's the Mar Vista update:
I didn't mention this to you last week, but our transfer vision includes 2 baptisms and 2 baptismal dates, as well as a continued increase in member work and member missionary efforts.
**** may not be a baptismal candidate for this transfer, but I feel confident in his eventual progress to that step. He is in Alma 9, and has wonderful questions about the Book of Mormon. He is very bright, knowledgeable, and interested in learning on every level, so teaching him is always an exciting experience--though we rarely get past one or two points of a lesson. This week, we discussed the pre-existence, which BLEW HIS MIND. He committed to pray and study it out a little more until our next visit. I LOVE teaching people like Bob. His progress is "slow", but he is most definitely moving forward in his Book of Mormon reading and in his openness to restored truths. A lot of our message already make sense to him. Church will happen one of these days. He recognizes that it's something he needs to do, and that he will experience blessings when he does it. He finally told his girlfriend about us, and we're hoping to meet with her sometime soon as well.
We stopped by *******'s house once this week, and managed to catch her by a miracle. There are several members that live in her apartment complex, but we normally call her neighbor (and a ward missionary) to let us in. However, she wasn't home at the time we needed to enter. So, we instead called *****, who lives on the other side of the complex. When *****'s kids came down to let us in, ******** happened to be sitting at the playground right in front of us--and several blocks over from her actual apartment, where we had been heading. Had *** been home to let us in, we wouldn't have had the opportunity to visit with her and set up another appointment. It was a small tender mercy, but in my experience, the small tender mercies count most. ******** still hasn't come to church due to the illnesses of her children, but says that she'll try again next week.
A new assistant ward mission leader was called in our ward, and we couldn't be more excited! He's very similar to our ward mission leader in his passion and energy and excitement for the work, but he won't be out of town as often...which means that energy can be a little more consistent. This is especially important at this time--which all of us recognize as being absolutely crucial for our ward. We had a big 5th Sunday kick-off sacrament meeting/combined lesson where we presented the ward mission and extended the necessary invitations. The follow-up will come in the form of the ward missionaries calling every active member in the ward once every month or so to see how their efforts and commitments are going, Sister *** and I following up in homes to offer specific help, advice, and practice; and a frequent e-mail that will be sent around the ward with success stories, invitations, ideas, etc. We are so grateful for our ward and for our good bishop, who has really caught the vision of this work.
Goals for this week: planning in accordance with our transfer and weekly goals, which will help us to better-manage our limited area time with our Visitors' Center time. Our new assistant ward mission leader has offered to help us remain accountable for our time management.
I want to express to you how grateful I am for your leadership, president. We are all beginning to feel a profound and peaceful change. We sense your deep trust in the Lord, and your deep trust in us as fellow servants of the Lord. I feel empowered to receive revelation and to act in accordance with it in regards to how I use my time here in the mission field. Thank you for giving me that opportunity. We love and sustain you.
You and Sister Weidman are in our prayers.
Love,
Sister Wells
Here's the Mar Vista update:
I didn't mention this to you last week, but our transfer vision includes 2 baptisms and 2 baptismal dates, as well as a continued increase in member work and member missionary efforts.
**** may not be a baptismal candidate for this transfer, but I feel confident in his eventual progress to that step. He is in Alma 9, and has wonderful questions about the Book of Mormon. He is very bright, knowledgeable, and interested in learning on every level, so teaching him is always an exciting experience--though we rarely get past one or two points of a lesson. This week, we discussed the pre-existence, which BLEW HIS MIND. He committed to pray and study it out a little more until our next visit. I LOVE teaching people like Bob. His progress is "slow", but he is most definitely moving forward in his Book of Mormon reading and in his openness to restored truths. A lot of our message already make sense to him. Church will happen one of these days. He recognizes that it's something he needs to do, and that he will experience blessings when he does it. He finally told his girlfriend about us, and we're hoping to meet with her sometime soon as well.
We stopped by *******'s house once this week, and managed to catch her by a miracle. There are several members that live in her apartment complex, but we normally call her neighbor (and a ward missionary) to let us in. However, she wasn't home at the time we needed to enter. So, we instead called *****, who lives on the other side of the complex. When *****'s kids came down to let us in, ******** happened to be sitting at the playground right in front of us--and several blocks over from her actual apartment, where we had been heading. Had *** been home to let us in, we wouldn't have had the opportunity to visit with her and set up another appointment. It was a small tender mercy, but in my experience, the small tender mercies count most. ******** still hasn't come to church due to the illnesses of her children, but says that she'll try again next week.
A new assistant ward mission leader was called in our ward, and we couldn't be more excited! He's very similar to our ward mission leader in his passion and energy and excitement for the work, but he won't be out of town as often...which means that energy can be a little more consistent. This is especially important at this time--which all of us recognize as being absolutely crucial for our ward. We had a big 5th Sunday kick-off sacrament meeting/combined lesson where we presented the ward mission and extended the necessary invitations. The follow-up will come in the form of the ward missionaries calling every active member in the ward once every month or so to see how their efforts and commitments are going, Sister *** and I following up in homes to offer specific help, advice, and practice; and a frequent e-mail that will be sent around the ward with success stories, invitations, ideas, etc. We are so grateful for our ward and for our good bishop, who has really caught the vision of this work.
Goals for this week: planning in accordance with our transfer and weekly goals, which will help us to better-manage our limited area time with our Visitors' Center time. Our new assistant ward mission leader has offered to help us remain accountable for our time management.
I want to express to you how grateful I am for your leadership, president. We are all beginning to feel a profound and peaceful change. We sense your deep trust in the Lord, and your deep trust in us as fellow servants of the Lord. I feel empowered to receive revelation and to act in accordance with it in regards to how I use my time here in the mission field. Thank you for giving me that opportunity. We love and sustain you.
You and Sister Weidman are in our prayers.
Love,
Sister Wells
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