July 27- Is it still wonderful to you??

This week was a little rough in the fact that a lot of our investigators have kind of dropped off the face of the planet and won't work out times to meet with us despite our numerous attempts. But we have two solid investigators that we met with a lot this week! The first is Yecenia, who is 9 years old and part of a family who are members but semi-less active. They are a family with five girls with one on the way, so the house is always crazy wild every time we go over there, but it is a lot of fun. They've been coming to church more and we hope that they can make it a lasting commitment. We also have a new investigator Ramone! He is a friend of a member in our YSA branch, and she's been bringing him to church! He has been really receptive to the lessons and enjoys reading the Book of Mormon! We are excited to see how he progresses. He's another one of those with a rough past that just wants to change to be better. He believes in God but doesn't know what to do with that faith. It's fun to watch him get excited about the gospel. This Sunday was pretty crazy. We walked into institute to find that we were teaching Sunday school. Right after our lesson we ran to catch the last our of third ward to find the relief society teacher didn't show up.....that means it's our job! During the opening hymn we read the talk "Is it still wonderful to you?". After the hymn I looked over to find Sister Reid had marked the exact same paragraphs. In the talk, bishop causse tells a story about a girl who walked to church when her car broke down. The women all agreed that it's important to get to church. We turned it around and asked if we would do the same thing for visiting teaching, for scripture study, for fhe, for service, for family history, for family dinner. Are we going out of our way to do the things that we have been asked to do?? The spirit really changed and the visiting teacher supervisor was cheering us on/pumping her fist in the back of the room! I love teaching! > I've got a few funny/random/awkward stories of the week I thought I'd > share. A little background info: I have made a goal to stay away from > sugar. At dinner appointments I'm always too full for dessert anyway. > Usually people don't get offended when I say I'm too full, sometimes I > ask to take it to go and let Sister Reid have it later. This week we > ate at this old single lady's house. After we finished eating, she > asked if we wanted strawberries for dessert. I, of course, said yes > because it is just strawberries, right? Well....this member fixes up > the bowls and it ends up being 2 strawberries on top of a Twinkie. She > tricked us! Go figure. Twinkies have always kinda freaked me out (no > expiration date. How is that possible?!?) I was debating what to do. > Lo and behold, the member has to go in the back room real quick to > grab something. I told you Heavenly Father answers prayers! As soon as > she left the room I started begging Sister Reid to eat my Twinkie. She > refused many times but after a few seconds she gave in. We heard the > member coming back right when we were in the process of sliding our > bowls across the huge table to each other. When Sister Reid got her > bowl full of twinkles back the member was half way in the room and so > she had to scarf it down one of the twinkies to hide the evidence > before the member returned. It was so hard to not burst into laughter. > > Next pretty funny story. Our relief society president and ward mission > leader and the cutest couple ever! He's a recent convert and they are > both just kind cooky. We had a meeting with them on Friday. Sister > Griswold was so excited to tell us about her brilliant missionary > idea.."I've decided we need to think of a way to tell people that the > FULL restored gospel is on the earth. People have some truth but we > have ALL TRUTH!!" She told us to think about some ideas on how to get > the word out and let them know....we spent the rest of the day quoting > sister griswold. Why didn't we think of that?!? Missionaries should > really start teaching people about the restoration...hmmmm > > A few fun facts about Silver City: there are many a times where there > is no house numbers on homes, and if there are, then they are > completely hidden or faded away. There are also usually no doorbells. > We have to debate which door is the front or the back on 90% of the > homes we knock on because they are mostly Mobil homes that are > sideways! A lot of businesses are closed random hours during the day, > and most of them aren't open on Mondays. I'm starting to think maybe > their sabbath day in on Mondays! This town is so weird. A lot of > people aren't used to Sister Missionaries. Somehow Sister Reid is > called elder at least 5 times a week. Her face every time is > priceless!!! I love the small little moments that make everything > great. We spent all of Friday night activity at the institute laughing > and laughing. These people are becoming my New Mexico family more and > more every day. :) > > I love this gospel. I love this quirky place. The church is true. The > Book of Mormon is the word of God. It's that simple. > > Thank you for all you do :) I love you. > > People keep saying they don't really know what to write me/what I want > to hear about-- I wanna hear about your missionary experiences, > pictures of my nieces, testimonies, brilliant words of encouragement > and advice, and miracles you saw in the week. Have a good week!! > > -Sister Barton