Nov 14, 2011

Helllloooooo family!!!
What an exciting week it has been! It's already almost Thanksgiving! Oh, and since our next p-day isn't until Thanksgiving.... HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! I know, it's early. But, what can ya do?

How is your research paper going? What is it on? I'm happy to hear that my family is being involved in missionary efforts :) When you said that you'd like to be a mouse I was super confused and read it Moose, but thinking it as the spelling of mousse. Needless to say, I couldn't figure out how being a moose would help you see how the Apostles and Prophet make it look so easy. But, I was reading a talk today, by Elder Holland from April Conference and he was talking about how it isn't easy. He talked about how Pres. Monson has given his life to the church since he was 36, and his wife and children gave their husband and father to the church. Anyway, very interesting stuff!

What is dad doing to the house? (He always seems to be doing something!) It used to be mom that did all the surprise work on the house! Yes, I got the package with the coat. I greatly appreciate it! I think as for mary kay stuff, I somehow lost the blush applicator and the powder foundation applicator broke :( Plus, I was wondering if maybe you could send me my hair straightener? I know, random. But, it's nice to have a change of hair style every once in awhile. Oh, and the acne cream stuff. That stuff has lasted forever, but it's starting to run low. Oh, and I am going to be buying some tights & nylons today on the debit card. Mine have runs in them :(

We got the first snow of the season this past week! CRAZY! Thankfully it warmed back up. Nothing stuck, but there was definitely snow in the air. We have mission tour this week. I guess Elder Cook was not the mission tour. So, this week we have our mission tour from 8am-3:30pm. It's such a long day, but it will be SO good. For Thanksgiving we are eating dinner with this kid in our ward who is going to get a bunch of his college friends together for dinner. So, it will be a potluck Thanksgiving dinner.

So, Jenny is absolutely amazing! We invited her to be baptized, and she said that she wanted to read the Book of Mormon first and she wanted her friend to be able to come out for the baptism. It was a really good lesson, and it was made pretty clear that she was planning on being baptized. It's not if, but when. So, we are trying to help her read more and help her see that she doesn't have to read the whole book first. We have some awesome converts in the ward who are amazing and are willing to share their stories. This ward is SO good at fellowshipping. When she got home from the lesson we had about the Gospel of Jesus Christ she texted us to tell us that she loves the church message of CTR and that when she got home her ring had arrived in the mail! She had ORDERED a CTR RING off of Deseret Book! How awesome is that!? She's soooo sweet! I just love her!

The investigator that told us he wasn't coming unless he got an answer....SHOWED UP! He said that he had realized some of his views were wrong and that he had softened his stance. We had been praying for his heart to soften all week. At the beginning he said that he didn't want to keep meeting, only when he had questions. We watched Finding Faith in Christ with him and at the end of the lesson as he walked out the door he said "I'll see you next week." So, that was exciting. We learned some things about him that helped us understand his situation more. So, things should continue to be interesting.

John! We also watched Finding Faith in Christ with him. As I had mentioned before, he used to be Lutheran, then atheist, now Buddhist with the thought that Buddhism can help him be a better Christian. Anyway, our 2 joint teachers ended up canceling 1 1/2 hours before the lesson. We spent the whole time looking for a joint teacher so that we could teach him. Finally 20 minutes before one of the converts in our ward was able to come. She too had been Lutheran and they were able to connect so well and she bore her testimony to him of the Gift of the Holy Ghost and Authority. She was amazing! She's also considering serving a mission!

So, we've seen several small miracles over the past couple weeks between us and the elders. It's amazing how the Lord is directing His work :) So, now for a funny story, I hope it comes off as funny as it was!

We were walking across this really long bridge on campus that crosses the Mississippi and we looked at the river and there was this shimmering silver something and we couldn't figure out what it was. It didn't look like fish, and it wasn't the reflection of the sun, and it was moving and would get smaller and bigger and smaller. Anyway up ahead this kid was also looking at it, and he looked super perplexed! He started to wave at it and it got smaller and moved away from him. So he ran down the bridge toward the direction of it. Then he raised his hands in the air and just started yelling "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Then he brought his hands onto his head looking very stressed out. It seemed to disappear and he ran ahead and caught up with his friend. Well, we ended up catching up and started talking to them and we asked if he had seen the thing in the river. He acted weird, so we moved on and asked if he'd ever heard of the church. Then he goes "OH! You saw that? You've been there? I've been there too!" We were super confused and a little weirded out, so we gave him a card and went on our merry little way. It was super funny.

Anyway, that's one of the fun stories of the week. Over the next few weeks we will be teaching 2 member referrals! I love it when members bring their friends. They are so much more interested and willing to listen than if we approach them. We've been talking as missionaries about how to increase this and one of the things we've talked about is that as members our responsibility is to give the investigators a social conversion and the missionaries are to take care of the spiritual. Members don't have to teach lessons. They can share beliefs, but they don't have to teach the lessons. What they can do is invite their friends to church/activities and such and eventually invite them to learn more from the missionaries. So, we are working on a plan to increase member missionary work in our area.

Well, that seems to cover our week. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. You'll have to send some pictures! I believe you said that you were going to Nebraska for Thanksgiving? Well. Have tons of fun! Have an awesome birthday celebration and tell everybody hi and that I love them!!

I love you all!!!! Keep smiling and being awesome! And work hard in your classes! :)
Love,
Sister Randall