Oct. 3, 2011

FAMILY! :D

I'm glad to hear that the move went well. I realized last night while I was laying in bed that each member of our family has moved within the last couple months. Sam & Erin changed apts, Miranda moved to school, I moved to Dinkytown, you all moved to a new house... There is something with our family and moving, we just can't seem to get enough of it! ;) But, the house looks good! Bigger than I expected when you said "small" I was almost thinking Grand Island size small! haha.

I did get mom's card, thanks so much :) I appreciated it. And, I will keep an eye out for the atm card. Sorry my pictures didn't attach... it wasn't too much to look at anyway. Our General Conference advertising didn't really do much, at least no one showed up to conference...maybe they watched it online??? The elders had 3 investigators come, we expected at least 1 with the prospective of 3 others, but had none come. I was bummed.

You will have to watch Saturday morning session. President Monson was super funny. I never realized the sense of humor he had until this general conference! It was wonderful. The elders are teaching a kid named Anton (he's pretty cool). He's been trying to figure out if he should be baptized and leave the Catholic church, in which his family is so strong and involved. So, Sunday morning he came fasting to conference, and he really enjoyed Tad Callister's talk (I think that's his name) on the Book of Mormon. That night he also went to a Catholic Mass with the Arch Bishop (I don't know how to spell this stuff..) with the intentions of being able to feel which was right. He called the elders and wanted to meet up and he told them "I felt the Spirit while the Arch Bishop was talking..." The elders thought he was going to drop them, but he continued on and eventually said "I know you wanted me to be baptized October 8th, but it's too soon. I will be a member, but I need more time." I guess he wrote in his journal after the first time of meeting with missionaries and said "I think I am going to join this church..." He's pretty awesome :D

As for what we have been up to! We have done a lot of contacting. One night we were out talking with people and I started talking to this girl from Nigeria, who happened to be a Pastor. We were talking for a bit and as I walked past Sis. Stephenson I gave her a "this could be interesting, not sure what's gonna happen" kind of look. We ended up standing on the corner discussing the prophet and authority...well she was pretty sassy and "knew that she was right". Finally Sister Stephenson came up and introduced herself, the girl acknowledged her, then turned back to me and we kept talking. Eventually it calmed down and I offered her a card and invitation to general conference so that she could find out for herself. She told me she didn't want it and then asked us what our view on homosexuality was. So, we told her that unfortunately people have this trial, but marriage is ordained of God only between a man and a woman. She took a second to think and then turned to me and said, I'll take one of those cards. She was a scientist and so we asked her about how she could keep such a strong belief in God even with evolution and all that "proof". She gave a pretty good response and I think we could consider each other friends now. Sadly she didn't show up to conference, but she was pretty cool :)

Oh, I'm teaching a girl in the ward how to play piano. But, she already has the concepts, she just needs to practice. She wants to know more of the theory stuff, which I'm not very good with. So, we will see how that goes.

Last night I talked to a super sweet kid name Brian. He grew up in Wisconsin, he's a freshman and he's Catholic. When I asked him if he'd heard of the church he said no, and then I said that we were also known as Mormons and he was like, I've never heard of that. I was surprised. So we talked about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith for awhile and he gave me his number so that we can call him this week. Hopefully something good will come of it. He's so innocent, it was sweet. As I turned to walk away he had this look of hunger and curiosity in his eyes. I really hope we can meet up!

Our investigator Yvan dropped us during conference on Saturday. He called and since he was possibly coming we answered the call. So, that was disappointing, but Brian made it all better :)

Haha, so funny/gross story. So we ran out of milk this week and we thought we had bought milk two weeks ago, but we didn't have it, so we figured we had forgotten to get it. Well, lately our car has smelt pretty gross...Last night the elders came up and said "Who left a half gallon of milk in the car???" haha, the milk had been in the trunk for almost two weeks. The cream was completely separated. Haha, I'm grateful I didn't have to find it. Anyway, good times!

Well, I love you all, I hope you are doing well & I will talk to you next week!
Oh, PS you asked about what I wanted for Christmas several weeks ago. I decided that I want a compilation of the testimonies of siblings, parents, grandparents, great grandparents, and any cousins/aunts/uncles that want to chip in. It could be a brief telling of how they gained a testimony and also their testimony, or something of the sort. And maybe some warm, comfy, night time socks. Mine are getting holes in them! And maybe some hand and foot warmers? That would make me happy :) Well, that's all that I want. Thanks for being awesome! I love you!!

Have a GREAT week.

Love Sister Randall :D