Well I survived my first week here! Haha it wasn't bad at all so that's good. It was really slow as we were trying to figure things out since we're both new to the area but it's been good. We taught a lesson to an investigator the first night I was here. Her name is Raisa. Her mom is a convert of about 2 years. Raisa got into a really bad car accident recently though and really recognized God's hand in her survival. So she's been meeting with the Elders in her mom's ward, but because she is a YSA they are handing her over to us since we serve in the YSA branch. So we taught her about the Restoration and committed her to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. And then she also said she'd come to church and FHE with us this week. She ended up being sick yesterday though so she didn't make it to church. But we have a lesson with her tonight and then she's coming to FHE with us afterwards so that'll be good. I think the Elders have already talked to her a little about baptism and she says that she wants to be baptized, but we're kind of starting from square one with her just to make sure she is ready because when the Elders taught her she was still on a lot of pain meds from her accident so she doesn't remember a lot of what they taught. So we'll see how that goes :)
On Thursdays we do service at a Lutheran church. They call it the Community Cafe. Every Thursday night they make dinners and anyone from the community is welcome to attend. It's free for all. They get donations from the grocery stores in the area with food that they need to get rid of or that is about to expire so they just use all that up and donate the rest to the people who go to the dinner. It takes them all day to prep meals. I think they start at 10am and then the dinner is at 5pm and then they don't get out of there till like 8 or 9pm because of cleanup. It's a really cool thing that they do in the community and it's cool to be involved with that. So we go at 2pm and are there till 5pm. We just help cut fruits and vegetables and basically just help with whatever needs to be prepped for the meal. It was fun and there were a lot of people there helping out so it was good to meet other members of the community.
On Tuesdays and Fridays we do forums. We aren't allowed to proselyte on campus so we've made an arrangement with the school to be able to proselyte at certain times and places on Tuesdays and Fridays. So we just talk to everyone that passes within our little area. We hand out cards with our info on it, hand out Book of Mormons, and see if anyone is interested in learning more about our beliefs. We were able to get a couple people's contact info from that on Thursday and meet with them about it. We met Mario, our new investigator, from forums and have met with him twice now.
Mario is a student here at Penn State. He is studying econ and journalism. He wants to work for Time magazine one day. That'd be so cool! He's from El Salvador and moved here with his family when he was 12. He was born a Christian but decided around 12 or 14 that he didn't know what to believe in anymore. Now he just believes that if he just does good then things will work out with him. He doesn't believe in God, but from our lesson yesterday we taught him about Heavenly Father and how we came to know that He is real and invited him to do the same. He's not really looking for religion or anything in his life right now but was open to at least trying it. He's read a couple chapters in the Book of Mormon and he said he likes that it's so beautifully written. Hopefully he'll take our challenge though and pray about it and that he'll get an answer from those prayers.
We've been doing a lot of dinner appointments with the members in the area. The members are so nice! I love them so much! They're really awesome and so willing to help with the missionary work in the area. We've been able to get them to all of our appointments with investigators even some at the last minute. A lot of them are converts themselves so they know what the missionaries do with the investigators and a lot of them can relate with questions that they ask and things like that. We're really blessed to have so many great and dedicated members in the area.
Well hopefully this week is good. Nothing to crazy or hard happened this last week so hopefully it stays that way. I hope things are going well with everyone at home. I'm sure life is just the same there. It's crazy to think that I've been out for 3 weeks now. It feels like so much longer than that. Next Wednesday will be my one month mark or the 25th is also known as my click day. It's just the day that you enter the MTC so every month on that day you add another click to how long you've been out LOL. It's exciting though and I'm already seeing the blessing of missionary work in my life and in the lives of those around me. I sent my new address last week so send stuff to that address now. I love you guys and hope you're doing well! Let me know how ya'll are doing!
Love ya!
Sister Johnson
On Thursdays we do service at a Lutheran church. They call it the Community Cafe. Every Thursday night they make dinners and anyone from the community is welcome to attend. It's free for all. They get donations from the grocery stores in the area with food that they need to get rid of or that is about to expire so they just use all that up and donate the rest to the people who go to the dinner. It takes them all day to prep meals. I think they start at 10am and then the dinner is at 5pm and then they don't get out of there till like 8 or 9pm because of cleanup. It's a really cool thing that they do in the community and it's cool to be involved with that. So we go at 2pm and are there till 5pm. We just help cut fruits and vegetables and basically just help with whatever needs to be prepped for the meal. It was fun and there were a lot of people there helping out so it was good to meet other members of the community.
On Tuesdays and Fridays we do forums. We aren't allowed to proselyte on campus so we've made an arrangement with the school to be able to proselyte at certain times and places on Tuesdays and Fridays. So we just talk to everyone that passes within our little area. We hand out cards with our info on it, hand out Book of Mormons, and see if anyone is interested in learning more about our beliefs. We were able to get a couple people's contact info from that on Thursday and meet with them about it. We met Mario, our new investigator, from forums and have met with him twice now.
Mario is a student here at Penn State. He is studying econ and journalism. He wants to work for Time magazine one day. That'd be so cool! He's from El Salvador and moved here with his family when he was 12. He was born a Christian but decided around 12 or 14 that he didn't know what to believe in anymore. Now he just believes that if he just does good then things will work out with him. He doesn't believe in God, but from our lesson yesterday we taught him about Heavenly Father and how we came to know that He is real and invited him to do the same. He's not really looking for religion or anything in his life right now but was open to at least trying it. He's read a couple chapters in the Book of Mormon and he said he likes that it's so beautifully written. Hopefully he'll take our challenge though and pray about it and that he'll get an answer from those prayers.
We've been doing a lot of dinner appointments with the members in the area. The members are so nice! I love them so much! They're really awesome and so willing to help with the missionary work in the area. We've been able to get them to all of our appointments with investigators even some at the last minute. A lot of them are converts themselves so they know what the missionaries do with the investigators and a lot of them can relate with questions that they ask and things like that. We're really blessed to have so many great and dedicated members in the area.
Well hopefully this week is good. Nothing to crazy or hard happened this last week so hopefully it stays that way. I hope things are going well with everyone at home. I'm sure life is just the same there. It's crazy to think that I've been out for 3 weeks now. It feels like so much longer than that. Next Wednesday will be my one month mark or the 25th is also known as my click day. It's just the day that you enter the MTC so every month on that day you add another click to how long you've been out LOL. It's exciting though and I'm already seeing the blessing of missionary work in my life and in the lives of those around me. I sent my new address last week so send stuff to that address now. I love you guys and hope you're doing well! Let me know how ya'll are doing!
Love ya!
Sister Johnson