Week 59 - The Best Week EVER!

Hello again from North Dakota!

The Abbreviated Version:

     Wow. Just wow. This week has been absolutely insane and I don't even know where to begin. For those of you who are skim readers and don't want to read in detail all the miracles, here's a brief overview of the highlights: I accidentally called the cops on Sister Kropf's dad, we set a baptismal date for Brian, got in contact and began teaching a referral through some miraculous events, did service at a soup kitchen, had zone conference, found 4 new people to teach from people formerly taught, and had three of our friends join us at church.

The Cops:

   Big yikes here! So when Sister Kropf got transferred to Pierre for her last 2 weeks she left half of her stuff at our apartment so that when her parents came to pick her up she could just grab it all then instead of packing it all twice. Well, they come to pick it up, and her dad decides to be funny. They buzz our door all nice and normal, but when I say "hello" and listen, it's this crazy, delusional, drunk. He's incoherent, I can't make out a word he's saying, and it's just some crazy stuff. Obviously I don't let him in. He won't go away and keeps buzzing and sounding crazy! We called the front office and they weren't in, but encouraged us to call the police department. So we do. As I'm wrapping up the call and they say they'll send someone over to check it out, Sister Call's phone rings. We both hang up, and she turns to me and says, "I think we called the cops on Sister Kropf's dad." sure enough, we did! Crazy times.

Brian:

     We had an awesome lesson with Brian and Kandice on Monday all about the Plan of Salvation, and at the end of it, I asked him if he'd like to be baptized. He didn't immediately say anything, but he just grabbed his phone. I was kinda internally thinking maybe that was the wrong thing to ask, but he was pulling up his calendar and said "does March 29th work?" and we of course said YES! Kandice got a little upset and said that she wanted him to be part of the faith she grew up in, but Brian just completely defended our church and said that he knows we're servants of the Lord on His errand, that everything we've taught him makes sense to him, and that it's the same God that they'll both be worshipping. Pretty dang cool stuff. I'm not completely sure if March 29th will be the day because of a couple things we still need to work through with him, but he definitely wants to be baptized! I'm so excited for him. He's amazing.

Natalie & Hope Pt.1:

     Natalie referred herself to the missionaries a few weeks ago, and we'd previously had two solid phone conversations with her, but we were never able to set up a time to meet. She wasn't responding to any of our texts or anything like that. Well, we decided to try her in person on our way home from a member dinner. We're driving there, when I just get this huge feeling that we need to flip around and go visit a young woman named Hope who we haven't ever seen at church. I thought that was kinda odd, but I asked Sister Call what she felt about it, and she said sure, so I flipped a u-turn and we went to visit Hope.

     We got there, and she was home! She said that her house was a mess, so she stepped out into the hallway to talk with us. She has the sweetest little year and a half old son who came out with her, along with their kitten. It was all good and fine, and then the little boy, Damien, closes their door from the outside, which then automatically locks, and all three of them are now locked outside of their apartment. So now they're stuck waiting for her grandpa to come over with the spare key to let them back in. This takes our 5 minute visit to a solid 30 minutes. It gave us a great chance to talk with her and get to know her though! They got back into their apartment, and we were off. 

     Now we're heading to Natalie's address for reals this time. We turn off the main road into her neighborhood and there are two cars following us, which is kinda creepy, but mainly I just feel bad because when you're looking for a house number in the dark, you end up driving pretty slow. We were on the right road, so I pretended that we had arrived and pulled over in front of a random house so these two cars could pass us. Miracle #1: it was the exact house haha. Miracle #2: the two cars PULLED INTO THAT HOUSE'S DRIVEWAY. It was Natalie!! If we had come ANY earlier, we would have missed her. Who would have thought that Damien locking us out of Hope's apartment was part of God's very specific plan? Natalie asked if we could come back the next day when it wasn't so late, so that's exactly what we did.

     We came over that next day, and had an amazing lesson. She said that she had heard about confirmation that takes place after baptism and wanted to hear all about it. We told her about the gift of the Holy Ghost, what the Book of Mormon teaches about it and confirmation, and the priesthood authority that must be used to have it done properly. We asked if baptism and confirmation is something she wants to work towards with us, and she said yes and that's the whole reason why she reached out to us. CRAZY. She's so cool.

Hope Pt.2:

     We went back over to Hope's apartment yesterday and were planning on being there for 15-30 minutes, and ended up being there for nearly two hours. It was insane, but she just told us her whole life story, everything she's going through, all of her struggles, fears, and insecurities, and why she hasn't been coming to church. Wow, I cannot even imagine going through what she has and is. She's a champ that has been hurt a lot. I'm really hoping we can be there for her even just as friends, because she just cried and cried to us. She's only 23! She's just about 2 years older than I am and is in SO much pain. I am so grateful that God put us into her path. Heaven knows she needs some love of Christ in her life. 

The Other 4 New People: 

     We're now teaching Lexi, Erika, and Kandice again! I'm pumped about that. I love all three of them with my whole heart and want to see them grow closer to their Savior more than anything. Lexi actually came to church with us yesterday as well! Erika was also super happy to see me again, which made me feel good. We had just come from service and were running late as it was, so we had to go to our lesson with the two of them in jeans and t-shirts, which was weird, but Erika loved it. She said it made us feel more casual and like friends, and she actually asked me if we were allowed to ever just hang out, and we said we could on our preparation days, so she wants us to hang out with her sometime. I was very flattered. 

     The fourth person was one I was not expecting: Jordin! She's the one I was teaching this time last year, and she invited us over to help with some bush overgrowth that was creeping all along her fence. We got it all done and taken care of, and it was just SO good to see her again. We also got to meet her new kitty cat! I'm so excited she still wants to learn more. She's living in the 1st ward boundaries and I'm serving in the 2nd ward, so we'll be doing a pass-off lesson with the 1st ward sisters this week. It'll be awesome.

Other Fun Odds and Ends:

     We volunteered at a soup kitchen! It was so much fun. I was crazy sore afterwards though, which is funny because I remember being able to waitress eight hours a day no problem, but then two hours of running out salads and desserts did me in! It was honestly such a good time though. I'm excited for when we can go and do it again.

     Zone Conference was also on Thursday, and this may be weird, but my favorite part was the mission dentists. They joined over Zoom for about 30 minutes and just told us about how to brush our teeth and such. Why did I love it so much, then, you ask? Because they talked about the biological processes that cause the cavities and the anatomy of a tooth and all of this SUPER cool stuff that I never fully knew before! It felt like being back in a biology lecture. I am SO excited to go back to school and have lectures, classes, note-taking, tests, the whole lot of it. Am I a freak of nature because of that? I mean, probably. 

     One of Sister Call and I's goals for the week was to ask every single member we met with for referrals, and we did super well at that, and from it we got referrals of people to visit or teach from every single person we asked. CRAZY. We also got fed by members this week for once which was a lovely change! Much appreciated.

Please Pray For: 

    If you remember, if you could pray for Hope and Brian this week, that would be amazing.

I love you all so so much! I'll talk to you again in a week!

Sister Balls