I have been in Pensacola for and entire month! That just flew right by! Transfer calls will be taking place on Sunday July 19th. Hopefully we don't get a call because that would mean I would get to stay in Pensacola for another transfer and I would get to finish my training with Sister Owens! I just love her! She is pretty much my twin! We get along so well so I have been praying that I can atleast finish my 12 week training with her. :)
This week has certainly been one for the books! Miracles really do happen in missionary work! Its crazy how many miracles Sister Owens and I have witnessed this past week! :) Missions are just awesome :)
Miracle #1
Tuesday July 7th we had Zone Training. That was a really great meeting. The things that were shared were awesome and just what I needed to hear. After Zone Training, Sister Owens and I had an appointment with a man we Family History tracted into a couple weeks ago. We were there to mainly just talk about family history and see if we could help him get a pedigree chart started. However, Sister Owens and I were praying that we could have a gospel centered conversation with him. When we were visiting, he started to ask us questions about the church and what made us different from other Christian Religions. So we talked about the priesthood. That was really cool that we had been praying for a gospel conversation, and he just started asking questions!! We also had the chance to meet his son and grandson. When the visit was finished, we asked if we could leave him with a word of prayer and he was good with that. So he is now a new investigator! Family is super important to him, so the Gopsel can really bless his life! We are meeting with him again tomorrow!!
Miracle #2
Wednesday July 8th was supposed to be a busy day for us. We had an appointment with our awesome investigator Ermilisa. We biked over to her house, and she wasn't there. Sister Owens and I were pretty bummed. We have been waiting what seemed like forever to meet with her agian. So we decided to go visit some potentials we had. None of them were home. Sister Owens and I were beginning to get pretty discouraged. Then we both thought that we should go visit an elderly lady we met a couple weeks ago. We were biking over to her house, and saw her knocking on her neighbor's door. She was quite a ways from her house so we asked her if everything was ok. She said she had found a little grey poodle in her fenced in backyard while she was picking her figgs. She didn't know who it belonged to so she was just going around her neighborhood trying to track down the owner. (A few days prior, Sister Owens and I were biking home and a lady stopped us and asked if we had seen a small grey poodle around the area. We hadn't, we told her we would keep an eye out for her. She told us that the dog's name was Tiki and that she would come to us if we called her name.) Sister Owens and I looked at eachother and had the exact same thought. We thought that the lost dog that was in Marilyn's yard was Tiki. We told her about the encounter we had a few days prior. She said we could come to her house to see if that was the dog. We walked over to her house and went inside to see if the little dog was Tiki. It was indeed TIKI!! We called her name and she came right to us. She looked just like the picture that the lady had shown us as well. We then biked to get a lost dog sign,which had the owners phone number, that was stapled to a telephone pole. We then biked all the way back to Marilyn's house to give her the paper. She let us stay and visit with her while we waited for someone to pick up Tiki. We had a pretty good visit! It was awesome. The owners came and tried to give us 50 dollars for finding the dog. Sister Owens and I wouldn't and couldn't take the money, and Marilyn didn't want to take it either. The owners insisted that we take it. They said to donate it to somewhere or go out to lunch with it. Marilyn seemed to like the idea of going out to lunch, so Sister Owens and I made a lunch appointment with Marilyn for later on in the week. It was crazy to look back and see how all of our plans had fallen through so we could cross paths with Marilyn when we did. We even helped return Tiki to her owner. Crazy things happen :)
Miracle #3
Friday July 10th was supposed to be another busy day for us. Luckily we had the car. So Sister Owens and I planned to contact potentials, less actives, and former investigators in a specific area. We were on our way to visit someone, but then we decided to visit another lady instead. We drove to her house, and knocked on her door. Her son answered the door. We asked if Yolanda was home, he said she was out of town. We told him who we were and if we could get come back another time when she was home. When we told him we were Missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, his eyes got really big and started to smile. He said that his mom had been waiting to hear from missionaries for a long time. She had even been traveling to different areas to get in touch with missionaries. That made us super excited! It definitely was not a cooincidence that we decided to visit her. So we are planning to see her sometime this week :)
Miracle #4
This happened about an hour after we tried to contact Yolanda. Sister Owens and I wanted to visit a less active in the ward. She was already in the GPS in the car, so we just let the GPS tell us where to go. We got to her house and knocked on the door. An older lady answered the door. We asked if Staci was there. The older lady said that Staci did not live there and that she had no idea who that even was. What is super interesting though, is that the older lady and Staci have the same last name. Then all of a sudden, her husband comes outside and starts talking to us. We had a pretty good visit with him and he is really interested in Family History. He also made a comment that was really interesting to both Sister Owens and I. He was explaining to us that he was an Episcipaleon. He then stated " our church is missing a lot of things though". We can see how the gospel may answer some of the questions he has! When we were done visiting with him, he gave both Sister Owens and I a big/ Awkward group hug and told us that he just loves us and that he is glad we became friends. It was crazy! We are planning to see him on Thursday.
Miracle #5
Saturday July 11 was the day we had planned lunch with Marilyn ( poodle finder). We went out to lunch with her and had a great time! She is such a sweet lady! We shared a scripture with her and had a prayer with her. She is now a new investigator as well. :)
Miracle #6
After our lesson with Marilyn, we biked over to see if our investigaror Ermilisa was home from Louisianna. She was and she came out and visited with us. We set up an appointment with her for tomorrow!!! We are super excited and so is she! We had been praying to just see her, and Heavanly Father made that possible!
Miracle #7
After seeing Ermilisa, we had an appointment with a potential about 5 miles away. It takes about 20 minutes to get there on bicycle. So we literally biked 5 miles there to get to the appointment. We knocked, and knocked, and knocked... She was not home. Sister Owens and I looked like death had warmed over. We were pretty bummed that we biked all that way and she wasn't even home. We were just getting back on our bikes to bike closer to home and do some tracting, when we saw a lady walking on the sidewalk. We said hello and began talking to her. Se let us come over to her house and visit with her for a bit. She is pretty religious, but seemed to have an interest in family history and the beliefs of the church. We shared a scripture with her, and she prayed with us! We are meeting with her this wednesday!!
This past week, Sister Owens and I have seen so many miracles. We got 3 new investigators this past week! That makes 5 for the transfer so far! We have 4 more potentials that we are meeting with this week so we could potentially have 9 new inviestigators by the time the transfer ends!!! YIKES! :) We are super excited and hoping we can get those other 4 before the transfer ends onJuly 26th.
