Last Monday, we were talking to Elder Jones, we normally do improvement plans on Monday mornings, but for some unbeknownst reasons we've been blessed with hitting standard and so he was just calling us to see how we were doing and we mentioned since it was going to be our car week we wanted to make sure to get the red car, because it was our turn for that one. It was his bike week, so it was all the same to him, but the other elders had the red car and we were pretty sure they weren't going to give it to us. Just a side note, this is my reality, there's few things that I can look forward to and this is one of those things...okay I'm pathetic, anyways it was more on principle that it was our turn for the red car. So naturally, E. Jones asks us what is so awesome about this red car....well let me tell you. First off its a Toyota, so automatically better. It has better visibility and the best part, it has a usb we can listen to our music with. He then was like, so you like to listen to music...uh yeah music is my life...I think that's what got to him. He then attempted to commit us to give up music. Sister Chappell was so bothered by this that she looked up quotes from prophets of how important music is. She gave him a printout and he said it was going to burn his eyes out and to quote him he said, "I hate music." I can't watch the news, but this explains the earthquake that probably occurred in Vienna from all the great composers rolling in their graves. To be fair, I think he was joking, but its Elder Jones, so I really can't even tell.
We had a baptism this last Saturday, but we couldn't go, mainly because it was in Oklahoma....it was for Jordan! I've taught her like 2 or 3 times, so it was like the easiest thing ever. She is 9 and basically I think they weren't active when she was 8 and now they are and she was out of town the first month I was here. She had her grandpa do it; hence, it being in Oklahoma.
We went on exchanges on Thursday. I've had 3 exchanges since I've been in Junction and all of them I was the one that went to Salina. It's a pretty cool place, but I much prefer Junction. Both STLs have been my companion at one point or other and one of them we even had 3 people that have been both of our companions, and she served in Junction so we had a lot to talk about.
We have a baptism this Saturday for Sarah! She is one of the investigators that moved up from Oklahoma and they were investigating the church down there. She is the nicest person ever. She is 16 and lives with her sister that's in her 20s. We have been teaching both of them, but her sister hasn't been progressing as much. She likes to Bible bash with us which is kind of a joke, since my Bible knowledge goes as far as, wait, what book is the story of Esther in?? Well, she did mention about the Priesthood and that she doesn't believe there is such a thing of having Priesthood authority and then she said everything I have to say about the Priesthood so I just looked at Sister Chappell like, "help!" and she gave me the look of, "hey, I'm the trainee here!" So the only thing in my arsenal to pull out was Hebrews 5:4 and I read it to her and she's like well I've never seen that before let me get out my Bible and as she was opening it she glanced at Hebrews 6:1 and in her Bible version it pretty much said, okay we've talked about this over and over again, just drop it and get baptized. It was so crazy. She took it as her answer and dropped it.
Well, Bible bashing still gets you nowhere. We came back the next time and she had questions about grace and we got in the whole, aren't we all saved? discussion. We couldn't get anywhere really, but she came to church with her sister the next day and guess what Relief Society was on. The Gift of Grace. She was eating it up and talked with a lady that made a comment during it and they got in a good discussion. She'll come around. We just need to get her reading the BOM.
Which reminds me, a few days ago we were leaving our apartment for the day and I turn around and ask Sister Chappell, how many BOMS do you have on you? She just gave me this very concerned look....
Lately I've been focusing a lot of my studies on Charity. At the beginning of my mission I had the desire to really learn how to not get stressed and I kind of realized that what I really need to work on is turning outward when things start getting bad and the natural thing to do is turn inward. It's so clear that is exactly what the Savior teaches any time that He is going through a trying time.
To sum everything up, things are going well, Sister Chappell is an awesome companion and I love training! I'm doing everything as I normally do, but inexplicably everything is coming together and the Lord is blessing us therefore we are earning the respect from District Leader Jones and I'm not as stressed out. I'm slowly learning to trust him....to solve the car problem he asked how we asked the elders for the car, and if we tried asking nicely. After that conversation that made me feel like a two year old, I swallowed my pride and we nicely asked the elders for the car....and miraculously they gave it to us. The Lower Lights never sounded so good. This is going to be one of those posts that I'll look back on and be embarrassed about....c'est la vie. But seriously I think this is coping mechanism of how I get through things. I focus on the little things that don't really matter, because if I spent all my time stressing about the big things my brain would turn into mush.
We have several progressing investigators and they just keep coming in. Why is it working out now and doesn't work out other times, I don't know, but I know this work is so much bigger than us and I'm so grateful and humbled by everyone that is helping us.
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