I Love Morristown

Hey family! Everything is going great up here in Morristown. Still in love with my new area and Companions. Estoy bien contenta.

 

Our first picture together when we were dropping Sister Snow off at the mission home at 5 AM...all of the departing elders saw us looking like this. It was great.

We went to Ellis Island last week!

So much happened this week! We taught a lot of great lessons! All of my areas have been so different regarding who we teach. In my last area, we focused a lot on less active members and getting them back to church. We saw a lot of success too, it was really great. Here, we teach so many investigators. I feel like all we do is teach investigators. Most of our lessons are either teaching investigators with a member present, or teaching just investigators. We only got 1 less active lesson last week! So crazy, but I absolutely love it. These investigators here are so incredible. There are a few that want to get baptized so badly, but they have some tricky situations to work out before they can be baptized.

This week we were planning on having Alonso be baptized. He is 22 and from Honduras. He is the sweetest kid. I love him to pieces. He has a really strong testimony and he is very sincere and he always reads and prays. He knows that the gospel and the restoration is true, he has born his testimony to us several times. It was really hard for us to get him on date though. We would ask him at every lesson and he would just smile and say, "no se hermanitas". It was a little bit frustrating. We have seen him almost every day so we have a really good relationship and a lot of trust. BUT, on Monday night, we went over with the intention to get him to commit to baptism on the 25 which was the date that we prayed about and felt so strongly was the right date for him. We didn't have an appointment set up but we just went over to his house. He lives with his family who are all from Honduras. His parents are members and joined the church in Honduras and were sealed in the temple. His father came to the US about 10 years ago for work and his family stayed in Honduras so they were separated for years which caused them to go inactive in the church. He has two brothers, his older brother Julian is a member as well, but him and his younger brother are not members. Julian's girlfriend Jenni also lives with them and she is a progressing investigator as well. So we go over to their house every day and we always have someone to teach and they are all progressing and the parents are returning to church and preparing to go back to the temple... anyways. on Monday, we went over without an appointment and they were in the middle of family home evening. It was so adorable! And Ana the mom just happened to be teaching about baptism and conformation. It was super neat! We read in Mosiah 18 and it hit Alonso so hard. Then I asked the question that it says in the scripture, "que esta impidiendole" which means, what is keeping you from getting baptized. The room got so quiet and the spirit came so strong. He and his younger brother thought about it really deeply, then he answered, "nada hermanitas" We got so happy, then we did the baptismal invite. He smiled and was quiet for a little bit then he said he would pray about it. On Wednesday night we went back over to get him set for sure on date. WE had a member with us. We talked to him for about 45 minutes and he really opened up about his fears of getting baptized. He was so sincere and he wants to get baptized for the right reasons and he wants to be ready. He just doesn't understand that he is ready. We asked him 6 times to be baptized and he just kept saying "no se" then we would talk to him about it a little bit. We asked him for the last time before we had to go, but we asked him in the words of Jesus Christ. He was quiet then he just let out a really sincere "si" and we all laughed and cheered and it was so exciting! We went back over the next night and taught Julian's girlfriend Jenni and Alonso was excited about his upcoming baptism. That night we actually had Sister Jeppson with us on a team up to teach Jenni. It was so cool having her as a team up. We had to translate for her, but her spirit was so strong and its amazing how she has the ability to love so many people. It was a great lesson!

Me, Sister Jeppson, Jenni, Sister Huele and Sister Smedley. It was fun having Sister Jeppson with us in a lesson.

On Saturday night we were going to go see him, but he called us telling us that he was at the laundry mat so we couldn't come see him. He also told us that he changed his mind and he didn't feel prepared. We talked to him for a long while on the phone. He said he didn't feel prepared because he had never seen a baptism before, so he wasn't really knowing what to expect. We tried to think about when the next scheduled baptism was but we couldn't think of any coming up soon. We were making plans of bringing a video over to show him. On Sunday he came to church and while we were in gospel principals we stepped out to go get a drink. On the way to the drinking fountain, we heard the baptismal font filling up. WE got so excited. The English elders told us they were having a baptism that day! We took Alonso to that baptism and he loved it. HE felt the spirit even though it wasn't in his language. Then he had his baptismal interview and he did great. It boosted his confidence so much. He passed with flying colors. He can get baptized any day now. His baptismal recommend is good for a month. We told him that he just needs to call us and let us know and we would do it. He said it was going to be very quickly, but he just needs to work something out. I can feel that it is going to be so quick, hopefully this week. We want to try to get it for Friday night because the branch is having a family home evening that night, so it would be good to have the baptism then have that party afterwards. Hmmmm. Well see what happens. I am so happy for him though. I feel so honored to teach him and his family.

Last week we contacted this really cool kid in Madison. His name is Jayce. He is 19 and going to college down here. He said he didn't really believe in God or in Christ but would like to learn more so he can figure it out. We gave him a Book of Mormon then set an appointment with him. We had our appointment with him on Friday night. Sister Smedley and I were on an exchange with Sister Larsen and Sister Heule was in Elizabeth. We taught on a picnic table under a tree in front of a museum. In the middle of the lesson it started pouring rain, but we didn't get wet hardly at all because we were under the tree. It was super cool. Also, between the 3 days since we gave him a book of Mormon, he read until 2 Nephi 29. It was so cool! he was into learning, but his only concern is that he doesn't agree with our stand on gay marriage... We gave him the website for Mormons and gays and he said he had already read the whole thing, so he has been doing a lot of research. Were going to teach him some more this week. Also, something kinda cool, he is leaving in a month to live in Arequipa Peru for the summer. I'm totally going to hand him over to Mckaela <3

Our investigator Ivonne is so incredible! I seriously have no idea where she came from. She is so pure. She is one of those people who was born to be a member of the church. She has problems getting to church so she takes the train. She was supposed to come this Sunday, but she couldn't find the church. It was so sad. This morning she called us and apologized that she didn't come because she couldn't find it still. We set it up for one of the members in Madison to take the train with her then a taxi to church. WE told her about what we set up and she got so excited. She is so stoked for her baptism too! She wants us to come over all the time and she is seriously perfect!! I'm so excited for her to get baptized soon!

On Saturday morning we got asked by the union city elders to accompany one of the members down there to go visit her daughter in the hospital in Morristown. We agreed and we set it up with the member. We thought that it would be just some kind of normal hospital visit, but we pulled up to the address of the hospital that she gave us and we came to realize that we were actually visiting a psychiatric hospital... We read the sign, then had a little freak out moment and headed inside. We got some badges and got permission to go upstairs. We went upstairs and got let into her special unit. She was in this closed room with a ton of tables. Her name was Norma and her moms name was Tomasa....

It was seriously the scariest moment of my life! We walked in then she started screaming and cursing at us and slapping around chairs. The nurse introduced us to her and asked if it was OK if we stayed. She calmed down and said yes but we had to sit in certain chairs... I was the one closest to her, so I was basically the shield for my companions. We tried talking to her a little bit and asking her simple questions like her favorite color and things. She was fine for a while, but her mood would change really rapidly. It was kind of like walking on egg shells. We asked if we could say a prayer  and they said yes. We were on an exchange with Sister Larson at the time, so she started to offer the prayer. AS she was praying Norma stood up and started cursing and slamming the chairs around... It was awkward we didn't know what to do so we kept praying. Then Norma left the room. It was so hard not to laugh because we didn't know what to do. Norma came back in and we tried to share a scripture but she was just getting mad so we left. We were laughing all the way down the hallway just because of how crazy mission life is. Also on the way out some creepy guy came up to us and asked if we would come visit him... we just kind of smiled and walked away. we could not get out of there fast enough.. I'm not really sure what was wrong with Norma, but it made me very thankful that I am mentally healthy.

Sister Smedley, Sister Larson, and Me after we went to visit Norma.

I think that is all of the really exciting things that happened this week. Other than laughing with my companions non stop. It feels so good to be laughing so much. Last night I got up to go to the bathroom at around 11 so Smedley and Heule were still awake. I came back into the room and crawled into my bed. Sister Smedley had crawled into my bed while I was gone and she scared me to death. We were all busting up. Then sister Heule is super skittish so sister Smedley went up to her bed to apologize but sister Heule didn't see her so she screamed. It was super funny. I got some funny ones. We also had a 2 hour long comp inventory last night. It was kind of hilarious, but nice. We are really good friends and have a lot of honesty.

Oh yeah, We found this really cute cupcake place in Boonton! We got cupcakes and they were so YUMMY! I know you would have loved them Katie and Julie. I took pictures for you!

 



Trio Magic!





Me and Sister Smedley with our cupcakes!





Well, I love you and miss you all! I hope you have a great week!

-Sister Clark