hahah but really though. SO upset.
It's
kind of a funny story actually. We have been so into the world cup down
here because it is the only way you can actually get people to talk to
you... but of course, we are going to be cheering for Latin America...
Everyone was so pumped about Argentina. So, on Sunday
we realize that the game would be going on and that it would be really
hard to see anyone the whole afternoon... so we thought we would play it
smart and set an appointment with the oldest people in our branch,
Hermano y Hermana Valencia. They have to be at least 100 years old. So
we set an appointment with them and they are so excited because they
always get so excited when we come to visit them.
Ha, world cup. We out smarted you.
Ha. I learned a very valuable lesson that day.
You cannot outsmart the world cup.
No matter how hard you try, the world cup is more important than the missionaries :( wahhhhh. We just want people to love us.
We get to the Valencia's house and of course, cute
little 100 year old hermano Valencia is GLUED to the TV watching the
world cup. And since he is 100 years old, the volume is ALL THE WAY UP. I
couldn't even hear myself think. If I wanted to ignore the world cup, I
was in the wrong place.
We had to just make the best of the situation, so we just started
trash talking Germany with Hermano Valencia. He got a kick out of it. He
was so into it. hahahah. That only lasted like 5 minutes though because
we had to try to stay focused... so we started talking to hermana
Valencia, who really couldn't care less about the world cup. She is a
talker. Ones she starts going she never stops. hehe. Since the volume
was up all the way, it was hard to understand her, so we really just
ended up singing primary songs in our heads trying to block the game out
and looking into her eyes and nodding like we heard what she was
saying. Bless her heart. She gave us cute little soccer ball chocolates.
She puts her chocolate in the freezer. hehehe. Right before we left, we
happened to catch the very end of the game. We were so bummed.
Basically the world cup was the highlight of the
week and it's all we heard about from anyone. I'm kind of sad that it is
over now, I guess its just back to talking about the weather.
I met the Taggarts this week. They are so great. On Wednesday
we had "Meet the Taggarts" for zones 1&2. They are so darn cute.
They brought their two daughters with them. Emily is 17 and Sophie is I
think 10 or 11. I forgot which one, but they are adorable. Emily
introduced the whole family to us. They have 4 older kids who are
married with families. She told us a little bit about who they are and
where they come from and things like that. They sure are a cute family..
Then Sophie gets up and she speaks Chinese! She was in Chinese immersion
class. It was super cool. Sister Taggart is great too. She is so real
and she loves the mission already. She has a strong testimony and is
very cute. President Taggart is great. He isn't a baptist preacher like
President Jeppson, but he has a really strong spirit when he speaks. He
has high expectations for the mission and he wants to keep everything
that the Jeppsons built up and build upon it. It is really great that
they want to do that, because we have a very obedient hard working
mission and I don't want that to change.
This morning we had our personal interviews with
them both. I love them even more now. I was talking one on one with
Sister Taggart for a while and she is so real! I really love her a lot.
President Taggart is just so willing to do what ever he can to help us
personally and to help the mission. They are humble and open to
suggestions and help since we have a little bit more experience than
them right now. I love it. It is good change.
On Tuesday
we had our zone meeting and our monthly focus was introduced to us. I
am obsessed with this months focus. It is so good. Our focus this month
is called "spiritual connections" It is about making a spiritual
connection with the people we contact and the people we teach by asking
them inspired questions. President Taggart taught us that we have been
endowed with power from on high and that we are literally the Lord's
hands and feet. We are his servants and as such he is willing to give us
what ever is necessary to finish his work in a way that is pleasing to
him. It all depends on our faith and our trust in him. We talked a lot
about the scripture D&C 82:10. Our zone goals this month are to
literally "Bind the Lord" To do that, we are promising the lord that we
will contact at least 10 people that day or who ever we see. As we do
that we ask him specifically in every prayer that as we do that, that he
will put 2 people in our path that day who are prepared to hear the
gospel. There are 9 million people in new jersey. There ARE prepared
people here. We don't know where they are, but the Lord does that is why
we are asking him to put them in our path if we promise to contact
everyone we see. We are seeing huge miracles from this.
We went home to our area that day feeling so uplifted and ready to bind the lord. We left our car with a prayer, Binding the lord to give us 2 people if we contacted everyone we saw. We were on an empty street called Keasler st and we had an appointment to visit Lillian, one of our less active members from Peru. We got to her door and she juked us. She forgot about the appointment. As we were walking back to the car, we saw this kid on a skateboard, so we ran after him. He wasn't interested. Then I saw a guy poke his head out of his door as we walked past. We turned around and knocked on his door. He didn't answer, so we took that as a not interested. Then right as we get back to the car, we saw a guy all the way down the street where we had just come from. Sister Haycock and I looked at each other each thinking the same thing "we promised" so we turn around and head back down the street. We were kind of trying to run without making a lot of noise.. he didn't notice that we were awkwardly stalking him thank goodness. He gets to the door of his house and so we call out to him. He stops and talks to us for a second but then tells us that he wasn't interested. We turn around and start walking back to the car. Out of the corner of our eyes, we see a little Hispanic man laying some concrete at the side of someone's house. It was kind of an awkward place to contact someone because we had to go a little bit out of our path to talk to him and into someone's yard and we knew that he didn't live there and that he was probably working... but we promised the lord. So we did it anyways. We went up to talk to him but something weird came out of sister haycocks mouth... "she said, hey, would you like to learn how you can make your prayers more meaningful?" and he looked up at us and said, "yeah!" And we set an appointment with him. BEST ZONE GOAL EVER! It worked! It actually worked. We went and taught him on Friday night and it was such a good solid first lesson. We taught the whole restoration and we asked him soul searching questions and he was so deep in thought and he was asking us questions and he said yes to baptism and he said that he was ready to act on the message to know if it was true and he said the closing prayer! This guy is so cool! His name is Alberto and he is from Mexico. He is actually from Mexico City so I got to talk to him about that. EVERYONE knows where Benemeritos is. haha.
We went home to our area that day feeling so uplifted and ready to bind the lord. We left our car with a prayer, Binding the lord to give us 2 people if we contacted everyone we saw. We were on an empty street called Keasler st and we had an appointment to visit Lillian, one of our less active members from Peru. We got to her door and she juked us. She forgot about the appointment. As we were walking back to the car, we saw this kid on a skateboard, so we ran after him. He wasn't interested. Then I saw a guy poke his head out of his door as we walked past. We turned around and knocked on his door. He didn't answer, so we took that as a not interested. Then right as we get back to the car, we saw a guy all the way down the street where we had just come from. Sister Haycock and I looked at each other each thinking the same thing "we promised" so we turn around and head back down the street. We were kind of trying to run without making a lot of noise.. he didn't notice that we were awkwardly stalking him thank goodness. He gets to the door of his house and so we call out to him. He stops and talks to us for a second but then tells us that he wasn't interested. We turn around and start walking back to the car. Out of the corner of our eyes, we see a little Hispanic man laying some concrete at the side of someone's house. It was kind of an awkward place to contact someone because we had to go a little bit out of our path to talk to him and into someone's yard and we knew that he didn't live there and that he was probably working... but we promised the lord. So we did it anyways. We went up to talk to him but something weird came out of sister haycocks mouth... "she said, hey, would you like to learn how you can make your prayers more meaningful?" and he looked up at us and said, "yeah!" And we set an appointment with him. BEST ZONE GOAL EVER! It worked! It actually worked. We went and taught him on Friday night and it was such a good solid first lesson. We taught the whole restoration and we asked him soul searching questions and he was so deep in thought and he was asking us questions and he said yes to baptism and he said that he was ready to act on the message to know if it was true and he said the closing prayer! This guy is so cool! His name is Alberto and he is from Mexico. He is actually from Mexico City so I got to talk to him about that. EVERYONE knows where Benemeritos is. haha.
We found someone else later that night too. Everyday
we have been finding 2 people who do not flat out reject us. They
either let us teach them a little bit right there but aren't ready quite
yet, or they let us give their info to other missionaries because they
live in a different area or they speak English. Even if they aren't for
sister Haycock and me specifically to teach, we are finding 2 people a
day with open hearts that we can make a spiritual connection with. It is
so cool!
I know that the Lord is bound when we do what he says!
Oh yeah, I forgot. I got super sick this week! I woke up on Thursday
with really bad congestion. I went and got some Musinex and I was out
cold for 2 1/2 days. It was the worst! I slept so much. And I had a
fever too, which is not fun when there is only one tiny little window
air conditioner and one fan in your whole apartment. It is so hot down
here... I do not like humidity! I feel like I am just wet and sticky all
day. I hope you all appreciate the dry heat.
Thursday
we had a really rough morning. It's our walking day and we had an
appointment set at 10 with some investigators. While we were on our way
to their house, we were trying to do our contacting. We saw this older
black woman sweeping her porch. We contacted her and she said, oh yeah,
hey sisters, come inside. So we went inside and we started teaching her.
We started with a prayer then kind of started in with the first lesson.
It turns out that she had been taught by the English sisters previously
and said that she believes the book of Mormon is true. She has read the
whole thing and the doctrine and covenants and the bible. BUT she
suddenly got really rude with us and started yelling at us and telling
us about how she doesn't agree with us because she has been to all of the
churches and she just goes where ever she wants on Sundays because she
believes that they are all true... It was so weird. The spirit was gone.
Like super gone and Sister Haycock and I started to feel a little bit
scared, so we were trying to get out. I started to bear my testimony I
said. "Well, I know that Christ lives and that Joseph smith saw God and
Jesus Christ" She agreed and said yes, then I said, "I know that they
told him that none of the churches were true" then she interrupted me and
said, "I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT!" and she was like yelling in my face....
Then sister Haycock said "alright we have to go, my companion's going to
say a prayer now." So I said the prayer then we booked it out of her
house as fast as we could... That lady was so scary. There was zero
spirit in her house. I did not like it.
So we were both a little bit shaken up by that, then we got to the investigators house and they juked us. They weren't home, so we start heading back home and we are still contacting. We saw this cute little old man sitting outside so we went to talk to him. As we are talking to him this other man comes down the street and starts talking to our contact. He was talking to him about a shower head, so we assumed that he lived in his house. We just waited until they were done talking so that we could try to share our message or give them a card or something... Then something weird happened. The guy turns and looks at us and he says, "I have something for you girls." He reaches in his fanny pack and he pulls out these cards and hands them to us. Right as soon as we saw him reach in his fanny pack, we recognized him. We had met him before. He is an anti. The first time we met him, we talked to him a little bit, but he just kept on bashing us so we left. This time however, he gave us the cards, then turns to the cute little old man and says, "do you know what these two girls believe? They believe that Jesus Christ and Satan are brothers, can you believe that?" Then he looks at us and he says "how can you live with yourselves? How can you possibly believe something like that?" and he just starts yelling at us and bashing us like crazy, before we even had time to say anything to him at all. We just looked at him and said, "we hope you two have a nice day," and turned around and walked away. Right then he started getting louder and mocking us saying "oh you see how they're walking away? They don't want to come face me. They think they're better than us" and he just went on and on and on. He just kept on getting louder and louder the further away we got. I swear we could hear him for forever. Just saying the most offensive things. I looked back and I saw the little old man he was talking to and he looked sad. He looked like he felt bad for us. It was awful. I really wanted to just take my badge off and give him a little piece of my mind.... I didn't though, because I had the words of a talk that I had read in my study ringing through my mind. A talk by Elder Holland given in the last general conference. and I remembered one of my favorite scriptures found in 2 Nephi 9:14 "But, behold, the righteous, the saints of the Holy One of Israel, they who have believed in the Holy One of Israel, they who have endured the crosses of the world, and despised the shame of it, they shall inherit the kingdom of God, which was prepared for them from the foundation of the world, and their joy shall be full forever." And then I remembered the talk given in the priesthood session by President Monson about having the courage to defend your faith and defend Christ. I knew right then that we had done the right thing by enduring it and just walking away with a smile. It is not always easy, but they rejected Jesus Christ at first. He knows what it is like to be offended and rejected. He suffered below that all. Am I any better than him? Absolutely not. It isn't easy, but it is always worth it. God ALWAYS fulfills his promises as long as we are faithful to him. I believe in that with my whole soul.
So we were both a little bit shaken up by that, then we got to the investigators house and they juked us. They weren't home, so we start heading back home and we are still contacting. We saw this cute little old man sitting outside so we went to talk to him. As we are talking to him this other man comes down the street and starts talking to our contact. He was talking to him about a shower head, so we assumed that he lived in his house. We just waited until they were done talking so that we could try to share our message or give them a card or something... Then something weird happened. The guy turns and looks at us and he says, "I have something for you girls." He reaches in his fanny pack and he pulls out these cards and hands them to us. Right as soon as we saw him reach in his fanny pack, we recognized him. We had met him before. He is an anti. The first time we met him, we talked to him a little bit, but he just kept on bashing us so we left. This time however, he gave us the cards, then turns to the cute little old man and says, "do you know what these two girls believe? They believe that Jesus Christ and Satan are brothers, can you believe that?" Then he looks at us and he says "how can you live with yourselves? How can you possibly believe something like that?" and he just starts yelling at us and bashing us like crazy, before we even had time to say anything to him at all. We just looked at him and said, "we hope you two have a nice day," and turned around and walked away. Right then he started getting louder and mocking us saying "oh you see how they're walking away? They don't want to come face me. They think they're better than us" and he just went on and on and on. He just kept on getting louder and louder the further away we got. I swear we could hear him for forever. Just saying the most offensive things. I looked back and I saw the little old man he was talking to and he looked sad. He looked like he felt bad for us. It was awful. I really wanted to just take my badge off and give him a little piece of my mind.... I didn't though, because I had the words of a talk that I had read in my study ringing through my mind. A talk by Elder Holland given in the last general conference. and I remembered one of my favorite scriptures found in 2 Nephi 9:14 "But, behold, the righteous, the saints of the Holy One of Israel, they who have believed in the Holy One of Israel, they who have endured the crosses of the world, and despised the shame of it, they shall inherit the kingdom of God, which was prepared for them from the foundation of the world, and their joy shall be full forever." And then I remembered the talk given in the priesthood session by President Monson about having the courage to defend your faith and defend Christ. I knew right then that we had done the right thing by enduring it and just walking away with a smile. It is not always easy, but they rejected Jesus Christ at first. He knows what it is like to be offended and rejected. He suffered below that all. Am I any better than him? Absolutely not. It isn't easy, but it is always worth it. God ALWAYS fulfills his promises as long as we are faithful to him. I believe in that with my whole soul.
Later that day, we were talking to the
other sisters in our zone. The Spanish sisters in Patterson. Their names
are sister Stansel and sister Monson. Sister Monson is this adorable
little girl who is the same height as me and is just cute and sassy, and
she was telling us about how they had the WORST week last week. They
were rejected by EVERYONE and no one let them teach them. They only
taught 7 lessons. And on top of that, one day while they were walking
down the street in Patterson, she all of a sudden felt herself get
drenched in something wet and sticky.... It didn't take her long to
realize that it was some sort of green slime. It turns out, that someone
who was living in a second story apartment saw them coming and dumped
out a huge bucket of some nasty stuff that was in their house right on
top of sister Monson. PEOPLE ARE SO RUDE!!! These sisters are the best.
Shout out to sister Monson for dealing with the slime.
Well, gotta go! I love you all and hope you have a great week. be nice to the missionaries!
-Sister Clark
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