November 15, 2010

Hi Everyone!

My 1/2 way mark is this Wednesday!!!! Weird!!!!!!!

This week has been a crazy one! I went to Eugene on Tuesday for a leadership training meeting. It was a VERY cool experience where we got to teach each other and learn ways that we can improve. Sister Hamilton was there as well; it was nice to have a close friend by me again. I tend to feel out of place anymore, because I don't know very many of the sisters personally. There were six sisters staying in the Eugene apartment on Tuesday night! It was a lot of fun! We then finished the training on Wednesday. I taught with an elder named Elder Ericson; it was a really good lesson. I learned a lot. We discussed the importance of teaching to people's needs and not just focusing on getting a "lesson" out. I had a hard time being confident in my teaching (I think because I'm so out of practice. We don't teach a lot in Willamina.), but luckily the elders were really nice in their critiques and they made me feel like I could improve; they didn't just tear down. It was a lot of fun to be around the old crowd again. I miss Eugene a lot, but I'm grateful to have the opportunity to make Willamina as awesome as Eugene/Springfield.

We got back to Willamina on Wednesday around 5 pm, so we only got a few hours of work done that day and then on Thursday we had Weekly Planning, so we only got a few hours of work on that day. On Friday we had District Meeting. Sister Abbott and I got to teach! It was AWESOME!!!! We taught about 1 Cor. 12, where it talks about members of the body all being important. We had the elders do an activity where they sit on chairs and then lay down on eachother's laps in a circle. We then pulled out the chairs and they had to support eachother. They loved it! We then read and discussed 1 Cor. 12. We brought up the importance of loving eachother. We had made colored 8.5"x11" sheets of paper with all of the names of the district written all cute like and girly! We passed them all around and we all wrote on eachother's sheet something that we love or admire about each person. The elders LOVED it! It was a lot of fun to read the good things that people wrote about us! We then committed them to hang the sheets of paper by their desks for at least a week. We took about twice as much time as we were supposed to, but it fit right in with what our district leaders had planned for the rest of the meeting. It was a really good lesson and we all seemed to be spiritually edified!

Friday night we did exchanges with the sisters in Sweet Home. Sister Abbott went there and Sister Rogers came here. Sister Rogers and I went to a breakfast at the VFW in Willamina with a member on Saturday morning. It was a lot of fun and we talked to A LOT of people about the church. Right as we were walking out, this lady grabbed us and said she had a question for us. We started talking to her and she just was not a very nice lady. She looked at us and said, "I'm speaking to you as a motherly figure, because I'm old enough to be your mother. You need to study those things that you're NOT taught." It rubbed me wrong and I couldn't seem to testify enough to her. I HATE it when people think that just because I'm young that I don't have my own testimony. I wish now that I would have said to her, "Well, I'm speaking to you as a servant of God, because He sent me and I KNOW that this is the true church of Jesus Christ and no it's not because I've read everything out there, it's because God Himself has spoken to me and told me this is His. My own knowledge is NOT enough to sustain me and neither is yours." It's a lot easier to think of things I wish I would've said after the fact, except it's probably a good thing I didn't say more. We finally just told her to have a good day and walked away.

Sister Rogers and I had decided to go tract in Grand Ronde. We tried one street and it didn't seem to be productive. We went to another street that we had chosen the night before. Neither one of us felt good about it, so we pulled over and said a prayer. Sister Rogers turned to me after the prayer and said, "There's one house on this street that we need to go to, but I don't know which one it is." I said, "Well, lets drive it and see if any grab our attention." We drove a little ways and there was a side street called Birch Ave. There was a white house on the corner that caught both of our attention. We parked and started walking toward the house. There was a guy in the front and we started to talk to him. He asked if he could help us and we told him we were missionaries. He said, "Then you need to stop right there." He wouldn't let us go onto his property. We told him to have a good day and walked across the street to another house. We knocked and this guy came to the door. We told him we had a really cool message to share with him about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. We asked if we could take a couple of minutes of his time to share it with him. He said, "What ya got?" We then taught about Jesus Christ establishing His gospel on the earth and calling twelve apostles and giving them the priesthood. We then explained the Great Apostasy and then told about Joseph Smith and the First Vision. After I said the First Vision, I asked him what he thought. He said, "Is this the guy that founded your church?" Sister Rogers then explained about Prophets and that Jesus Christ founded the church through Joseph Smith. I then looked at the guy and asked what was going through his head. He gave me a weird look and I said, "Kind of unbelievable?" He responded, "Yeah... and yet believable." It was such a cool moment!!!!!! We then explained the Book of Mormon and I had one in my hand. He said, "So, are you going to give me that book?" I laughed and said, "If you'd like it!" He said, "Yeah, I'll read it!" We then set up an appointment with him and we're going back to see him on Wednesday! His name is Lee! We're really excited about him!

Well, I better go! Have a GREAT week! Sorry there weren't any new pics to send!

Love,

Sister Losee