January 20, 2014

Sis. Whitted: Ward Mission Leader, BYU Hall of Famer,
and Olympic Volleyball Player!

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

Matthew 11:28

This week was crazy and super fun! We had so many appointments and were running to everything. Nothing new, but it has been so fun! 

We have been doing a lot of service in the mornings because of the snow. Mainly we have been going around and wiping off all the snow on the cars. It is supposed to snow again, so we are going around to all of our investigators' houses shoveling their walks. We are counting down the days; I have found that when I look forward to the snow, I am not as upset when it actually comes. Luckily, I have a lot of hand warmers, boots, and socks! It takes about 15 minutes to get dressed in the morning, but I can leave the house feeling warm!

Theresa's Baptism

Patti's Baptism

Speaking of getting dressed, all of Ohio thought that the cold was coming to an end (by all of Ohio, I mean myself). Well, we all thought wrong! Here we are again entering another week with the high on Wednesday to be 1 degree... Who has every heard of that temperature? I love it actually. The members usually give out more referrals, and they make us hot chocolate all the time. They really do take care of us! :)

Theresa with the missionaries and her son (who baptized her).

Patty got baptized this week! It was such a beautiful baptism. She had family drive from Missouri and Georgia to see her enter into this great covenant with our Savior. We are really excited to see what is in store for her as she progresses in the gospel!

Sister Gale in the freezing snow!

We had a wonderful zone meeting this last Wednesday. We did a lot of training, made new goals to reach, and also were given many techniques that we could use to help grow our number of investigators. Since our investigators that we have are now being baptized, we are working on building up our teaching pool again. We have a lot of people that we are teaching, but we are now working on extending dates more frequently. We have been thinking a lot, and we plan to extend to 5 people this week. Of course, we need to follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost, so we will see how that goes! 

Sister Gale with Sister Ure enjoying the lights at the zoo.

Sister Ure and I had a pretty memorable experience this week. This last Wednesday, our ward did some ministering visits. A ministering visit is where the mission president, stake president, an assistant, and other choice members pair up with priesthood holders from our ward, and they go out visiting those who have been thought over and prayed for. Well, we had the lucky chance of going out with Sis. Whitted and being a part of the ministry visits! We were given 3 families to visit. Of the three, only one was home, and that appointment was truly inspired. Apparently this individual had been praying to know if God is really there, and then the next day we showed up to talk with her. She was able to come to church yesterday, and she brought her son (who is not a member). We set up an appointment to meet with them this Thursday to go over the missionary discussions. We are so excited to see them come closer to their Savior again!

Sister Gale and Sister Ure changing their tire in dresses in the freezing cold all by themselves!

Funny story for this email: We were in the downtown part of Columbus one day and brought a recent convert with us to meet with people. We also had some potential investigators that we wanted to move to investigating or not interested. As we were driving in the snow, we got a flat tire. We were right in front of a less-active's house that just happened to not be there. It was about 12 degrees outside, and the Elders were in New Albany, not in Columbus. So we called Bro. Benton to come help us change our tire. I was a little cold and didn’t want to wait, so I just got out the necessary things that we needed to change the tire. (Dad, you would be so proud!!) We got the jack out, cranked up the car, and got the entire tire changed and finished right when Bro. Benton showed up. He inspected our work, approved it, and we went on our way. No one pulled over to help, so Sister Ure and I can say yes we changed a tire, in skirts, in 12 degree weather, while it was snowing. We felt pretty legit! :)

At Patti's baptism this last weekend.

The second funny story for the email happened when we were eating dinner at the Atwood's last night (he is the 1st councilor in the bishopric), and we were talking about church. We had an interesting event take place today at church, and without going into details, Bro. Atwood was saying how they spoke as a bishopric to have key words when they needed to "help out" a situation. It was so funny to hear the different key words that they discussed. We also talked about how he was in charge of assigning the talks this whole year. I gave him some advice of doing it and somehow walked out of the house with an assignment to speak this next Sunday. Somewhere during this mission I am going to learn when and when not to open my mouth. Haha! I am excited to speak, but we have a busy week so finding time to plan it will be interesting. (It’s about the blessings we receive from knowing The Plan of Salvation... if anyone has ideas, my mom has my address). 

After the Baptism with the Whitted family

Anyways, that is it for this week. We have another baptism this Saturday that will be completely in sign language. Sister Ure and I are pretty fluent in sign language now. So I would consider myself partially biligual! ;) Totally kidding... I still have a lot of work to do, but I need to start learning more because we are teaching another deaf man! :)

Shoveling members's driveways and cleaning windows for service early in the morning at -20 degrees!

I am so thrilled to be a missionary during this time. Although there are many hardships and tough times in the mission, there are so many laughs and good times to balance it all out. I am so grateful for my Father in Heaven, and I am also grateful for The Book of Mormon. It truly is the word of God and IS another testament of Jesus Christ. "A man (or women) WILL get nearer to God" as they abide by its teaching and precepts. I know this is true, and I would urge everyone to read it! I love this gospel! I love my family and friends so much. I am grateful for all the support and love, and I also love my job!

Until next week,

Sister Gale