February 26, 2014

“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” 

Andy Warhol

I don’t know if you all have heard the news, but I have been transferred. I was called to train, be doubled-in, and open a new area here in Dublin. The people here are very wealthy and are quite content with where they are in life. This has put baptisms at a low, but there is still work that can be done! The Elders in this area are great and so willing to work together to get this area up and moving. We have made plans to get things moving especially with the members of the ward. I found out that the retention has been slim, so we met with the Ward mission leader to implement some strategies that we used in New Albany. Also, the ward doesn’t have a mission plan, so I got the New Albany one. Hopefully with an outline we can put one together that will best fit this area. 

Sis. Gale and Sis. Ure with their new companions.

My new companion is Sister McIntyre. She is from Utah and super nice. We are still working on teaching together and getting the hang of things, so there will be more updates next week. 

We also had the opportunity to teach a lady named Cynthia. She is wonderful and has been investigating for some time. The Elders asked us to go teaching with them so that they could hand her over to us. We were able to put her on-date that night for March 8th. She didn’t come to church, so we went over there last night and talked to her about different things. We are going to implement some plans to help her out. I am really excited to see her progress and enter the waters of baptism, hopefully in the next few weeks. 

Sis. Ure is not very happy about Sis. Gale transferring.

There is a part-member family that lives right across the street from us. On our first night here, they offered to feed us dinner. We asked if we could teach them the Restoration because we hadn’t taught together yet as a companionship. They agreed, and the husband (who is the non-member) said that he would be asking a lot of questions. (I guess he is known for doing that). Well after we taught, he was left speechless--in a good way! The Spirit was so strong. Since then, he has been super nice to us and willing to help us. We are hoping to go there later this week to talk to them some more!

Saying goodbye to the McIntyre's

So to finish our exciting week, we woke up this morning to go running, and before we left, I figured I would start my laundry. Well the washer began to leak... Our apartment was flooding! I put towels in front of the stove and fridge to make sure that the water didn’t go under there, and we started filling buckets with water. We called the Elders because we didn’t know what to do. They came with some more mops and called one of the office elders to come and help out. The whole time we were cleaning, I was just imagining how funny it would be to just see all of us missionaries in a tiny kitchen trying to get the entire floor dry. Luckily we were able to keep it on the tile! We got everything fixed and got the laundry started. Well, it came time to put the clothes in the dryer, and our dryer was broken. So the office Elders got to come back with a new dryer to help us out. Oh, what a morning! I felt bad because we woke up the Elders... I started the wash at 5:45 this morning... they were shocked that we were willing to wake up that early haha. We are going to have to do something nice for them for sure!

Sis. Gale with Sis. Whitted and Sis. McIntyre right before leaving for Dublin.

Well it’s about time for me to go, but I just wanted to finish by saying that I know this work is so true! I am so grateful for the trust and responsibility that Christ and God have given me to "go out and tell the world of Jesus Christ, the Lord". The Book of Mormon is the truest book on the Earth today, and I am so grateful that I can open it every day and read and learn from it. I am grateful for this gospel and for the peace it brings to my life! There is true power in prayer and true joy in this journey! I love you all, and I love my job!

Sister Gale