March 17, 2013

"The bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot."

Michael Altshuler

Man this week went by so fast! I can’t believe that we are already on another P-day. I feel like there is never enough time in the day to get everything done, and there is never enough time in the week to see everyone that you plan on seeing! With that said, I rather it be that way than not having anybody to see or anything going on! That would be horrible... 
 

Rockin' our St.Patrick's duds on St. Patty's Day in Dublin, Ohio

Well, I have so many great experiences and fun stories for this week so hold fast to your seats! :)

This week we met with many less-actives, and I got to know why a majority of them are less-active... most of them want their name taken off the records of the church. I explained to them that it isn’t that easy, and they may want to talk to the bishop before they just do that. It’s sad that there are some people, let alone members that have lost their testimony and have forgotten and have chosen to forget the sacred covenants they have made. I know that that will never happen to me, and I hope that we can help each of them remember what the Spirit feels like this week.
 

Sporting some awesome socks!

We had some amazing lessons with some of the younger generation- all around 16 years old. It is amazing to me how many people are looking for the truth at such a young age. One is Catholic, the second one is Muslim, and the third is a Catholic as well, but her mother was Mormon. Her name is Anna, and she is the most interested in learning about the Gospel. I hope that we can help her come unto Christ. I know that she wants to come back to church, but we need to get her Father's permission first!

Okay, onto the funny stories! So Sister McIntyre and I committed to doing more things that we could handle on Saturday, so we had another set of sisters come and help us out. Here in Dublin they celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with a huge parade and other things, and there was a baptism going on at the same time. Sister McIntyre ended up going to the parade because it was a great time to contact people, and I went to the baptism because there were a lot of non-members coming. We were asked to bear our testimony and give a chapel tour at the end. They also asked us to fill the baptismal font. Well, little did we know that the hot water heater was broken, so when we first got the water going we put it at 90 degrees so that it was warm. As we were getting everything set up it was almost finished filling up. We went to go look at the temperature gauge, and it was down to 60 degrees. I went to fill the water, and it was FREEZING!!! Bro. Busken, whose son was being baptized, walked in at that time and looked at us, and I told him that the water was cold. He felt it and was like "Ya, too cold". What was my solution, you may ask? We went to the kitchen and began boiling water. 8 HUGE pots of water were being boiled, and we would just dump them into the font once they were warm. Now it didn’t warm it up too much, but it brought the temperature to about 85 degrees... So funny! I never thought that we would have to boil water and pour it into the baptismal font!
 

A Yummy Kind of Service!

Another story... We were challenged in our district meeting to find people to teach. One way was through our waiter or waitress. I have never done that before, and we were going out to eat this last Friday; so Sister McIntyre and I wanted to try it out before we actually did it with a member. We went to a popular place called Steaks'n'Shake. We had this young man come up, and we talked about how we were on missions for our church and that we were giving a chapel tour this Saturday. We invited him to come. Well, turns out he works at the zoo and wouldn’t be able to make it. We gave him a pass-a-long card and told him to give us a call when he got the chance, and we would give him a chapel tour. Well, yesterday we were on our way to pick up Cynthia and he calls us: his name is Sean. Here’s how the conversation went…

S: "Hey are you doing anything tonight?"
Me: "Ya, there is this great fireside going on in New Albany. You should totally come! It starts at 6pm, its going to be great!"
S: "That’s a far drive... maybe we can do something when you get back from that."
M: "Ya totally! We'll get back at about 8pm. We can show you around our church! If that is too late for you then we can do tomorrow!"
S: "Tomorrow I am going to be drinking!"
M: "Drinking?"
S: "Ya drinking, it’s St. Patrick’s day! Aren’t you going to drink?"
M: "Drinking? OH!!! You mean Wine... No we don’t drink."
S: "You don’t drink?"
M: "Well yes, we drink water and milk,… like the good stuff!"

 
Helping Make Some Really Cool gift Baskets

*** we had to go because clearly the conversation wasn’t going anywhere, but later that evening he was texting us and asked us to have a movie night... man, that was the funniest thing! I was like, "We’re on missions. We don’t watch TV, so we can stay focused on the work that we have been called to do. That’s why we keep asking you to come check out our church!" Man, being hit on over text message... I can’t believe it! It was so awkward (I see why missionaries are awkward when they get home), but yet so funny!***

I had some other funny stories to write about, but time is up. 

 
So Many Gift Baskets!

As I was teaching Seminary this week I had the greatest insight come to me... We are truly blessed to have a Savior that knows us... literally He understands everything that each of us is going through, and yet He still loves us so much. I am so grateful for the miracles that occur daily and weekly. I am so grateful for this gospel and especially for this wonderful opportunity that I have to go out everyday and tell Dublin of The Book of Mormon and that Christ did come to restore the Gospel, that Joseph Smith listened and did as the Lord commanded him. I love you all so much, and I am grateful for you! Keep strong to this gospel, and remember that this church does bring everlasting happiness! I love you, and I love my job!

Sister Gale