April 16, 2014

I'M IN NAUVOO!!!!!!!!

Saying goodbye to everyone in Texas was a little sad, but for that last week, I had this overwhelming sense of peace about that whole six months. I felt very strongly that I had accomplished what God wanted me to do in that area. I had my exit interview with President Ames, which was a little different since I wasn't actually ending my mission. He said he normally didn't do exit interviews with reassigned missionaries but felt he should do one for me, since he said I had become a part of the mission. :) He asked if I wanted a blessing or for him to say a prayer at the end of the interview, and of course I asked for a blessing because how often can you get one from a mission president? It, right off the bat, reaffirmed my feelings that I did actually accomplished all He wanted me to do (and I hadn't told my president about that at all. The power of the priesthood is real!).

My favorite member, Sister Evans, picked us up Thursday morning and took us to the mission office. We got so lost because the freeways in Texas are crazy plus they had construction. A senior couple picked me up and took me to the airport. While waiting for my flight (side note: I was starving but didn't want to leave my carryon bag with anyone and even more did not want to take it around the airport with me because a) I shoved everything I couldn't make fit in my suitcases in there so it was mega heavy and b) I had a prime seat in the terminal) I noticed a guy watching a video on Paso Fino horses on his phone- of course I had to be nosy and butt in. He was really surprised I knew what Paso Finos were. He was from Colombia and worked at a Paso Fino farm in Florida and was going to St. Louis to see some other Paso Finos. Long story short, I ended up giving him a Restoration pamphlet (which he read!). It worked out well. 

Something was up with the plane so we switched terminals to another plane and ended up leaving an hour late. I was in the last group of people to get on and I was shoving my way over-stuffed bag into the overhead compartment when I hear "Hey, Sister, come sit over here." What?! Whoa, someone is a member on this plane? Lo and behold, an 18 year old girl invited me to sit with her and we talked about BYU and horses the whole hour and a half flight. It was prime.

The airport reunion with the Nauvoo sisters was SPLENDID. I saw them (there were only like 7 there at the time) in the distance but got my luggage first. I was walking up to them and yelling "Sisters!! Sisters!?" And they didn't hear me. One happened to look in my direction and BAM I had seven sisters running and screaming and tackling me all at once. SUCH a happy reunion. My new president, President Gibbons, was very calm about all of it. hahahaha. 

More next week!

Love, Ashley

Me and a cat on the doorstep of a house we were knocking.

Bluebells, the state flower of Texas. They're illegal to pick or I would have sent like 10 home already.

The port-a-potty in the front yard of a trailer says "Office Of Obama"

Mercedes was baptized April 4th! 

Forever ago, I mentioned the church tour outline that President had me make. It was awesome! Sister Gentry and I typed it all up and sent it to our President for him to discuss with the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders. We should hear how it went on Wednesday, at our zone training. 

That couple (Tony and Marisela) with the DUI and CPS coming after them? Well the past few times they've been trying to come to church, things happened to keep them from coming. The first time, CPS called them while they were ON THEIR WAY to church and told them to turn around and come back. The second time, they were all dressed and ready to go, got in the car, and bam, car wouldn't start. Ugh. So they were taking the car to get fixed and it ran out of gas on the road. A guy pulls over and gives them $20 for gas and then offers Tony a job! What! But guess what else? The guy was LDS, from a ward a couple towns over in Cleburne. Tony told him they were talking with missionaries (us) and the guy tells them to keep listening because what we have to say is true. Wow!! 

Mercedes, the woman who was going to be baptized on June 2, just got baptized on April 4th. :) I had an interview with my President and at the end, he prayed that, if it be God's will, I would see a baptism before I left Texas. A few days later, Sister Cooper picked us up to go see Mercedes. It was the visit right after we set June 2nd as her date. Sister Cooper was talking about how she was praying that Mercedes would move up her date so Satan would have less time to work on her- we decided that would be the focus of the lesson that day. We go in, have an opening prayer, and immediately after, Mercedes says "I have news for you guys before we start. I've been going back and forth between being baptized and not and I think it's just Satan getting at me. So I would like to be baptized sooner- before Sister Munro leaves." Ahhhh!!! So we set it for April 4th and it was done. :) 

We asked our President if he would speak at the baptism but he had a scheduling conflict, so I spoke instead. Our district also did a musical number. It was a beautiful baptism! :) Mercedes was so happy all day- the Spirit was really prevalent. 

Chris, the one who had the date for April 5th, dropped his date for now. He hasn't come to church yet. He'll get there someday soon. :)

Imagine you're in a lesson with an investigator and they say yes to being baptized. You go to validate their decision by reading 1 Nephi 3:7 (which reads: "And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he hath commanded them.") but you actually go to 3 Nephi 3:7 which is about the wicked groups in the Book of Mormon: "Or in other words, yield yourselves up unto us, and unite with us, and become acquainted with our secret works, and become our brethren that ye may be like unto us- not our slaves, but our brethren and partners in all our substance." ahahaha. 

I've got like two seconds left so one last piece of news. We got a call from President Ames yesterday asking me to create a church tour outline to give to the whole mission! What what! More on that next week. :)

~ Ashley

Oookay man I am way behind on the news! Guess what, yall?! We have TWO baptismal dates. Count em, TWO! Chris, the one who I wrote about a little while ago, has his date on April 5th (five days before I go back to Nauvoo) and last night we set a date with a woman named Mercedes for her grandson's birthday, June 2nd. That was an awesome, Spirit-directed lesson. We're also working with another couple who I know would be baptized but they've had crazy things happen lately (DUIs and a week in jail and consequently CPS coming out to check on their four-year-old daughter). So I probably won't be able to see them progress much more. Everyone is so promising in this area! I love it! 

Maybe I've talked about this before but it has been made re-evident to me. I am a sower missionary, not a reaper. Everything I've been called to do has to do with sowing. I mean, let's be real, I'm a Visitor's Center Sister. I know my job in this area was to just give it a kick-start and get it going for the future. But hey, if that was the purpose of my mission- to set things up for future missionaries- I'm cool with that. I fulfilled the purpose Heavenly Father sent me here to do.

This past Tuesday was probably the best EVER. Okay first of all it was 80 degrees. Yeah, 80 degrees in March. I love Texas. We taught TEN total lessons. Ten, man. A good day might be 4 or 5. TEN. YEAH!

Alright folks Sister Munro OUT!

Number three from last week!

3- Sister Gentry and I stopped at a gas station and got some candy from inside (this was actually a hispanic-oriented [orient, hahaha] place and most of their stuff was mexican candy). As we were leaving, we passed a truck with five people in it and got the prompting to talk to them. I was like, no way. Nope. Excuse me, that is so awkward. So I kept walking and I backed Sister Gentry out of the parking spot, all the while just looking at this parked truck with all these people in it. I opened the door of our car and said "Sister Gentry... Is it socially unacceptable to knock on someone's car window?" "...Yes, Sister Munro. Uhhh why?" And at that moment I saw my opportunity and went for it. As predicted, it was super awkward but I gave them a Plan of Salvation pamphlet (it was supposed to be Restoration but all that I kept grabbing out of my bag was Plan of Salvation so I was like FINE). This kind of thing has happened before, where we feel that we should talk to a certain person or go somewhere when we don't know why and we see the repercussions weeks later. It'll be cool to see if/when something comes of that. 

Guess what happened on Wednesday! Two things. One, it was my EIGHT MONTH MARK!! Eight months, guys! Wow! Two, we went to the temple! It was such a great day. We went with our Ward Mission Leader, Brother Robbins, our whole district (Elders Vaoga, Beard, Spencer, and Jones), and Ryan, who is going on his mission to Minnesota on the 19th. 

We had a lesson with a really tough investigator named Ron. He's been on the records since 2011, so he's had missionaries for a long time. It was a good lesson on agency where basically we said, 'dude, if you don't want blessings or peace or joy or guidance or a good relationship with God, you don't have to have it. But we are here to show you how you CAN have all of that.' It was super inspired and we've used it with other investigators and less-actives since. 

I got to teach a lesson in sign language! I've mentioned the less-active deaf couple before. I taught her the Restoration while voicing (as best I could) for Sister Gentry. When I was explaining about Joseph Smith, there was a knock on the door. Sister Sellars (the deaf less-active) looked out the window and said it was one of "our people". She opened the door and there stood the Young Single Adult ward sisters! What! So they came in and we all talked for a bit and somehow the conversation started on how Brother Sellars (who is hard-of-hearing) is musically talented. So he played us all some soul music on the piano. It was fun and super strange- I've never had other missionaries come to the door while we were in a lesson!

When we left, Sister Gentry told me it was the best Restoration she's ever heard me teach. If only I could teach in sign language all the time! 

Transfer calls were this morning and, as we guessed, both Sister Gentry and I are STAYING! Score. Another transfer in the Wonderland. I'll go back to Nauvoo April 10th. 

We're supposed to be up at 6:30 every day, even P days. When the zone leaders called for transfers at 7:20, the elder asked how we were and I said "A bit upset we had to get up early for this, but go ahead and tell us." He had me repeat it to make sure he heard what I was saying and then there was a long silence... I finally had to tell him I was kidding and that we definitely got up on time. :) So after he told us we were staying he says "Oh but there is one change. You guys are having your truck taken away, you've been abusing it. You will be getting scooters." A joke for a joke. :)

That's all, folks!

~ Ashley

Alright, so the sticky note idea? That didn't happen. I'm telling you, every day is like five minutes and I don't know where the time goes. Well here's a couple highlights.

Monday night, we were out on an exchange with a guy named Ryan who is leaving on his mission in March. We took him to a potential's house but they didn't answer. These peoples' porch is not up to code (well, let's be real, whose IS up to code in Venus? People do what they want) meaning no railings and stuff. Which, before, has never been a challenge for me except that one night. So Ryan walks down the steps, then Sister Gentry, then I come tumbling down. Apparently it looked like a ninja roll stopped halfway. My left shin is pretty well banged up but it was an adventure, aka worth it. 

That same night, we went to visit a less-active who has like 5 chihuahuas. We were talking to her in her living room when two of the dogs started mildly fighting on the couch. She stops what she was saying and goes "Hey, stop that! Jesus doesn't like that!" Oh. my. goodness. It took all the self-control in the WORLD for Sister Gentry, Ryan, and I to not laugh. She turns back to us and says "I say that when they fight because they understand. I'm serious." hahahahahahaha.

Three really cool experiences this week:

1- One of our best investigators, Chris- we finally got to meet with him again. I don't know if I mentioned this before but he owns a tiny (I mean tiny) little shack/booth convenience store. You don't go in because it only has room for one person- the cashier- so there's a drive-through-type window that you walk up to. So we were talking to him and asked if he prayed about the Book of Mormon. He said yes and that he had a warm, positive feeling and also a feeling that he should continue listening to what we had to say. He also said he had a feeling of comfort and peace when talking to us. That's the spirit, Chris! The SPIRIT!

2- Another investigator, Cheryl. We were talking with her about the Plan of Salvation and she goes, "I feel like I've 'heard' this before. Like it's already familiar to me." I was floored. You hear about investigators saying that but I had never had someone say it to me. Evidence of the pre-mortal existance- bam. Then she was flipping through the Book of Mormon while we were talking and she interrupts and says, "I'm sorry, I just keep opening to this page, can we read it?" Yes of COURSE we will read the Book of Mormon with you! hahaha. We did, and it was exactly what she needed to hear. She cried. And then at the end of the lesson, she says "I feel like there are a lot of answers for me in this book." Yes, Cheryl! There are!! 

3- Oh man I'm outta time. Experience Number Three will be for next week! 

~ Ashley

Dusty with Sister Gentry and myself. It was also his 62nd birthday so a few people brought presents for him. :)