Striking Gold

P-day and Transfers

Good news! We had enough money for food today! We got our cards reloaded because it's the beginning of the month. We usually eat dinner at members' houses, but we ran out of breakfast foods for a few days. Don't worry, I still had other food! It was fun. Good times. Missionary life is the bomb.

Transfer calls were Saturday after the second session! Half of the elders (3 of the 6) in our district are getting transferred, but my comp and I are staying together! That means I'll probably kill her off because she only has one more transfer after this one. And by "kill her off," I mean I'll see her leave. Oh, yeah. That reminds me.

Language

Windows of Heaven. A two-hour block of time set aside where a companionship prays about a time and place to go walking around an area to talk to everyone they possibly can. This does not include knocking on doors. It can be much more effective because you certainly seem more human when you greet someone cheerfully as they walk past than when someone opens a door and you say, "Hi, we're missionaries-" *slam* (An example of the effectiveness of this to be given in the section titled, "Umm, People!! Obviously..."

Kill. To be your companion's last companion and be the one to send them home.

And then there's this one...

Die. To finish your mission and go home.

This one gets me every time. Because Sister Hale only has two transfers left, I'll probably (1) kill her off and (2) see her die. That is, like, super weird. She'll be on the phone with the elders during call-arounds, and I'll just hear Sister Hale say, "Yeah, you'll probably see me die." I'll be taken aback for a second, then realize it's mission lingo, sigh, and shake my head.

And then...

Funeral. An event held at the last district meeting before an elder or sister finishes their mission. Held to commemorate and celebrate their mission and to say goodbye.

I think I'll end up in charge of Sister Hale's funeral.

Umm, People!! Obviously...

On a happier note...

I bet all y'all thought that, by "striking gold," I meant getting our cards reloaded for food. Not the case.

Patrick

We met Patrick during Windows of Heaven. Here's why this was a miracle. For Windows of Heaven, we prayed and felt good about going to this one community called Gatewood and walking around there to talk to people. When we got there, the first person we ran into was Patrick. We talked to Patrick a little about the Restoration, asked him if he'd like us to come visit him, and got his address and asked him when we could stop by. Great! He seemed like a neat person. One down, lots more to go.

Or not...

The next person we talked to was the manager... lady... person... I'm not sure what you would call her. But she came up to us and was super duper friendly. She told us that, unfortunately, she couldn't let us stay. We thought she might be under the impression that we wanted to knock on doors, so we asked her if we could just walk around and talk to people. She looked really sad and said, "Unfortunately, no... My phone will start ringing. But I really think it's wonderful that you girls want to do this! I just can't let you stay." We thanked her and headed out, feeling a little sad and maybe aimless because now we had a whole two hours of blank time. We ended up heading somewhere else and kinda visiting some people and doing Windows of Heaven around there instead.

But here's the miracle.

When we stopped by Patrick's house the next week, he didn't answer, but we tried again the week after that and were able to have a lesson on his porch! He answered the door with a toothbrush in his mouth. Umm... slightly awkward! But we waited for him and taught the Restoration. We mentioned the word "baptism" about once at the beginning of the lesson while we were talking to him about why we wanted to teach him. And then we asked him to pray.

The end of his prayer included the words, "...and hopefully I can join this church..."

*Missionaries explode inwardly with excitement while trying not to conduct themselves in an overly enthusiastic manner outwardly when the prayer is finished*

I mean... WHOOO!!!!

Video game voice: "The gold has been struck."

We set up a return appointment with him, and we're teaching the Plan of Salvation and hopefully getting him on date for baptism! We just have to get him to church. It might be difficult for him because he works a lot of night shifts. Prayers.

Ready for the next miracle?

Joseph and Mary

Yes, you read that right. We met a couple whose names are the same as Christ's earthly parents. Is it a sign?

Well, no. But here's the story.

The elders in Coker Springs have been giving us lots of referrals lately. They met Joseph in Walmart and got excited, but then they realized he's in our area. I think that's happened more than once now! So they sent us his info. We weren't able to get over there until Wednesday, but here's what happened.

We had planned in to go see an older sister in our ward named Sister Keaton. She is the sweetest lady, and she's always home. Well, on Wednesday evening she wasn't home. We actually still don't know why. But we had no other plans and weren't really sure what to do. So we prayed. Sister Hale is usually the idea person in our companionship. Sometimes I get ideas right away, but usually my mind goes blank. My mind did it's thing, so I waited for Sister Hale.

"Do we have any potentials we need to follow up on?"

I'm the record-keeper. It's something I love to do and that I'm good at. I pulled out my planner, in which I keep a list of potentials and their info in the "Potential Investigators" section. I scanned through the names, trying to pick one out that we hadn't tried yet.

"Oh! Joseph," I said. "The referral the elders met in Walmart."

"Okay, let's go try him."

We got to Joseph's home, a trailer (not uncommon out here), and knocked. After taking care of his dog (literally everyone out here has a dog), we talked to him and told him we were missionaries just like the elders he met in Walmart.

"Oh! Great! Come in!"

His wife was in the other room, he said, so we went in and started talking to him. He was extremely friendly. At first, he seemed like one of those people who just wants to meet and talk to you about Jesus but not change religions. That's happened to us a lot in the past six weeks.

We started talking about the gospel and baptism. I talked about how baptism by proper authority was important. I used the analogy about a random person trying to pull you over on the freeway versus a policeman with authority trying to pull you over. I related it to baptism by proper authority and asked him if it made sense.

"Oh, yeah, that makes sense," he responded, deep in thought.

Sister Hale asked him, "As you come to know our message is true, will you be baptized by that proper authority?"

"Oh, yeah, definitely."

*Missionaries' eyes widen as they explode internally while trying not to seem overly enthusiastic outwardly*

Video game voice: "The gold has been struck."

His wife came in towards the end after being on a phone call and he said to her, "I think I'm gonna join the Mormon church."

*More explosions*

We invited them to conference, and they came! Whoo! We're hopefully getting them on date for baptism during our lesson this Friday.

Now, ere you left your room this morning, did you think to pray?

Pray for gold.

Sister McKay