Ropin' Missionaries

It’s transfer time again! And I’m staying in Bloomfield 2nd Ward for another transfer! But Sister Crossley is leaving for Cortez, Colorado, and Sister Weatherston will be my new companion. I didn’t anticipate staying at all! So I’m kind of a mess. Sister Crossley had me convinced that she would be staying and I would be leaving. I feel a little stressed out. Even though I’m not the senior companion this next transfer, I feel “in charge” of all the investigators, less actives, and potentials (since Sister Weatherston won’t know what has been happening in the area). I feel hugely inadequate. All our investigators and the entire ward just adored Sister Crossley. (I compare this to the Chantilly Ward back home, imagine how Elder Swensen’s companion would feel if he were transferred). I will miss her a TON, and I KNOW our investigators will too. I just hope they still let me come! I also worry that my “greenie” stereotype within the ward will be difficult to overcome. I was kind of a wreck last night, but one of the ward missionaries called both Sister Crossley and I at about 10 pm last night. She told me that I have her confidence and that Heavenly Father and President Anderson wouldn’t have left me in this area if they didn’t know I could do it and am up to the challenge of taking charge a little bit. She basically just told me that I was a good missionary, which I really needed to hear right then. This transfer will be a huge opportunity for growth, I’m sure. I have a LOT of anticipation for this transfer, and don’t really know what to expect.

In other news, today was an excellent Preparation Day! One of the families in our ward has a huge ranch and they let Sister Crossley and I come up and learn how to rope! It was so much fun! They even let us keep the ropes so that we could keep practicing! They have their own rodeo arena as part of their ranch, and it was so much fun to see all the horses and steers. Then, we got back into our “city girl” roots and went shopping. I needed some more summer clothes, so we made a trip into town.

I think the ultimate highlight of the week was the baptismal date from last week. As I mentioned, we have a new emphasis on committing people to baptism. One of our investigators was SO excited to get baptized, but we hadn’t had the chance to tell them about the fact that the investigator needed to be married first. I was terrified of bringing up this requirement, because I didn’t know how our investigator would handle it and I also wasn’t sure whether or not they had already told a lot of family. But we went over there on Monday night to briefly go over the baptismal requirements. I had been praying all day to have the Spirit with us so that I could explain this topic with love. We had also prayed that our investigator would be prepared to hear about the marriage requirement, and would be aware of it. Well we were HUGELY blessed. Not only was the investigator still excited to get baptized, but they had already been thinking about marriage and was wondering when we would bring it up! I sensed that they were actually relieved that we brought it up! I’m not surprised that I was so scared to extend the invitation. The adversary does NOT want Heavenly Father’s children to get baptized, but he also knows how important family relationships are to our eternal progression as well! We stepped forward with faith…into the dark. We followed our mission leaders’ advice, not knowing beforehand how it would go, and everything turned out just perfectly! I’m so excited! That was definitely one of the highlights from my mission experience so far!

We also met with a less active this week who decided that they want the missionary discussions again!!! They even invited a friend to listen in as well! That was above and beyond what we were asking!

One funny thing that happened this week: We were teaching one of our investigators about the importance of scripture study. We pointed out that in Alma 31, Alma talks about how the word of God is more powerful than fortifications, or armies or ANYTHING and how he gave up the judgment seat to preach it. After the lesson, we tried to commit the investigator to read their scriptures each day this week. THIS was the response we got:
“Well, it was kind of like this TV show about midgets that my granddaughter and I were watching. I said that I HATE little people. And my granddaughter didn’t think that was nice of me. That is a very interesting show all about midgets.”
WE really didn’t know how to transition back onto a gospel topic with that one. So we just didn’t even try.“Yeah, scripture reading is really important. We’ll see you next week!”

Love you all! Hope all is going well for you. I don’t have much time to write letters this week, sorry. But I love you and appreciate your support. Hope all is going well for you!

PS We also had the neatest baptism. We found the woman, but the Spanish elders taught her. The baptism was all in Spanish, but the Spirit was so incredibly strong! I loved hearing "JesuChristo" -- that was about the only word that I recognized!! The woman got baptised even though her husband didn't agree with it. She basically just told him, "This is between me and the Lord, and you don't need to worry about it." She comes to our ward even though Relief Society is all in Englsih. It is so sweet to see the returned missionary spanish speaking sisters translate for her. It sounds like her husband might finally be interested! Yay!

We also tracted into some Spanish people this week. One of us (I'm not telling who!) went up to the women and gave them a pass along card, smiled, gave them a thumbs up and just said "Jesu Christo...moy bien!" So funny! They just laughed at us :) I think there were more funny things that happened but I can't remember tham all! Yikes.