In the Event of an Emergency, Don't Give Sister Waters the Gun 4/19/2010

Hello Family,

This week we had a hilarious district meeting. We were going over the Mission’s Emergency Plan, and our Zone Leaders thought it would be fun to role-play different emergency situations, and demonstrate what you should do in each instance. So, first we role-played what to do if your companion is killed. (Stay with the body until it is in a secure location.) Then, we had to role-play a carjacking. They thought it would be hilarious for Sister Kavatoe and me to be the carjackers, so we consented. They even provided us with a little toy Nerf gun, so we could get dramatic about the whole thing. Ok. So I run up to Elder Kunz and Elder Gregson, knock on their “window” and yell at them to get out of the car. They won’t listen to me, and so I get angrier. “Get Out Of The Car!” (By the way, in the event of a carjacking, we are supposed to comply with the instructions given, FYI.) Well, I lose control of the gun and end up shooting. Unlike Sister Allred, I have never shot gun, and I’m not very good at handling toy ones either. So the “bullet” goes straight though the “car window” and hits my partner in crime, Sister K. At this point, everyone, including myself, lost it, and burst out laughing. It took us a little time to regain our composure. Our district leader closed the meeting by stating, “Well, we’ve learned in the case of emergency, don’t give Sister Waters a gun.” Fair enough.

Remember the former nun that I’ve been writing about for the past few months? Well, she’s officially investigating the church now! We met with her this week at the church building. Her husband passed away last August, so she is planning to build a mother-in-law’s house where she can do more of what she wants, without her family stealing her Book of Mormon. (Yes, we think they took her Book of Mormon). I’ll review her story in case any of you faithful readers have forgotten. We tracted into her back in January or February and she invited us in right away. She told us that she had been praying to know the truth, and had been hoping that she would come in contact with some LDS people. When she was a young adult, her mother convinced her to become a nun, and she was in a cloistered convent near Hollywood California. At this particular monastery, they preformed penance for sins, in the form of sleep deprivation, fasting, humiliation, and whipping. After a time, she realized that only Jesus Christ can atone for the sins of the world, and that our bodies are temples, so she left the monastery. Since then, she has studied a few different faiths, but has a firm testimony of the role of prophets. Because of this faith in the role of prophets, she has united with the Baha’i faith, but in her heart, has concerns or conditions with this faith, because she knows that Jesus Christ was more than just a good prophet, and that in reality, He was the Savior of the world. She was excited to hear about Joseph Smith and modern day prophets. She also read one of the pamphlets we left her, and was thrilled to know that we believe in a pre-earth life, because she has always believed that she came to earth from a good, beautiful place. She intends to read the Book of Mormon some more, and in the closing prayer, asked to know if this was true. When we asked her if she would be baptized when she gets her answer, it was a resounding yes! We found out that she has spinal degeneration, so if she can drive herself to church, most anyone can.

It has been fun to see the work in Rio Rancho pick up, compared to when we got here. We found a few more new people this week who said they want to take the lessons. One of them had attended a t Ballroom dance camp in Provo years ago. We’ll see how all of this progresses. Stay tuned.

Well, I love you dearly and hope all is well for you.

Love,
Sister Waters