Tuesday.....well. Our health again became an issue and we had to go to the urgent care down the road. We found out that my absolutely amazing companion had contracted conjunctivitis. AKA pink eye. So. We were on quarantine for at least 24 hours. It was really depressing because we had an absolutely perfect day planned out. We were so busy and we had like 7 appointments. After we left the hospital, we promptly walked into our apartment, put on sweats, rescheduled all of our appointments and then we crashed. We slept for about 3 hours. It was crazy how tired we were. The worst part of all though was that our phone rang like 4 million times. It rang more in those 3 hours than it normally does the entire week. It was ridiculous. That was our basic day.
Wednesday, we had a meeting in St Robert with our zone. President Loveland also came and we got to have an interview with him. I loved talking to him and getting advice from him. I really love him a lot. He has an impressive knowledge of the scriptures. He brought a lot of peace to my mind as he talked to me. When i walked in he said, "Sister Ritter. You look a lot better now than the past 4 months that i have seen you. I guess you are probably healed and feeling better?" So if anything...i know that i don't look physically drained from my surgery anymore.(: In the interviews, he set a goal with Sister Hill and I both. We are going to tract for one hour a day and OTM (walk up to a random person and start talking to them) 5 people a day. He said that if we did this, we will find happiness, success, and we will be able to finish off our mission with intensity. That is exactly what i want. I want to be so tired when i come home that i KNOW i left everything i had here.
In the meeting while the others were being interviewed, they talked a lot about what we as missionaries need to be focusing on. We need to recognize and realize why we decided to serve a mission. And what we can do to fulfill our goals. I know that the goals President set with me will help me to fulfill my purpose. He also instructed me to ponderize one thing a day. Not one a week. It seemed overwhelming at first, but i realized i don't need to necessarily memorize a scripture a day, but i need to have something in my head every single day, so that i will always have something to share and help others come unto Christ.
Our zone leader, Elder day, asked Elder Burton and I if we would sing 'I am a Child of God' in marshallese at the zone meeting. So that happened and that was awkward.
We didn't get home until super late that night, so we didn't really get to be a missionary until Thursday. It was crazy!
Thursday. We had a super cool experience. We decided to put our goals into action. We picked 'Missouri' Street to start our tracting goal. NO LUCK. There wasn't even one nice person on that street. Luckily there was only 4 houses...but man. Brutal. So after that we moved to the gold mine for tracting. We went to 'Heller' Street. We knocked on a door and a man yelled, "Who is it?" We were scared because usually that doesn't end well. Cute little Sister Hill said, "Its the missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints." He came to the door and answered it. He was incredibly nice. His name was Jaren and he said he was interested in coming to the church. We had a pretty long discussion with him and got his contact info. It was such a blessing after all the rejections we got first. We taught 3 street lessons on that one street and got some potentials. Heavenly Father definitely blessed us for being obedient to President Lovelands counsel. It started to get dark and sketchy things started happening, so we called it quits and ran to our car.
We then had a lesson with Penny and Robert. We taught the Plan of Salvation. It went SO well. Robert believed and understood everything we taught. He really enjoyed the Plan and was able to help us answer and teach Penny some things she didn't understand. I really love them a lot. He is so open to learning the gospel. I know that the spirit is working on him and testifying to him the truth of the things we teach. As we were leaving, he said, "I didn't understand why you always hug penny and you just shake my hand. Penny explained the rules to me. I get it and appreciate that rule. But i will be waiting for my hug in the spirit world. Or when you come to Missouri after your mission." It was adorable. I just love them so much.
On Friday a miracle occured. WE GOT 2 REFERRALS. I know it doesn't sound super awesome. But we have been struggling to get a referral for months. And we got 2 in one day. It was so cool!(: As we went to contact them, one of them was not interested at all, but they were nice. The other was definitely an interesting experience. We knock on the door and were expecting an asian man. Well, a muslim lady answered the door and let us right in like she had been expecting us. She went and got her 7 year old daughter to translate for us. It was wild. We tried to figure out her name and if she was the person we were looking for. She definitely wasn't and said she would talk to her husband before she gave us a call. But she said we were welcome to come over any time for a visit. It was a pretty cool experience.
Friday, we felt that with everyone we were teaching, we just needed to read the Book of Mormon and help people understand why it is so important for them to read. We had really cool experiences. With Brother Woodward, he was stressed and irritable and we started reading and his whole attitude changed. It was really cool. He said, "That is exactly what we needed to do today. Thanks for coming over and reading with me." We read with Mary and Jerk. (His name is Robert, but the first time we met he told us to call him Jerk. So we do(; ) He wanted to read a specific story in the Book of Mormon. We read it and in the middle of the chapter, he jumped up and said, "I need to write that scripture down and share it with that man that keeps telling ME what I believe." It was super cool. He later told us that the man understood his concern after that scripture. I realized that we don't use the Book of Mormon as often as we should. It was written for our day and instruction. I gained a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon that day. I know that it truly can answer any questions we have if we are intent on reading and learning. I know the spirit will guide us to an answer.
We also had some of the investigators come down from Salem on friday to take us to dinner. It was a lot of fun to see them again. We missed them a lot.
Saturday, we started teaching a super old man named Harvey. He lives in a Veterans home. We don't know if he will ever get baptized, because he is really, really old, but we know that if we teach him now, he will have the opportunity to accept the gospel in the spirit world. He expressed to us that he wish that he spent more of his life learning about God instead of waiting until now. He said that his roommate Vance has been a huge blessing to him. Vance told us that he wanted to be a missionary, so they are each others miracles(:
We had dinner with Roni. He told us he would feed us dinner, so we took Mykala. We pull into his driveway and there is like 10 cars there. We walk into his barn, and it is a straight party with 7 dead deer hanging from the ceiling. It was horrid. We definitely had no idea that was comin....(:
On Sunday, we got roped into teaching singing time in primary. Why? I have NO idea. I can't lead music, we can't play music, and we didn't know a single song we were supposed to teach. It was chaos. Not really a highlight of my week. Sister Hill rocked it out though. Then we had the YSA potluck. That was fun. We also got to see Brittany from Salem again. She was in Rolla for work, so we read the Book of Mormon with her.
This week, people have informed us of the many sad and scary things that are going on in the world today. I have been thinking so much about how important it is to have faith in Jesus Christ. These things have been prophesied about forever. We have clear instruction of how we can avoid and overcome destruction. The same things happened in the Book of Mormon. It is just a testimony to me how important living the gospel standards is right now. We HAVE to follow Christ if we want any peace and comfort right now. I know that God loves us. He gives us the commandments to overcome the destruction and temptations from Satan. I know that if we read the Book of Mormon daily, and follow the prophet, Thomas S Monson, we will be protected in these crazy days.
Love you all.
Sister Ritter
Pictures:
1) The Gross barn we ate our dinner in with 7 dead animals hanging by my head. Sick.
2) "Oh Hey." We found this crazy unicorn mask. Its pretty sweet. (: We had fun with it.
3) WE HAVE BEEN OUT FOR 15 MONTHS!!!(:
4) We are a packaged deal. (: Cant take us apart.
5) Stress Relief with baby kitties(: We named them Minnie and Ellie(:
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