Monday, August 25, 2014

Monday, August 25, 2014

Well hello--

Transitions galore!

It has been quite the week to say the least! You might have seen I am in South Shore which is the name of the unit, but I am serving the area of Patchogue.  You should meet these members, they are so cool!  I love the leadership of our unit.  I see good things on the horizon.

Change is hard to say the least, but after 6 days-- I'm doing well.  I'm feeling more settled.

Sister Haun is my champion companion.  She is 20 and from Nampa, ID.  When she was a kid she went to Whittier elementary school!  Cool right?!  After high school she lived in Santa Barbra, CA. So it is fun to have both places in common. Sister Haun has been on her mission for 5.5 months, we love to laugh and make things a good time :)

I feel like the Lord is giving me a lot of strength-- the places from which I have come, and the previous responsibilities that I have had, have really prepared me.  The Lord is mindful of the future.  I am realizing that he is preparing ways for us in the moment so that we can be successful in the future.  That seems to be the way my mission has rolled. It’s really a blessing so that I always feel ready for the things that are going on that sometimes might be a challenge.

So, the island is basically like being in the middle of a campsite, sometimes.  Mosquitoes EVERYWHERE, cricket noises-- just very "country-ish" with huge trees everywhere.  I have been having a hard time remembering what suburban life is really like, since over here you are in the dirt, or in the city. Haha!   Both are awesome! I am back to the knocking, over here on the island. Haha!  I haven’t door to door knocked houses since the second transfer on my mission. Missionary work has a different feel here, but it isn’t totally foreign since I did it when I was being trained.

Right now we are going through our records, some of them were poorly kept so we are trying to find people that have already been contacted and said they were interested but missionaries never followed up on them.  We had a neat experience where we knocked a door, and then when no one was home we stopped a guy on a motor bike to ask if he lived there [kind of assuming he didn't :)] Haha!  And then we talked to him about the gospel. He was so cool, just really going through some hard things.  I long for people to accept the message, it can bless them so much.

I have been finding myself just pleading with the Lord to lead us to families and individuals to teach. So when we found this woman it was my little miracle.  I literally cried when we got back to the car... When we were going through the records looking for people who were interested in learning more we found a name.  We stopped by midweek and she was just getting home from work and said it was a bad time, but said to come back Sunday afternoon.  So Sunday after church we went over and talked to her. We taught her briefly on her porch. She was crying as she told us about her job and the people that she works with-- She asked if we would be able to teach the women she mentors as well. Spectacular!  

We have one investigator that is going to be baptized in September.  He is just working on stopping smoking, and from there he will be ready!  He is so excited! He is older and lives in an assisted living place.  He is so sweet.

We were able to teach YW’s on Sunday and that was fun.  The lesson was on strengthening our families.  Looking forward to getting to know the ward more.  I love you. 

Sister JaLynn Freeze