Monday, July 28, 2014
July 28, 2014 - Lecanto, Fl w/Sister Peterson
Hey Family,
How are you this week? Hopefully good! Well Richard’s baptism
was a success! It was all in Spanish and I didn't understand any of it, but the
spirit was really strong and Richard was crying, so that is a good sign! And
guess what else is crazy? Richard's sister Gael apparently is a member of the
church too. She was baptized a long time ago and she didn't tell her
family because she knew that they would be upset and so she hid it and then
once she finally told them, they went crazy and basically disowned her. And so
she stopped going to church so that her family would talk to her again.
So at Richards’s baptism she was very happy for him, and so I am hoping that
this will help her to become active again seeing the example of her brother!
Pretty crazy. Richard also was able to receive the Aaronic Priesthood on
Sunday, he was so happy at church he kept telling Sister Petersen and I that he
felt like he was floating! Haha and it was so cute when Richard got to church
instead of looking for us he just stood by the door and greeted everyone and
helped the elderly get inside. He is a super member! I was so proud of him haha
I kind of felt like a mom it was sad, he didn't need me anymore haha he's just
doing things on his own now. But that is good.
We also got to go to the temple this last Friday and that was wonderful.
I love going to the temple! We had to wake up at 4am so that we would make it
on time and that was sort of a pain but it was so worth it! The Sharps took the
elders and us, which was really nice of them so we didn't have to drive. I wish
we could go to the temple every week! Definitely looking forward to that when I
get home! And I decided that temple work is really like giving referrals to the
spirit world missionaries.... I mean think about it, they are trying to teach
the gospel, and then boom someone on earth finds a name and does the work, and
then it pops up on their spirit iPad, and then they know who to go bug and
teach the gospel! hahaha Do your temple work, the super spirit world
missionaries need more referrals! And if you have ever been a missionary you
know how hard it is to get referrals!
Hahaha Ok so we also met this way cool but also really
crazy lady this week. She is one of those Holy Roller types and when we knocked
on her door she invited us in to talk and so we were talking about the Book of
Mormon and the restored gospel and she was like ok so if what I know is that
really our only difference is that we believe in speaking in tongues AKA
(rolling on the floor and blabbering nonsense) and you don't...... and I was
like oh my word.... She was not listening to us at all! So we re-explained how
no, the difference is, is that we believe in the Restored Gospel and that the
Book of Mormon is evidence of that and XY&Z and she still wasn't getting
it. She was so focused on this Holy Rollin thing that she really wasn't
listening. Then she sat there and explained to us that speaking in
tongues is necessary to salvation and that we really can't feel the spirit or
communicate with God unless we do that and a bunch of other weird things.
And so we explained to her what we believe the gift of tongues is and of course
she disagreed and that was that. But it was very interesting. Haha and then the
next morning I happened to be studying in the scriptures and I came across 1
Corinthians 14:14-15&19 which says " For if I pray in an unknown
tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is it then?
I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with understanding also: I will
sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also. Yet in
church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I
might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown
tongue." Haha thank you Heavenly Father, speaking in unknown
languages is so crazy, and soooo many people here do it!
Ok so on more interesting news.... the other day Sister Petersen
and I were walking out of the apartment and she walked down first and then I
started and then noticed a HUGE snake on the stairs and went right back up.
Yuck! So I grabbed a mop to see if I could scare it away and of course I just
made it mad and it looked like it was going to strike at me, so I had Sister
Petersen go knock on the neighbors door to see if he could catch it, but only
his wife was home so she tried to come and help us and we all stood out there
for a good hour trying to get it off the stairs without getting bit. haahah it
was the worst! Now I am extra careful going down the stairs because that was so
gross! haha
We also had the amazing opportunity to teach Brandon over Skype
this week. Man all I can say is that the work of the Lord is hastening! Brandon
is such a humble and cool guy. He has read so much of the Book of Mormon
already, including in the intro. He is so ready for the gospel and was really
excited to meet with us and to be finally learning. He basically asked us when
he could be baptized and how that all works and we explained to him what he
would have to do and he agreed to it all. It is going to be a little bit of a
struggle because he is always on the road. But with Skype and LDS Churches all
over the place it should work out nicely. I really am so excited for him.
If it weren't for the technology that we are able to use to spread the gospel,
Brandon would not have been able to learn it for many years. He is never home,
he is always on the road driving, going from place to place. He would
never be able to meet regularly with the missionaries; it really is amazing
that he is able to receive the gospel through the Internet. I am really happy
that I am able to take part in helping him to receive the gospel. He is so
prepared and wants to learn and progress as fast as he can. Haha the only
problem he said he is going to have is finding a place to park his 18-wheeler
so that he can go to church. But he will find a way and we are here to help
him.
Well I wish I could write you more, but I am out of time! I love
you all!
Remember #templework #spritworldreferrals #workdofsalvation
Sister
Jamison
Monday, July 21, 2014
July 21, 2014 - Still in Lecanto, Fl
What's up best family in the world!!!! Well this week has just
been FULL of all over the placeness! And what I mean by that is I really don't
know! So where do I even start....
So Richard has his baptismia interview this week and it went
SUPER well! He is so exctied for his baptism. When he came out of his interview
he was shaking everyone hands and saying " I am getting baptized! You
don't know how excited I am to be getting baptized! I feel like I am floating
away!" haha it was so cute. He was just smiling from ear to ear! We also
found a new investigator (crossing my fingers) hopefully, named Mike. He is
really nice, he is about 50 or so and he is such a good guy. His mother and
handicap son live with him and his wife and oh his wife is semi-handicap from
some accident and he just takes care of them all and loves them all so much,
not to mention that he watches his grand kids all the time while his daughter
works. I mean he just has endless energy. But anyways we had a really good
lesson on the Restoration with him this last week and everything that we taught
him he said really made sense. We also gave him a Book of Mormon and he
said that he would read it! We were supposed to meet with him again on Sunday
but he had to cancel because he had to work, so we are going to try and see him
again this week. So I hope that it goes well because he is legit! We also had a
crazy beyond all belief of miracles happen this week with our Facebook/Online
Proselyting... So ok I will start with Brandon. Brandon is a guy that lives in
our area and he is a truck driver so he is hardly ever home. But I guess
that he was online one day and he was looking at mormon.org and he wanted a copy of the Book of
Mormon to read so he called the phone number and got a hold of a missionary in
the MTC, and she said that she would call the local bishop (Bishop Hoki) and
have the missionaries come and give him one. (so this was like over a month
ago) So then she made him a referral online and it got sent to the elders
iPads, and so they added him on facebook and was like " Hey when can we
come and give you a Book of Mormon, what’s your address." type of thing,
and Brandon said that his plans got a little rearranged and that he had to
leave town again real soon to drive a load somewhere, but that he was praying
that Heavenly Father would help him to get a Book of Mormon. Well ok so the
elders were able to find out that he lived in our area so they transferred the
referral to us and so we went searching for him online and found him and
messaged him and told him that we were the missionaries in his area and that we
would be happy to bring him a Book of Mormon when he gets home, and he said
that would be great but in the mean time he had downloaded it and was listening
to it as he drives (well that’s cool) Ok
so then the week goes by and we messaged him and asked him when he was going to
be back and he said, Sisters you will never believe this. and he went on to
tell us how he was at a truck stop somewhere in the grand old USA and he met a
person who randomly started talking to him and gave him a Book of Mormon
(awesome member missionary) and that they felt like he should have it. Well so
now Brandon has the Book of Mormon and when he messaged us he said that he was
almost done reading it. Ok so that’s way to cool, but his schedule has been way
crazy and he is out of town right now, but we told him that we can teach him
over Skype and Facebook and that we would love to do that and he agreed, and
gave us his info so that we could begin teaching him online. So cool, so we
will meet with him this week on Skype and our ward mission leader is going to
come to the lesson with us at the church. I am way excited to see what happens!
Ok and number 2 coolest thing that happened, we were on facebook one day and
Sister Petersen gets a message from a guy in India and he say "Sister
please keep me in your prayers, thank you and God Bless." Well we messaged
him back and told him that we were missionaries and that we shared messages
about Jesus Christ and that whatever he was going through at this moment would
get better as he comes closer to the Savior. He replied that he was Catholic
and that it was ok, that he just wanted prayers and so we said no problem we
will definitely pray for you, and then we gave him the link to the Mormon.org
website and told him that he should check it out and that he could find
messages on there that would really bless his life. Well about a week later we
get a message from him that says "Sister I want to learn this gospel you
share with me, I hope its good." And we assured him that of course it was
and we told him that we could chat on Facebook and teach him and that we could
work it out with the time difference and everything and he said that would be
good. (We aren't going to open it to Skype chat yet until we know its ok, in
case something weird happens) But that is really cool! We looked up the churches
nearest him and did you know that there is a Salt Lake City India? hahahaha of
course that is where the Mormon church is! Anways we will see how that goes!
But in other news I have been having way to many people trying to set me up
this week hahah so weird a member in the ward Sister Gibson was telling me
about her 36 year old nephew who lives in STG and how he struggles to find any
girls, but how she knows he would like me, but that I would have to do all the
work in our dating relationship because he is shy hahahahah I was like
Are you joking? ummmmm NO haha of course I didn't say that to her but I
was sure thinkin' it.. hahahaha oh my and on Sunday after church Richard was
like I need to tell you something, oh wait never mind you wont come over
anymore if I do. And I was like what is it Richard? And he was like don't take
this the wrong way, but you very pretty Sister Jamison, I really like your eyes
and you have nice eyelashes. There's just something about you that I like and
you are still pretty even with all your pimples (pointing at my
legs.......HAHAHAHAHAHAHA) And by pimples he meant all my bug bite scars on my
legs and ankles. Oh my gosh I tried not to laugh but it was so funny and also
because he has such a thick accent. But anyways dramaaaaaa......hahahahaha we
also had a pioneer party this week and that was fun, Richard came and he liked
it. And there was a funeral that we were at.
I was trying to avoid the viewing
but you couldn’t miss seeing as she was hangin out right by the front door
casket open and all. Needless to say I wanted to throw up.... and then another
member died yesterday morning. So many old people, death is not a rare thing in
this ward unfortunately...... Well I have no more time gotta go! Love ya!
Sister
Jamison
Monday, July 14, 2014
July 14, 2014
Hey family,
So this week was really good, Richard is still doing great and
really excited for his baptism. The other day one of the ward
missionaries was at the temple and purchased Richard a really nice set of
scriptures in Spanish as a gift for his baptism. I am really excited about that;
it will be nice for him to have!
We have been struggling though I guess you could say with
finding new people to teach. We have found a few solid potentials but nothing
to good yet. We met a man the other night named Wallace and he was a potential
from our Area Book. And so we went and visited him and guess what is so crazy
about him? We introduced ourselves and he was like oh ya I just got done
reading your Bible, and we were like uh what do you mean? And he said " I
will show you, be right back." Then he walks back out to us holding the
Book of Mormon and he says, "This book, I just got done reading this book
and I love it, I read it all the time, it's on of my favorites." Well we
were more than shocked and we asked him when he got that book and he said
"ohh like 30 years ago." WHAT... That is so crazy. We asked him
if we could come back and talk to him more about the Book of Mormon and what he
liked about it and he said that we could but that he is really busy all of the
time. He sleeps all day and wakes up at 6pm so that he can get ready to
go to work. He does a taxi business and he drives all night long, and he
was also telling us how his wife is a schoolteacher and that she is at work all
day during the school year, so they really never get to see each other. Wallace
also plays the guitar and he plays gigs for churches. So we definitely have
some obstacles with him. But if we were able to set up times to meet with him
in his busy life he would be the most solid investigator there ever was! So I
am really hoping that something will happen. But if not I think he will be ok
because he so is going to get baptized one day.
We also had a bit of an interesting night last night. Sister
Petersen and I were out trying to contact less actives and potentials and
whomever we could find and we went to visit a less active family that we had
never met before, well holy cow is not the sufficient term to explain what
happened. We knocked on the door and you could see the lady looking at us
through the window at the top and then we heard her say, "How did they
find us, what are the doing here!!" Then she flung open the door stepped
out and got right in our face and yelled "Who are you!" and I said we
are the missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of and then she cut me off
and yelled "What do you want!" And then she proceeded to say some
other colorful things that I won't repeat, and was yelling at us about our
church and the prophet, etc. etc. and how she is not a member anymore. And so
we tried to explain what she could do so that she wouldn't be a member anymore
and that unless she did so other members of the church unknowing of her
feelings toward the church were inevitably going to stop by in the future. Well
she didn't listen and continued to yell over us and wave her arms up in the
air, and then she walked back inside and slammed the door and you could hear
her yelling at her husband about how did they find us and why this and why
that. So we left her a nice note telling her we were sorry if we upset
her and what she could do to remove herself, etc. etc. But wow I was so
shocked, it has been quite a while since someone yelled at me quite like that,
but man she really just went ballistic on us. Oh well when we left I just felt
really sorry for her. She doesn't realize what she is doing. I think
that's what brings me the most sadness on my mission is when people get so
upset with you and call you things and you just think, Jeeze I don't care what
you say or do to me, but please you don't realize what you are giving up and
what situation you are putting yourself in! We had another experience similar
to this one this week as well. I was on exchanges with my old MTC companion
Sister Thomson, and we were out tracting and some man got really mad at us and
was calling us all sorts of things and saying that we were crazy and a cult and
that we worshiped Joseph Smith and junk
like that. He was a bit more civil though and at least allowed us to say that
we only worship Jesus Christ, but for the most part he was just rude too. Oh
well I guess... One day they will all learn. I just hope that I am the one that
gets to teach these people again, I so want to see their faces when the realize
what the truth is... *sigh*
Well I wish I could write more but my time is up. I love you all
and I will see you really soon!
Sister
Jamison
Monday, July 7, 2014
July 7, 2014
Hello!
How are things in Sunny STG? Super good I hope! Well this week
has been a pretty good one. Richard is doing really well and has accepted a
baptismal date for this month WOHOOO! I am way excited for him. We talked a lot
about baptism last time we were there with him and he basically said that
nothing could be holding him back from being baptized, so that is so great! He
really is so humble and just want's to learn as much as he can. He really loves
the gospel! We also have been working with a lot of less actives in the ward,
some of them have started coming back to church, which is so good. I guess
there are changes being made to Preach My Gospel as far as the Recent Converts
are concerned and that lesson five in PMG is to be taught before baptism (only
missionaries will understand what that means) and that missionaries are
responsible for teaching the new members the discussions over again because
they just are getting done the way they should with the wards. So that is going
to be a big responsibility to take care of. But it will be ok, the goal is to
get these people to the temple and if that is what it takes then that is what
we must do! We are also supposed to visit them a whole lot more and really keep
record of how their whole first year as a member along with the help of the
ward council is going. So all that really results in is wayyyy longer weekly
planning which already kills me, but hey what do ya do? Sister Petersen and I
were also able to do service for a member in our ward who is getting remarried
soon. He was packing up something’s and no one in the ward would help him and
so we offered and goodness I can see why. This poor brother is basically a
junkie hoarder and has more stuff than any human being should ever have.
We spent a good chunk of time packing up a collection of "Precious
Moments" sculptures (look that up on Google if you don't know what that
is- they are hideous) and he had whole display cases of them, so anyways as we
were packing them up he came over with a pen and pad and said "Sisters I
need to know everything Precious Moments that I have so I want you to write the
names of them all down for my inventory, and here is a dry paint brush you can
use to dust them of before you pack them." ok...... That took
forever Then after that he had us go through and pack and write the names down
of his beanie baby collection, which I can't tell you how many display cases he
had of those, and everything had a special pile that it had to go in and
certain ones couldn't be packed with other ones. If it were me I'd throw them
all in a big tub and called it good. Oh well........... It was nice to be able
to do service, so for that I'm grateful. We also have sort of a potential that
we could be teaching here in the next few weeks that sounds way legit. His name
is Brandon and he is a truck driver that is out of town a lot and about 4 weeks
he requested a Book of Mormon from mormon.org and so the elders went by to give
it to him only to figure out that Brandon lives on our side and he wasn't home
when the elders stopped by. So they told us about it and I guess the elders had
called him and asked when he would be home and he said not for a few weeks, and
to try back later-which usually means- don't come back- but any who last week I
remember about this Brandon guy and that he should have been back by now and so
I looked for him on Facebook and I messaged him and he wrote me and said that
he downloaded the Book of Mormon and has been listening to it as he drives and
that he was praying one day that God would make it possible for him to obtain a
physical copy of it on the road, and then he pulled up to a truck stop and some
member of the church happened to see him and start talking to him and GAVE HIM
A BOOK OF MORMON and said something like "I think this will be very
important for you and will help you come closer to God." Or something like
that and so he has been reading that and he said that he is almost all the way
through it and that when he is home in a couple of weeks that he would love to
meet with us and talk about what he has read and our church! So I am pretty
excited about him. I told him that we could do online lessons if he would like,
but he hasn't gotten back to me yet. But I will let you all know if that goes
anywhere because that is pretty darn cool if you ask me! See miracles! Member
missionary work is work is seriously the best and so important, you just never
know what impact it will have on the people you meet. All of you should get a
Book of Mormon and give it to someone; the Lord will bless you and guide you as
you try to do His work. Love you all!
Sister
Jamison
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