Monday:
Monday was our preparation day so we emailed and did laundry and did some grocery shopping. Then, our whole zone got together and we played soccer and volleyball and basketball for a few hours. It's the only time of the week that we can do that so it was great. For our zone activity today, we're actually going mini-golfing! The mini-golf place is right down the street from our apartment and the managers are members so they're letting our whole zone - about 20 people - come play for free! It's going to be great - I'll write more about that next week. But last week, we went out for ice cream after playing sports in celebration of all the new investigators we found and it was DIVINE. I used to eat ice cream every night at home and in college (but in college, I would even eat it for lunch or dinner sometimes) but we never have time to eat it on the mission so it was a special treat.
That night, we went to see Noelle (I spelled it wrong in last week's email) and her mom Karen, the original referral, was there too so we taught them both! It went fine, but there was just so much energy and Karen had so many questions that it was pretty exhausting. We had to explain that we had to start at the basics in order to understand any of the answers to these questions, but we didn't have time to get a real lesson in. It was ok though because we were able to build really great relationships of trust with both of them, and they know that we're there to help them come closer to Christ, not to impel them or convince them or persuade them of anything. Karen was baptized in the Catholic faith and she had serious problems with the actions of the recent clergy and her questions were never fully answered. They are both so great and have so much potential.
Tuesday:
We started another exchange Monday night, so I was with Sister Lao all day Tuesday. We got all of our studying in that morning and then went around trying to contact some investigators and referrals. We didn't have much luck, but we did get to see one of our less actives, Barbara. We see Barbara almost every week and it was a nice lesson on missionary work, since she's the only active member of her family. She tries so hard and loves people so much, but people just take advantage of it. She's come to church the past couple of Sundays though, so she was in better spirits than usual.
We worked at the VC that night, and had two significant tours. One was with a man named Bernard. He came to the Visitor's Center looking for people to pray for him. He was having a health problem for the past four nights where he'd wake up unable to breathe and it was really scaring him. We promised we would pray for him, and then we walked around the center, teaching him about the gospel. He came there because he has two friends that are members, and he felt like that was where he needed to go. He also said that his current health experiences had made him question where he can go for more peace in his life, and he felt that peace at the Visitor's Center. He was just a sweet man and so ready and prepared for the gospel - he tried to give me a hug before he left but I had to shrug out of it. It was amazing to see the peace slowly come over him as he was there.
The other person that came in was Vanessa. Vanessa was a different story. I greeted her when she came into the center and she just walked around, not saying anything to anyone. As she was about to leave, I saw her again and invited her to listen to the Christus narration since she had only been there for ten minutes or less. We played the narration and asked what she thought of it and she said "mixed feelings." What ensued after was a two hour conversation about all the trials she had gone through in life, including what she called "religious abuse". She just couldn't understand why bad things happen - there were A LOT of bad things that happened in her life. The conversation was spiritually and physically draining as I bore testimony after testimony that our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love her, that she needs to have hope before she can have faith in that, and she has to desire happiness in order to find it. With everything she had been through, she didn't even desire to be happy anymore - she just wanted to get through it. I found out she has professional help, or else I would've called someone. But it just goes to show how important love is in every single person's life. Without love, we can't make it. A lot of the mistakes we make and sins we commit in life are because we're looking for love or trying to get by without it. Or because we believe that love just isn't that important. But it IS. If I've learned nothing else thus far on my mission, it's that EVERYONE needs to be loved and EVERYONE needs to understand the love God has for them as their Father in Heaven. Without that, there's no chance of progression or happiness. I worked and worked and pleaded, and cried to help get the missionaries to see Vanessa, or to give her a Book of Mormon that wouldn't remind her of her bad experiences with religion like the Bible would, or to get her phone number so I could contact her later - but I didn't get anything. All I can do is pray that she comes back, willing to look for, find, and accept the true love of God. Every child deserves parents that love them; every person needs to know that their Heavenly Father loves them. I've been so blessed to learn both of those things, and that has helped me get to where I'm at now. I don't think I'll ever take those two gifts for granted ever again.
Wednesday: I'll speed things up a bit.
We had a VC training, organized by my amazing companion Sister Ure, about short and powerful lessons where we only teach the doctrine of Jesus Christ: faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. Everything in our church relates back to this doctrine. I like to look at the doctrine of Christ as the instruction manual for how we can use the Atonement in our lives. That being said, we should be able to use it everyday.
We were at the VC for the rest of the morning. Then we went to see Jackie and taught her obedience. It was hard to get her to focus - her baptism date is February 16th and we have to help her understand that so we can prepare her. She showed us a picture of what she looked like ten years ago - she looked AMAZING. I was literally in shock. It's so sad to see what ten years of drugs, smoking, and depression can do to someone physically, and I'm not sure if she can get all the way back to where she was, but she can definitely make improvements. I'll talk about this again later, but she finally came to church this week!!!!!!!! I was ecstatic, especially after the disappointment last week.
Wednesday night was just crazy. I left my purse at a member's home after dinner and it was there all night until we picked it up Thursday morning. We saw Noelle and Karen again and it was rocky. We've picked up that their relationship is really really REALLY not good. It's a complicated story, but I shared with them my own experiences with not getting along with my mom and how the gospel slowly helped us to work through it. We were able to teach the whole Restoration, but it jumped around a little bit. Then Noelle shared an experience where she was at another church and the Spirit flooded her body and she started speaking gibberish....and the Spirit just left the room and didn't come back until she started bearing testimony of the Book of Mormon and the true, restored gospel of Jesus Christ. She said she had been praying for something and then we showed up at her door. It was a pretty emotional lesson, and it ran WAY overtime. We sprinted over to see Matt and Dan, 45 minutes late, and taught them about church attendance. Matt promised to come and Dan said he might join them (sneak preview: they didn't come).
Thursday:
Thursday was busy but not satisfying. We had our apartment cleaning check and then we had interview with President Meredith. It's so weird - I can't hide anything from him. I talked to him about my concerns about how hard it is to be a missionary. Naturally, I'm good at talking to people and being friendly and I thought that was all I needed to be a missionary. But that's not all. It takes a lot of work. A lot of elders that serve are really shy, reserved people and they have to completely break out of that shell. I thought that wouldn't be a problem for me, but I'm starting to understand that the guidance of the Spirit is the only thing that made it possible for them to overcome their own personalities. It's hard work to better yourself, but that's why missions really can change your life. I'm only starting to understand that, but as I work on all the things I need to do, it can start becoming natural. And as long as I have the Spirit with me, it happens naturally. I just love President Meredith - he knew exactly what to say to help me. I didn't understand what people would say about their mission presidents, but it's really like him and his wife are my parents while I'm out here. It's so nice to have that support - like I said, everyone needs to be loved.
We tried contacting less actives and former investigators all day Thursday without much success. We did find one that night - she had been out of town for months and had just gotten back so we're going to see her this week. We contacted a referral for a less active that actually turned out to be an excommunicated member. She said some not so nice things and ordered us off the property. So that was an adventure. But it was really sad to see - she wasn't happy at all and she just had a cold, hardened heart. It reminds me of the scripture in Moroni 6 that talks about that "as oft as they repented and sought forgiveness, with real intent, they were forgiven." Heavenly Father gives us so many chances to come back; we can always come back.
We taught Raul Thursday night - Gerry was sick. We thought he would be there so we fasted for lunch (because we forgot to fast until after breakfast) and then ate dinner. It didn't really count because it was half a fast - and we didn't teach our awesome lesson about sacrifice anyways - but Heavenly Father made up for it because we were insanely hungry for lunch. We're just praying that the timing is finally right next week to teach him. But we taught Raul the 10 Commandments, focusing heavily on keeping the Sabbath Day holy. And lo and behold, RAUL CAME TO CHURCH. For the first time in MONTHS. It was a really good lesson, and just what he needed.
Friday:
Friday was good, but no lessons. We had study time then district meeting - which is always great - then weekly planning and then the VC. I don't even know what happened at the VC that night. So.....yeah. That was Friday.
Saturday:
Saturday was another exchange with Sister Lau, but I was in her area this time. The apartment was in Alameda, but she's in the Mandarin program so she covers tons of different places. She doesn't drive so I got to drive her Chevy Malibu - I liked it. I also went with her to teach English class! I didn't learn much Mandarin in Chinaland, but it was so much fun teaching English. I always thought that would be so hard, but tons of people do it without having prior experience with it and now I understand it. Maybe I will do something like that after my mission.....
We had three lessons with recent converts. The first was with Brother Tam who doesn't speak any English. We used the Book of Mormon picture book and Sister Lau read the story while I simply pointed at the pictures. Then we taught Hong Liu - her English was very good and we just taught her in English so I was able to participate in that one. She instantly said she didn't want to go to church anymore when she saw us, but she changed her mind by the end of the lesson which I took as a good sign. The last lesson was with Janet and we got to walk to her place, which was nice. Sister Ure and I drive to every appointment, so it was nice to be in the city and walk around. It was weird being in downtown Oakland - I felt safe but it was totally different than Castro Valley.
After that, we went to the VC for the night. We met Luke, who moved to Oakland to be a Christian rapper. He works at a legit studio in Oakland and he was super solid. We talked to him for a long time about how the Book of Mormon can help him get even closer to God, and he straight up refused. Nephi prophesied that people would say "We have got a Bible and there cannot be any more Bible." Luke was the perfect epitome of these people. He is still a great guy, but it's hard to understand that people don't want more revelation from God.
The VC was steady for the rest of the night, and some of the other sisters got some really good referrals. We saw Cathy, who had just been baptized that day - I had met her a week earlier when she came in and she had been by two other times that week. Everytime she came, she brought more of the missionaries that had taught her in the past two years, who had all come out for her baptism. It was just so cool to meet them. One of them worked at the referral center at the MTC when I was there! It was just so exciting to see her so happy with all of these friends that had helped her get to this point.
I went back to Castro Valley late Saturday night - Sister Ure and Sister Chan were stuck in a long appointment and didn't come to make the swap until almost 9:30 so Sister Lau and I went over to Elder and Sister Clement's home (VC directors) and had hot chocolate while we waited for them. It was a fun little adventure. It was fun in Chinaland, but it was so nice being back in my bed on the third floor where I don't ever hear the floor above me squeak in the middle of the night.
Sunday:
And this brings us to Sunday. We had a meeting with Bishop before church, and then SIX investigators at sacrament meeting: Jackie (and she brought her son Zach), Gerry, Raul, Elena & Ariel, and Christine - Karen and Noelle didn't make it because Noelle's boyfriend was in town. Dan and Matt just stood us up, for church and for our lesson that afternoon. But we are so grateful for the six that were there. We were all sitting together in two pews and our ward mission leader texts us as church starts saying "Aw look at your cute little investigator club!" It was so great. The talks were PERFECT as well - one about Joseph Smith and the other about sacrifice and service. Christine felt the Spirit so strong that she cried during the Joseph Smith talk. Absolutely perfect.
Gerry and Raul didn't stay for the rest of church, but everyone else did! Even Jackie stayed and Zach went to Primary and actually behaved the entire time! That helped her to focus and learn a lot. In Gospel Principles, we learned about agency and then we talked about L. Tom Perry's talk, "Becoming Goodly Parents" in Relief Society. It was great having both Jackie and Christine there! We found an amazing fellowshipper for Christine this week, Sister McKirdy, and Jackie knows a few people already. It was just a really great day at church.
After church, we had a mega-long ward mission coordination meeting and then ANOTHER meeting with Bishop. They were all good, but we were at the church from 9:15am until 2:45pm which was crazy. But a lot of good things are happening in the ward with regards to missionary work, and I'm just praying that I get to stay here for just one more transfer! I'm just working as hard as I can so that I can have the most success possible in these next three weeks in case I leave for Spanishland soon.
I wanted to make this shorter than normal, but I failed. Have a great week everyone! It's so crazy that January is almost over - don't take any time for granted.
Love you!
Hermana Hunsaker (or Hermana H - no one here can say my last name haha)
Pictures:
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| Me and Barbara |
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| At Leo's baptism a few weeks ago - it's so hard to get him to smile |
