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Sunday, January 19, 2014

Cassidy in Aurora 1-13-14

Well Hey.

is has been a very very interesting week. First of all... I hit my 4 month mark on Saturday! I have been an official missionary for 4 months already. How insane is that? Pretty insane. I feel like I was just at the MTC.
 
As far as the week went... Monday and Tuesday were potentially the longest days of my life.. because we were stuck inside. But I am proud to say that I survived the great 2014 lockin and I only acquired one injury. And it was from jump roping on one foot... I guess I just am not good enough to do that anymore.  Consider it a lesson learned.
 
Wednesday was the only day this whole week that we were actually able to do legit work. But it was a really good day! We were able to have a lesson with this older guy named Bob. He was really nice. He had an autistic daughter who recently passed away.. so he is really struggling with that. We talked about how learning more about Jesus Christ and His Atonement can help him understand why that had to happen. It is just sad because he really doesn't know what to do.. I am hoping that He will let the Gospel bless his life because I know that it can help him so much.. but he has to want it to. Gotta love free agency... sometimes I wish I could make people read the scriptures or come to church because I know how much it will help them.
 
We also went to the nursing home for a little bit... and the funniest/sorta sad thing happened. There was this old lady who was sitting in this chair totally knocked out. Out of nowhere she woke up and sang in this like opera voice "I'm so lonesome I could DIEEEE" and then went right back to sleep. Hahaha it was pretty classic.
 
We spent a few hours tracting... luckily we all made it out alive with no frostbite. We got to talk to a few people.. but we had this dog that was following us EVERYWHERE. And it was sorta a big dog (like it was actually big I am not being dramatic haha) and so we would go up to this door and we would have this huge dog with us. I don't know what it wanted but it sure made tracting interesting. haha We did talk to this one guy who was a Jehovah's Witness and He was not too happy to have us at his door... he started  going at it with me arguing about things and I just backed away slowly and moved along. It was a good time.
 
We met the COOLEST family on Wednesday night. They let us in and gave us this tour of their house and they have this huge indoor pool and all this stuff. They invited us to come back over tonight at teach their family so pray that everything goes well!! We also taught a man from Vietnam... that was super interesting. Luckily he had like a Vietnamese book of Mormon and all that.. because there was a serious language barrier. I was like praying the whole time that we would be able to understand him.. and we were for the most part! Then we went over to this older guy named Gerry. He was crazy. He was going off on how he used to work for the FBI finding drugs.. and then he got caught in the middle of a shootout and so he quit.. and he was saying it was because the "Mafia" is controlling the Catholic church... I don't even know it was just super crazy. haha
 
Then we went home on Wednesday night... and we get a call at 10:30... which is our "bedtime" and it was the site director for Kirtland.. and he said "I have strict instructions that you cannot leave your apartment until 10 tomorrow for any reason. " And we had a meeting the next morning we would have to miss.. so we were like "Uh... why" and he said "I can't say anything except you can NOT leave your apartment." Then he hung up and we were like.... what the heck is going on. So we figured something weird was going on... but we couldn't figure out why in the world we would have to miss our meeting to stay in our apartment. SO 6:30 am rolls around and we get a call from the mission president telling us that.... PLOT TWIST..... My companion Sister Coontz is being emergency transferred because a different missionary got sick and had to go home. SO.... Me and Sister Smith are now the 2 Hiram missionaries. Which is super fun... and a little crazy because we both JUST got here like 3 weeks ago. So we basically have no clue what we are doing but we are figuring it out. And things are going pretty good so far! I enjoyed being in a triple up but it makes it a lot easier just having 2 of us.
 
Kirtland was good this week! One real quick funny story that may not be mission appropriate I am not sure but it is pretty funny. So we were helping this maintence lady put away all of the Christmas stuff... and there is this old house that they use as storage. And I swear all day that she was calling it the bumhole... and I was like why on earth is it called that... and then I was like "Does this box go to the bumhole too??" and she was like "Geesh it isn't that bad of a place".... it is actually called the Bump home. HOME.. not hole. Classic mixup really. And that is the story of how I made myself look like and idiot on Friday.
 
Moving along.. Saturday we had another cool tour... and guess what it was in Spanish AGAIN. It was three ladies from Venezuela.. and it was really fun! They loved the historic site! There was just a really special spirit on the tour and I am really hoping that they were able to understand a little bit.. and at the very least were able to feel the powerful spirit that is in Kirtland. I sure do love Kirtland and the more I learn about Joseph Smith and everything that happened in the early church... I appreciate the opportunity the that I have to serve at such a special place more and more.
 
Yesterday we had a great lesson with this woman named Glenna. She is from the Philippines. It is kinda funny how I am serving in Ohio but practically everyone I associate with is from different places. But we got to talk to her about the Restoration and how we have a prophet today.. and she really enjoyed it. She said that she used to always see Mormon missionaries in the Philippines and she has always wanted to learn more. It was a really fun lesson. It is just fun to have opportunities to share the gospel with people and share my testimony with them. Really nothing feels better than getting to tell someone how much I love the Savior and how much the Book of Mormon has blessed my life.
 
Oh and one last cool miracle story. SO the family that the members wanted us to go see were out of town last week. So we called the dad yesterday (and sidenote our schedule this next week is completely booked.. which is awesome..but yeah so ) he said "What times are you available" and we sorta lied and said "Any time that works for you" but our only open time was Thursday afternoon from 3-5... and then he said "Would Thursday at 3:30 work for you" and I basically died. I was like... that's it. The church is true. He picked the perfect time. So yep that was the miracle. I am SO excited to teach their family I might just die.
 
But yeah it was an interesting week with lots of changes. I am really grateful to have this responsibility of taking over this area. Me and Sister Smith have been able to plan a ton of awesome things this week.... we finally are going to be able to meet with Jean tomorrow!  But keep praying that things will go well! I am so happy I am serving a mission and I know that this is the most important thing I can be doing right now. I feel so blessed with time to learn more about the Savior and share it with other people. Missionary work is cool. You should all do it.
 
 
My favorite scripture of the week is John 16:33.... We are always going to have hard thing happen and we will be stressed and overwhelmed, but in the Savior there is peace and when we have Him as a part of our lives, we should always be of good cheer. I am so grateful for the Savior in my life and I really love Him so much.
 
Well I have to get going. Sorry this letter is all over the place. I love you lots and I hope you have a great week!
 
Love Cassidy

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