Guess what tomorrow is? My 6 MONTH BIRTHDAY of being a missionary. Say what? Can you even believe I have been a missionary for six months already? I still feel like I am a baby. Insane. I have learned so much and I just keep learning so much every single week. I am really grateful I still have awhile left to go because I am nowhere near done here!
We had a great week this past week. I am feeling 100 times better and my bronchitis has been adios! So we were actually able to work thankfully.
So we spent a considerable amount of time with elderly again this week.. as normal haha. We made it back to the nursing home and not joking everyone cheered when I walked in because they thought I had died or something. 2 weeks must seem like a year to them or something. We made it for the marti gras party so that was exciting. This one old lady was trying to make me eat her soup.. it was weird. And then this one lady started chewing out a worker and said "Look at Jane. SHE NEEDS HELP. Have you seen her hands? We held a meeting and we decided that you need to help Jane eat." I was just laughing so hard because this old lady is saying that her and the other old ladies were holding a meeting about the nurses helping Jane. These people kill me.
Shirley is still kickin and is as cool as ever! She is still working on the Book of Mormon. It is really fun meeting with her because we get to learn a lot about her catholic faith, and we get to talk a lot about our church. It is cool to see where we all come together and the similarities that we all have. When it comes down to it we are all trying to be good people and worship God. I also love at Shirleys because she says the best prayers when we leave. She always says "God watch over these girls as they go to strange doors that they don't know that they will only find nice people." She is always so worried that we are going to knock on the door of a crazy murderer or something. She said she prays for us every single day. How nice is she? Also (well this was sorta depressing) so yesterday she was going to a big pancake breakfast with this supposedly "Famous" Ohio fresh maple syrup.. so she couldn't come to my talk (which she was so sad about).. but she said she was going to get us syrup! So that is exciting. She's so cool. I hope I don't get transferred yet because I am not ready to say goodbye to Shirley.
Or Joan. I will actually cry if I have to leave Joan already. I really feel like she is one of the people/reasons why I needed to come to Ohio. I just honestly feel like I was meant to find her and teach her. And I was meant to learn from her. Because she has helped me to grow so much as a missionary. We had such a great lesson this week about Joesph Smith. She is so much more open to learning and the other day she started asking lots of questions wanting to know about Him and about our church and everything And when I was telling her about the first vision and how Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Him.. It was one of the most spiritually powerful moments of my mission. I felt such a confirmation of the truthfulness of what I was saying.. and I could just see it touching her heart. It was the most incredible experience to actually see the spirit working through me to help her. She has a strong belief that God still communicates with us like we believe. I have such a great feeling about her! I know that the gospel will really bless her life and I can't wait to see that happen.
We also visited this old lady named Gladys. She looks like the walking dead. Literally. She is apparently only in her 70s but I thought FOR SURE she was 108 years old. So we stopped by to share a message.. and (oh and she has no teeth so we really cannot understand her) it was very interesting. She has this monstrous husky that is no joke bigger than me that insisted on jumping on me the ENTIRE time I was there.. I almost got knocked over slash killed 7 times. So there is a beast jumping on me and this old lady about to die.. and I am just trying to share a scripture .. it was a mess. But we made it through and then she asked me for my name and number so she can call me when I get home from my mission. All I know is if I get a call from Gladys when I get home I will probably die of happiness. Too good.
Oh we got lied to AGAIN this week. So we go to this house and I ask if Traci Gerheart lives there.. and this guy gets super mad at us and says that he doesn't know her and that she doesn't live there and he is so mad that people keep stopping by... and he is wearing a sweatshirt that says GERHEART on it. Hahah I mean people these days are really horrible at lying. It is actually quite humorous.
We had a great lesson with Haley and Hunter Smith again! They are still getting ready to get baptized and it is just super fun.
We did some service with a woman named Barbra this week. She is a classic. I have talked about her a few times before.. she is the one that we sneakily dropped off the food for. We helped her paint her sons bedroom. He has down syndrome and we helped her paint the walls with chalkboard paint so that he can draw on the walls. It was great. She is the funniest lady. And the nicest. It is incredible how much she does for others when she doesn't even have the time to do it for herself. And she was really down on herself because she felt like she isn't doing all she can or that she is failing.. and we were able to talk to her and encourage her and I told her that Heavenly Father is really proud of her.. and she started tearing up. I was really grateful for that experience and that Heavenly Father let me feel His love for her.
Friday morning was super cool. We got to have a training meeting in the Kirtland Temple! It was the BEST. We were inside singing the Spirit of God, and the sun was shining through the windows (first time the sun has been out in 5 months) and the temple was just so beautiful. It made me so darn happy. It was such a neat meeting. It was just the sisters who serve at Kirtland.. so there was 20something of us. And one of my favorite parts was when this guys named Ron who is the director of the Community of Christ Visitor Center (So the people who own the temple) spoke to us. He talked about the song the Spirit of God and how it was written for the temple dedication.. and about the verse that says "how blessed the day when the lamb and the lion shall lie down together without any ire". He said that He thinks it was a prophesy about our two churches. He said that the LDS church is the Lion, as we are much bigger.. and their church is the Lamb. And even though we are both different, we are able to work together and help strengthen and build each other up. And it is so cool because it is true! Everyone thinks that because they broke off from our church and they own our first temple that we must hate each other or something.. but that is not how it is at all. We literally all work together and do what we can to share the neat spirit of Kirtland with everyone who visits. I just love being in the Kirtland temple. I wish you could all feel the spirit that is there. I feel so lucky to be serving here where we get to be so close to the Spirit and the beginning of the church.
My talk went super great yesterday. OF COURSE we had to get snow Saturday night so we people were "scared" to drive out to church haha. It is incredible how that has happened every single week that I have been in this area. But I spoke about how God gives us our weaknesses as blessings to help us learn how to be humble and rely on Him. I think it was a hit! Multiple people asked me if I would speak every week from now on.. so I guess it turned out okay! I really enjoyed preparing for the talk because I learned a lot about why I have the weaknesses I have. And as a missionary I feel like I am way more aware of my weaknesses than I ever was before.. but it has given me a lot of opportunities to rely on the Savior more and have Him be what helps me overcome them. I really have such a strong testimony that He can turn all of our trials and weaknesses into chances for us to become better than we even think we can.
The one depressing note of this week was Melissa got a new phone number and we don't have it.. so we weren't able to see her at all. SO SAD. Pray that we are able to get in contact with her somehow!
But yeah other than that it was a great week. This week should be good too! I am scared this might be my last week in this area.. so I am going to make it the best week ever. I love you all and I hope things keep going great for all of you. Thanks for your love and support!
Love Cassidy
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