October 28, 2013

Hey everyone! 

It was another great week here in Ohio... except it snowed... but other than that it has been really good!

We were able to teach a ton of people this week! Like more than all of my other weeks combined. So it has been awesome! 

We are meeting with this one lady who has read the Book of Mormon and totally knows it is true and she believes in Joesph Smith and everything.. she just loves the people at her other church too much. And I totally get where she is coming from. It would be really hard to leave what has been such a great part of your life... but I dunno I feel like it is sorta like leaving on a mission. I mean I miss all of my friends and family everyday, but sometimes you have to sacrifice a little of what you love to do what God wants and then he can make up the difference. I have noticed that a lot already. When you are doing what God wants then he can help you. But anyways hopefully we can help her in anyway we can! We have tried to go "service tracting" where we ask people if we can rake their leaves and then do it and then talk to them about our church... but apparently people in Ohio are too good to have help raking their leaves... hahah seriously NO ONE will let us and it is so weird. 

We had a lesson with Joe on Wednesday... and you can bet that was really entertaining. We tried to teach him a little bit... but as soon as we started talking about prophets he went off about the Roman Empire for about 10 minutes haha. And then he was really confused as to why we don't baptize infants.. and luckily we finally just read some scriptures to him and he was like "Who wrote that?" and we were like "Moroni" and he said "Who the heck is Moroni?" And we were like "A PROHPET OF GOD" and he was like "Hmm.. okay. I like that." hahah then he made is Salami sandwhiches.. and they were good.. but he made SO MUCH and he was not satisfied until we took it all.. so we literally had these salami sandwhiches with peppers packed with us. It was just really funny. And his daughter was home and she was like drilling us.. I think she thought we were this weird cult or something.. so once we explained who we are and everything she was nice and was happy that her dad is going to our church! The funniest thing so he is basically deaf and he thinks using hearing aids is a "Cop out" so we have to talk really loud. And I was giving a prayer.. and all of a sudden he goes "YOU BETTER SPEAK UP GIRL." In the middle of my prayer and man it was so hard to not bust up laughing. Good times good times. He wasn't able to make it to church this Sunday because he got hurt. But he is really excited to speak at fast Sunday next week. He said he is going to speak "For 2 minutes about myself.. and then for 8 minutes about Cain and Able." SO... you all should probably pray for us that this all goes okay. Haha I am really excited and nervous to see what happens. There were a few other funny things he said yesterday when he called us. He was telling us about how they got rid of his cancer in his back and then he paused and went "cancer is cool." and we were like.. what. hahaha. And then he said "Megan you really better keep an eye on Cassidy... I am pretty sure that she works for the CIA." Hahahah. Always a good time with Joe. A few of my other favorite Joe quotes
"Who was this Joesph Smith guy?" .."A Prophet".." He was?? Oh. Okay. That's good. I like it." 

(We were talking about tracting) And he says "You guys need to change your angle. I will show you a better way to work." 

SO in other news besides Joe. We had a lesson with a lady named Barbara. We call her the Barbernator because it is more fun. She is like in her 60s.. and she is really cool. We also taught this guy named Jeffery who has recently recovered from a alcohol/drug addiction and has had a really cool experience coming closer to God! I am really excited to meet with him again! 

Thursday we were out running, we wake up at 6:15 every morning and we have been running about 3 miles a day.. and we were running and all of the sudden it was a huge blizzard. And then it snowed all day. And I cried because I am in no way ready for winter. AT ALL. I was up at Kirtland on Thursday/Friday. Friday was the coolest day ever. We took this tour and it was 2 missionaries and this guy they are teaching. And we got to the School of the Prophets and he knew nothing about it.. and he said "Whoa.. this room just feels different." and it so does! We had such a cool time talking about what had happened there. The guy has had the hardest life and he was telling us about how he has come to know that God loves him and it was just really neat. I love seeing how coming closer to God helps people, and I love being able to help people do that. I know that Heavenly Father loves everyone... and even when people don't care about what we believe or what we are trying to share.. I hope that they all at least know that they have a God who loves them. That's what it all comes down to in the end. So I try to keep that my goal as we meet people and talk with them. 

Anyways we had interviews with the mission president this week and that was great.. except he asked me if I had any scriptures memorized (which I DO) but I panicked and said "Yep John14:15 If you love me keep My commandments." .... hahaha classic pulled out the easiest scripture ever. The good news is I can only go up from here. And then these other missionaries in my ward were having a baptism and they couldn't find a musical number... so guess who got volunteered with NO notice. Yep you're right I DID. So let's just all be really thankful that I didn't ruin the baptism. Haha it went pretty well surprisingly and he was still baptized so counting that one as a success.  And then on Saturday I got a card from my whole speech team and that made my whole week! Thank you everyone for sending me cards and letters.. it is the funnest thing getting letters. Helps me not be quite as homesick! 

It really was such a great week. We have been so blessed to find people who need our help. I feel like Heavenly Father is really directing us so much and helping us to help other people. It is weird how like we teach people twice and I already love them.. I think it is because as a missionary you can feel a little bit of the love that God has for them. But it really motivates me to work my very hardest to do everything I can to help them. I feel truly blessed to be here and to be a missionary. Everyday I am learning more about the Gospel and everyday I learn more of its truthfulness.. and I truly love this Gospel and I love being able to have it as the center of my life.  I am so grateful for all of your love and support! Thank you for everything you do! I miss you!

Love Cassidy