I find myself writing you another letter and I almost can’t believe it because the time is just moving so fast. It’s weird here because the days are really long but the weeks are so short. I am telling you it is so weird.
So this week has been very interesting. We have seen so many miracles it has been pretty amazing. On Tuesday we had a really good day because Sister Bird and I prayed for a new investigator and as we went out we decided to contact a referral that the previous sisters received. So we went the house and the lady we were supposed to meet was outside and we talked to her and she told us that her partner (here people don’t get married but they live together and they are referred to as “partners”) is a less-active members and that all of his family is really active and they have been trying to get them to come to church. She said “I know that we will come to church at some point just not right now. It’s not the right time now but I know I will be mormon someday.” I thought that that was pretty interesting so we kept talking to her and eventually we asked her if we could come back and teach her and her family and she agreed. So we have a meeting with her coming up and we are really excited.
Another cool thing that happened this week came when we contacted another referral. So we had a name of a lady and a note that said that she cleans house for a member and that we can contact her for more information. So we called the member and set up an appointment to meet her friend at her house. Now in my past letters I have tried not to use people’s names but in this case I am going to or else the story won’t make sense. So we started teaching this lady named Pauline. She told us that she had suffered a stroke and that she had lost her husband and daughter within the last couple of years. She said that she has been going to the Jehovah’s Witness Church for about a year now. So we taught her the Plan of Salvation and she really seemed to feel the spirit and we set up another meeting. We were really pleased with how the lesson went and Pauline told us to come to her house because she had a daughter that was showing some interest in the church as well. It was really great.
Now we have another investigator that is doing really well and her name is Mal. I mentioned her last week. We met her when she came to church with one of her less-active friends. So we have been teaching her the past couple of weeks and she is doing really well. She said that she will be baptized but she wants to learn more before setting a date. Anyways we had a really great lesson with her on Thursday and we taught her the restoration up at the VC and things went really well. We have only taught Mal the lessons at her friend’s house or the VC because she lives with her mom who is a Jehovah’s Witness. Mal really opened up to us and she told us that she has been through a really hard time lately with her mother’s stroke and her sister dying. She has really found comfort in the gospel. Again we were so excited and feeling really good about things.
So if you picked up on it than you are better than me and Sister Bird. If you didn’t catch it than I will explain how we found out. So we had a second lesson with Pauline on Saturday and she was telling us a little bit about herself and she pointed to a door and said “That is my daughter’s room. She has a Book of Mormon and I think she has been taking these church classes too.” (Now I forgot to mention that we got special permission to teach Pauline because she doesn’t live in our area. She lives across the street from our area but she is still in a different ward. But we got permission from the Zone Leaders to teach her) So when she said that about her daughter Sister Bird and I looked at each other and we both thought that maybe the elders are teaching her. Then Sister Bird asked Pauline what her daughter’s name was and she said “Malvena” and I thought I had heard that name somewhere and Sister Bird almost yelled “Malvena Nelson?!” and I was a bit shocked. Then I realized what she had just realized. Our investigator Mal was our investigator Pauline’s daughter! We had been teaching both of them and no one had any idea. It was the craziest thing. I am a little worried because I don’t want this to affect the relationship that we have with both of our investigators so we are praying that everything will work out okay. The good news is that Pauline has accepted the invitation to be baptized and she is working towards being baptized on September 28th. This is over a month away so she has plenty of time to prepare. I am sad though because it is after transfers and seeing as how we are getting sixteen new sisters this time around there is about a 98% chance that I will be transferred. But that’s okay it will all work out.
Another great thing that happened this week is we got another new sister in the VC. She name is Sister AH Quin and she is from Hawaii. She has been serving in Colorado for the past six while she waited for her visa to come through. So she has been assigned to be companions with Sister Holmes and Sister Swindler. Let’s just say that things around here are so much fun. Sister AH Quin is so funny but her combined with the rest of the sisters is pure magic. When she first arrived, President and Sister Rudd brought her here so that she could meet everyone and we decided to take some pictures. We took some normal nice one but you know Sister Rudd so we had to go into the other room to take some “ugly faced” ones. Now the pictures that we took then have become some of the funniest things that I have ever seen. I finally won the ugly face contest and we have been laughing ever since. If you haven’t seen it yet I will send attach it to this email because those I love deserve to see this picture. However, after you look at it you have to delete it so that it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. This picture could do some serious damage to my reputation. Oh man the first time Sister Bird and I saw this picture we cried from laughing so hard. Then the situation repeated itself when the other sisters looked at it. We all about died. Even Elder McLauchlan was crying from laughing so hard. Now I don’t know whether or not you will be able to appreciate this picture the way that we all did. However I hope that you at least laugh a little bit.
Just when I thought I have seen/heard/read everything there is on chat, we talk to a man who is an RLDS reformationist. Now imagine what it is like when a man who believes in Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon is trying to convince you that your church is false. It was the weirdest thing ever. He claimed that after Joseph Smith died Joseph Smith the Third was called as the next prophet but after he died everyone fell back into apostasy. It was pretty crazy. I tell you chat is a whole different experience than normal missionary work. On Saturday we had a man trying to tell us that he had been translated and that he was the prodigal son and that he has met John the Baptist and gave him the Book of Mormon. Honestly sometimes I can only shake my head and marvel at the fact that there are really people like that out there.
Well I guess that is all I have to tell you from the past week. It is going to be really hard on me when I no longer have the time to tell you every detail from my week :) I commend those of you that actually read my whole letters. I guess I use this as a journal of sorts and I record the major events. I hope that at least some parts of my letters are enjoyable to read. Anyways I love and miss all of you! Take care and have a great week!
Sister Simkins
This is a picture of me at Bridal Veil Falls last week. We had an amazing time and it was so beautiful.
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