I don't think I've ever experienced a better April 7th, prrrooobably because this is how great my week was....
We all gathered together before heading out to go tracting with the new trainees. President asked them who of them was nervous to go out-jokingly I raised my hand along with them and my companion for the day Sis Hendrix looks at me with a terrified look, saying “wait-you can’t be nervous!” The whole room busted up, it was hilarious, I assured her it was going to be just fine-and it was! She was so natural, and personable, jumped right in and testified-she was great. We also had one of the most diverse knocking experiences I’ve ever had. We met people who were Catholic, Baptist, atheist and RLDS. We experienced a door slam, passed out a BoM and had a lesson. A favorite experience was this guy Ken opened up, said he was Catholic and was never going to be converted…we’ll see. We were a little persistent and started teaching about the restoration and what we do, Sis Hendrix talked about the BoM. By the end of it all he accepted a copy, said he was house sitting for the next 2 days and would read it, and after we testified of the power of the BoM he even confessed that he was going through a hard time right now. She loved it and said it wasn’t nearly as bad as she thought it’d be. It all brought me back to that blazing sweaty day in July when I went out with Sis Young for my first time. Can’t believe I’m actually in the middle of my mission (the 9mo mark is in 9 days!). While we were waiting to get picked up in the van, Sis Hendrix was so joyful and was like, “this was so great-I really hope that we get put together”. Me too! Ever since we first sat down to eat lunch with them at the church, dining on the typical uncrustables pb&j, I kept getting a feeling of how mature and prepared these 3 sisters are. My prompting was confirmed when I was able to go out, and I would love to be able to be companions with Sis Hendrix. With only 3 sisters the odds are pretty good. Turns out she was prophetic and the next day it was announced that Sister Smith would be training Sis Hendrix. woot!
Sis Sarah Hendrix is fantastic. She's from Logandale, nevada, we went to SUU together and had mutual friends and she's got a fire for the work and a sweet desire to love the people even more.
We had planned our entire night around a member who was going to feed us dinner and lived a little ways away. A couple hours before dinner she dropped out on us, meh, but that’s ok because Heavenly Father had a grander plan in mind, and we were just hungry. We set out to go into town to find something to eat. Sis Hendrix wanted something southern, but we couldn’t find many options. We walked in multiple restaurants and they didn’t quite fit into our budget. We finally stumbled upon “My Taco” which had a quesadilla for $3.25, we could do that. Heavenly Father just placed us perfectly at My Taco, the owner was super nice and friendly and we started talking about the church and gospel. He has a cousin who’s Mormon, went to BYU and was now living in Denver, Utah (we never had the heart to tell him Denver wasn’t in Utah). We talked more and explained the BoM, and how those were his ancestors who Christ ministered unto. He welcomed us back-which wasn’t uncommon seeing as how we were giving him business-but also said we should bring a Spanish BoM as well. Now he may just be doing this for good customer service, but I’ll take any opportunity that will get him to give what we’re teaching a chance.
Conference at the Dials was still great even though Jessica never showed, after we went to pick up Alisha. I almost died when I saw that their car wasn’t there, but Shane assured us she’d be right back and had just run to the store fast to grab some gum. Sigh.of.relief…she volunteered to take us with her in her truck to save us miles, which also provided great opportunity to talk before and after. Sis Campbell was great, had a sweet spread of goodies, and the speakers had a wonderful array of spiritual goodies. Alisha loved the choir and sat silent, intently listening to each speaker. Afterward we talked for about an hour about the priesthood, temples, families and Sis Campbell’s own conversion. The spirit was so strong as we all bore testimony. She said as she’s been studying she’ll just have to pray and receive an answer for herself. She explained how the priesthood makes sense to her and that if it happened back in bible times it makes sense that it could be set up the same way today. When the spirit was peaking I invited her to be baptized when she got that answer and she said she would. Sis Hendrix invited her to pray with us right then, after a moment of silence she said she just wasn’t comfortable praying in front of other people. We had a good long chat in the car afterward about what she liked and didn’t like in other churches she’d experienced. She explained to us why Shane wasn’t interested and said it was because their current preacher had counseled them to avoid associating with people of differing faiths. She even shared how Shane had resisted church for years, but after the first time we stopped by he had come to her saying he wanted to go to church. After the second time we came back he came to Alisha and told her they were definitely coming to church this Sunday. While I wish he had chosen to come to OUR church, I know that the Lord's hand is in this family's life, and when the time is right they will all be able to come to a knowledge of His truth found in the restored gospel.
oh and I also found out the whole chicken and waffles thing is a southern myth. We were talking with some natives who said they'd never had such a thing and didn't really have any clue where to find it either.
welp, love y'all and pray you'll go back over conference and pray to know who you could reach out to with one of the talks that were given. They'll be available to print out in a few days, and the rest is up to you. I promise that if you pray with real intent the spirit will guide you to one who needs to be brought closer to christ:)
-Sister Lindsay Mae Smith
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