Blessed in his Service

Dear Everyone:

No news yet on my visa! I am now 5 months along on my mission.  I had a man ask me how long I've been out on my mission.  I told him 5 months and he said, "dang girl! You better hurry up and get to Brazil! You're mission is almost over!"  Thanks.  It's not a big deal though.  I love the people here.  I have developed some very special friendships here.  

Our investigator Melissa Yates (25, in the air force) is progressing beautifully.  We talked for 2 hours answering her questions and talking about the idea of baptism.  I read over all of the baptismal interview questions with her.  She answered all of them perfectly.  She knows so much.  I really want to see her get baptized, but transfers are in a week, so I don't know if it will happen.  She's ready to get baptized (ready as she'll ever be) but she is still uncertain.  That's okay.  I love that she is taking it so seriously.  She was even talking about how she decided not to buy a dress because she didn't think she would be able to wear it after going through the temple in the future.  I'm telling you, she's AMAZING!  So much faith.

We are teaching Lilly about the commandments now.  Her mother, who has previously been very opposed to the church, sat in on the lesson.  We talked a little bit about how we lived with our Heavenly Father before this life on earth and shared some scriptures to back it up and she was like "I want to learn more about this!" and told Lilly later that she wants to take the lessons, and is praying to know if our message is true and attended church yesterday with Lilly without us even inviting her!

I truly love the people here.  I'm crying right now just thinking about how much the Lord has blessed our work here.  I'm thinking back on how rough the beginning of our work here in Biloxi was, but Heavenly Father has truly blessed us and helped us develop this area.  It's so amazing to me how much the gospel can bless our lives.  I told Melissa that she is standing at a cross roads now.  She can continue on the path she was traveling before she learned about the gospel, or she can turn and take the path that follows the gospel.  She said that no matter what happens in her life, her path has been permanently altered by the knowledge and the testimony she has gained.  I feel the same way.  I'm so happy I made the choice to serve a mission right now.  I took that path that is leading me to greater knowledge and a stronger testimony. I don't know what will happen in my life or if I will ever make it to Brazil, but I'm so grateful for the way my life has changed because of my mission and the gospel.

Love,

Sister McElderry 

October 21 Letter

Hello all!

I'm trying to remember what we did this week.....

Haha.  Two weeks ago, I discovered that one of my zone leaders has dinosaur socks. I asked him to wear them, but he said he would only do it for a special occasion.  So I told him that my birthday was this last Wednesday. (that was a lie)  One of the elders who serves here in Biloxi with me, overheard our conversation and asked to make me a cake.  I told him later that it wasn't actually my birthday, but he insisted and said he wanted to make a cake for our next zone meeting anyway.  So I show up on Wednesday and there is a cake with candles and everyone (like 16 people) sing to me and I got a present and everything.  My zone leader said, "Sister McElderry, how old are you today?" and I said "21!" (not a lie).

I was given a $1000 sewing and embroidery machine by a random woman this week.  If it weren't so dang heavy, I would contemplate sending it home.  

We have been tracting like crazy the last two weeks.  We have hit like 10 houses with "No Soliciting" signs on them.  Only 1 person was nice to us about it.

This is just a quick email today.  My comp. and I had to have an extra extended companionship inventory.  It was good.  There were tears (not mine).

I spoke in the Spanish branch yesterday.  My favorite comment, "when I asked you to give a talk in spanish, I wasn't sure how it would turn out.  You actually surprised me." 

My friend Shauna came to support me.  Have I ever mentioned her before? She's 30 and recently divorced.  She has been less active for a number of years now.  Anyway, she has become SUPER active since we sisters got here and we LOVE her! She just got a calling and she went on a date with a nice LDS man she met.  I picked out her outfit and did her hair for it.  I'm living vicariously through her.  She also helped us scrape cat poop at that lady's house.  A few days later, she bought me a little "Scrapper Jr." keychain for all of my future cat poop-scraping endeavors.  Anyway, she came to hear my talk.  She listened to the translation of it on some headphones.  She told me afterward that she cried because she was so proud of me. I love that girl.  

We're going to Goodwill today because I don't have any warm clothes! I better get my Visa soon because I'm going to be cold and broke here soon!

Love you guys.  The gospel is true.

Sister McElderry

October 14th Update!

Quick update on our week.  We had an awesome week.  We worked a ton and taught a lot of people a lot of lessons.  We tracted for 7 hours! (For those of you who served missions back in the day, you may be appalled that I tract 7 or less hours, but we are productive all day without tracting!) 7 is the mission goal and for the first time in my mission, I reached it!  It was just awful and we literally found no one who was interested, but I see the blessings for my obedience in other ways.

Melissa Yates is our investigator on the air force base.  She is progressing beautifully.  She loves everything we share with her and is so kind and willing to learn.

We had a funny experience with Lilly and Carlos.  First of all, they set a wedding date for December 17, so that was progress! and they agreed to come to the Spanish branch on Sunday night because it was after Lilly got off work.  We texted and called her Saturday and Sunday and got no response.  So we showed up at her house at 6:15 (the branch starts at 6:30) and they were walking toward their car getting ready to go to walmart.  We innocently said "oh! We thought you said you would come to church with us tonight!" and then they argued for a minute because Lilly wanted to go to Church and Carlos didn't want to.  Finally Carlos gave in and they got in their car.  We got in our car and waited for about 10 minutes until they pulled out and we drove behind them all the way to the church.  We were about 15 minutes late to church, but it was 100% worth it! Everything was in Spanish, so I'm not sure how much Lilly understood, but they loved it! Carlos even thanked us afterward for pressuring him to go.  The elders quorum president invited them over for dinner and FHE tonight and hopefully they'll come to the branch next week! Especially since I will be giving a talk IN SPANISH.  I'm so nervous! But secretly excited.

Anyway, I need to go.  But I love everyone.  I got some mail this week! It was awesome!

Love,

Sister McElderry

More Adventures...

Hello from Biloxi!

I hope everyone had a good General Conference weekend! I sure did!

Update on our week and our investigators:

Amy Gandy- We had a wonderful lesson with her on Tuesday.  We haven't been able to help her understand that we're trying to build her foundation in the Gospel before we answer her obscure questions about the president bombing other countries and such.  I took a poster board and glued a leaf-less tree on it.  The trunk of the tree says "Jesus Christ" and each branch is a foundational lesson that we teach.  As we have lessons with her and as she learns concepts or asks questions, we write them on a leaf and put them on the tree.  It a way of helping her see how much she is progressing and showing her that we will answer her questions, but we need to always remember the foundation that her questions go back to.  She really liked it.  I felt kind of cheesy when I presented it to her, but she really understood it.  We've talked a lot about comparing faith to a seed and growing our tree of knowledge, so I thought it was very apropos.

We got a new investigator named Melissa Yates.  She is a young woman in the air force and she met with the missionaries in Texas before she came here.  She is WONDERFUL and I've already grown to love her after just one week! She really likes the church, but is waiting to receive an answer from Heavenly Father about the truth of our message.  She came to the Relief Society broadcast and all 4 sessions of GC this weekend.  We're meeting with her again tonight.  I'm really excited.

 

Funny story.  Well actually, a really DUMB story.  (Mom and dad, stop reading after this point!)  I went out on splits with the Relief Society president and we were driving past the library at like 8:00, so it was super dark.  I saw a man crash his bicycle, so I had her turn around so we could check and see if he was okay.  He was pretty scraped up, so we gave him some bandages from her first-aid kit.  He told us his name is Doug and he lives in the overhang in front of the library.  He was on his way to scavenge for some food, so I gave him a granola bar and told him I would bring him some food on another day.  He thanked us and we went on our way.  The next night, my companion and I were given a pizza and we were driving past the library (again at 8:00 so it was dark and no one was around).  I told her to pull in to the parking lot because I wanted to give Doug the pizza.  So we go over there and I approach the overhang.  I see something like 5 homeless men who have been drinking and have a big dog come out.  I STILL didn't think.  I walk a little closer and ask if Doug is there and he comes out and I gave him the pizza.  "Like I promised I would!" He thanked me and then I got in the car and we drove away.  It wasn't until I got back in the car that I realized just how DUMB that was.  I can laugh at myself now because I wasn't harmed, but I will not be doing that again!

Anyway, I'm including a Mormon Message this week.  It makes me cry everytime I watch it. No exaggeration.  It's kind of embarrassing.

http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages#mountains-to-climb

I love everyone.  The mail box was kind of empty this week.  I'll try to hand write more letters.  

Love,

Sister McElderry

One more thing:

I made a birthday cake for a less active man we visit (the son of Brother Chief). He turned 31.  I tried to put "31!" in lemon heads on the cake, but I mixed up which direction 3 goes!

I didn't realize it until I finished.