We are freezing to death right now in case you were wondering. It's not even as cold here as it is in Arkansas and other places I've heard about. I can't even imagine trying to work in anything colder than this. Despite it getting really cold here and raining on us, we worked out butts off tracting and getting ourselves out there. Luckily people have had compassion on us and let us in to their homes because it was so cold. We have taught some really neat families.
Funny story: My companions told me that we were going to visit a member who lived in the neighborhood we were working. My companions didn't tell me her name and I don't know all of the members in the area yet, so it wouldn't have done me any good anyway. So instead of walking to her house, we ended up in a woman named Juanita's house. She is NOT a member. In fact, my companions hadn't taught her hardly anything at all. I didn't know all of this. We go inside and we're talking with her as she cooks lunch and we're laughing and joking and the whole time I think she's a member. Then her neighbor comes over to eat lunch and my companions ask her if they can teach the neighbor lady. I thought to myself "oh! How nice! A member referral!" and so we start teaching and I'm teaching the first lesson to the neighbor lady. It went so well and Juanita was talking along with us about the prophets in the Bible and such. We get to the end of the lesson and my companion asks Juanita if she knows anything about the Book of Mormon and she said "no, tell me about it!" I realized in that moment that Juanita was an investigator! I felt so dumb for not catching it before. If anything though, it just made me want to teach her more because she is that wonderful already!
I got in my first bible bash. It was the last house on the last day of our missionary week. We just needed 5 more minutes of tracting to reach our weekly goal, so we decided to knock this door. It had been a cold and wet hour of tracting with no success. There was a football game on and no one had time to talk to us. I was feeling discouraged and turned to my companions and said "I really don't know how much more of this I can handle." A man answered the door and we were talking to him about faith and such and found out the hard way that he is a preacher. He started telling us that we're going to hell because we don't believe in Christ and a bunch of crap like that. So of course I started arguing, which is never a good idea. In the end we walked away as he continued to shout his sermon at us from the door. It sucked, but I will grow from the experience. Lesson learned: contention is ALWAYS of the devil and will not do any good. Open minds and open hearts is the best policy. I think 1 bible bash in 7 months is a good ratio though.
I do love the Clinton area though. So many good people here. My companions, Sister Willardson and Sister Birmingham, are really good, hard working people. Willardson is really spacey and loving and Birmingham is really intense and hardworking. They are complete opposites, so we strike a good balance with me in the middle. I sometimes think I might kill Sister Birmingham because she is super stressed out all of the time, but I'm learning patience. They are being pretty patient with me because I came in and started changing everything. I started by cleaning out the apartment and have been working on making the whole process here more efficient. They tell me that they want to meet dad because I attribute that part of my personality to him. (Assertive, efficient, and always right) Thanks dad!
Well, once again, this letter is long enough. Hope everyone stays warm and enjoys the new year! 2014 is going to be a blessed year! (And I come home this year!)
Love,
Sister McElderry
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