Baptismal Date Set, Zone Training Meeting, Vines & Fruit...

Hola Queridas Familia y Amigos!!! I hope that you all are having a wonderful day! I have had another really great week here in Indiana!

My mom will be happy to know that I found a Fazoli's!

Monday: I have yet to figure out how P-Days can possibly go SO fast. Yep, I have no idea! But they do, and here I am at the end of another very quick P-Day. After studies, emailing family, shopping and spending the rest of the day preparing for our week,  we then went to our appointment with a branch member hermana and her family. It was so good. She made us some really good spicy meatballs and rice, she is an amazing cook. We enjoyed talking with her and her daughter that is our age who has a little boy. We shared the "Your Potential, Your Privilege" video and Hermana really liked it because she has seen the potential and blessings she has in her life because of the Gospel because she can see the difference of before she had the Gospel.

Zone Conference Snack Kit
Red "Vines" and "Fruit" Snacks

Tuesday: Today was a very long but super good day! We got up earlier then our normal missionary time so that we could get ready to go to Zone Training Meeting. We got to the Valpo Stake Center about 8:00 and practiced the choir number with the rest of the Zone. We sang "I See Our Zion". It is such a beautiful and powerful song. President Woodbury actually wrote it. After practicing, we had our Zone Training Meeting. It was so good. We started by listening to a dynamic sister who is the perfect example of a member missionary. She taught us about how we can build trust and better work with the members. She is such a funny and amazing person. I definitely want to be a member missionary like her after my mission. We then performed our song, it went really well. President Woodbury then spoke to us. He talked about building Zion, gathering Israel as missionaries. We learned about being the pure in heart and about D&C 27:30 and the qualifications of baptism. The way that we become the pure in heart is through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We then listened to the Sister Training Leaders. This was really neat because my trainer, Hermana Toney, was called as a STL and she is the one that came to our Zone Conference. So I got to see her and talk with her a bit which was awesome. Her and her companion, Sister Hone, taught us about the recent adjustments to missionary work and specifically about teaching PMG Lesson 5 to investigators. Our Zone Leaders taught us about the power of the Book of Mormon by having us role play and have the faith to just open the Book of Mormon and start reading and be able to have the answer to our "investigator's" question of the soul. It was really neat and really helped reinforce to us how vital the Book of Mormon is in our work. We then had final closing comments from President Woodbury: The Atonement of Jesus Christ heals ALL pain. Definitely a very personal message for me and everyone else in the Zone! My family sent another Zone Meeting Treat Box with red "Vines" and

Zone Meeting Snack Kit Package

"Fruit" snacks. They referenced John 15:4-8, where Christ explains that he is the "Vine" and we are branches and if we abide in him we will bring forth great "Fruit".  Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the message and treats. In the afternoon we had President's Interviews. Hermana Whitney and I ended up being last on the schedule. So we went and had a super yummy lunch at Fazoli's and then went to the chiropractor. Back at the Church we finally got in for interviews. President thanked me for the love and care that I gave Hermana Escobar and that he knows I am going to have a great transfer with Hermana Whitney. We then headed home and then had studies for the rest of the evening. I had a really good personal study reading 2 Nephi 9.


Wednesday: Our first appointment was with a young man that missionaries have been looking for since February 19. Hermana Whitney had contacted him when she was hear on exchanges one time. He had been looking so sad and depressed but lit up when she contacted him and told him a little about the Gospel. But since then missionaries had never been able to meet with him. He would text us random questions but would never want to get together to talk about it. He always continued to ask if Hermana Whitney was there, but she wasn't because she had been here on exchanges. Then, the night of transfer calls a couple of weeks ago, he texted asking if Hermana Whitney was there.  This was about an hour before we got the call saying she was being transferred in. We said she wasn't right then but would he like to meet sometime this next week. He said sure and then we got the call that Hermana Whitney was coming back. Coincidence? I think not! It ended up not working out to meet with him last week but we were able to make an appointment for today. He walked/ran for 30 minutes to a park to be able to meet us! It was so amazing because he has such a desire to learn and know. He is searching for truth, he truly is hungry for it and it is so amazing to see. The lesson on the Restoration went really well. He had so many questions and we were able to help explain some of them to him and it was just so good! He told us that if he could ask God one question, it would be to know what he will be doing from now (he is 18) until he is 25. We promised him that if he read the Book of Mormon, he would find his answer. Then, he accepted a baptismal date for August 16. Oh! It was SO good! Both Hermana Whitney and I came out of that lesson grinning from ear to ear.

After that incredible lesson we stopped by some investigators we had been teaching when I first got here but then they just disappeared for a while and we hadn't been able to get a hold of them. We found them at home and were able to talk to them a bit and make an appointment for next week!  We were also able to see another family that we are working with and was able to talk with them for a little while as well.  We did some Facebook contacting and also stopped by some other contacts looking for opportunities to teach. We baked a tres leches cake for one of our investigators who is having a birthday tomorrow. I was kind of nervous to do it on my own because I had always had Hermana Escobar to help me, but it all turned out just fine!

An example of what my mission journal looks like

Thursday: We had some good studies this morning and then had lunch. After that we did weekly planning. It is so long sometimes but definitely pays off! We are working on planning really effectively and really going by the needs of the people we are working with. I finished up our tres leches cake and then we headed to Chicago Heights for the afternoon. We first went to an investigator's house for his wife's birthday. We took our cake and they both couldn't believe that we actually came and that we brought cake! They were super excited and immediately invited us in and to eat pazole with them. We had cake afterwards and they absolutely loved it so that made me happy. His son was there too. We had such a good time talking with them. The hermano is SO funny and entertaining. He told us how he felt like even though he only had 3 kids, he felt like God had finally sent him 2 more daughters, us! He nicknamed us "Whitney Houston" and "Miniatura". Like I said he is super awesome. We read a little bit from 1 Nephi in the Book of Mormon with them.

After that awesome lesson we went to our lesson with a less active family. It went pretty good. We taught the Restoration with emphasis on Priesthood Authority because we wanted to help their son understand the Priesthood a little more since he just received it a few weeks ago. The son has so many questions and sometimes it is hard to keep everyone on topic, but it was a good lesson and I think they learned a lot. After that teaching appointment we tried stopping by a potential investigator who told us yesterday that she would be home all afternoon today, but sadly enough she wasn't. On our way home we stopped by a former investigator's house who once had a baptismal date. But they told us they weren't interested right now because they are going to another church.

10 Months of  filling my Mission Journal

Friday: 10 Months!!! I actually didn't even think about it being my 10 month mark until the evening. Isn't that so crazy? Didn't I just barely have my 9 month mark?!?! Today was a good day though. We went to our lesson with one of our investigators and her kids. But they weren't home :( We were so sad because we had been planning on talking about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and planting some flower and cucumber seeds with them to explain faith. So instead we went to visit one of our investigators with a baptismal date set that we hadn't been able to contact for a little while. She was home and so we were able to go in and share a little message with her. She hadn't had a chance to read in the Book of Mormon so we read part of 2 Nephi 31 with her and discussed baptism. She thinks baptism is very important and is something she wants to do. She did tell us that the closer church building with an English speaking unit would be better for her though so we will have to hand her off to the English Sisters now. We tried to find some other people after that but no one was home. We drove to Dyer, Indiana for our lunch appointment with a less active. It was really good because she figured we didn't often get to have fun casual American food and so she grilled us some hot dogs. They were way good and we had a good time talking with her and her daughter. We shared the video "Because of Him" and talked about the Atonement. After that lesson we went to our next lesson with one of our other investigators on a baptismal date. Unfortunately she wasn't home so we tried catching some other potential investigators.  We went to the library and did some proselyting and contacting on Facebook.

Saturday: Today was a good day, a long and busy day, but a really good day. We had studies in the morning. Then we drove to Chicago Heights to see if we could meet with one of the families we are teaching with some little girls. The mom wasn't home so we weren't able to teach them them so then we headed to another investigator and her family. They were home but we weren't able to teach them because they are getting ready to move. We helped them pack a little bit and then went driving around Chicago Heights to try and find them some cardboard boxes to pack things in. We found a few at Jewel Osco and then were able to stop by a branch member's house who had a lot of boxes. When we took the boxes to to this family they were so happy and surprised because the husband hadn't been able to find any boxes.  We had an appointment with a member who isn't able to come to Church too often because her daughter has special needs. She was so sweet and made us some AMAZING spaghetti, and lots of it! We were soooo full after that appointment.  We were able to teach a less active hermano and his niece.  The niece really took a liking to us. We talked about the Liahona with hermano because he wants to get his patriarchal blessing and then we talked a little about the Book of Mormon with the niece.  They said that they would come to Church tomorrow if we could find someone to give them a ride, we are so excited!!! After searching for a few more contacts with no luck, we headed towards home. We had a sad conversation via text with our new investigator who has a baptismal date set and learned that he is leaving in the morning and will be gone for at least 2 weeks. That is sad because he has so much potential, but we will do what we can.

Sunday: After getting up and getting ready, we headed to Church for our MCM meeting with our branch mission leader. But, literally 2 minutes away from the Church (it takes us 30 minutes to get there) he called and canceled :( So instead we worked on reporting on lessons and planning for this next week. All of the craziness of trying to arrange rides to get our less active hermano to and from Church paid off when he actually came! For the first time in more than 4 years he was in Church and was able to take the Sacrament and renew his covenants. Watching the less actives that I am helping take the Sacrament are some of the best moments or my mission because I understand the meaning and the importance of the Sacrament so much better now. It makes me so happy to see that I am able to help these people in some small way to come closer to Christ and to progress once again on the pathway back to our Heavenly Father. We also had a really awesome surprise when a hermana come to Church who has been in Puerto Rico for 7 months, I hadn't ever met her before! She finally got back this week and she is so great, plus she lives in Chicago Heights so that is gong to really help us with having member present lessons. Sacrament Meeting was interesting. The first speaker talked for about 40 minutes, until about only 5 minutes of the meeting was left. Then, the counselor conducting had us sing the intermediate hymn (ALL of the verses), had his grandson speak (who had to talk in English and then have the counselor translate to Spanish every word), and then the other counselor stood up and talked too!!! Needless to say, that meeting ran very late! But our less active hermano felt very happy and welcome in the Church, so that is all I was worried about! After Church we drove to Chicago Heights to look for a couple of contacts and we went to help a member with some paperwork. We read in Alma 32 with him and then helped him know what the papers were asking him for.

As you can see it was a super good and busy week! We did a lot of teaching and finding. This week is looking even fuller than last week so we are excited and happy about that! The work in this area is definitely hastening and there is so much to do! Thank you all so much for your love and support! I love you all so much!

Hermana Allyse Meanea