This week has been a crazy one. So I started my new week in ABQ-E! My new companion is Sister L., and she is absolutely wonderful. She is small and cute, and a hard worker. She keeps talking about how blessed she is to have me as a companion...but I'm pretty sure she has it all turned around. I absolutely love working with her! She finishes her mission this transfer, which is super lame. But, I'm glad to be with her as she finishes. And, she's not really trunky at all...so it's all good. We have a car, but we both like to walk, and this area is a little smaller than my last. So it's perfect to walk to the park or the library. Anyways, we basically get along great and I couldn't have asked for more.
The first few days were a little slow. We needed to re-organize the area to a way that we can better understand it. We still have probably a couple hours of organizing and such ahead of us. It's kind of daunting, but we know it will help a lot. Especially when Sis. L. leaves and I have to kind of take everything over. So...we've done a lot of that.
I cover 1/2 a ward. Which is good, because the area is massive. (Mom's note...in her last area she was covering two wards. So this new area is "massive" but still smaller than the previous one.) There are over 900 people in the ward. The primary is huge, and there are two Elders Quorums. So needless to say, it's going to take me awhile to get to know everyone. But, we are having a meeting on Sunday, where we will hopefully get the ward boundaries changed.
We have a lot of investigators...but no one is progressing right now. So I've only met a few people...a couple that we are going to try and work with more. And a recent convert, Marcia, that is absolutely wonderful.
We also found a few new (investigators) this week!! Dave, talked to the Elders that cover the other half of our ward. So we met with him in a park...and it was great. He doesn't seem too convinced yet, and his wife doesn't even want us in the home. But we gave him a BOM and asked him to read, and we'll meet with him this Sat. We also met our neighbor, Linda. She is kind of crazy, but that's why I love her. We just were walking home one day, and asked her how she was ding, and she said "Okay." So I walked over and said, "Just okay?" and then we learned her life story about how her family was affected by hurricane Katrina, and she hasn't seen her family in eight years. She's this crazy black lady, probably in her 30's. You know those videos, where they are kind of re-done and then people say things over, and over, and over again and they're real animated? (sometimes they are put to songs...what's that called?) Anyways...it was like talking to one of those...in real life. It was greats. So we all held hands and prayed with her, and we'll go back this week. : )
The rain has been kind of crazy. My area isn't too bad...but there are some areas where it's pretty bad. Lots of hail and wind. Small flash floods...but like I said, I've been safe so no worries. Monsoon season is the greatest!
Being an STL (Sister Training Leader) is possibly the greatest. I mean, it's a ton of work. But it's the best. We are working on making sure that all the sisters we cover know that we really care about them...rather than just being here to correct them. Cause that id definitely not our purpose. So, we have called, and gone to visit. There are a few that are struggling, so we go and offer advice and hugs, and sometimes ice cream. We go with them to the psychologist at the church building, and things like that. One sister has already gone home for medical things, so we're working on helping her companion feel comfortable while she is being shuffled around. We work some with President and the other ZL's (zone leaders) and DL's (district leaders) of all the sisters too. They let us know when there are problems, and then we check up on the sisters, and report back to the leaders. We also have a meeting all day this Thursday, which I am super stoked for. It keeps me SO busy, but busy is good. I really love this calling a whole lot.
Story time.
So last night was SO hectic. I don't think I can adequately give you the whole story. But essentially, we finished one of the most crazy/stressful pdays of my life. (laundry, letter writing, shopping, visiting sister, hair cuts, dinner, last-minute cancelled appointments..) We remembered that we needed to find some priesthood to give a blessing to a member's daughter. (She's a NI--new investigator too...53, crazy hard life, and is going into surgery tomorrow.) Anyways, because it's family night, we were struggling with that. We FINALLY found the men to come help us. We had to cancel an appointment with a deaf family we taught once and are trying to turn over to the elders...and turns out that the family is taking advantage of a handicapped member of the ward, and stealing money from his parents. So it was a blessing that we had to cancel. But then the reason we cancelled was because another appointment for a referral...and that fell through too. So, around 87:45, we went to meet these priesthood holders to give a blessing. We could only find one, so we were waiting in the parking lot. While chatting, we got a call from some very annoyed AL's of another zone that we had given a referral to. Apparently, they had tried to contact this referral, but found someone in the ward that was LA, and his was NM (non-member) instead...they were pretty annoyed with us. Until they realized that they didn't contact the right person. (Which we found out, because the lady that gave us the referral, called us during the phone call with the ZL's and said that the man hadn't been contacted by the elders yet...the timing couldn't have been more perfect). Meanwhile, the man we were looking for went in and gave the blessing without us, and we didn't even know it. He texted us later, and thanked us for inviting him, because he hadn't given one in a long time. But because he was inside, we were able to get to know this other couple better, and be available to take these calls.
Anyways, it was the craziest, most confusing and stressful night ever. BUT, we were fortunate enough to see how through all of these crazy things that seemed terrible in the moment, ended up being a total blessing. God was moving us around like little pawns, and we got to see the final picture. It was great. : )
I hope that made even a little bit of sense. I'm still trying to straighten the night out in my head, much less put it into words.
Well, that's about it. OH!! I hound a Waffle House here. It's just like the ones at home, and I love it a whole lot. We went there for dinner yesterday. : )
I hope ya'll have a fabulous week!! Work hard. I love you so much, and am so grateful for the prayers and support. Ya'll are my heroes. : )
Love,
Sister Brown
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| The Sisters before me left a cute note. (Mom's note...I believe the shape is the logo on the NM flag, and the initials mean New Mexico, Albuquerque Mission.) |
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