Unfortunately, I did not have a mexican fiesta for dinner last night. But all is well!
UPDATES:
1) Sister Supath (not Supaph, like I said last week) Bradshaw
We met with Sister Bradshaw AGAIN on Wednesday! And guess what? Her sweet, 86-year old Thai mother was there too! She's a faithful member of the Oakton ward, so she had no problem that we were there visiting her daughter! We talked to Supath about church attendance and why it's so important. Sister Evans mentioned to her that it was not a coincidence that we were there - but that this is the opportunity for her to come closer to Christ and return to His fold. Again, she cried. The Spirit touches her so easily... reminds me of Mom! I love it. She agreed to come to church with us this Sunday, so we all carpooled together (her mother included). It was so great! She enjoyed the meetings and even met with Bishop afterwards. He was able to give her some counsel and was very loving towards her and her situation. Sister Bradshaw has committed to us that she will come again next Sunday and that she'll throw out those things in her life that are holding her back. We're so excited for her and can really see how happy this makes her! She told us after that if we hadn't come to her house that day, she wouldn't be here. She also said that 8 pairs of missionaries had met with her in the last 10 years, but none of them tugged at her heartstrings like we did! It made me feel really good inside to know that the Lord wanted US to be the ones to return her to activity. What a blessing!
2) Glen has yet to meet with us again :( He and his wife are seriously gone every weekend so it's hard to catch them. We hope to have another lesson this week and commit him to baptism (with a date)!
NEW:
1) Brendi Figueroa
Remember David? Well, we've been teaching his mother this past week! David is still living at his girlfriend's house in Reston (out of our area) so that's a bummer. But his mother has been going through some SERIOUS trials. Her license expired not too long ago and a cop pulled her over and gave her a ridiculous amount of tickets. Somehow, she got sent to court and eventually to jail for 10 days. When she got out, she had no job anymore and still needed to pay her bond off. She ALSO needed to get a new job and her license renewed all before she had to go back to court in a week. A WEEK! Or else she would be sent to SIX MONTHS in jail. We caught her at just the right time and were able to contact many members in our ward and in the Spanish ward to help her out with job possibilities and such. Meanwhile, we shared with her some comforting messages and prayed for her A LOT. We even were able to teach her about the Restoration of the gospel! She was VERY humble and teachable, and quite receptive to all that we taught her. A couple days later, we found out that her court date was extended for a month because her awful judge was sick and couldn't make it to court. BLESSINGS! So now she has month to get a job and a new license. We are now having the Spanish Sisters work with her and hopefully she'll continue to grow in the knowledge of the gospel.
So these were huge blessings to us this week. For the lack of investigators and lessons we teach, we're still able to see many miracles in our area. We are picking up potential investigators as we go along street contacting or tracting, and I know that these could potentially be those people that are ready to hear the gospel - maybe not now, but sometime in the future! You never know. President Riggs said that we, as missionaries, usually contact a person SEVEN times before they agree to a discussion. So he advised us not to worry if we're not the seventh and final contact - just be ONE. It will all work out as it should in the end.
To describe the picture attached - this is the Payne Family! We had dinner with them on Thursday. Because the wife is allergic to wheat, we had grilled chicken salad for dinner. Just salad. That was it. And if you know me, you know I don't care too much for salad. Well guess what? I ate nearly the WHOLE thing. And I felt really funny after. Like, I was full... but a weird kind of full. A fibrous full. It was so interesting. ANYWHO, Sister Evans found out that an old investigator of her's was getting baptized this Saturday and she was asked to speak! So we desperately needed to find a ride because it was 30 miles away in Mt. Vernon. We called a WHOLE bunch of members but no one could do it. So we called Sister Payne, who picked up and before we could ask, said hurriedly "Can I call you back? My son just fell off the bed." We knew then that if she calls back, we should just say that we got it figured out because we KNEW her hands were too full with those boys. She called back, and we told our lie. But then she said "Oh, I could have taken you to a baptism." Sister Evans and I looked at each other and immediately admitted that we lied to her and that we still need a ride. She said "Missionaries lie? You sneaky missionaries!" Hahaha she is HILARIOUS by the way. So we showed up at their house on Saturday, not knowing if it was going to be just her taking us or what... but it was her WHOLE adorable family! They all were dressed up and ready to go with us. (By the way, we only gave them a DAY'S notice). It was such a cool experience to go with them. I feel so blessed to have them in the ward where I serve! Such a great act of kindness to us that I will NEVER forget.
I'm so grateful for this church and for the people in it. Learning about Christ and how He served and loved others really does REFLECT in the members. I hope to grow more Christ-like throughout my life - and be that hand that someone needs! I know that this is HIS gospel and that as long as we look to HIM, we're going the right way. Every time.
LOVE YOU ALL! And thank you for everything.
Loves,
Sister Hansen
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