not enough time!!!!!!!!!!!!!

January 12th
So, this is weird. I was expecting a whole lot more resistance than this, but I guess I’m not going to complain. Juliette was taught by the missionaries back in August and liked it, but was too busy to make any changes. In the mean time the missionaries who taught her get transferred and she’s forgotten. But then out of the blue (and after some experiencing some incredible things) she calls us and says she wants to be taught more. Then people came up to us at church and said that Rachel Fuller and Sis. Redden are ready to be baptized. Then Ruthy calls us and tells us that her friend, Lauren, would be willing to listen to our lessons and go to church with us. Then Brother Hall whose been in active for years all the sudden comes to church. And he said he did because his son whose been inactive for years randomly (as random as random really is which is not really all that random, but that’s a philosophic debate for another time, another place) decides that he wants to repent and come back to church. Then we meet Shannon who lets us teach her the plan of salvation in the middle of her cigarette break and says she wants us to come back, then we keep getting all these text messages from Church headquarters telling us that people are ordering bibles and Books of Mormons and DVD and they want us to come share our message. Then Bonnie prays that she wants to get baptized and go to church. Then nine-year-old Sierra says she wants to get baptized. Every time someone agrees to listen to us I almost want to stop and say, “Wait…you know we’re Mormons, right? We believe in Joseph Smith and his golden bible…you know that, right?” But they know it and they believe it too…which is really cool…I’m not complaining, but it’s slightly unexpected.
Lauren is an amazing 23ish-year-old. She had a stroke before she was born and suffers from auras or seizures. Sister Davenport and I have noticed something extremely special about Lauren. Before we even met her we’ve been having very interesting experiences that have made us aware that Lauren is not just any girl. There’s something very special about her and I’m interested to see how everything unfolds. She’s an incredible painter and has this great boyfriend who lost both his legs in a bomb in Iraq. Ruthy warned us that she has auras quite often when she’s around people because she gets excited. She told us that if it happens Lauren usually is exhausted afterwards and has to sleep the rest of the day. So we went and taught Lauren and sure enough in the middle of the lesson she had an aura. It lasted about 15 minutes and we were expecting to leave because she was going to need to recover. But when she was finished she sat back up and brightened up again as if nothing had happened and we finished the lesson. Ruthy told us afterward that that hardly ever happened. I’m convinced it’s because of my incredible teaching abilities and the charm that reeks from my very being…haha. No.
In fact, let me tell you all about my “incredible” teaching abilities or lack thereof. I am having a really hard time cause I’m outside of my element. If I had my choice I would sit down and pre-write every lesson and every door knock situation. Then I would memorize it and then I would perform it….but no. I’m asked to prepare, but not as much as I want to. I can be eloquent when I have the time, but when I’m put on the spot…haha. It’s a great humblying experience though. I fall over my words and stare blankly at another person as I try to piece together some coherent sentence. Mostly people just smile and think to themselves (Wow…what a train wreck). But you know what? I’m not really discouraged by it. I think people like hearing train wrecks more than they like being caught up in some poetic production of words. Anyways…you should have seen me when I was completely thrown off by a women that said she was Jewish. “Well….we believe in ….a Messiah who came to America…who happened to be Jesus Christ….” Oh boy. Or the lesbian who called the referral center who apologized for unconvincing us with her questions about religion…”Um…I know the Book of Mormon is true.” Or the Hindu woman who rolled her eyes as I tried to explain why I had anything of value to offer her. Haha. I’m getting better though. And I do know that I have something to offer everyone. My teaching skills have much to be desired. I lack the experience that comes with age. I’ve spent most of my life in…what’s it called?...A bubble? And I hiccup quite a bit. But don’t be fooled by my own personal appearance and character because the message I have to offer is one of such significance and such consequence that I feel the angels beside me and I stubble through my presentation and I know that they make up for my personal deficiencies. And luckily Sister Davenport is my companion and she bails me out. Haha. Wow…this is fun.
I wanted to talk about church meetings really quick. I’ve never prayed so hard in my entire life as I do when we bring investigators to church. Holy moly. Sister Davenport has more faith than me and she says that everything happens for a reason, but when a sister got up in fast and testimony meeting and said that she sometimes stopped going to church because she would get “p*#@ed off” I thought I was going to have a heart attack. Luckily she finished with that despite that she could deny the way she felt when she read the Book of Mormon. Nice Recovery!
I got super sick on Saturday and thought that I was going to miss Church the next day cause I was really really sick. I got a blessing, but I’ve got this weird thing where I know God can heal me, but I just assume he won’t so he can teach me a lesson or something. Anyways, I went to bed Saturday night with a high fever and headachy and had a yucky stomach and the next day I woke up feeling absolutely perfect. A good thing because I would have missed some amazing stuff.

The anti-nephi-lehis made a commitment not defend themselves with bloodshed. There was no formal law requiring them to do that, but they we're listening to spirit and the higher law that they spririt was requiring them to live personally. listen to the spirit and to your personal laws

Thank you for your prayers and your packages. I love you all!