I Call Them Miracle Texts

Sharlee's email

The first week of a transfer always seems one of the hardest. Tuesday could have been the worst of this week but of course the Lord is amazing and blessed us with miracle. The week before we were booked to the max. Always had an appointment to go to. This week was totally opposite. Tuesday was on of those days where we didn't have ANY appointments and we didn't have the miles to go to service, so we were at lost on how to fill our open time. Being desperate we put tracting (which is useless in a ysa branch just saying). We weren't looking forward at all for the day. We had a lesson with on of our awesome members and were heading out the door to do our tracting but got a text, a text from RJ.

(Hopefully I've told you a little about him) About twoish weeks ago RJ told us that he was really busy so he wouldn't be meeting with us or going to church. We were really sad because he was like our only solid investigator. The text from him that says, "What do you guys think about me getting baptized?" We were ecstatic! He's picked July 5 for his date. Seriously, I about cried. The day still was kind of crappy. Our only other appointment cancelled. But we just kept thinking about that text and it kept our spirits high. I still don't get why we get texts like that. Our district leader who has been here for the three transfers we've been together said, "I think you sisters just have to wait for your investigators to ask to be baptized!" And its so true!

And the cooler thing is that the Lord truly had a hand in this week though it might have been on the hard side. On Thursday we went contacting a few potentials and less-actives. One of the people we have tried before was Jackson Kasza. Well we felt like we should go try again. We knocked on the door and Jackson answers. It was a great lesson! I think the only sad thing is that he is a return missionary that hasn't been to church... in a LONG time. How does that even happen? But it went really well and he said we could come back. The following day was Friday, also known as weekly planning day. We had this awesome set up at the church: free doughnuts, music, a chalk board to write on. As we were trying to figure out who would be a good fellowshipper for RJ a thought came to my mind, Jackson. Jackson was a perfect person to fellowship RJ and it would also help Jackson become active! So we'll see how that goes. :D Seriously though the Lord totally set that up. RJ on Tuesday, Jackson on Thursday, and weekly planning on Friday.

We had stake conference this weekend. On Saturday we went to the adult session. It was so good, mostly because our mission president spoke at it. He cried which means I cried. It was the last stake conference being a mission president. We were sitting by Brother and Sister Thornton who are in our branch because Brother Thornton is the 1st counselor in the branch presidency. At the end of the meeting Sister Thornton turns to us and says "So icecream?" We are so blessed. And all the missionaries ran to the stand to talk to President and Sister Toombs. They shared with us that if they weren't in front of the whole stake President would hug the sisters and Sister Toombs would hug the elders. However, President has promised us he would come around the last week to hug all his sisters. I'm so excited for that.

Today is going to be fun! We got permission to go to one of the lake activities our branch is having. Though we can't go on the boat but we are totally okay with that(: I'll tell you all about it next week!

Love you guys!
Stay Sweet
Dont do drugs

Hermana Durfee

Picture 1: Washing a member's, Jamie, car.

A week full of emotions

This week has been exhausting, sad, happy, nerve racking, relieving, and pretty much awesome. We started it with this goal. Its our last week we want to get 20 lessons. No matter what it takes. There was a lot of costs. We were exhausted each day when we got home. We weren't able to do any sort of service this week and totally killed our miles. But we did it. We reached 20 lessons... 21 lessons actually! :D Another thing that we focused on was seeking referrals. Any investigator that we've gotten that have become progressing or baptized were all member referrals. Anyone that we've found through our own efforts have disappeared. So we taught 16 members this week. We've given 1-2 weeks to work on someone then we are going to do a follow up lesson to "collect" haha totally kidding! We'll then ask if any of those friends would mind if we visited them. It went really well. We have them write 5-10 names down in front of us. I have a feeling that miracles are about to happen. 

On Wednesday we said goodbye to President and Sister Toombs. That was so hard! President Toombs has done so much for this mission and me. I'm excited/nervous for our new mission president, President Mendenhall (sp?) but I'm still at the point where I don't want President Toombs to go. We had a mission conference where ALL the missionaries got together. It was so great to see faces I haven't seen in awhile. And yes, I totally cried especially during President Toombs' testimony probably because he cried as well. He really is amazing. But I do know that the Lord qualifies who He calls. He's done that for me and He'll do it for the new mission president. So President Toombs brought along 2 of his sons to the mission and one is in our ward. His name is Jordan Toombs. He's so pretty incredible, so is his voice. We usually see him a few times in a transfer to share a lesson and then to sing around the piano. Well, he's leaving a little earlier then his parents, he leaves this week so we wanted to sing with him one last time. He invited us to his house, which means thats President Toombs house, which is also out of our area. Jordan said it was okay for us to come over. We were a little intimidated. haha. It was super cool and super weird. We did the usual except President Toombs listened to us sing for a bit. (That was a little intimidating too).

It also was the last week of the transfer. We were trying to be patient but like Jose says, "Try maybe it will happen." It didn't really work. haha. Sister Anderson was pretty convinced she was leaving and I was in denial (I tried to convince my self she wasn't). And as always we had to wait till Saturday night to find out what happens to us. The first thing they do is announce who is leaving the area. And... Sister Andersons name wasn't on there.... and neither was mine! We would be staying together for another transfer, making 3 transfers together! We were/are so excited! 

But yeah that's whats up with me.(: Hopefully my sisters are keeping the blog updated ;) (Hint Hint) Shoot me a letter or e-mail. Let me know how you are doing!

Love you guys so much

Stay Sweet

Don't Do Drugs

Hermana Durfee