Week 58

 Hello Everybody! This is going to be a short email.

This week was pretty good. We actually had some exciting things happen. 1- I spoke to the mission president this week and he called me as a Sister Training Leader again!  I appreciate his confidence and trust in me! I'm excited about it. I love that calling. One thing I learned from Elder Foster of the seventy when he was here was that a true leader helps others realize their full potential. I'm going to work on that. We also have exchanges and interviews this transfer, so it is going to be so busy and full of change! It is going to be a great transfer!

We are still trying to find and teach new investigators, but we did have a cool experience this week. We met a woman named V! She actually lives next door to O and R (a recent convert), so that's cool. She is really searching to know if she is missing any pieces. She is really genuine and her son also plays basketball with the Land O Lakes Elders at the church building on Mondays!  We are going to keep meeting with her.

 I got a call from W, an ex-police officer we met in Palm Harbor back in March. He said he was in Canada for the next 6 weeks, but that he's been reading the Book of Mormon and he wants to be baptized! That was super cool.  I told him I had left the area and moved closer to Tampa, and that there are elders that can teach him in his area.

 We are having a zone activity day today. It should be fun!

Sorry, I don't have any pictures this week. I didn't do too good at taking them.

Love you all!

With love,

Sister Minson

Week 57

 

Hello dear friends and family,

Transfers is this week, but I am staying in Odessa. Sister Porter is too! Woohoo!

 

This week was quite a good one! On Monday we went to Steak 'n Shake and saw D, one of my converts from Palm Harbor! That was so good. I got a pumpkin shake. I love her, and her shakes! :)   We also went and taught A again. He is still wanting to learn, but he's having trouble recognizing his answer. We are going to focus on teaching from the Book of Mormon and helping him recognize the spirit. 

 

Tuesday we had District meeting, and we took some fun pictures! I learned about Christ-like Obedience. That was a cool lesson, and I am striving to be more Christ-like in my obedience! 

 

We also watched the talk by Jeffrey R Holland called "The First Great Commandment", in Oct 2012. Holy cow! I highly recommend that you all watch it talk about the importance of leaving behind our nets to show our love for God. It was so good!! We also taught a father and daughter about the book of Mormon, and they committed to read it.

 

We got donuts on Wednesday, and they were delicious! We also taught R and went to mutual. It was really fun.  

Donuts!

Thursday we met the M's again, and we taught them about the temple. We also had the bishop's wife, come with us to missionary coordination.

Friday we taught O and his wife, and our ward mission leader came. Then we went to the M's again, and Bishop came! They were great lessons.

Saturday a young man named A got baptized! He is in the Tampa 2 area, where Sister Hunt is. She called me the day before and asked if we could perform a musical number, and have Sister Felt play the piano. So we did I Know that My Redeemer Lives, the arrangement you sent me. Sister Cooper (mission president's wife) came and heard it, and she wrote our names down on her talent list. Hopefully I'll get to sing more! I was so nervous though. I had forgotten what it was like to perform.

Sunday we went to the J's, a new member family that moved into the ward recently, and we talked about missionary work with them. We also set up a dinner appointment with a less active family! That was cool.

That was my week! Whew! It was a great week. I hope you have a great one, too!

Love, 

Sister Minson 

 

A crazy lost dog sign!

A crazy snake skin we saw while walking in a neighborhood.

 

A rianbow!

Week 56

This week was great!

On Monday we had a lesson with a less active family, the M's, about temples and family history. It was great, and Sister M wants to go get her endowments! We are going to have an appointment where the bishop comes soon so she can ask him questions about it.

Tuesday we met a woman named K who wants to quit smoking, so we are going to do the stop smoking program with her. I'm excited to help her out with this.

Wednesday we weekly planned and then went straight from appointment to appointment all day. We had members come to almost all of them! It was super great. We taught O again! His mom passed away, and we had a lesson with him and his wife about the Plan of Salvation. It was very good. We also had dinner with a member family (they had a less active son) and I'm 90 percent sure I'm allergic to something they put in their pulled pork. I got itchy eyes, itchy throat, runny nose, sneezes, and watering eyes when I ate it, twice. Ugh! No allergies!!

Thursday we had Zone Training Meeting with President Cooper.  The rest of the day was good. Nice and busy.

Sister Briggs(my MTC companion) and I at Zone Training Meeting. It was so fun to see her again.

More pictures from Zone Training last week.

 Sister Porter and I got 50-cent frosties! It was her first time ever eating frosties. They were delicious.

Saturday we taught Sister G, a Less Active member, and she came to church the next day! It was a miracle.

And Sunday we had a meeting with Bishop. it was so great! Then afterwards we met with R, a guy the elders had taught back in July, and we set a baptismal date with him! He had been coming to sacrament meeting the past few weeks, but we haven't seen him! So crazy.

Anyway, it was an awesome week! I'm excited to talk to you again next week!

With love,

Sister Minson

Week 55

Hello!  Happy Labor Day!  Alright, here's what happened this week.

So first, I got my hair cut on Monday! That was very fun. I told the lady to cut off all of the nasty stuff, to make my hair healthy again. She measured it with her fingers, and showed me about 3-4 inches, and said "Is that okay? Some people don't want to cut off this much." and I said "Sounds great!" So it is healthy.

HAIRCUT SELFIES!

BEFORE

AFTER

On Tuesday, we went to District Meeting and at the end of the day I started to feel like I had a scratchy throat. I thought "oh no, don't tell me I'm getting sick." That night, I started feeling really sick, and was worried I would need a prescription. At the same time, we received a phone call from our Zone Leaders, telling us that we were to stay inside for the next 24 hours because of a nearby hurricane. In the morning I called Sister Alexander, and got special permission from President Cooper to go to the doctor's and pick up a prescription, even though we were supposed to stay in our apartment from the hurricane. I was sick on Thursday and Friday too, so I took lots of naps and ate soup and rested. The hurricane passed by Friday afternoon, and then by Saturday I was able to go work! Whew!

So yes, hurricane. We didn't really hear anything about it! But it wasn't bad at all where we are. We basically just stayed in our apartment, and it rained and drizzled the entire time. There were a few moments when it was pretty windy, and once or twice our lights flickered, but no power outages. That's about it!  Quite boring.We didn't have any flooding at all, at least where I was, and not really any debris in the road. But the clouds didn't clear until Saturday, so that was a little depressing. I love Florida's sky.

We had a really good experience on Sunday, that I'd love to share with you. E was a media referral! That was a huge miracle. We called him within an hour of getting the referral text, and he set up an appointment for the next day. He had requested a Bible. When we got there, we asked if we could come in and share a message with his family, and he said yes! He told us he wanted to know what "Mormon" is. So naturally we taught him and his family the restoration and about the Book of Mormon. They accepted a Book of Mormon and committed to start reading it! We also set a return appointment. It was such a blessing to us. He is from Egypt and there is a slight language barrier, but they are such a nice family. I haven't taught a whole family in so long! It was great!

We taught R and O. O is doing well, and R is on fire! She told us this week that she has decided that one day she wants to be a missionary. That made me so happy. She is going to be such an awesome missionary. She's got such a strong testimony! They are excited to be baptized for their ancestors when they go to the temple (after O gets baptized, of course).

We taught A about the Plan of Salvation, and he is slowly building in his faith. Our next lesson will be on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and I am so excited because we will be able to have a lesson all about baptism! It's going to be great.

And that was my crazy, crazy week. Did anything crazy happen to you?

With love,

Sister Minson