~
[NOTE: The missionaries from the MTC assigned to Slovenia are now patiently waiting for the Slovene Embassy to issue their visas. While they wait, they are preaching the gospel to the good folks of our nation's capitol and environs in Virginia.]
Everyone,
Finding myself assigned to the Washington, D.C. South mission was certainly a surprise. It is beautiful here with all the leaves changing colors and falling in carpets of yellow and orange.
My new companion and I live with the Stake Patriarch and his wife. They are so welcoming and helpful. They have had sister missionaries living with them for a while, but there was a short time between July and now when they did not have sisters living with them so they are glad to get us. No one knew that any of us Slovene's were coming until the day before we arrived, last Friday (the same for us) so it was amazing how well things were coordinated when we got here. The Mission President and others arranged places to stay, companions, area assignments, and everything else in under 24 hours.
My companion, Sister Holt, and I are opening a new area so we have no previous investigators but plenty of people who were once investigators whom we are checking on again. We spend most of our time tracting. I think because we are female, people are generally gracious to us but there is still a lot of rejection. The hardest times for me are when I know there are people inside but they don't even open the door or give us any sort of a chance. Fortunately, we have met some pretty amazing people. First there is Dolly who is from Egypt and is a solid Christian. She runs a homeless shelter and works to build up people and get them back on her feet. Although she is probably in her eighties, she is still really active, very vivacious, and very open. She invited us in to give us some bread with we were able to donate to the Annandale Christian Charities (Annandale is the city we are in in Northern Virginia). There she spoke with us for about a half hour about a variety of things and wanted us to wait hoping we could meet her friend Samira and taste her stuffed cabbage, and so we could try to convert her to Mormonism. When we meet with Dolly again I hope that we will meet Samira too.
While Dolly is our only real investigator right now, we do have an appointment with a mother of two who lives in an apartment complex we were kicked out of yesterday (we live with the Evans family and his father knows someone who manages that complex who can get us back in). We are meeting with her on Thursday – hopefully -- because that is when her husband will be home. If we can just get them to understand about praying, church attendance, the restoration and/or the Holy Ghost, and then have the father pray, it will be amazing. They have two children: a daughter and a son, and the daughter is old enough to go to Young Women. This is the primary reason the mother wants us to meet with them because she wants the daughter to get involved with good people who will keep her moral and clean. There are about thirty Young Women in this ward, so it should work well, right? I am really praying a lot that this new family will be willing and able to meet with us and that our lesson/discussion will go well. I pray for this with all my heart. We are hoping to have one of the ward members come along with us. She got off her mission three years ago and loves missionaries, and she has a little baby girl. Please pray that we will be able to have the appointment with them. I don't know how long I will be here in Washington, D.C., but I want them to know their way to God and their way into the church before I leave.
The ward here is so wonderful and receptive to us. They were really excited to have sister missionaries again since they have not had sisters for a long time. There were two different testimonies shared during yesterday’s testimony meeting which talked about this. The ward sisters are eager to volunteer to help us with appointments and we are glad to have them. We also got some brethren who are interested in going with us to appointments should we need them.
My next goal is to get the ward involved in suggesting people for us to teach. We are meeting with the Ward Mission Leader tonight and he will help us to know how things are going in the ward.
Today is our Preparation Day. We met up with the Elders for study, then played a little soccer and washed the cars. I had a lot of fun. Then we all had lunch together (pizza!) and came here to the library.
I find that I need the encouragement of positive stories and the scripture’s to keep my spirits up when the tracting is hard. Anything anyone can send me like that would be most welcome. Please just send it to the Washington D.C. South Mission Home:
Sister Madeleine Ary
Washington D.C. South Mission
5242 Lyngate Ct.
Burke, Virginia 22015
I love you all, and hope things are going wonderfully for you!
Sister Ary
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment