I think the majority of this letter will be a play by play of my birthday day, so brace yourselves because it was a wild ride!!!!
Birthday Fart:
So we were on exchanges well I guess they are called "power-ups" where both companions come to our area and we split and go to work. So I was with a sister name Sister Bird who went to Viewmont and worked at Target, sweet girl. Anyway we began our day at a local trailer park around the corner from our apartment where we spent an hour and a half trying desperately to teach the restoration to a lovely man who is toothless and swears up a storm and told us ALLLLL about his adventures over the course of five years while he was homeless in the woods of Chicago (Chicago has woods?). So super long story short we get up to go after not teaching very much and he thanks us for coming and then walks around the corner of the room into the kitchen and just riiiiiips one, passes the longest wind I have ever heard!!!! (Side note, this story sounds as if we were alone in the home of this guy, which we weren't his niece was there as well, just in case you wondered:) Anyway, I turned to Sister Bird and said "You have GOT to be kidding me." We were trying so hard not to laugh. She said a prayer to close the chaos and I was just hoping the smell didn't hit us. Luckily it didn't, and we were able to leave and made it successfully out the door and around the side of the house before we lost it laughing.
Birthday Fury:
Next stop we followed up with a few more people and then did some tracting. We met this one lady that invited us right in and were able to start to give her an overview however it didn't last long until we were rudely were interrupted by her livid friend who bashed us hard and told us she has no idea how we think we are going to heaven because we don't believe in the trinity and believe in magic underwear and worship Joseph Smith... blah blah blah. Sister Bird and I had a goal to use the Book of Mormon more and bear testimony of it so I asked if we could share a quick scripture and whipped out 2 Nephi 33:10-11 and we started to testify but she interrupted us again and basically told us we were going to hell but that she would pray for us. We happily expressed our thanks and said we would pray for her too and then we were out of there! Eish, I really wanna find her in the spirit world and teach her. Sometimes that is the only thing that gets me through. BUT though all that chaos happened it was actually a really fun day.
Birthday Flowers:
So Sister Bird and her companion were supposed to go back to their area around two so she and I decided to take a late lunch around 1:30. We went to the local grocery store deli and I splurged on a salad that had a hunk of grilled salmon on it that I have been eyeing for weeks. So we brought it back to the apartment and were just sitting down for a meal when we looked out the window and what did we see? Some woman with a vase of flowers and Sister Bird goes ohhhh looks like you are getting a delivery! Sure enough she rings the bell and I fling open the door to find a Sister in the ward standing there! I had no idea she worked for a flower shop! She asked me what the occasion was and I told her that it was my birthday to which she replied, "No way it is two of my kids' bdays today!" and then she invited us over for ice cream later that night around 8:00 so I was able to go celebrate with some bday buddies. One of her kids is less active so that was cool to talk to him a little bit, and his girlfriend is a non member so it would be amazing to reactivate him and teach her. She is actually way cool and her mom is Norweigian and she sang us happy bday in Norweigian How crazy is that?! I got flowers delivered to my apartment in Greeneville which we happened to be at because we took a late lunch, delivered by a member who happens to have two kids whose bdays are the same as mine and they generate a couple of possible referrals... coincidence? NO SUCH THING!!!!!
This past week I was reading in Helaman 3 and there is a verse I totally relate to, verse 14 says "behold a hundredth part of the proceedings of this people... cannot be contained in this work." I echo Mormon's words as I attempt to recap an entire week of chaos and adventures, peaches and pits. Not even a hundredth part can be written. It would be pages of details about
-A guy who wanted 4 more Book of Mormons to give to his friends. This same guy when we invited him to be baptized said, "Yeah I'm down!"
- A woman who requested a Bible and thought it would come in the mail until we showed up (sound familiar, I know, online referrals are amazing!)
- Speaking of online referrals, the guy that requested a Book of Mormon and was baptized while I served in Poplar Creek is now currently preparing to serve a mission
-Our recent convert here in Greeneville shared that her faith "has increased ten-fold since her baptism."
-A little boy shared with us his best comeback, something about your brain is the size of a peanut, to which we taught him to pull out a picture of Jesus and that saying "Jesus wouldn't say that!" is the best comeback of all time.
-We gave a training about discipleship at Zone Conference
-Skyped a recent convert who left her husband and the husband answered the call from a different phone, awkward.
-Met a new move in young family in the ward the wife and mom grew up in Hooper and was in my great-uncle and great-grandma's ward. SMALL WORLD!
All in all it was a great week full of laughter and memories and missionary experiences. I cannot believe we are halfway into November, time is truly flying, there were times I never thought I would type that!
To close I want to share my response to a question Sister Bird asked me, she asked: "What was the greatest thing that you did in your 19th year?" Hands down it was that I left on a mission. And that when I did I stayed, and I repented. I will NEVER regret that decsion or any of the experiences that have resulted since. No matter what lies in store be it farts, fury, or flowers, I am ready and excited to enter a new year of life, and to begin my 20th year as a missionary. I am so grateful.
Hope y'all have a blessed week!
Love,
Hermana Hall
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