Food

So this week we had some interesting experiences while tracting.  To begin with, we knock on this door and a guy in a bathrobe comes to the door.  He says he is about to head to bed and to make it fast.  So we say we are missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and he interrupts us! and starts talking about how he is a minister at a local non-denominational church.  One of the fundamental beliefs/practices of his church surrounds food and what we should eat and how we should eat it.  He then spends the next HOUR (standing on his front porch this whole time) telling us how food is God's love for us and that by cooking food we are denying God's love for us.  He believes that we should go back to how they ate in the Garden of Eden and that anything else is sinful.  Then he told us about the medical mafia and how the medical/drug community was planning on the take over of civilization by making us so sick that we would do anything they asked. Finally, we were able to cut in enough to tell him that we had to go and before we left, he started SINGING the Lord's Prayer and clearly expected us to join in.  I can barely SAY the Lord's Prayer, let alone SING it.  So we mumbled along for the most awkward minute of my life.  He did let us pray with him though so that was one plus!  Then...we went to dinner and they got pizza for us.  Opps ;)

K.  So a couple days later we were knocking on doors again and this lady opens up and invites us in to talk.  Turns out she was 7th Day Adventist and was more interested in converting us and telling us we didn't obey the 10 Commandments than actually listening to anything we had to say.  Anyway, she was the head of the nutrition group at her church and told us almost the EXACT SAME THING as the guy before.  She was less crazy though.  Didn't tell us we were going to hell for the things we ate.  She gave us like 5 booklets of natural healing and what was called The 10 Commandments for a Better Life, which actually has some cool stuff in it, but not something I would 100% rely on though.  Both people told us to look up the movie Fork over Knives.  So if you are bored and want to check it out, apparently it will change your life.  

We found a new family to teach from tracting though, so it was all worth it!  So overall it's been a good week.  Much of the same...going to see families, teaching people, had 4 people that haven't been to church in years come to church this week!, Sis Ward wiped dog slobber all over me... just another week in the mission field!

Hope you all have a fantastic week!

Love,
Sis Rae

10 Ways To Know You Are A Missionary

1.  Finding a box of Ensigns makes your whole week (dating back to 1963!!) 2.  Dog are attracted to you like magnets 3.  Receiving mail is like a man dying of thirst receiving water 4.  People stare as you are backing out of the parking lot 5.  Backpacks are an extension of your body 6.  Monday's are the best day of the week 7.  Have no qualms about talking to total strangers 8.  Rides a bike in a skirt 9.  Still uses pencil and paper to record everything 10. Find entertainment in the smallest things (nerf guns, chalk, throwing leaves at people, card board boxes....) Anyway, those 10 things basically sum up my life right now!  This week was good, stayin busy and out of trouble.   One thing that has really stood out to me was God's hand in each of our lives.  We were talking with one of our investigators this week and he was telling us kind of about his life journey and the bumps along the way.  I could not help but notice how ever single thing prepared him or changed him in such a way that he was willing to listen to the gospel; because there were some things that he definitely had to go through before he would be willing to even give us the time of the day.  He has gone from not even believing in God as a child to asking us if he can come to church with us.  So amazing!  Then we also got a hold of someone who is a member but hasn't been to church in years.  She invited us in and we ended up talking for a long time wherein she told us about some deaths in her family and how she wasn't able to answer her 8 year old daughters or even her husbands questions.  Before, she had told missionaries to leave her alone and that she wasn't interested but now things had just aligned so when we knocked on her door, she was open to talking with us.  I love hearing these things and how the Lord works in each of our lives and how aware of each of us He is.  It's pretty amazing!  Those are the highlights of this week.  Other than that, just work as normal! Have a great week, everyone! Love, Sis. Rae

100 days old

This week was a pretty great week!  I hit my 100th day being a missionary.  There is another sister that lives in the apartment with us that came out with me so we had a little party that included root beer floats, nerf gun wars, and other funnish like stuff. One of the best things this week was the fact that everyone's gardens have started putting off food so they have vegetables and fruit coming out there ears.  Everyone is so generous to missionaries and end up giving us bags of fresh produce.  I think I'll stay a missionary forever.  Yesterday, a member gave us this huge bag of nothing but raspberries.  Pretty much made my life. Sunday was ward conferences so we had the Stake leaders come and talk and guess what they talked about?? Missionary work!  It was amazing.  They are really geared into it and have actually rearranged things so that each of the wards in the stake can watch the Work of Salvation broadcast during the church block (If you haven't seen it, go watch it.  It is amazing.) One speaker talked about a letter home from her son that was on a mission.  They had an area seventy come and talk to their Stake and talked about the broadcast.  He said that the importance of the announcements about technology and getting the members more involved in missionary work was an announcement that would have ramifications that would rival that of the First Vision and coming out of the Book of Mormon.  Can you say WOW?!  He also went on to say that this is the beginning of the end and the time to just stand up for our religion has past but it is now our duty to go out and DEFEND the truth.  It was pretty powerful and I had goosebumps the whole time he was speaking.  I just love being a missionary where it is my full-time job to share the gospel with others.  It's an amazing time to be alive and an amazing time to be a member of the church. It was a good pump up to go out and start another great week of finding and teaching others about this wonderful knowledge we have!  I hope you all have a great week and give your missionaries some awesome referrals! Love, Sis. Rae Walkin under the Nevada sky  EVERY SINGLE HOUSE has one of these bears.

A Week of Firsts

So begin with, I had my first earthquake this week! We were at dinner and then everything just started shaking with no warning. I thought it was just a large truck going by the house but it just kept getting bigger and bigger.  Apparently we were right by the epicenter so we felt it all.  And it wasn't a bad earthquake but for someone that has never felt one before it sure got my heart a poundin!  The family we were with had several little kids and that Sunday at church, their mom told us that we were now their favorite missionaries ever because we reminded them of the 'cool earthquake!'  Hey, if that's what it gets for people to like us, bring on the earthquakes!

This week we also saw blue sky for the first time in about two weeks.  It only lasted for a day but hey!  Some is better than none!

In Sparks, every year they have what's called the Burning Man.  Apparently it is super famous, or infamous.  People come from all over and spend a week out in the desert doing crazy stuff and then at the end they have this huge wooden man that they build and then burn.  But these people spend all week out in the dessert with no baths, trashcans, phones, anything.  So yesterday was the end of it and they ALL came back to town.  It was crazy.  Hippie buses everywhere and lots of crazy (smelly) people everywhere.  They all come in and load up the hotels and casinos to shower and get presentable and the trashcans are overloaded with all their trash and Wal Mart was insane.  Forget about getting anything you wanted!  Plus it was Labor Day so it was already packed.  It was fun trying to pick out all the 'burnies' though while we waited in line.  

Since yesterday was a holiday, we spent a lot of time walking around and just trying to meet people and their families.  There was this one family that had a ping pong table out in their driveway and were all crowded around it.  A ball comes flying toward us and so we go to take it back to them and end up talking with them.  They were all a little tipsy and offered us beer and a game of ping pong but then told us we couldn't play because their pride would be injured if we beat them (they were big tough looking guys).  Gotta love people :)  I think that is one of my favorite parts of being on a mission, meeting the people that you do!  

Oh!  I almost forgot, transfers came and went and Sis. Ward and I will still be together in Eagle Canyon.  Pretty great!

Well, I hope ya'll have a great week!

Love,
Sis. Rae