Week 4 August 4, 2014
This week has been so great! I am soo tired, we have been
working so hard! It's great. :) (but really)
COLORADO-ISMS:
Everyone has a dog here (more like several dogs). It's crazy!
I'm not a huge dog person...I mean, I like dogs if they're calm and not jumping
all over you...but yeah. It's been a challenge to not hide behind my companion
every time huge dogs come running to the door but I'm getting better :) (One
house we went to literally had 8 dogs! And 3 birds. I thought I was going to
die (mainly because of the birds)).
Street Names: All the streets here are named after
states....Mississippi Avenue, Utah Parkway, Wyoming Way, Florida Place--I'm
pretty sure they all have 50. So, funny story: I didn't know about this whole
street name thing going on until this week...I guess I'm not very observant. (I
don't pay attention to street names, hence my bad navigation skills) Well,
someone at church was giving us a referral and said "oh you should go
visit the Jones. They just live over in Florida." I was so confused...my
companion was like, "Okay, great! We'll go swing by." She laughed so
hard when I asked her for the church referral number to give these names for
other missionaries in Florida to visit...I felt pretty dumb.
PEOPLE
The Littles: LOVE this family. They're in our ward and are SO
great about missionary work. They have a friend from work named Iris who has a
lot of questions about our church. She's come to church with them for the past
3 weeks. They have been answering a lot of her questions and this last week
they invited us over to have dinner with her. We shared the first lesson with
her and gave her a Book of Mormon and later the Littles told us that she said
she wanted to learn more from us. The Littles have been so instrumental in our
work with her.
Brother Russell: Another amazing ward member who took us
out for lunch this week! He is such a genuine guy...he connects with everyone
he meets. He's awesome. He's an MMA fighter and taught me how to properly throw
some punches so watch out.... :)
Sister Nutall: She is also in the ward and she is AWESOME! She
has so much FAITH. She shared a lot of miracles with us that she's seen in her
life because of her faith in Christ. Incredible lady...she is also beautician
and has offered to spoil my companion and I so, we are going over to her house
later for some manicures.
INVESTIGATORS:
Toni: Toni is older and has cancer. She has a lot of faith in
Christ though. In the past we've just come and prayed with her but this week
she let us share a lesson. We taught her the restoration and gave her a book of
Mormon. She was so excited... "I've been wanting to read this forever!"
She was so grateful.
Lisa and Connie: Lisa is in her 50's and has fibromyalgia. She's
had a rough life. Her mom abandoned her when she was a kid, so Connie took her
in as her own and became her second mother. We usually see them smoking outside
as we visit a less-active, but this past week we just decided to stop by and
see them! They were in the middle of a painting project, which was a challenge
for Lisa since she's in a wheelchair. We offered to help and went home real
fast to change into some painting clothes and hurried back on over :) We talked
with them and painted for an hour or so and then we had to run to another appt.
Lisa said, "sorry I don't have much money...I don't know if I can pay you
because of all my medical bills and everything. Were you expecting some type of
donation for your church or something?" When I told her we weren't
expecting anything at all, that we were just there to help her, she started
bawling. She was so grateful for our service. Later that week we came by again
and shared the first lesson with them and gave them Book of Mormons, as well.
They are super interested about the gospel, so I am excited to go back and
teach them more!
Big John and Momz: Hilarious family with 2 little girls. We
taught them about prayer this week and they are all praying as family now :)
YAY!
RANDOM:
OUR MISSION IS GETTING IPADS IN THE FALL.
There was a plane in the sky..my companion looked over at me and
said, "Sister Bracey...how far away do you think that plane is?"
"Uh....I have no idea...."
"Eh....it's about 17 months from you."
"......."
hahaha I can't believe that nearly a MONTH has already gone
by...WHAT?! I seriously am so grateful to be a missionary and I can't believe
it's already flying by this fast...there is honestly no where I'd rather be
right now though. I feel so blessed to be here.
The elders pranked our car…..
We are plotting our revenge.
Sister Hall and I wake up at 5:30 to do Insanity in the mornings. Most mornings, it's a struggle getting out of bed. So...we went to Wal-Mart and bought a nerf gun. We lay it in the middle of the room. The first person to get the nerf gun in the morning and nails the other person wins...the person who's still in bed has to make the other person breakfast. It's been a great system :)
Thought of the Day:
Provberbs 3:5-6
5 ¶Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
I know that if we trust in the Lord, everything will work out. No doubt about it. If we have Christ on our side, what could ever go permanently wrong?
I know that if we have faith and trust in the Lord, He will lead us and guide us to where we need to go. He is with us every step of the way. He loves you more than you can ever imagine. He will never leave you alone.
(to the tune of Dory's "just keep swimming:" "Trust in me, Proverbs 3...trust in me, Proverbs 3" :))
LOVE YOU ALL! Thanks for your letters.
Have a great week!
Sister Bracey
A few pictures from the past few weeks----
My companion, Sister Hall. Haha! We match
Missionaries (friends from Lone Peak) at the Marriott Center
Awkward tracking moment
Preaching the gospel. We like quoting the apostles.
MTC District
Wanting to get out of the MTC---but don't worry, I didn't actually escape. It was just for the picture.
Got to see Ashley Eyring from DYW!
MTC sisters--Our feet hurt sooooo bad #blisters
When the truck with all our luggage arrived LATE to the airport!!! Yea!!!