Happy Monday!
My Fourth of July was pretty boring because we couldn't find a member
to take us to see fireworks, but that's ok, instead we treated
ourselves to Texas Roadhouse so we still felt kind of festive! I may
have eaten like 7-8 rolls and not really had space for my food...but
it's ok because the rolls were so delicious plus it provided me with
lunch for the next day!
Tuesday we had zone meeting and sister Wood and I gave a training on
the importance of having members fellowship our investigators and,
just as importantly, fellowship the less active members and recent
converts. I have seen over and over again on my mission that if the
missionaries are the main ones focusing on retention and reactivation
then it just doesn't happen the way it should. Far too many people
fall between the cracks when missionaries get transferred and the
missionaries were their main connection with the church.
That afternoon through Wednesday afternoon we had an exchange! I was
in Elizabeth with sister Kang and we had a grand ole time! We saw lots
of mini miracles in locating a number of the people on a list their
branch president had given them to get in touch with. At one apartment
building they didn't have doorbells and there were two doors you would
have to get through in order to actually knock on the door of the
apartment the member lived in. Both of those doors would have normally
been closed and locked, but that afternoon they both happened to not
be shut all the way! Yes missionaries are kind of creepy in our
determination to get into buildings, but hey obviously that was meant
to work out for us!
Saturday we went to Ellis Island which was my first time going since
September! My last 3 areas have been too far away for us to go, but I
finally got close enough to go again! It was great because we got to
go with one of the companionships we cover but that aren't in our
zone. Hermanas Troconis and Fernandez are hilarious so we had a lot of
fun! We will be going on exchange with them this weekend on Saturday
and Sunday, because we have two other exchanges to fit in this week
before then! It is going to be a crazy week.
Funny missionary moment from last night. We were teaching a family
from Africa and trying to help them understand the plan of salvation.
They loved it and said they believe all of it, but clearly they didn't
quite get what we were saying about there being one true church. One
of the girls (who is about 19) excused herself and ran up stairs to
get something. She returned with some copies of the program from their
church that they attend each week and invited us to check out their
church! Unfortunately their church is at the same time as ours, but
they were pretty good at trying to get us to commit to coming to their
church! The 22 year old boy told us "we expect to see you at our
church on Sunday!" He stole my line! Also when we invited them to be
baptized they told us they are already getting baptized in August! In
their church...awkward. But hey they still want to meet with us and
are willing to read the Book of Mormon so we will keep working with
them! They do have a lot of potential, it was just a surprising
response to our invitations to church and to be baptized!
Love yous!
Sister McConkie
My Fourth of July was pretty boring because we couldn't find a member
to take us to see fireworks, but that's ok, instead we treated
ourselves to Texas Roadhouse so we still felt kind of festive! I may
have eaten like 7-8 rolls and not really had space for my food...but
it's ok because the rolls were so delicious plus it provided me with
lunch for the next day!
Tuesday we had zone meeting and sister Wood and I gave a training on
the importance of having members fellowship our investigators and,
just as importantly, fellowship the less active members and recent
converts. I have seen over and over again on my mission that if the
missionaries are the main ones focusing on retention and reactivation
then it just doesn't happen the way it should. Far too many people
fall between the cracks when missionaries get transferred and the
missionaries were their main connection with the church.
That afternoon through Wednesday afternoon we had an exchange! I was
in Elizabeth with sister Kang and we had a grand ole time! We saw lots
of mini miracles in locating a number of the people on a list their
branch president had given them to get in touch with. At one apartment
building they didn't have doorbells and there were two doors you would
have to get through in order to actually knock on the door of the
apartment the member lived in. Both of those doors would have normally
been closed and locked, but that afternoon they both happened to not
be shut all the way! Yes missionaries are kind of creepy in our
determination to get into buildings, but hey obviously that was meant
to work out for us!
Saturday we went to Ellis Island which was my first time going since
September! My last 3 areas have been too far away for us to go, but I
finally got close enough to go again! It was great because we got to
go with one of the companionships we cover but that aren't in our
zone. Hermanas Troconis and Fernandez are hilarious so we had a lot of
fun! We will be going on exchange with them this weekend on Saturday
and Sunday, because we have two other exchanges to fit in this week
before then! It is going to be a crazy week.
Funny missionary moment from last night. We were teaching a family
from Africa and trying to help them understand the plan of salvation.
They loved it and said they believe all of it, but clearly they didn't
quite get what we were saying about there being one true church. One
of the girls (who is about 19) excused herself and ran up stairs to
get something. She returned with some copies of the program from their
church that they attend each week and invited us to check out their
church! Unfortunately their church is at the same time as ours, but
they were pretty good at trying to get us to commit to coming to their
church! The 22 year old boy told us "we expect to see you at our
church on Sunday!" He stole my line! Also when we invited them to be
baptized they told us they are already getting baptized in August! In
their church...awkward. But hey they still want to meet with us and
are willing to read the Book of Mormon so we will keep working with
them! They do have a lot of potential, it was just a surprising
response to our invitations to church and to be baptized!
Love yous!
Sister McConkie