When it rains... it POURS

It's been a rainy week, I have LOVED it!!!!!

There is so much rain!!!!!! Storms are my absolute favorite and usually all the storms here happen at night and so we don't get to enjoy them, but this week they have been all throughout the days!! We even pulled out our jackets <3 it's a miracle. (I love pulling out the fall clothes and feeling the cool air:))

 

But this week has sure been a TON like the storms that have come. Literally, when it rains, it POURS. There is NEVER a dull moment.

 

Monday FHE was fun. We all gathered at the church and got to play sardines!! (It's like hide and go seek backwards) Yes, young adults playing sardines. It's the BEST! It came to be Sister Goldsberry and I's turn since we found everyone last, and so we found the BEST hiding place! We were hiding there for 20 minutes.. hahah:) We hid in-between the big folding wall curtains and the wall. It was genius!

 

We taught Mike again this week.... this guy is SO PREPARED!! He hadn't read any more of the Book of Mormon, but he read through the Restoration pamphlet and every time with sit and explain something, he listens with his whole heart, you can tell!! He keeps all his commitments and really enjoys our visits. He works night shifts though so he can't come to any activities and Sundays are hard. But he might come play softball with us on Saturday morning. (hah.. I just tried to type Morning and It came out Mormon.. I love being a missionary!) He has now met a couple of our members thought and he gets along with them so well:) I feel like all we are doing is presenting him the information and he's taking it and running with it! We have planned to talk about baptism with him this week! I'll let you know how it goes:)

 

We spent a good part of an afternoon in the Kearney Clinic this week. Sister Goldsberry has had a great pain in her stomach lately and so we went in to see a doctor. All her tests came out good, so she's seeing if this new medicine is helping... I don't know how she keeps track of it all. Poor thing! That was my first time seeing a doctor in my whole mission. I've been blessed! We did get some awesome princess stickers out of it! And the Doctor has seen missionaries before. YAY. TEAMWORK.

 

We had Zone Training this week. Our Zone Leaders are the BEST!! They worked so hard on this training and it was the best zone training I have had on my mission so far. Oh gosh... it was EXACTLY what I and soooooooo many others were needing. They focused the first half on the power of the Book of Mormon and then the second half was all about companionship unity. A LOT of the companionships are struggling lately. But we're all growing, SO MUCH.

 

This week has been SO ROUGH for all our members..... oh gosh. I have been more emotionally exhausted this week than I have in a LONG time....

One of our members was suicidal this last week.

 

Were driving down the road going to see her at her apartment when we got a text from Taylor saying "Hey, she could really use you guys to talk to right now, could you come to my dorm and talk to her??" And right when we received that text, we were on the EXACT road we needed to turn on to get to her dorm #miracle

 

We chatted with her, and she was feeling super guilty about some stuff that had gone down and we helped cheer her up and she seemed a lot better.

 

Apparently not.. she's REALLY good at hiding how she's truly feeling.

 

The next day we got a text from asking if we could pray for this member that we had talked to the day before. We finished studies and drove to her apartment where another one of our members told us everything that had happened the night before. Our dear friend had taken her friends car at 4 in the morning to go get something to eat at walmart, but she never came back. They had filed a missing persons report and a stolen car report and eventually they found her at her friends house at 10am. We stayed at the apartment until they brought her home and she was SOOOOOO depressed. I have never seen anyone with such a small amount of hope. It was so scary and sad and I had no clue what to do. She felt as if the Savior had suffered in vain for her. That she wasn't worth anything and that all she did was hurt others.

 

Because of her taking the car, her friend whose car she took is now being fired from her RA position at the university and lots of other stuff is happening. So we spent all the rest of that day going to visit all our members making sure that they were okay. All we did that day was LISTEN. We barely spoke any words at all. Our branch has been through a lot this week.... Everyone has been hurting and struggling. It feels as if there isn't much that is going right. But I know it's because we were seeing lots of success in the past and now Satan is working his hardest. It's always calm before the storm. We have seen a lot of people try their faith and truly experience the atonement in their lives this week. I have experienced it big time!!

 

On top of all that, I was preparing for my talk that I gave about the "role of the Book of Mormon in our conversion" on Sunday. In the midst of all the commotion that day, we got a missed call from Jose-- the LA that I love so much that decided he didn't want to be a member anymore. We tried calling/texting him back but he never replied again... AND our District Leader asked me if I could do a training at District Meeting this next Wednesday. LITERALLY, WHEN IT RAINS IT POURS!!!!! But somehow I am doing it all!

 

Then that night, we had a lesson with Arlys. She has been reading A LOT of the Book of Mormon!!! Which I was super excited about, but then things turned directions and I cried through a lot of that lesson because she was saying how much she disliked the stories in the Book of Mormon and that she couldn't feel the spirit as she read it. My heart BROKE. We kinda got into nice Bible bashing a little as we answered her questions, but I knew she wasn't budging. ARLYS!!! I never thought it would happen. With tears down my face I just did the only thing I could think of... and bore solid testimony that I know the Book of Mormon is true. That I KNOW all those that wrote the book ACTUALLY WROTE IT and that I KNOW this is the only church on the Earth today that holds ALL of Christ's teachings. This is the only true and LIVING church. It was bold and powerful and she couldn't say anything afterwards except for us to pray for her so that she may understand. I cried myself to sleep that night... feeling completely useless...

 

On the bright side, our investigator Jordan came to institute again! He is asking the GREATEST questions. We read the book of Mormon with him outside his home in the rain this week. It's always great to be outside in nature, even if our books get misted on.

 

One of our less-actives is moving in with her boyfriend :/ darn darn...

 

MISSION PREP this week was great! We actually had 7 people there!!! Our dear friend that wasn't talking to us forever came! She was crying every so often as we talked about how through Christ we can be cleansed from sin and they after mission prep, came up to us and expressed how hard it is to be the only member in her family. She cannot talk religion with them AT ALL because it always breaks out in a fight. That is why she goes through the cycle where she comes to church, and then avoids everyone because she can't handle her family accusing her. There was a CES fireside that we went to last night that was meant JUST for her.... Elder Christoffereson talked ALL about how even if our families and friends literally SHUN us for being a part of the Lord's church, we must stand strong. I felt the love that Heavenly Father has for her because of how inspired Elder Christofferesons words were last night <3 She is doing well:)

 

Goldsberry is real funny:) She always refers to me as her "big sister" We had "big sister, little sister" chats this week that were very good, we're really working on things together since it has been REALLY hard lately.

 

Last night she got SUPER dizzy when we were watching the CES fireside and she actually passed out on my shoulder 2 times. She had to get a priesthood blessing and she was shaking uncontrollably really bad.... I didn't know what to do. She figured she was low on natural sugars and so we made her eat a peach... she HATES eating healthy, so it looks like I'm going to have to help her make some changes in her diet.

 

It's been the craziest week.... I hope that the one ahead is going to be a lot better! We have a lot of catching up to do, but I know we can do it.

 

I think the only thing that has gotten me through is the Book of Mormon. Literally. I spent a LOT of time this week thinking about the role that the Book plays in our life. As Jake Taylor said in his talk this week "WE ARE UNDER CONDEMNATION from the Lord for taking the Book of Mormon lightly." I KNOW this is the part of my testimony that has increased the most and fastest since I've been on my mission. As we are reading it, we are marking EVERY time the Lord, our savior is mentioned. HE IS LITERALLY ON EVERY PAGE!!!!!!!!

 

I know these things to be true!! We should all be on page 105 of the Book of Mormon now. Thank goodness for getting through those Ishaiah chapters. Isn't 2 Nephi 25 the BEST way to end the Isiaha chapters??? I love it

 

I LOVE YOU!! THank you for everything!! Sorry I'm running out of time this week.... we have plans to go shopping today! Transfers are this week as well FASTEST transfer ever..... I don't think we're going anywhere. LOVE YOU!!

LOVE, Sister Checketts