This week has been so crazy but so good!
We had a snowstorm this week so they moved transfers, but I finally made it to Rochester! And I am loving it here. My new companion is Hermana Davis! She has been out for 14 months, and she is from Spanish Fork Utah. And we both had the same trainer (s/o to Hermana Hughes for being the best mom ever) so we are very alike in how we do missionary work, and just having a blast. It has been a crazy few days, and we don't really know what we're doing, just trying to be good leaders and planners and teachers, but it's been a lot of fun so far and I am SO excited for this transfer.
We had a really cool miracle in Minneapolis before I left. We visited an investigator and her boyfriend who is a member. We have been working with her a lot, and there are a lot of dysfunctional relationships and family problems happening in the household. So two nights before I left, we planned this great lesson to do with her about personal scripture study and we were so excited. Then we got to the lesson, and her and her boyfriend were both home and sat down to talk to us. So my mind was racing thinking "what should we share?" And the Holy Ghost immediately gave me the thought to share the video "Dare to Stand Alone" with President Monson. We had been sharing that video with a lot of members the past week in light of President Monson's passing, and so we went with it. We explained a little how President Monson passed away, and then showed the video. Her boyfriend usually takes over the conversation when he's there, so he started sharing something about standing up for our beliefs. And she was being kind of quiet, so I said "Hermana, what did you think of the video?" And she asked us why we chose to share that video, and we said "well, to honor president monson and we felt like it was something that would help your family tonight." Then she started crying and told us how a few days ago she had been home alone, taking care of their son, who has a lot of behavioral disorders, and felt so overwhelmed, and so alone, and was praying and asking God for help to help her know He was there and not feel alone, then told us she knew our coming and sharing that video was an answer to her prayers. So she was crying and I was crying and everyone was crying I think. And it was incredible. And I was so glad the spirit prompted us to be the answer to her prayer, and that God was able to teach her and witness to her in a way we never could have on our own.
The Rochester ward is fantastic! It is so weird going to church in English, but we still have Sunday School in Spanish, and there are a lot of members who are Hispanic so there is translation. Literally EVERYONE I have met is a doctor. Every single person. We were in ward council, reviewing the stake goals that were sent out, and they used a diagram to explain it and it's a drawing of a heart, and they were all talking about how it was anatomically incorrect and obviously the blood doesnt come out the top through the aorta and we were just kind of like "haha yeah, obviously we all know that...(not)" but it's really cool. I feel super blessed because there are a lot of people to talk to and get career advice from, and in the two dinner appointments I've been to we've had really interesting gospel and medical discussions. So I'm looking forward to all I have here to learn in Rochester.
On Saturday night three of the sisters from the Minneapolis ward drove all the way down to Rochester to take Hermana Davis and me out to dinner, because we both served in that ward, and it was so fun to see a familiar face so soon after I got here, and such a joy to spend some time with those Hermanas I love so much.
This week I was studying Jacob 5 again. I absolutely love reading Jacob 5 in relation to missionary work, it suddenly makes so much more sense. The Lord requires a lot of his missionaries, but it is so inspiring that everything he requires us to do, he does it right along with us.
"And the Lord of the vineyard said unto them: Go to, and labor in the vineyard, with your might. For behold, this is the last time that I shall nourish my vineyard; for the end is nigh at hand, and the season speedily cometh; and if ye labor with your might with me ye shall have joy in the fruit which I shall lay up unto myself against the time which will soon come. And it came to pass that the servants did go and labor with their mights; and the Lord of the vineyard labored also with them; and they did obey the commandments of the Lord of the vineyard in all things." (Jacob 5: 71-72) He labors with us. He never expects us to do it alone. He did it all before, He did it all for us in Gethsemane, and on Calvary, and he walks this road with us every single day.
Hermana Meredith
The District - we tried to be cool but it didn't really work
Playing connect 4 with the veterans
Dinner with the sisters from Minneapolis
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